its a five color sliver deck that i am looking for some ideas on. its about two weeks old and is showing promise. the people i play against have weak decks and so do i. i am just looking for ideas my budget is about 50$ a month. most of my friends play tribal decks so things like coat of arms wont work.
lands:
4x plains
5x forest
5x swamp
5x mountain
3x island
1x urborg volcano
1x elfhame palace
1x darigaaz's caldera
GM : I can tell you from experience (both mine and that of other members of my playgroup) that 5-color sliver decks don't tend to work without dual lands. Barring that (should that turn out to be too expensive), you need to get your hands on City of Brass, Gemstone Mine, and Thran Quarry - all of which can give you any color mana. Barring
that, all your lands should be similar to the Elfhame Palace psuedo-dual or, better than nothing, the Lairs (Treva's Ruins, etc.). Mana-screw is extremely difficult to overcome in a deck like this without specialty lands.
If you have to run mainly basic lands, at the very least find yourself a playset of Darksteel Ingots (and eventually phase them out with better lands).
2x sliver overlord
A
much weaker slot than Crystalline Sliver. The Crystalline is the be-all, end-all, must-have sliver for any sliver deck that wants to protect its creatures. Problem is, the Sliver Overlord's ability targets slivers, which can't be done under Crystalline, nor do many of the newer slivers' abilities work in conjunction with the Crystalline (also because their abilities target).
2x spined sliver
Nice to have a 2/2 for 2cc, but its ability is too limited. If you find yourself with a good amount of mana (quantity-wise, if not color-wise), I've found Acidic Sliver to be a better choice - they allow you to take out opponents' dangerous creatures.
1x talon sliver (lifesaver)
Against other creature-based decks, Talon Sliver is a 4-of. Pop one out and you can gang up on any creature out there, not losing yours (plus they work beautifully with your Hunter Slivers).
2x winged sliver
You need 4 Winged Slivers. There aren't a lot of decks that play flyers (even in most casual groups the creatures tend to be ground-based), and once your slivers have flying, you can fly over and deal damage at will.
2x muscle sliver
Again, a 4-of in a sliver deck. This is one of the only guys that automatically make your slivers bigger if you're not using Coat of Arms - all the others force you to spend mana to beef them up, mana that can better be spent producing more slivers.
most of my friends play tribal decks so things like coat of arms wont work.
If you stick to low casting cost slivers (I recommend two cc, three at the very most, and then only for extremely valuable slivers), Coat of Arms absolutely works to your advantage. Here's why :
1) By the time you're ready to cast the Coat, you've already got 4 or 5 slivers out, and their abilities drawf that of other creature types
2) You have the ability to make more slivers, again, something that other tribal decks don't have. Your creatures will be the biggest on the board
and have better abilities to boot.
You cast the Queen, start pumping baby slivers out, and pop out the Coat. By that time, they're all untargetable, flying, first strikers.
If you absolutely can't see yourself playing Coats, you might consider a white enchantment from Onslaught called Shared Triumph. It costs 1W, and when it comes into play you choose a creature type. Creatures of that type get +1/+1 as long as the enchantment stays in play (basically giving you 8 Muscle Slivers). It isn't as great as the Coat, obviously, but it has the advantage of being cheaper (both dollar-wise and mana-wise).
Most of the non-creature spells (Mantle, BoP, Untamed, Journey) you're carrying in this deck are unnecessary if you have a good mana base :
artifact:
1x paradise mantle
spells:
1x dark ritual (dont really use it )
1x arrest (gets rid of heavy hitters or great ability cards)
1x renewed faith (keeps me alive, if im doing good i just cycle it and gain two life)
1x untamed wilds
1x journey of discovery
1x guided passage ( i love this card )
1x attrition
Guided Passage might be a fun card to play, but it has three serious disadvantages :
1) It allows your opponent to go through your deck, telling him everything that you can do.
2) It has three different colors in its casting cost - a difficult cost without a stable mana base.
3)
You don't get to choose.
You'd be much better off with a Demonic Tutor (or Diabolic Tutor, or even Diabolic Intent).
Dark Ritual has more uses in your current build than mine (I have none in my deck, since there are only a handful of spells - Coat, Sliver Queen - that cost more than 2 mana to play. I can see that it might be helpful with the 4 and 5 casting cost slivers you run, but I'd recommend trimming them (and the Dark Rit) from the build - they're just too slow compared to other tribal decks.
Arrest and Attrition...Attrition has the drawback of not targetting black creatures, and Arrest is a one-shot deal. Acidic Sliver is, IMO, a better option, as it allows you to sacrifice any sliver for the desired effect, and can target any color creature.
Renewed Faith shouldn't be needed to keep you alive. If the other decks are starting too fast for you, that should tell you that you need to use cheaper creatures, allowing you a faster start as well.
Once you get your deck optimized, you should be able to beat the snot out of any other casual tribal deck, but slivers are also more expensive a build, due to the special land/mana requirements.
For the record, here is my current build :
5-Color SliverLands (28) (yeah, it's a high number)
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Thran Quarry
3 Scrubland
2 Taiga
2 Plateau
3 Bayou
2 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
3 Savannah
2 Badlands
1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
Non-Creature Spells (4)1 Demonic Tutor
3 Coat of Arms
Creatures (28)1 Metallic Sliver
4 Crystalline Sliver
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Talon Sliver
4 Winged Sliver
4 Clot Sliver
2 Acidic Sliver
1 Heart Sliver
2 Horned Sliver (likely to be replaced - too expensive)
2 Sliver Queen
Looks like too much land on paper, but the high dual count assures me a land drop virtually every turn for the first 4/5 turns, allowing the deck to play extremely well. Typical game starts out Turn 1 dual and/or Metallic, Turn 2 dual and Crystalline, Turn 3 dual and 2cc sliver, Turn 4 dual and 2cc sliver plus Tutor if needed, Turn 5 dual and Coat or Queen... After that, the game's pretty much won... Even if you just keep drawing lands, each land is another half a sliver.
It's not perfect, but it's definitely fun.
