How's Counterbalance working for you? I'm dubious of it because the range of CMCs in Commander is so much bigger than other formats, it seems like it would do very little. But I've never seen it used, so I don't know.

It seems also that your choice of counter spells that scry is informed by a desire to make Counterbalance work, but Dissolve and Condescend are probably not worth it on their own. I'd definitely cut Condescend for Pact of Negation (great for the turn you're about to combo off) and maybe cut Dissolve for Negate (the noncreature restriction is less important since the purpose of counter spells in this deck is to protect combos).

I'd also run one or two instant or sorcery targeted removal spells to deal with ability hate like Torpor Orb, Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Damping Matrix, Cursed Totem, Hushwing Gryff, Humility etc. Anguished Unmaking should have you covered (cut maybe Darkheart Sliver, Essence Sliver or Sedge Sliver for it?), maybe Vindicate or Utter End too for redundancy. Counters are nice, but it's good to have backup for those times when you don't have one in hand at the right moment.

Unnatural Selection is good with the Overlord (and I guess Dormant Sliver too), but otherwise doesn't do a whole lot. I'd try out Steely Resolve instead, since I don't think any of your combos rely on targeting your own Slivers.

The gang of Slivers you have right seems really good. The only substitutions I'd consider are cutting Muscle Sliver or Essence Sliver (probably Muscle Sliver) for Bonesplitter Sliver (it goes a long way toward the beatdown fallback plan), and cutting Blur Sliver for Firewake Sliver.

Have fun Slivering

Thank you Groovelord for your input and suggestions, here are my changes as a result:

Counterbalance: I've had mixed results with this spell, however more often than not it would fail due to the fact that costs are so widely varied in EDH and the fact that it relies on Sensei's Divining Top or Scroll Rack. However, it is fun to play, but I decided it would be best to swap it out for Pact of Negation.

Swapping out the scry counters: These were meant to interact with Counterbalance, but at the same time were also meant to just help me filter my deck down to the cards that would help me the most next turn. The issue with them however is that they're a little but more costly than most counterspells. Dissolve has been swapped out for Negate, and Condescend has been swapped out for Anguished Unmaking. I'm on the lookout for a Vindicate, but that has replaced Darkheart Sliver. It pains me to cut away from the hive, but in the long run, Darkheart doesn't really contribute much to the deck.

I want to keep Unnatural Selection, and not swap it in for Steely Resolve. Mostly because Unnatural's interaction with Sliver Overlord is just too good. Once this combo is out, no one else can play their own general because i'll just take it. Having the power to shut down a whole table with just two cards feels awesome. Steely Resolve is a great card, but i'd prefer to have it in Sliver form. Diffusion Sliver is alright, at best. I wish I could get another sliver that grants all other slivers hexproof. I'd swap that in for Diffusion immediately.

Bonesplitter Sliver has been swapped in for Muscle Sliver: That was a really good suggestion. I do need something that will beef up the hive's offensive capabilities when going in full aggro. i was debating between Bonesplit and Predatory Sliver, I do so enjoy having that ability being exclusive to my own hive when faced with a mirror match. However, more often than not, I won't be in one, so Bonesplitter is the way to go.

Firewake Sliver isn't really that Good. He's more expensive than Blur Sliver, given that he requires two types of mana, and his secondary ability isn't really that great. IT's the haste that I want, and on top of that Blur is a 2/2 while Firewake is still a 1/1. I just think i'm getting the better deal from Blur.

P.S. I had to archive your comment because I screwed up on CSS for custom accordions :( My original response was in accordion format, and more or less broke my comment. Thanks again for all the suggestions, you're awesome. Please visit the hive anytime!

Thanks for the reply. I was notified of it a while ago, but was confused why I couldn't see it.

Anyway, my suggestion of Firewake Sliver isn't because the activated ability is particularly good, I just think it's good to have a decent number of sacrifice Slivers so you can switch into aggro mode in a hurry if Dormant Sliver is holding you back. But in most cases, Blur Sliver is better.

Keeping Unnatural Selection is a good choice, but I'd still try to find room for Steely Resolve, maybe over Essence Sliver? Syphon Sliver is already better than Essence Sliver anyway, and lifelink is probably pretty low on the list of abilities you really care about your slivers having (I mean even Two-Headed Sliver, Horned Sliver, Thorncaster Sliver or Belligerent Sliver might be more valuable to your aggro plan, honestly).

The other card I'm a bit leery of it Mind's Eye. I know it's considered a staple, but for a deck like Slivers it seems too slow, and a heavy creature focus means we're using up most or all of our mana on our turn if we want to keep up a decent pace. Future Sight and Lurking Predators might be good alternatives, especially with your pre-existing top manipulation. Activating Scroll Rack with a Lurking Predators trigger on the stack is so tech it hurts, and you probably already know how gross Divining Top and Future Sight are together. The triple blue for Future Sight is a bit worrying, but should be manageable since you have better fixing for blue than any other color.

Anyway, glad you found my advice helpful :)

Welcome back to the Hive, Groovelord! Thanks again for your input. I do want to find a place for Steely Resolve, but not at the cost of one of my broodlings. Essence Sliver provides me the chance to have "double" lifelink, as his ability is actually NOT lifelink, it's a triggered cumulative ability. So combine that with Syphon Sliver who actually grants lifelink (lifelink is a static ability in case you were wondering). Imagine combining the two previously mentioned slivers with Bonescythe Sliver! However, I see your point: This doesn't support the aggro backup plan, no does it support the combo. It is however fun, and can keep me alive a little bit longer. Sometimes you just need some good ol' fashioned synergy.

Now, as for your comments about Mind's Eye, I feel that you're absolutely right. I rarely ever play it. Honestly, I don't feel that it's worth the mana due to my cheaper draw/top deck manipulation outlets being Dormant Sliver, the tutors, Scroll Rack etc. I'm all for swapping out Mind's Eye. Paying that every time is nice and all, but it doesn't necessarily add to the "explosiveness" that I want in the deck. I'm going to try out each spell (Lurking Predators/Future Sight) individually, and see what happens. What about swapping in Steely Resolve for Mind's Eye?

If you're having fun with the essence sliver + syphon sliver interactions, don't let me stop you. I just like the synergy between Venom Sliver and Thorncaster Sliver/Belligerent Sliver more.

Thorncaster Sliver and Brood Sliver is fun too

Welcome back Delta-117, and again, thanks for the continued input Groovelord. As much as I'd like to swap something in for Mind's Eye, I now find myself hesitant to include Future Sight and Lurking Predators mostly due to their CMCs being so high, 5 and 6 mana is a real drain on the speed of the hive. Speed here is the biggest enemy. Slivers are slow, and they need something to help fuel them and flood the battlefield. As nice as each card is, they just don't have that explosiveness like Wild Pair. As soon as I play that card, if I have any extra mana I can cast at least two creatures. I can't say the same for ether suggestion as both are reliant on ether Sensei's Divining Top/Scroll Rack. I'm trying to find another card that is more or less similar to Sylvan Library or Scroll Rack to fill in for Mind's Eye. For now, i'll let it stay, but it will definitely get replaced when I find something better.

Why not Phyrexian Arena? As after all you do have both Syphon Sliver and Essence Sliver.

Why not Phyrexian Arena? As after all you do have both Syphon Sliver and Essence Sliver.

The symmetry on Aluren makes it a bit risky, but it's probably much better for you than for any of your opponents (watch out for elves!). It's a sweet draw engine with Dormant Sliver, which gets cranked up to infinite draw with Cloudstone Curio (also goes infinite with any sac outlet and Enduring Renewal, but let's not get too far afield.

Hunting Grounds is like a lower-CMC Lurking Predators, but it's not as explosive and the threshold requirement is awkward. Probably not worth it when your creatures all cost 5 or less anyway.

Since you're already running Synapse Sliver (and honestly how could you not?), pushing for more aggro and more evasion can be a draw engine of sorts.

More possible engines are Ephara, God of the Polis (great with Quick Sliver/Aluren, but is an icky non-Sliver creature), Slate of Ancestry and Greed. These are more finnicky and resource-intensive than good ol' Phyrexian Arena, but they draw more cards faster if you're willing to jump through a couple hoops. Soul of the Harvest and Primordial Sage are more powerful generally, but they both cost 6 and are worse than Wild Pair (and most importantly, NOT SLIVERS!!). Your average CMC might also be low enough to support Dark Confidant or his enchantment version Dark Tutelage.

In terms of sheer speed, you can't top instant and sorcery draw. A couple big one-shot draw spells, like Distant Melody (even has a foil from the Sliver premium deck), Shamanic Revelation, Allied Strategies and Wheel of Fortune might be worth running.

Not sure why that earlier message was doubled, but anyways I nearly forgot about Distant Melody, that could be useful.

Since you also do have Synapse Sliver you could consider Shifting Sliver, or Shadow Sliver. These will make your slivers so much more difficult to block and will work well with Synapse Sliver. You could give Thorncaster Sliver a try for a similar reason.

If you want other ideas, here are a few draw related cards:

Blue Sun's Zenith if you manage to for example reach infinite mana with Sliver Queen you could potentially mill an entire opponent's remaining library. You can even use it to a lesser extent on yourself at any point. I think this could work in your deck, you can even add Mystical Tutor to help with getting it.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur could potentially work too. Cards like Conspiracy can help with finding it, which can itself be found with Enlightened Tutor. I see you already have a few ways to make other cards count as sliver creatures so it shouldn't be too much of a problem with sacrificing/returning to hand. Although this one might be harder I believe to find a place for in the deck.

Consecrated Sphinx works too. Again Conspiracy might help.

Although costly Zendikar Resurgent might work.

I do hope some of this at least might be potentially useful to you. I find it difficult to think of cards that would be better at helping with drawing next to what you have currently.

Is there a reason you're using Wild Pair over Intruder Alarm? The latter would let you pull every single Sliver out of your library, with haste and all of their other wonderful abilities, if you control at least Sliver Overlord and roughly five Slivers (so you can tutor up and then cast Gemhide Sliver or Manaweft Sliver, and then proceed to cast everything from your library).

It just seems significantly better in almost every scenario you actually control Sliver Overlord,

At least, even if you don't like Alarm, look into Seedborn Muse over Wild Pair. Seedborn is a mana cheaper and untaps all of your mana sources and creatures to tutor out and cast more Slivers, most likely netting you the opportunity to respond to more things your opponents cast to try and win. Seedborn turns everyone else's turns into your turn by allowing you to setup even more tutors, but Quick Sliver comes in the extreme clutch- alongside all of your counter spells, to prevent your opponents from just flashing in Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, and then Felidar Sovereign or something to win unopposed. Even better, you can protect Seedborn with your Changeling and Unnatural Selection.

Those're my suggestions: Wild Pair out for either Seedborn Muse or Intruder Alarm. Alarm is a big win con at half the mana as Wild Pair, while Seedborn accelerates you and lets you control the game better with your ETBs and counter spells. Both have strong benefits over Wild Pair without losing anything, really, though Seedborn is probably the safest bet.

Thank you again Groovelord, Delta-117 and PookandPie for your continued input, the Hive is pleased. I have alot to reply to, so i'll just do so bit by bit.

Delta-117: Phyrexian Arena is a card I didn't consider, but i'm already burning myself enough with all of the onslaught fetch and shock lands so I think I'd like to keep the extra cards that hurt me down to a minimum. Thorncaster Sliver is pretty cool, but honestly, it's CMC is just too darn high. Looking at the rest of the broodlings...anything that has CMC 5 is pretty much a game changer/ender. Queen, Brood, etc. If it was at or maybe even I'd give it more consideration, but for now it just seems all kinds of lackluster. Distant Melody is awesome, but unfortunately it is also highly dependent on if I can populate the battlefield. It's a good card, and worth considering. Shifting Sliver is amazing. But if I were to put it in the deck, i'd swap out Winged Sliver for it. That CMC is a bit high, but it is an amazing ability. Shadow Sliver's drawback is just too big for me to consider it worthwhile. Being able to block is an absolute necessity for the hive. Blue Sun's Zenith's effectiveness relies on me getting a combo in place, so that's not really worthwhile. While I do have alot of blue fixing, I don't think having a spell is really worth it. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur is a filthy non-sliver, and therefore isn't worth the Queen's time. But imagine if the brood were to descend upon him, tear him apart, and learn his ability. Now THAT would be a worthy addition to the hive. Same with Consecrated Sphinx.

Groovelord: Aluren is awesome, and does benefit the hive greatly. There is even some good synergy between Aluren and Yawgmoth's Will. However, if the hive were to encounter elves or goblins, then I'd be in a very difficult spot. Hunting Grounds would be awesome if it weren't for that Threshold requirement. Wheel of Fortune is pretty awesome. It guarantees me seven cards, and can deal some damage against opponents who may have just tutored or played a big draw spell on their turn. On top of that, it's red, so I won't be putting strain on my G or U mana banse. This card, I have a good feeling about: great CMC, great ability, and the drawback isn't that bad.

PookandPie: The reason why i'm using Wild Pair over Intruder Alarm is because WP is a guaranteed tutoring. Worst case scenario with WP is that when I play one creature, I automatically get an non-counterable 2nd creature of my choice (for the most part). With IA, my creatures are able to untap, giving me the ability to re-use some abilities, but it's highly dependent on which broodlings are on the battlefield. IA isn't as explosive without Gemhide/Manaweft and Blur/Heart. IA also has a potentially big drawback depending on what i'm up against: If i'm facing elves or goblins, then IA is pretty much my own death certificate as they are far more capable and equipped at flooding the battlefield. I can't help but feel hesitant when trying to include Intruder Alarm, as this can backfire big time. Seedborn Muse isn't a Sliver, so I wouldn't be able to tutor for it when I need it. The central theme of the deck is that its made entirely out of slivers...so while SM is a great card, it's a non-sliver, and therefore doesn't belong. I just wish it was a Sliver...or at the least bit a Changeling.

welp, you pretty much got it all. i was wondering your thoughts on cutting back on the instances and sorcerys and adding Primal Surge

Your input pleases the hive, swkelly89. As for thoughts on Primal Surge...it's a really cool effect, but with Sliver Overlord as my general, a more 'control' oriented hive is best. So cutting back on the instants and sorceries just to include PS wouldn't be in my best interest. If I was running Sliver Legion as my general, and had a more 'aggro' oriented hive, then PS would be a great addition. Just so you know, each legendary sliver has a different strategy for their deck: Sliver Overlord = Control, Sliver Legion, Sliver Hivelord = Aggro, Sliver Queen = Combo.

swkelly89 yeah that's for more of an aggro based sliver deck, but anyways what do you think of my version of it?

Primal Overlord

Personally I would take out Dormant Sliver for almost anything else (like Taurean Mauler) because it gives all Slivers "defender" and you can't attack. But that's just my opinion.

I recommend you to reconsider adding Intruder Alarm since once the Commander is out is a wincon (counters and fog aside) if you already have or search for Blur Sliver / Heart Sliver and Manaweft Sliver / Gemhide Sliver. Basically you can search for any Sliver, put it into play, untap all of them, adding mana, and continue searching every Sliver in your deck and then attack. A plus to this strategy could be adding a Shadow Sliver which guarantees the damage.

I love Aluren and fixes mana curves. In addition that my previous comment needs no other sliver in play besides those three. If you are hesitant about it you can always fix its hug ability with City of Solitude

Have consider Heartstone? Is THE combo with Ashnod's Altar or even Basal Sliver (that you already have in your deck) and your Queen. Besides itself lessens the cost of your commanders abilities.

SturWulf: Thank you for your comment, the hive is pleased. I am very hesitant at the thought of removing Dormant Sliver. Despite what you may think, Dormant is an incredibly powerful draw engine that can help me flood the Battlefield with relative ease. Also, Dormant provides the hive with Card Draw. There are only two Slivers that provide decent card draw, one is Dormant, the other is Synapse Sliver. It would cripple my deck if I were to remove it. Taurean Mauler is alright-ish of a creature. It gets the bonuses of all it's Sliver broodmates, but it doesn't really provide much else in return. It's relatively easy to deal with, and in the long run can be dangerous...but isn't terribly explosive. If I were to go the route of "Big Scary Creature" i'd have gone with Chameleon Colossus or Might Sliver. But I digress...the Defender drawback sucks, but this is a Control oriented Sliver deck. I'm not going in for aggro outright, as that is merely a backup plan. Besides, I have multiple sac/remove outlets for Dormant in the form of Basal Sliver, Hibernation Sliver, and Necrotic Sliver. If push come to shove, then I could just use Vindicate or Anguished Unmaking on it if I really needed to.

The beauty of Dormant Sliver however...comes when Wild Pair is on the field. Once I play Dormant, I draw a card AND I put another sliver on the battlefield for free. Then I draw another card. By playing Dormant in combination with WP, I got the added effect of two draw spells for free. From experience, with Gemhide Sliver and Heart Sliver/Blur Sliver on the field I have drawn an upwards of 10 to 20 cards on one turn, flooding the battlefield and shutting down the table. I hope I changed your mind about Dormant, as it is an incredible creature, and has a permanent home in this hive. Thanks for your suggestion though!

SturWulf: Thank you for your comment, the hive is pleased. I am very hesitant at the thought of removing Dormant Sliver. Despite what you may think, Dormant is an incredibly powerful draw engine that can help me flood the Battlefield with relative ease. There are only two Slivers that provide decent card draw, one is Dormant, the other is Synapse Sliver. It would cripple my deck if I were to remove it. Taurean Mauler is alright-ish of a creature. It gets the bonuses of all it's Sliver broodmates, but it doesn't really provide much else in return. It's relatively easy to deal with, and in the long run can be dangerous...but isn't terribly explosive. If I were to go the route of "Big Scary Creature" i'd have gone with Chameleon Colossus or Might Sliver. But I digress...the Defender drawback sucks, but this is a Control oriented Sliver deck. I'm not going in for aggro outright, as that is merely a backup plan. Besides, I have multiple sac/remove outlets for Dormant in the form of Basal Sliver, Hibernation Sliver, and Necrotic Sliver. If push come to shove, then I could just use Vindicate or Anguished Unmaking on it if I really needed to.

The beauty of Dormant Sliver however...comes when Wild Pair is on the field. Once I play Dormant, I draw a card AND I put another sliver on the battlefield for free. Then I draw another card. By playing Dormant in combination with WP, I got the added effect of two draw spells for free. From experience, with Gemhide Sliver and Heart Sliver/Blur Sliver on the field I have drawn an upwards of 10 to 20 cards on one turn, flooding the battlefield and shutting down the table. I hope I changed your mind about Dormant, as it is an incredible creature, and has a permanent home in this hive. Thanks for your suggestion though!

acefalo Thanks for the suggestion, the hive is pleased. Intruder Alarm (IA) has been suggested to me multiple times, but I still can't help but to feel apprehensive when considering adding this card. The con with this card is considerable: it slows the game down. It also has synergy with Wild Pair, Sliver Queen, Brood Sliver, and to a lesser extent Sliver Overlord. If I were to swap this card in, it'd be for Unnatural Selection(US). IA is way more versatile than US, i'll give it that but the cons outweigh the pros: IA can significantly speed up some aggro based decks. If I were to play against another creature based deck like Goblins or Elves, then that could give my opponent a significant boost in speed that would put me and the rest of the table in a serious bind. Considering decks like Edric's UG elves EDH or a very common Goblin General such as Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (IA and Kiki combo by the way), I could easily lose the game for myself. That is the very reason why I don't think this card is that good. While Unnatural Selection doesn't really do much on it's own, the second I have it out on the table with my General, I can take everyone's general. I've shut down a whole table once with that combo. This card has virtually no possibility of backfiring on me like IA.

Aluren is a nice card...very friendly toward the table and can help fix mana curves. But I already have plenty of that. Have you seen my manabase? It's insane. Why would I need to get an Aluren when I have invested so much money in having built in a ton of redundancy with all of my lands so I can easily tutor them at a moment's notice?

City of Solitude may add a layer of protection for the hive by forcing players to play things at sorcery speed for the most part...but it doesn't really add anything to the deck. It's nice...but it doesn't really do much.

Shadow Sliver isn't very good. Because the drawback is huge: I can't block. My deck is nowhere near fast enough to kill an entire table with outright aggro. Besides, the strictly better Shifting Sliver would be taken over this.

Heartstone Why would I run this when I have the strictly better version of it in the form of Training Grounds (TG)? This deck is control oriented, and to a lesser extent combo oriented. Ashnod's Altar is a non-tutorable Basal Sliver for the most part. It's just strictly worse. Why would I run this? If I were running Sliver Queen as my general, then I would definitely run both of these cards, but then it would be changing the play style of this deck to just being a combo deck, and that's just not what this is.

Thanks for your input though, I did want to think about Intruder Alarm again...but it just has too much potential to backfire on me.

Love the deck, love the layout. Reciprocation granted...+1!

How about Aggravated Assault? With Gemhide Sliver or Manaweft Sliver and any other 5 slivers you can keep activating this for more combat phases!