Subject: All Slivers, All the Time Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 04:26:50 -0400 From: Cary C Collins To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com "Slivers; like goblins, only better" When I went about creating a sliver deck, I looked at a variety of possibilities, including adding in counterspells or burn spells, but the truth is that (with a few notable exceptions) there's really no better card for a sliver deck to draw than another sliver. This is a sliver deck for people that want to put everything on the line. It has a few critical weaknesses, but unless the opponent exploits one of those, it will almost always run them over in only a few turns. An Angel Without Mercy (If you know where the title comes from, don't worry: the deck deserves it.) The Slivers: 3 Sliver Queen (dont care about mana, this kicks too much ass) 4 Crystalling Sliver (few things more useful in this deck) 3 Victual Sliver (occasionally useful against burn decks) 3 Spined Sliver (damn useful if opponent has creatures) 3 Winged Sliver (good to block flyers and to fly over defenses) 4 Muscle Sliver (few cards you'd rather cast...) 4 Acidic Sliver (adds direct damage capability) 4 Mnemonic Sliver (only way to get card advantage and refill your hand) The Spells (8): 2 Heartstone (very, very useful but watch for opponent's creatures to use it) 4 Disenchant (for the nasty things in life like humility) 2 Vampiric Tutor (in case you got the mana but not the queen) The Mana: 4 Mox Diamond (these are absolutely vital they increase the deck's efficiency by 100%) 2 Mountain (you'll see why later) 2 Volrath's Stronghold (very cool when opponent destroys/counters creatures) 4 City of Brass (take the damage, you need the mana) 4 Reflecting Pool (very cool later on, but use 'em for the moxes on the first turn) 4 Gemstone Mine (doesn't last long, but neither should your opponent) 4 Undiscovered Paradise (annoying, but still damn useful) A pointer on using this deck. If the opponent is playing blue, or gives you any other reason to believe they could steal your creatures, do not cast the queen even if you have the mana until you have a crystalline sliver. With this deck, soon as the sliver queen comes out, the game is over in three turns or less, almost guaranteed (damn that humility). I bet you've already noticed the deck's most critical weakness--non-basic land. If the opponent plays a ruination or any other such card, expect to lose the game. Other problem is wrath of god / balance / cataclysm. This deck depends on getting more creatures faster and starting over sucks like hell. One suggestion is to take out the disenchants and put in counterspells. This allows you to stop a wider variety of problems, but you have to save the mana. You also can't deal with those annoying one-blue enchantments. Disenchant is just my personal preference. You might also suggest the addition of aluren or overrun. Aluren is a bad idea. It usually sits in your hand til the third or fourth turn and then you have mana to cast all the creatures you draw with some left over. Overrun is quite useful, but only if you can get out a few creatures first AND get out five mana. It's also a sorcery, which means that the opponent will see it coming before you even declare an attack. Although this deck usually runs out of cards in hand FAST (I used 6 cards on the first turn once) you should not add in Cursed Scrolls or something like that because they do not use mana as efficiently as another sliver would. I used to use Mob Justice, but they never helped. Besides, you can achieve basically the same effect by casting a muscle sliver. One last note is that both Howling Mine and Awakening help this deck immensely, but it has been my experience that they help the opponent so much that they are not worth using. Here is one possible sideboard: 4 Mountain 4 Sonic Burst 4 Seismic Assault 3 Incinerate Try to swarm the first game. If opponent has any non-basic land screw or horde screw available, odds are he'll put 'em in for the next game. If opponent sideboards after the first game, toss out 2 disenchant, 2 vampiric tutor, 4 City of Brass, 2 pools/mines, 3 queens and both heartstones. Or keep the disenchants and toss spined slivers if opponent has a lot of annoying enchantments. Watch your opponent's surprise as your pure horde deck becomes horde-burn! Funny as all hell. You could do this with Islands, Counterspells, etc. also, but this way is more fun and usually more effective. I used this at a local tournament (unofficial, due to the use of Exodus) and would have won except some sob that I beat was so pissed that he told the other finalist about my sideboard and the finalist sideboarded in anti-burn cards. It works very well against a variety of decks and almost always beats another sliver deck. Hope you found this interesting. If you want to comment on this deck or you just want to talk about deck construction, drop me a line at caryc@Bellsouth.net or at cppknight@hotmail.com. The C++Knight