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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