Last week I promised to either write an article about Slivers, or about Allies. In celebration of the announcement of Eternal Masters I decided to write this week's article about the older and more enduring of the two.
Although tribal support has been around as early as Alpha, with cards such as Lord of Atlantis and Goblin King, Slivers were the first creature type to be truly fleshed out by being given creatures of every colour, as well as a Summon Legend in the form of Sliver Queen.
A Brief History on Our Hive Mind Overlords
Slivers originally appeared in Tempest, and were quite simple at first. There was a Sliver for each of the super important abilities such as Flying, Regenerate and Trample, as well as a few Slivers to provide various small power and toughness boosts. Stronghold would bring the first multi-colour Slivers, as well as a five-colour legendary creature, the first of its kind.
Slivers would reappear in Legions, with a few more complex abilities being introduced (such as Brood Sliver) as well as Slivers with more keyword abilities that had not been used. Aside from this, more power and toughness boosting Slivers were printed to bolster the new abilities, as the ones from Tempest were not legal in Standard. Scourge introduced another five-colour Sliver, Sliver Overlord and gave people the idea that we were going to get a new Legendary Sliver each time the hive appeared.
Time Spiral brought about the strangest Slivers ,with many of them bearing completely unique abilities, and bizarre breaks of the colour pie due to the nature of the Planar Chaos set. Some of these Slivers ended up being very powerful, and as such there is a great deal of them in this EDH deck. Future Sight would end up bringing yet another Legendary, the infamous Sliver Legion.
Lastly, Slivers would appear for their (as of now) final hurrah in Magic 2014 and Magic 2015. These Slivers were not as well-received among fans, due to having a completely different designs, and the "Sliver ability" having been changed to be less of a deck building challenge. Nonetheless, a few of the Slivers introduced this way were on people's want lists for a long time, especially the final Legend Sliver Hivelord and the land Sliver Hive.
The Deck
Slivers don't need much of an explanation game play wise. Like any tribal deck, you throw your creatures down, and then throw them at people's faces. Slivers are fun because there's so much that they can do, and with forty-three creatures in the deck, odds are you won't have many games that are the same as another. There is one infinite combo sitting in the deck, but with no way to tutor one of the pieces so you have to be lucky to draw it. Mana Echoes and Sliver Queen produce infinite 1/1 Sliver tokens, and infinite colourless mana.
The List
Thanks for reading everyone, next week you'll be getting a sweet Allies Commander list as promised. Have great week in the meantime!
