slivers

[the42up]

I have the deep desire to play a sliver deck casually but am not sure how to go about it.

I am thinking about using a core of
4 muscle
4 sinew
4 virulent
4 quick
4 gemhide
4 sidewinder
4 crystaline
4 homing sliver
2 winged
2 might
and then a load of 1 ofs

Part of me really wants to roll with
4 muscle
4 sinew
4 homing
3 virulent
3 sidewinder

and then nothing but 1's.  And not the boring stuff like might. But fun stuff like the legion, overlord, queen, psionic,

not sure what would be the most "fun" route.  I am a bit turned off by gemhides though, just seem boring.

[Carnac]

Hi the42up!

Here is my Sliver Deck:

4 x Sidewinder Sliver
3 x Plated Sliver
4 x Talon Sliver
4 x Sinew Sliver
4 x Essence Sliver
2 x Winged Sliver
2 x Shifting Sliver
2 x Synchronous Sliver
4 x Muscle Sliver
4 x Gemhide Sliver
4 x Crystalline Sliver
3 x Harmonic Sliver
2 x Necrotic Sliver
4 x Tundra
4 x Tropical Island
4 x Savannah
4 x Ancient Ziggurat
1 x Plains
1 x Forest

My Sliver Deck does not have tournament potential. But if you put in Æther Vial, some Counterspells (Force of Will is perfect, as you will have plenty of blue slivers to discard, and also you only need counterspells to counter main threats like Wrath of God, Powder Keg etc.) and optimize the mana base balancing it with Fetchlands, Im sure this sliver deck will be tournament competitive. I just havent done it, cause I use this deck as a "playing-for-fun"-deck. As you might have noticed, Ive added 2 Necrotic Slivers. These can be cast only with Ancient Ziggurat or having Gemhide Sliver in play. However they are only added to get rid of a few annoying threats like Propaganda, Tabernacle or the like. You can choose to add 2 Ward Slivers instead of the Necrotic Slivers, as Ward Sliver is also very powerful. The Harmonic Sliver is perfect as this deck has no artifacts/ enchantments at all. So you will always only target an artifact or enchantment of your opponent. Once you get to cast either Essence Sliver, Shifting Sliver or Synchronous Sliver, your opponent is usually screwed.

It should seriously be considered to add Heart Sliver for the Haste effect, cause this is really lethal in a Sliver Deck. But Im not sure its worth adding a fourth color for this only.

A few comments on your Sliver Deck:
Why do you want Virulent Sliver? Think about it! Once you eventually get to deal your opponent 10 poison counters, you would already have killed him by damage. So leave that crap sliver out. Homing Sliver? Cycling in a Sliver deck sucks, as does Survival of the Fittest. And it aint really worth adding a fourth colour with the risk of being mana screwed just because of Homing Sliver. Also leave out Sliver Queen, Sliver Legion and Sliver Overlord. They aint worth it. At the time you get to play these, game has ended. Only purpose they serve, is to screw up your opening hand.


-Carnac, Wizard of the Old School

[the42up]

I think i failed to mention that i played the deck in various multiplayer settings.

[Nazdakka]

I've never seen Slivers work particularly well in multiplayer. I've seen lots of people try for the sort of deck you are going for, what tends to happen is that they build up a really impressive board of Slivers, and then either they get ganged up on by the rest of the table because their board looks so scary, or someone wraths and they're left with nothing. You need to figure out a way to give the deck some endurance, and perhaps slow-roll your threats to avoid looking too scary.

Some stuff to think about:

Patriach's Bidding is a really good way of recovering from Wrath effects - it depends a little on how many tribal decks you see in your group, but you'll usually end up a long way ahead. Living Death can do a similar job.
Wild Pair can be very impressive in a Sliver deck. It requires your deck to be largely built around it, but you can get some amazing turns from it.
Frenetic Sliver is very handy for keeping your army alive.
Harmonic Sliver is great utility. Having a way of breaking up other people's combos can be gamesaving.