Pheromite Sliver

[Fistandantilus]

REVISED TEXT:

Pheromite Sliver

Artifact Creature – Sliver
0/0
Sunburst
When Pheromite Sliver comes into play, each player reveals a card from the top of his library for each color of mana used to pay Pheromite Sliver's cost.  Each player puts all Sliver cards revealed from his library this way into his hand and the rest on the bottom of his library.

***


ORIGINAL TEXT:

Pheromite Sliver

Artifact Creature – Sliver
2/2
When Pheromite Sliver comes into play, reveal a card from the top of your library for each color of mana used to pay Pheromite Sliver's cost.  Put all Sliver cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library.

***

Goblins have Goblin Ringleader.  Elves have Sylvan Messenger.  Why shouldn't Slivers have something like this?

The twist is that it gets better when you use more colors to pay for it.  I think that this is appropriate for slivers, since slivers come in all kinds of colors (and the really powerful ones are all five colors).

What is Pheromite?  It's the fantasy metal version of pheromone (which attracts other creatures of like kind).  Why the metal version?  Because of its mana cost, this pretty much had to be an artifact creature.  I think.

Why does it cost ?  You need to have the ability to pay up to 5 mana for it in order to take full benefit of its ability.  Plus, I think that a 2/2 artifact creature should probably cost at least 3 mana.  Why is it 2/2?  Because Goblin Ringleader, Sylvan Messenger, et al. are also 2/2.

[Anusien]

Just make it a 5 mana 2/2; I think that makes it dramatically more simplistic.  Yeah, it breaks the cycle, but the mana cost breaks the cycle anyway.

Really interesting idea.

[Fistandantilus]

Just make it a 5 mana 2/2; I think that makes it dramatically more simplistic.  Yeah, it breaks the cycle, but the mana cost breaks the cycle anyway.

Really interesting idea.

Fair enough.  At , it's still much better than Venser's Sliver!

[Marco]

I like it! I've always been a fan of Goblin Ringleader, Brass Herald...

FYI, Enlistment Officer, Grave Defiler, Kavu Howler, and Tidal Courier are not 2/2, they are 2/3, 2/1, 4/5, and 1/2 respectively.

[Fistandantilus]

I like it! I've always been a fan of Goblin Ringleader, Brass Herald...

FYI, Enlistment Officer, Grave Defiler, Kavu Howler, and Tidal Courier are not 2/2, they are 2/3, 2/1, 4/5, and 1/2 respectively.

Hm.  I was unaware.

Well, in that case, I could make the card even more interesting by making it a 0/0 that comes into play with a +1/+1 counter on it for every color of mana used to pay its cost.  That might be too much for one card, though.

[JuJu]

You could maybe switch it to Sunburst, copying Etched Oracle a little.

[Fistandantilus]

You could maybe switch it to Sunburst, copying Etched Oracle a little.

Yeah, I think that I like that.

[Norm4eva]

I sort of have a beef with this card, and I'll tell you why, but it's a little picayune.
IIRC there was a post on MtG.com in regard to Ward Sliver, and it had to do with the lopsided effect it had on a Sliver vs. Sliver matchup.  The premise of Slivers is that each one directly augments the hive, no matter which side of the board it's on.  Ward Sliver had the potential to violate that essential flavor, because you could give your team protection from a large part of their team, while their team only had protection from itself.  This could severely damage certain strategies; Magma Sliver comes to mind as a prime example.  It's a hoser you can play in the mirror, and that's a flavor flaw.
'Sliver Recruiter' has that same flaw, but in a different way.  It's a great card, but right now it fundamentally just isn't a Sliver.  It doesn't depend on, nor does it bolster other Slivers in play. 

[Fistandantilus]

I sort of have a beef with this card, and I'll tell you why, but it's a little picayune.
IIRC there was a post on MtG.com in regard to Ward Sliver, and it had to do with the lopsided effect it had on a Sliver vs. Sliver matchup.  The premise of Slivers is that each one directly augments the hive, no matter which side of the board it's on.  Ward Sliver had the potential to violate that essential flavor, because you could give your team protection from a large part of their team, while their team only had protection from itself.  This could severely damage certain strategies; Magma Sliver comes to mind as a prime example.  It's a hoser you can play in the mirror, and that's a flavor flaw.
'Sliver Recruiter' has that same flaw, but in a different way.  It's a great card, but right now it fundamentally just isn't a Sliver.  It doesn't depend on, nor does it bolster other Slivers in play. 

I think that I can fix that.  I can let all of the players "recruit" slivers when Pheromite Sliver comes into play:

Pheromite Sliver

Artifact Creature – Sliver
0/0
Sunburst
When Pheromite Sliver comes into play, each player reveals a card from the top of his library for each color of mana used to pay Pheromite Sliver's cost.  Each player puts all Sliver cards revealed from his library this way into his hand and the rest on the bottom of his library.

[zimagic]

I sort of have a beef with this card, and I'll tell you why, but it's a little picayune.
IIRC there was a post on MtG.com in regard to Ward Sliver, and it had to do with the lopsided effect it had on a Sliver vs. Sliver matchup.  The premise of Slivers is that each one directly augments the hive, no matter which side of the board it's on.  Ward Sliver had the potential to violate that essential flavor, because you could give your team protection from a large part of their team, while their team only had protection from itself.  This could severely damage certain strategies; Magma Sliver comes to mind as a prime example.  It's a hoser you can play in the mirror, and that's a flavor flaw.
'Sliver Recruiter' has that same flaw, but in a different way.  It's a great card, but right now it fundamentally just isn't a Sliver.  It doesn't depend on, nor does it bolster other Slivers in play. 

If you want slivers to share his ability then why don't you do something like this:

Pheromite Sliver
 
Artifact Creature – Sliver
1/1
When a Sliver comes into play, the creature's controller reveals cards from the top of their library equal to its casting cost. That player puts a Sliver card revealed from his library in this way into his hand and the rest on the bottom of his library.

You'll lose the sunburst flavour on the previous sliver but all your slivers will share this effect.

[Anusien]

Why not go this way:

Sage Sliver - UG
Creature - Sliver
When a Sliver comes into play, its controller reveals the top card of their library.  If that card is a Sliver, put that card into its owner's hand.  Otherwise, put that card into the graveyard.
1/1

Needs some templating help, but you get the idea.