Maybeboard


*~ The Chompy Masterpiece Collection - Vol. III: Magus Aurarius ~*

Five-color Slivers with a heavy tribal emphasis, packing a few of the biggest spells from all of Magicdom. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a Sliver stamping on a human face - for ever.

Access to any spell you could ever want means being very, very picky with your non-sliver card slots. For me, this first meant the mana-doublers, Mirari's Wake & Mana Reflection (Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is 1. not a sliver, and 2. a tier-1 hate drawer.) Next, it meant picking the most applicable board wipes - you can see why Hallowed Burial and Terminus are so good with Sliver Overlord, and the other two, Plague Wind & In Garruk's Wake, leave our Slivers alone entirely. Finally, we've got our game-enders in the forms of the combat tricks Savage Beating, Triumph of the Hordes and Overwhelming Stampede as well as some other EDH bombs.

What's interesting about being a Gold Mage (playing with all five colors) is that it reveals what you think the best EDH cards are. Rhystic Study seems to me like a must-run in any Blue deck; Demonic Tutor is the same for any Black deck, and maybe now so too is Rise of the Dark Realms. You can see from the build that I love my reanimate - though who wouldn't run Patriarch's Bidding in a Black tribal deck? Cards like Time Stretch and Genesis Wave are so good they're more like obligations than options... and indeed, at least in the case of the 10 mana blue spell, casting it is starting to feel like a chore. Perhaps that's because its one of the only (and may be the sole) non-artifact, non-land card that I run in a whopping three of my six decks [edit: nine now - hah, this was written some time ago]. I'll bother to mention that in my play-group, we have one special rule that we enforce: each player may only cast Time Stretch once per game. Weird, I know, but the fact that we still run the card should indicate just how tediously powerful it really is.

Returning to the deck at hand: I feel pretty great about my land package. I've got my two basic lands of each type in order that my Cultivate, Kodama's Reach and Krosan Verge have something to grab. I honestly don't think I'd change my lands much at all, even to add duals like Taiga and the like: instead I'm quite happy with my 10 three-mana tappers, the so-called Alara "wedge" lands like Arcane Sanctum, and the Lairs of the Invasion Junior Dragons (as I call them - they're not Elder Dragons, anyway) like Dromar's Cavern. I suppose these days I could add the new crop of 3-tap lands like Frontier Bivouac, but that would mean going down to 1 basic land apiece (bad for green land tutors), and it would leave me with too much slow mana.

NB: As with all "Gating" lands (lands that bounce other lands to your hand when they come in), play the Lairs from your hand last... that way you don't "miss a land drop" unless you top deck another land next turn. And remember that the turn the Lairs come in they do net you mana, since they come into play untapped and they don't care whether the land you bounce is tapped or not - just so long as it isn't another Lair (can't bounce those!).

I'd like to point out the fact that the colored mana on lands in this deck is evenly split amongst the five colors - 10 "fast" lands (come into play untapped) and 3 "slow" lands (enter the battlefield tapped) per color, with the exception of Red and White, who both have 9 fast lands and 4 slow (Tappedout incorrectly lists the Hideaway lands like Spinerock Knoll as fast). The mana production is far more balanced than the mana symbols in the deck, yet I have almost never had an issue with color - Chromatic Lantern and Gemhide Sliver also help in this regard. In general, I find that keeping a symmetrical mana base yields better results than trying to match the actual color spread of your spells, even if you have (for example, and as we have in this deck) twice the number of Green mana symbols in your spells' mana costs than you have Red mana symbols.

I haven't even talked about the Slivers themselves yet. There are tons of responses printed on the Slivers, and the real difficulty of playing this deck comes from knowing just which to tutor up with the Overlord, and when best to do it. Facing a targeted kill spell? Tutor out Crystalline Sliver or perhaps a Ward Sliver with the Overlord. Facing an All Is Dust? One of my favorite cards to go for is Frenetic Sliver, both because it's excellent and because it's suspenseful fun. Hibernation Sliver and Pulmonic Sliver can also help you evade a wipe. Shifting Sliver is probably the biggest game-ender, along with Sliver Legion, while Gemhide Sliver and Quick Sliver can be super powerful when dropped out early. Dormant Sliver can draw you a ton of cards, especially with Sliver Queen or Brood Sliver, but you'll obviously have to get it out of play before you can attack (which shouldn't be too hard with Necrotic Sliver or Acidic Sliver or any number of others). UPDATE: They did it. They finally did it. R&D finally threw in the towel and printed a sliver that gives Indestructible: Sliver Hivelord. Somewhat sadly, he probably becomes your go-to first search with your general every time, but there you have it.

Amoeboid Changeling / Unnatural Selection + Sliver Overlord = lol (but watch out to make sure you don't have Crystalline Sliver in play when you try it!)

Bow of Nylea, Mistveil Plains and (sorta) Volrath's Stronghold have great synergy with the Overlord, allowing us to keep fetching our Slivers out of our deck.

Sliver Hivelord + Crystalline Sliver + Shifting Sliver = "That was easy"(R)

I'll conclude this analysis for now with a related tangent: I thought that the M14 Slivers were by-and-large disappointing. They clearly weren't printed as "additions" to the existing sliver library (only Thorncaster Sliver feels like he's bringing something new to the table); rather, it's almost like they're "rebooting" the tribe with reprinted effects on differently-named cards (Gemhide Sliver becomes Manaweft Sliver). Yes, your Slivers now only boost your Slivers (and not your opponents'), but honestly, I don't like the change. I guess it makes mirror matches less stupid, but other than that, it just doesn't work with the sliver flavor for me: they're strange, alien creatures who can't help but infect one another with their presences! Why would sliver biology give a damn who "controls" whom? And speaking of things alien, perhaps the most vexing aspect of this sliver-shift is the accompanying aesthetic change: Slivers went from looking like Alien (Acidic Sliver is actually bursting out of an Earth Elemental's stomach) to Predator (the promo Bonescythe Sliver = lol that's Predator). The switch is so striking and the resemblances so uncanny that I'm almost led to believe the Alien-for-Predator swaperoo was intentional. Weird meta joke? Or unwanted change from something better to something worse? Only you can decide. (I'm thinking both.)

Alien.Predator.

Old Maybes: Beacon of Unrest, Coalition Relic, Mirrodin's Core, Thorncaster Sliver (An "F" or Foil mark indicates that a card is slated "For Removal" if it's in the Mainboard, or "For Insertion" if in the Maybeboard.)

Vol. I: Intet Dreams of Yesterday’s Day After Tomorrow (2008)Vol. II: The Great Chain (2009)Vol. III: Sliver Overlord Is Watching You (2010)Vol. IV: The One Where Radiant Gets Mad (2010)Vol. V: The Salvation Army (2011)Vol. VI: Zero-Point Omnath (2012)Vol. VII: Wu Daze, Blue Knights (2013)Vol. VIII: Mach Daddy Karn (2014)Vol. IX: Τὰ Πυρὰ τοῦ ὈλύμπουThe Fires of Olympus (2014)

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Former Sideboard:

1x Acidic Sliver 1x Amoeboid Changeling 1x Bladeback Sliver 1x Bonescythe Sliver 1x Brood Sliver 1x Cleaving Sliver 1x Clot Sliver 1x Cloudshredder Sliver 1x Constricting Sliver 1x Crypt Sliver 1x Crystalline Sliver 1x Dormant Sliver 1x Dregscape Sliver 1x Enduring Sliver 1x Essence Sliver 1x Firewake Sliver 1x First Sliver's Chosen 1x Frenetic Sliver 1x Galerider Sliver 1x Gemhide Sliver 1x Harmonic Sliver 1x Heart Sliver 1x Hibernation Sliver 1x Hollowhead Sliver 1x Homing Sliver 1x Lancer Sliver 1x Lavabelly Sliver 1x Magma Sliver 1x Manaweft Sliver 1x Mirror Entity 1x Morophon, the Boundless 1x Necrotic Sliver 1x Pulmonic Sliver 1x Quick Sliver 1x Root Sliver 1x Scuttling Sliver 1x Sedge Sliver 1x Sentinel Sliver 1x Shifting Sliver 1x Sliver Hivelord 1x Sliver Legion 1x Sliver Queen 1x Spiteful Sliver 1x Striking Sliver 1x Synapse Sliver 1x Syphon Sliver 1x Telekinetic Sliver 1x Tempered Sliver 1x The First Sliver 1x Thorncaster Sliver 1x Toxin Sliver 1x Venom Sliver 1x Virulent Sliver 1x Ward Sliver

Former Maybelist:

1x Aether Vial (DST) 1x All Suns' Dawn (MM2) 1x Aminatou's Augury 1x Apex of Power 1x Arcane Lighthouse 1x Arcane Sanctum (ALA) 1x Asceticism 1x Ashnod's Altar 1x Basal Sliver F 1x Biomancer's Familiar F 1x Birthing Boughs 1x Bladeback Sliver 1x Blighted Woodland (BFZ) 1x Bow of Nylea (THS) 1x Bring to Light 1x Call to the Kindred 1x Cascading Cataracts (AKH) 1x Cleaving Sliver 1x Clot Sliver (PDS) F 1x Commit / Memory 1x Conflux 1x Constricting Sliver (M15) 1x Crib Swap 1x Crop Rotation F 1x Crosis's Catacombs (PLS) 1x Crumbling Necropolis (ALA) 1x Crypt Sliver (LGN) F 1x Cryptolith Rite 1x Cyclonic Rift (MM3) F 1x Darigaaz's Caldera (PLS) 1x Darkwater Catacombs 1x Day's Undoing 1x Detection Tower 1x Diffusion Sliver F 1x Dromar's Cavern (PLS) 1x Eladamri's Call F 1x Emergency Powers 1x Enduring Sliver 1x Enlightened Tutor F 1x Etchings of the Chosen 1x Expropriate (CN2) 1x Faith's Reward (CN2) F 1x Field of Ruin F 1x First Sliver's Chosen 1x Fracturing Gust (SHM) 1x Galerider Sliver (M14) F 1x Gateway Plaza 1x Golos, Tireless Pilgrim F 1x Green Sun's Zenith 1x Guardian Project 1x Heart Sliver (TMP) F 1x Heartstone F 1x Herald's Horn F 1x Hollowhead Sliver 1x Hunter Sliver F 1x In Garruk's Wake (C16) F 1x Journey to Eternity 1x Jungle Shrine (ALA) 1x Kindred Boon 1x Kindred Charge 1x Kindred Dominance F 1x Kindred Summons 1x Krosan Verge (PCA) 1x Lancer Sliver 1x Lavabelly Sliver F 1x Leyline of Abundance 1x Lim-Dul's Vault F 1x Living Death 1x Magma Sliver (LGN) 1x Mana Crypt 1x Mana Echoes F 1x Martyr's Bond (CMD) 1x Maze of Ith 1x Mirror Entity (C16) 1x Mossfire Valley 1x Mox Diamond F 1x Myriad Landscape (C16) 1x Mystic Remora 1x Mystical Tutor F 1x Neoform F 1x Paradox Engine (AER) 1x Pir's Whim 1x Praetor's Counsel (MBS) 1x Primal Surge 1x Pulmonic Sliver (TSP) 1x Reanimate 1x Reap and Sow (DST) 1x Reap the Past 1x Rishkar's Expertise 1x Rith's Grove (PLS) 1x Rupture Spire 1x Savage Beating (DST) 1x Savage Lands (ALA) 1x Scuttling Sliver F 1x Seaside Citadel (ALA) 1x Seasons Past (SOI) 1x Seedborn Muse (10E) 1x Shadowblood Ridge 1x Skycloud Expanse 1x Smothering Tithe F 1x Sol Ring F 1x Striking Sliver (M14) 1x Summoner's Pact F 1x Sungrass Prairie 1x Survival of the Fittest F 1x Sylvan Library F 1x Syphon Sliver (M14) F 1x Tempered Sliver 1x Thorncaster Sliver (M14) 1x Thrilling Encore 1x Time Reversal 1x Tolaria West 1x Toxin Sliver (LGN) 1x Transguild Promenade 1x Treva's Ruins (PLS) 1x Uncage the Menagerie 1x Urza's Incubator F 1x Vandalblast (C15) 1x Vanquisher's Banner 1x Vault of the Archangel (MD1) 1x Venom Sliver (M15) 1x Vivid Revival 1x Vivien's Arkbow (WAR) 1x Wargate (ARB) 1x Wasteland 1x Wheel of Fortune F 1x Wild Pair 1x Wilderness Reclamation 1x Windfall F 1x Worldly Tutor F 1x Yavimaya Hollow F 1x Zendikar Resurgent (OGW)

Comments

Date added 11 years
Last updated 2 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

9 - 0 Mythic Rares

50 - 0 Rares

18 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.10
Tokens Sliver 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 C, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders EDH, EDH Decks
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