5-color fish

[Dipstik]

To start with, here's the decklist:

4x duress
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Counterspell
4x Force of Will
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
4x Aether Vial

1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Emerald
3x Gemstone Mine
3x Tropical Island
3x Tundra
3x Underground Sea
4x Polluted Delta

4x Muscle Sliver
4x Crystalline Sliver
3x Hibernation Sliver
3x Victual Sliver
1x Acidic Sliver
3x ?????

Yeah, yeah... I know... this deck used to be called "Counter-sliver," but I still think fish should have to use merfolk. If there can be a monoblack fish deck in the open forum, I figure I can post sliverfish here.

Obviously the deck plays like fish, dropping early threats and then controlling the board with counterspells, swords, and duress. I don't think I really need to explain the card choices in the list. I'm playing in a pretty casual environment, so I'm not really concerned with the competitiveness of the deck. I just have one question..

The deck needs some sort of draw power. Brainstorm is always good, but I'd also like to up the creature count if possible. Would Ninja of the Deep Hour destroy the synergy of the deck? Should I give Synapse sliver a shot? This *is* a fun deck, after all... What should I put in the last 3 spots?

Any other changes I should make?

[dend51]

The slivers you have in the deck just dont look good (some of them)

"3x Hibernation Sliver
3x Victual Sliver
1x Acidic Sliver"

you should take them out. Add winged sliver since you need your slivers to get around some blockers. Synapse sliver isnt bad but the mana is alot for that...maybe curiosities? Ninja of the deep hour may not be bad just to get some draw into the deck. I would also add standstills to it. You have the aether vials for it, and most of your guys are going to be at two.

Not to sure about having black in the deck at all, duress is great but you dont want to stretch your deck out try and stay with 4 colors at most.

Overall there is no really good sliver besides the ones from tempest and they all cost one colorless and a colored mana.

good luck

[Dipstik]

hibernation and victual slivers aren't good, but synapse is?

If I were going to cut any color it would be red (since I have one red card and no red mana aside from gemstone... plus check the moxes). I originally had winged sliver, but it made way for other slivers that did cooler stuff. I really don't need flying, and I couldn't cut another hibernation or victual. Maybe I'll give my lonely acidic sliver wings.

On Standstill: They're great assuming an aether vial, but otherwise silvers kind of need to keep dropping creatures. I'm also not using mishra's factory, which is kind of popular in my area. I think a deck needs to be designed around standstill, and this one isn't.

[silvernail]

the issue to examine here is what does this deck do that a normal fish build , or more specifically, worse than fish, cant? it appears to splash colors for stuff and play typically worse creatures. I would suggest not running this deck on the basis that it is a horde creature deck that cant be broken at all. Consider FCG, that is your essential horde creature deck, it is competitive because the creatures in it are strong and synregistic.Also the deck can pull combo like wins from left field and forces the opponent to react quickly before the horde gets out of hand.

Your deck doesnt really have that threat level and is thusly slower than FCG. It is possible i suppose that you could build this somehow to make it more comptetive, but i just think the nature of the decks creature base makes it too weak. I mean you have an EBA style spell base that screams control but a slower creature base that isnt terribly threatening.

You have the advantage that your disruption might slow the opponent down such that you can achieve a decent amount of damage, but i think most type 1 decks would out broken you via inevitability due to their lists being inherently more powerful. i can top deck gifts ungiven for example but you might draw a victal sliver.... maybe if you play cards that bring your opponent down to your level ( for example mana denial ) you might have a stronger concept there.

[Dipstik]

I suppose I *could* play normal fish... and I could also pull out fully powered ubastax. I think you missed the line that this was supposed to be played for fun. That doesn't mean it can't be good, which is why I was asking (in the newbie forum, no less) whether brainstorm, ninja, or synapse sliver would be the best fit for adding card drawing to the deck.

I will be taking this to a weekly local tournament, and I'll probably do quite well with it, but comparing my sliver deck to gifts ungiven is a waste of time. I thought it would be fun to post in the newbie forum since most of the T1 tournaments I play in are local 5 proxy deals with lots of kids.

[silvernail]

Still i was but stating the nature of the deck and its inherent issues in a powered type 1 playfield. In an unpowered 5 proxy event it might not be as weak, because you might not get out brokened. As for card drawing Ninjas probably arent as good because the slivers have no CIP effects ( like M mage or itcaitan javlineers), and you generally want more slivers in play. Teh synpse sliver costs 5 so Id auto elimnate that because you want to be able to draw earlier rather than later. Brainstorm should be in the deck somewhere but you might even want another slot of card drawers.Sylvan Library might be useful if you want an aggro route and life isnt as much of a concern(non aggro enviroment perhaps).

[dend51]

Synapse sliver isn't bad but the mana is alot for that...

I never said synapse was good, i said it wasn't bad, and it costs alot. It was just for drawing which ninja is alot better and so is curiosity.

Overall there is no really good sliver besides the ones from tempest

Crystalline Sliver
Muscle Sliver
Talon Sliver (worst of these four)
Winged Sliver
Heart Sliver
Hunter Sliver (depending on meta, can be really good)

The rest of the slivers (unless you use overlord and Queen in a fully sliver deck) are just not good, they cost too much and don't do enough. These are the only really useful slivers.

the place you play seems alot like the store i used to play at. If there are alot of creature decks and not alot of Tier 1 vintage decks then you should maybe think about Jitte and Sword of Fire and Ice. These guys can be sick with card drawing and creature control. Standstill will not be the best if there are alot of factories running around, Jitte can take care of them and help you win esp with flying slivers overhead.

As far as running red in the deck do you just not own the red duals? or don't want to? you could run the R/G or R/U instead of mines.