Standard Slivers M14/15

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

With a large Magic 2015 core set pre-order from MTG Mint Card now in hand, we, like many other Magic: the Gathering players are set to brew up new decklists for standard constructed.
 

One of the very first lists we've created is for standard Slivers and the most important reason for this is improved mana via Sliver Hive which will allow you to tap for one mana of any color when casting a Sliver spell.  This, along with Manaweft Sliver essentially provides a solid base to cast every colour or multi-coloured Sliver card out.  Which is a good thing as M15 has the five colour Sliver Hivelord which will give all your Sliver critters indestructible.

But where to go with all our lovely Sliver choices ?

ONE CMC - Galerider Sliver, u / Stiking Sliver, r

TWO CMC - Diffusion Sliver, 1u / Leeching  Sliver, 1b / Manaweft  Sliver, 1g / Predatory  Sliver, 1g / Venom  Sliver, 1g

THREE CMC - Belligerent  Sliver, 2r / Blur Sliver, 2r / Sliver Construct, 3 / Steelform  Sliver, 2w / Syphon  Sliver, 2b

FOUR CMC - Bonescythe  Sliver, 3w 

FIVE CMC - Battle  Sliver, 4r / Sliver Hivelord, wubrg / Thorncaster  Sliver, 4r

SIX CMC - Constricting  Sliver, 5w / Megantic  Sliver, 5g

SEVEN CMC - Groundshaker  Sliver, 6g
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One player - Roy Reese - took along a Sliver decklist to the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Baltimore last weekend, the first large tournament directly after the release of the new core set.  You can check out the Deck Tech over here.  Roy placed 88th in Tournament which ain't that bad and one thing he mentioned in the video was the need for Negate to counter non-creature spells, which we will completely agree with for the current metagame.  We would also extrapolate this further by suggesting you may be well served in a full deckset of Diffusion Sliver, the blue two-drop fella forcing your opponent to pay two more mana to cast any spell targeting one of your Slivers.

There are several rather nice cards that provide assistance to creature-heavy decklists such as Domri Rade, Garruk, Caller of Beasts, and Yisan, the Wanderer Bard which will allow you to extract or float off additional Slivers.  We still don't think that a 'tool-box' approach is correct just yet for Slivers.

For the moment, we will have a first attempt ready for Friday Night Magic at OMG! Games and as it stands for today, may feature the following -

 

The tough part is deciding the non-Sliver supporting cards such as Simic Charm, Negate, Cyclonic Rift, Ghor-Clan Rampager and others.
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Standard Slivers

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

If you've been reading our posts to the MTG Realm blog over the last five years, then you know we are all about playing 'non-standard' standard constructed.  We love to brew up fun Magic: the Gathering builds which would likely never see any play on the Pro Tour circuit.  To this end, we had a match a few weeks ago at a Friday Night Magic event at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario with a gamer who had a Slivers deck.  Although we were running a fairly robust G/W Aggro strategy, we had our butt handed to us and we realised just how fun standard constructed Slivers could be - especially post-Theros Sliver.  We picked up a few very reasonably costed singles at MTG Mint Card and made this fun thing - Let's have a look.
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Bow of Nylea has FIVE different abilities tacked onto this legendary enchantment artifact - a solid utility.  The one ability which interests us most was the effect of giving deathtouch to all your attacking creatures.  Thorncaster Sliver gives all your attacking Slivers an upgrade pinging 1 damage to target creature or player.  Yep - that's one damage of deathtouch which means you now have the ability to wipe the board of any defenders your opponents may have as soon as you declare attackers and have the possibility of swinging on in.

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We were going for a red / green build and decided to go whole hog in with all five colours (which may be rather difficult in today's standard).  Our tech is to get Elvish Mystic dropped on turn one followed up with Manaweft Sliver on turn two which allows any of your Slivers to tap for any colour mana.

Since a big part of the deck is the deathtouch with Bow of Nylea, we've invited the one-drop Striking Sliver - because having an attacking first strike creature with deathtouch is simply sweet.  As we wanted all five colours, we also have Galerider Sliver giving all our Slivers flying.
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The other two-drop is Predatory Sliver giving your Sliver dudes a +1/+1 pump.  Other three cmc critters are Blur Sliver which is rather important as the Slivers now have haste - and can potentially tap for mana after Manaweft is out.  Hive Stirrings produces a few blockers if needed and Syphon Sliver provides lifelink which is rather handy against more aggressive match-ups.

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Rounding your stack 'o' sixty out is Megantic Sliver which can pump your Sliver army up another +3/+3.  To get all these threats into your hand is Garruk, Caller of Beasts.  We are more interested in his +1 ability to float any creatures off the top five of our deck into our hand.

All in all it doesn't look that bad and most certainly looks like it will deliver a truckload of fun.  Have you tried something similar or played against something similar - drop us a line below.
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DotP 2014 Slivers

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps, 

Following up with yesterday's surprising preview of Magic 2014 Core Set featuring the return of the Slivers, we now have five additional Sliver spells that Magic: the Gathering players may expect.  This announcement addressed a new 'sealed play' feature in the digital game.  Why should 'paper' card players take note?  For the last few core sets, there had been an integration between the digital and paper product offerings allowing gamers to get first look at cards from the popular Duels of the Planeswalkers electronic game which may see cardboard print in the core set.

Anywhoos - here's the official announcement
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Wizards of the Coast today announced two exciting new features coming to Magic 2014 – Duels of the Planeswalkers! Sealed Play and a new take on the popular Slivers creature type will both make their debut in the Duels of the Planeswalkers franchise with Magic 2014.

The addition of Sealed Play will allow players to open booster packs and build decks to play against the AI and other players. Each sealed pool is comprised of 84 cards, mimicking paper TCG booster packs. The PvE experience includes a six-deck ladder where players take on mono-colored Sealed decks each corresponding with a particular Planeswalker, and finally facing a ‘boss’ Sealed deck.

Another feature debuting in Magic 2014 is a new take on the popular Slivers creature type. A fan-favorite, new playable Slivers in Magic 2014 decks will include the following:

• Sliver Construct
• Predatory Sliver
• Groundshaker Sliver (previewed)
• Megantic Sliver
• Blur Sliver (previewed)
• Striking Sliver (previewed)
• Thorncaster Sliver
• Battle Sliver (previewed)
• Sentinel Sliver (previewed)
• Bonescythe Sliver
• Hive Stirrings (creates Sliver tokens)

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As we had not started playing Magic: the Gathering until Lorwyn block, we totally missed Slivers, which means we don't have any of the 'fan favs'.  This of course means another shopping trip to MTG Mint Card to pick some up and perhaps slap together a casual Modern format build.

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Slivers Ahoy

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We hope all had a great weekend.  Instead of taking in a Friday Night Magic event at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario, Canada-Land on Friday, we went over to a buddy's house where seven of us started playing at 8 pm and wrapped up close to 3 am.  Stellar performance by MTG Realm's very own RetroTech - she kicked but in standard and Modern and took her EDH Team to a draw.

Anywhoos - We wanted to talk about the very popular Magic: the Gathering creature type today - Slivers.  There are about 76 Sliver creature cards and one related non-creature artifact (Hivestone).  Slivers are creatures that share a hive mind, which allows them to share their abilities with other nearby slivers.

Slivers are depicted with an armored vertebrate body, a long, bifurcated whip-like tail, one arm with a single talon for a hand, and a head with an armored crest. Variations on this appearance exist in accordance with the abilities each has to offer to the hive.

The first slivers shown in the storyline lived in Rath. It's unknown from where they originally came. Volrath is said to have genetically modified them, but to what extent is also unknown. He attempted to create artificial slivers, but these were a poor approximation of the real thing and had no innate abilities to share with the hive.

Sliver is a creature type found in the Tempest, Stronghold, Legions, Scourge, Time Spiral, Planar Chaos and Future Sight sets. Most Slivers have an ability that grants all Slivers the same ability. Exceptions to this rule include Metallic Sliver, Sliver Overlord, Sliver Queen and Venser's Sliver.

Jacob Van Lunen has this lovely Sliver budget deck on the mothersite you may want to try out - linky HERE.  We're thinking that we here at MTG Realm did not begin playing until Lorwyn, we might pick up some Slivers at MTG Mint Card and throw together a casual deck ourselves.


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Full Sliver Spoiler

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Yet another update to the Slivers spoilers as seen here earlier. I had been skulking around some of my favourite European Magic the Gathering forums, when I stumbled across the full spoiler for the upcoming Magic the Gathering product, Premium Deck Series : Slivers. Source is unknown but the story is that perhaps some marketer had sent an email around.

Again - this is not official from Wizards of the Coast

CREATURES
1 x Acidic Sliver
1 x Amoeboid Changeling
1 x Armor Sliver
1 x Barbed Sliver
1 x Brood Sliver
1 x Clot Sliver
1 x Crystalline Sliver
1 x Frenzy Sliver
1 x Fungus Sliver
1 x Fury Sliver
2 x Gemhide Sliver
1 x Heart Sliver
1 x Hibernation Sliver
1 x Homing Sliver
2 x Metallic Sliver
1 x Might Sliver
2 x Muscle Sliver
1 x Necrotic Sliver
1 x Quick Sliver
1 x Sliver Overlord
2 x Spectral Sliver
1 x Spined Sliver
1 x Victual Sliver
2 x Virulent Sliver
1 x Winged Sliver

OTHER SPELLS
1 x Aphetto Dredging
1 x Coat of Arms
1 x Distant Melody
1 x Heartstone
1 x Wild Pair

LANDS
2 x Ancient Ziggurat
1 x Rootbound Crag
2 x Rupture Spire
2 x Terramorphic Expanse
2 x Vivid Creek
2 x Vivid Grove

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The official announcement from Wizards of the Coast . . .


Unimaginable Destruction

Vicious, territorial, and able to share abilities, Slivers are nearly impossible to stop. This new and powerful, 60-card, all foil deck contains some of greatest Sliver cards from throughout Magic history, including several that have never been released in foil before!

Contents include:

* 60-card premium foil deck, including 5 rare cards and 1 mythic rare
* Exclusive Spindown(tm) life counter
* Foil deck box
* Strategy insert
* Magic "learn to play" guide

Premium Deck Series: Slivers will be available world-wide in English only, and will have a limited print run.

Each card will be a black bordered foil and tournament legal. This means that these cards are legal for use in any tournaments where the original printings are still legal.

Deck Design and Development Team: Ken Nagle and Mike Turian
Release date: November 20, 2009
MSRP: $34.99

Sliver Spoiler 1

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Good Day to all.

You may recall our last post regarding the new Magic the Gathering product, Premium Deck Series : Slivers. Well, we have some spoilers for you to salivate over.

Put on your bibs and let's go . . . Confirmed Slivers are taken from the five shown on the product packaging.

Acidic Sliver,
Creature - Sliver, Uncommon
All Slivers have "2, Sacrifice this permanent: This permanent deals 2 damage to target creature or player."
2/2


Necrotic Sliver, 1
Creature - Sliver
All Slivers have "3, Sacrifice this permanent: Destroy target permanent."
2 / 2


Crystalline Sliver,
Creature - Sliver, Uncommon
All Slivers have shroud. (They can't be the targets of spells or abilities.)
2/2


Sliver Overlord,
Legendary Creature - Sliver Mutant, Rare
3 : Search your library for a Sliver card, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
3 : Gain control of target Sliver. (This effect lasts indefinitely.)
7/7


Victual Sliver,
Creature - Sliver, Uncommon
All Slivers have "2, Sacrifice this permanent: You gain 4 life."
2/2


Stay tuned to MTG-Realm.com for more news and spoilers.

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The official announcement from Wizards of the Coast . . .


Unimaginable Destruction

Vicious, territorial, and able to share abilities, Slivers are nearly impossible to stop. This new and powerful, 60-card, all foil deck contains some of greatest Sliver cards from throughout Magic history, including several that have never been released in foil before!

Contents include:

* 60-card premium foil deck, including 5 rare cards and 1 mythic rare
* Exclusive Spindown(tm) life counter
* Foil deck box
* Strategy insert
* Magic "learn to play" guide

Premium Deck Series: Slivers will be available world-wide in English only, and will have a limited print run.

Each card will be a black bordered foil and tournament legal. This means that these cards are legal for use in any tournaments where the original printings are still legal.

Deck Design and Development Team: Ken Nagle and Mike Turian
Release date: November 20, 2009
MSRP: $34.99

Sliver me timbers

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Hey all,
we wanted to yatter about the new Premium Deck Series: Slivers Magic the Gathering product expected out late next month. We realise that you may have already known about this since lated July, but hey - better late than never.


Anywhoos - some background first. There are 76 or so Slivers which have been printed to date. These are creatures that share a hive mind, which most often allows them to share their abilities with other slivers on the battlefield.


Physically, Slivers are depicted with an armored vertebrate body, a long, bifurcated whip-like tail, one arm with a single talon for a hand, and a head with an armored crest. Variations on this appearance exist in accordance with the abilities each has to offer to the hive.


There are currently 12 white slivers, 11 blue slivers, 11 black slivers, 11 red slivers, 11 green slivers, 2 artifact slivers, and 18 multicolored slivers.

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The official announcement from Wizards of the Coast . . .


Unimaginable Destruction

Vicious, territorial, and able to share abilities, Slivers are nearly impossible to stop. This new and powerful, 60-card, all foil deck contains some of greatest Sliver cards from throughout Magic history, including several that have never been released in foil before!

Contents include:

* 60-card premium foil deck, including 5 rare cards and 1 mythic rare
* Exclusive Spindown(tm) life counter
* Foil deck box
* Strategy insert
* Magic "learn to play" guide

Premium Deck Series: Slivers will be available world-wide in English only, and will have a limited print run.

Each card will be a black bordered foil and tournament legal. This means that these cards are legal for use in any tournaments where the original printings are still legal.

Deck Design and Development Team: Ken Nagle and Mike Turian
Release date: November 20, 2009
MSRP: $34.99

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We hope to provide updates on what Slivers we can expect in this product so ensure you drop by latter and check out any Sliver spoilers and card list we may have for you.