About the 5 color sliver legend, there is no multicolor section in the m14 card galley on the Wizard's site.
I don't remember how it played out with Nicol Bolas, can someone confirm or deny if there was a multicolor section for the m13 card list before the reveal that Bolas was in?
Pretty sure Bolas was revealed as in before the spoiler went up.
Here's some sliver information from Magic: DOTP 2014
Description of Sliver Hive the deck in the game:
Know what it feels like to be a part of the hive mind! You have stayed dormant on the plane of Shandalar long enough. Now it is time to unleash your swarm of predators, seekers and strikers on all who oppose you. Being the Hivemaster, you will feel the synergy that slivers are known for. Get out as many types of slivers as you can and enjoy the beatdown as you overwhelm your enemy with a force that increasingly grows in power.
This is the introduction when you select Shandalar in the campaign:
Ramaz described a strange race on the plane of Shandalar. He studied their hive-like habitat and said they had only recently discovered how to use magic. I have no idea what they might know about Ramaz, but a clue is a clue. See what you can dig up.
Ramaz is the person you're looking for in the campaign. Not a spoiler as this is literally the first thing they tell you when you start the campaign.
Here is the introduction when you fight Ess-Nelek (boss level of the Shandalar matches... it's a named sliver shaman)
You've come too close to the hive's territory. Now you stand before its shaman. He shouts at you with clicks and hisses, holding an etched fossil in his claw-hand like a talisman. His brethren gather nearby, their forms shifting.
I bolded the interesting information. So the info could imply that Shandalar is the sliver's home plane. But it could also imply they arrived on Shandalar from somewhere else and slept for years before they decided to make themselves known. I guess it doesn't confirm anything either way. They just started to use magic. They have named 'individuals' such as shamans and hivemasters. They're sentient and have language. This paves the way for a sliver planeswalker....guaranteed to see one as it will be a money-make for WoTC.
PS - The sliver deck is quite fun to play...but yes, I hate the new flavor and design. And there may be minor typos, I had to type all that out. Sorry.
I'll take being 50% right (recently awakened on shandalar) and 50% wrong (slivers aren't sentient and can't use magic.)
I still argue that they can't become walkers, though they might be able to in a few generations.
If that line of thought keeps up, I'm lumping it into "Marit Lage is an Eldrazi" and "Niv-Mizzet is a planeswalker."
There's another in the deadly trifecta, but it slips my mind right now.
But no, really, I'm serious, I'm going to start handing out cards for it. It's baseless speculation at the worst.
Doug mentioned it on his blog, but basically the only way multiple slivers could walk in unison is if they somehow shared a soul across multiple bodies.
There's no precedent for that, and as Sliver Queen has shown us, sapience is not shared across hives.
If that line of thought keeps up, I'm lumping it into "Marit Lage is an Eldrazi" and "Niv-Mizzet is a planeswalker."
There's another in the deadly trifecta, but it slips my mind.
Yawgmoth brought back from the dead? Everyone is Volrath?(classic) Urza's return via Karn's powerstones? The creation of a Phyrexian Eldrazi? Planeswalker X is The Lithomancer? Random legend is a planeswalker now?
These seem to pop up every month a few times. Except the Volrath one, but it's a classic from the good old days.
The lack of a 5 color sliver and the fact that blue and black only got one sliver, both at rare, makes these slivers a huge design fail. They forced them way to much into Naya colors. It's like the blue and black one were solely printed to stop people from raging over the fact slivers are Naya colored now instead of 5 colored.
Private Mod Note
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Thanks to SpiderBoy4 @ High-Light Studio's for the awesome banner
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.” —Volrath
If I recall correctly, it was exactly that. being a core set things needed to be simplified, in their eyes. And a tribal theme that could use all 5 colors would make limited gameplay difficult, so they shifted all the new slivers to Naya instead, while leaving UB devoid of any slivers save for the obligatory representatives for the colors.
For me, I don't see slivers too black. They're far from self-centered and individualistic, and they are more apt to GW's benefit of the hive. Granted they're more individualistic in this core set, but I don't think they'll be black enough to fight for power and stab their fellow slivers in the back.
My vote goes to blue, via shared intellect and experiences of the individuals where they can opt to share and enhance their fellow slivers if they chose.
For me, I don't see slivers too black. They're far from self-centered and individualistic, and they are more apt to GW's benefit of the hive. Granted they're more individualistic in this core set, but I don't think they'll be black enough to fight for power and stab their fellow slivers in the back.
My vote goes to blue, via shared intellect and experiences of the individuals where they can opt to share and enhance their fellow slivers if they chose.
i'm kind of in agreement. slivers by their very nature are WG. If we were to try to shoehorn them into another color, blue would probably be my go-to.
The thing is, slivers are not inherently red, black or blue. Red is chaotic and emotional, which is completely opposed to the "hive mind" of the slivers, so to me, they definitely should not have been in red.
Black is all about the individual. This is extremely opposed to the idea of a collective consciousness that is represented well by WG. Its apparent when you look at what black's enemy colors are anyway.
Blue, is either way with slivers in my opinion. While the idea of compiling knowledge seems very U with some W thrown in, the logical mind seems somewhat at odds with a hive mind. But as a 3rd color, blue would seem most appropriate.
I guess you could argue that it wouldn't be necessary to have a 3rd color to represent what slivers are, but given that they are traditionally a 5-color tribe (due to being based around sharing mechanics) doing them in WG would be an even bigger kick in the teeth than Naya.
That makes them more white than black, amusingly. White loves groups and armies, and their communities are tightly interwoven, but this makes them more xenophobic than other colors who don't care if someone acts differently from their own core dogmas. Black, in contrast, is very individualistic. When there's group forming involved, it's through subjugation and assimilation into their fold to give more power to those up top.
I was going to point out the fact that non-sapient races don't follow the normal color rules, (hence why, for example, there are sharks in blue) but then I remembered that slivers are sapient now, so nevermind, I guess.
I know it's blurry, and honestly I think they're just transitioning between multicellular organism to community. I think it still works well when considering the broad focuses each color usually (I think) focuses. White evaluates the self outwards, an black inwards.
Red for impulsivity and sudden aggresiveness of the swarm (think of it as swarming instinct of bees, or another hive creature.) White for it's "purge the others not like me" (yes white has this mentality when at it's worst; order of heliod, church of tal, the paladins) And unity. Green for it's instinctual following and might of nature. Blue for adaptiveness. Black for the obsession to constantly advance the hive/self (one and the same with slivers) no matter the cost to those around.
They had better be Shandalarian Slivers, 300 years between Scourge and Time SPiral and the slivers didn't change a bit, now, years between then and the present, and suddenly we have humanoid slivers. No! You fail science!
The core set serves two important purposes: to provide a home for cards Standard needs outside of blocks, and to attract new players to the game.
Slivers, at least in this incarnation, might attract new people. "Hey, these are cool! They make each other better!" They'll teach the important lessons about synergy and tribal interactions.
The new slivers are so divorced from the old ones that it's going to cause confusion for new players. What happens when these new players start getting older cards? "Why are all these old slivers so weird looking? And why does my Winged Sliver give your slivers flying? Your Blur Sliver doesn't give my slivers haste!"
They're not winning older players over with sliver nostalgia here, and they're just going to confuse new players once they move beyond the initial introduction. Additionally, if sliver abilities are limited to core set-level abilities, they're not even going to be good slivers! "Ooh, first strike sliver. Oooh, haste sliver!" There's little chance of something like a Brood Sliver or a Hibernation Sliver showing up in the core set because complexity.
tl;dr
Slivers don't belong in the core set, and these sliver-ish things aren't the way to execute them.
I don't understand the point you're trying to make. :/
Oh fudge.
Level 1 Judge
I write flavor articles for RoxieCards.
I play and judge at Giga Bites Cafein Marietta, Georgia.
Pretty sure Bolas was revealed as in before the spoiler went up.
I'll take being 50% right (recently awakened on shandalar) and 50% wrong (slivers aren't sentient and can't use magic.)
I still argue that they can't become walkers, though they might be able to in a few generations.
On Modern Masters 2:
Will be kept until 12/31/2013 to prove if Right or Wrong.Proven right 1/27/2013"All slivers you control gain a spark".
There's another in the deadly trifecta, but it slips my mind right now.
But no, really, I'm serious, I'm going to start handing out cards for it. It's baseless speculation at the worst.
There's no precedent for that, and as Sliver Queen has shown us, sapience is not shared across hives.
MaRo also mentioned on his blog that a WUBRG legendary sliver was thought about, but the logistics of it weren't considered worth the effort.
Level 1 Judge
I write flavor articles for RoxieCards.
I play and judge at Giga Bites Cafein Marietta, Georgia.
Yawgmoth brought back from the dead? Everyone is Volrath?(classic) Urza's return via Karn's powerstones? The creation of a Phyrexian Eldrazi? Planeswalker X is The Lithomancer? Random legend is a planeswalker now?
These seem to pop up every month a few times. Except the Volrath one, but it's a classic from the good old days.
The lack of a 5 color sliver and the fact that blue and black only got one sliver, both at rare, makes these slivers a huge design fail. They forced them way to much into Naya colors. It's like the blue and black one were solely printed to stop people from raging over the fact slivers are Naya colored now instead of 5 colored.
“I once had an entire race killed just to listen to the rattling of their dried bones as I waded through them.”
—Volrath
My vote goes to blue, via shared intellect and experiences of the individuals where they can opt to share and enhance their fellow slivers if they chose.
i'm kind of in agreement. slivers by their very nature are WG. If we were to try to shoehorn them into another color, blue would probably be my go-to.
The thing is, slivers are not inherently red, black or blue. Red is chaotic and emotional, which is completely opposed to the "hive mind" of the slivers, so to me, they definitely should not have been in red.
Black is all about the individual. This is extremely opposed to the idea of a collective consciousness that is represented well by WG. Its apparent when you look at what black's enemy colors are anyway.
Blue, is either way with slivers in my opinion. While the idea of compiling knowledge seems very U with some W thrown in, the logical mind seems somewhat at odds with a hive mind. But as a 3rd color, blue would seem most appropriate.
I guess you could argue that it wouldn't be necessary to have a 3rd color to represent what slivers are, but given that they are traditionally a 5-color tribe (due to being based around sharing mechanics) doing them in WG would be an even bigger kick in the teeth than Naya.
Niv-Mizzet Ramp 'n' Wheel
Godo: Strap him up and turn him sideways!
Does that make them fit better?
On Modern Masters 2:
Will be kept until 12/31/2013 to prove if Right or Wrong.Proven right 1/27/2013I'm gonna to go with this...
Unfortunately...
This too.
Completely agree.
Standard Deck(s)
Nayaish Slivers
(W/G)Selesnya Populate(G/W)
Dega Midrange
Extended Deck(s)
(R/G)Transforming Werewolves(G/R)
Modern Deck(s)
Slivggro
(W/U)Level Up(U/W)
(W/G)Muraganda Vanilla(G/W)