To me, you kinda come across as an old gramps ranting about the good old days with this post.
Wizards had made many mistakes, but I don't see the issue with hexproof, loss of mana burn or one-sided Slivers. You could argue that getting rid of shroud instead of having it exist alongside hexproof was a bad move though.
I wouldn't mind if hexproof coexist with shroud, that'd at least be a way to balance cost/advantage, i.e., hexproof creature might costs 1 extra more than shroud creature or has less base stats.
Drawback of a card is what encourages deck building, the question is whether or not a player is willing to pay it, compensate it, and/or convert it into an advantage. For example, creatures with flying cost more than those do not, because flying is an advantage, City of Brass and pain lands were created to balance multicolor decks, while Blood Moon punishes them, etc. Without drawbacks, powerful cards would override creativity in deck building, and we see the lot of that in Tarmogoyf, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Stoneforge Mystic, etc. While classic tribal decks were no where near such power level, they boasts the advantage of making your army universally powerful, the fact that an opponent needs to play the same tribe as you do to be an issue is a minor drawback at best, I see no good reason to remove it completely.
A reason could be that I, as a Sliver player, don't want to be in a situation where I'm boosting my opponent's things without being able to do anything about it by just playing the creatures in my deck if it's a Sliver mirror, especially since that means I have a lot more to keep track of than just what abilities my own mobs are getting.
Any other match-up results in the drawback being virtually non-existent, so why keep it?
At least that's the rationale I imagine was used for the change.
And what's the excuse for black, the color from its origin a color of taboo and ambition, to be so tame in its current design? Other colors remain faithful to their roots, black deviates from it.
Black still has cards that drain you for using them or require you to sacrifice creatures to use them. You just don't have to approach near-death by doing so.
Sliverdrazi. WUBRG. Slivers you control have Annihilator X, where X is the number of Slivers you control.
This would be funnier if Annihilator wasn't high on the Storm Scale (meaning it has an extremely low chance of seeing the light of day again in a new Standard set).
Sliverdrazi. WUBRG. Slivers you control have Annihilator X, where X is the number of Slivers you control.
This would be funnier if Annihilator wasn't high on the Storm Scale (meaning it has an extremely low chance of seeing the light of day again in a new Standard set).
Could come up in a core set, especially with Ascend as a new mechanic.
Sliverdrazi. WUBRG. Slivers you control have Annihilator X, where X is the number of Slivers you control.
This would be funnier if Annihilator wasn't high on the Storm Scale (meaning it has an extremely low chance of seeing the light of day again in a new Standard set).
Would it have been less or more funny if it was Sliverstorm, a storm spell that makes Slivers?
Really I'm just trying to think of something a new lord could do. Landfall, but Slivers? Sliver God, requiring a devotion to Slivers? A Sliver vehicle?
Sliverdrazi. WUBRG. Slivers you control have Annihilator X, where X is the number of Slivers you control.
Honestly, I'd like a functional reprint of Sliver Queen (Broodmother maybe?). Something that can make tokens without tapping.
Giving annihilator 1 could be fun, would have been a good (flavorfull) card in Onslaught block (If costed at wubrg)
For a functional reprint of the Queen, maybe something with :
“Tap two slivers u control: Create a 1/1 colorless sliver token. This token enters the batlefield tapped.”
Not abusable but with combo potential (more than 2 cards combo tho)
But i would like to see more reprints. (Well core set is comming)
I wait to see how they actually designed Dominaria this time around. It all looks flashy and nostalgic, but their track record for design in the past few years has been hit or miss.
Hexproof has also proven to be a bit problematic. Its Shroud pushed to a higher power level and was even referred to as Super Shroud or Troll Shroud for awhile before the official keyword. Hexproof is all the benefits of Shroud without any of its drawback. As with Shroud what you saw is what you got, nothing more or less. Which made it much more easy to balance.
Elvish Lookout and Gladecover Scout. The power difference between these two examples is immense even though are nigh-identitical. The Shroud version can't be directly improved, so you have to figure out indirect ways such as with Elvish Archdruid to make it usable. Yet the Hexproof one can be made better directly and indirectly. Its such a massive creep in power as the scout doesn't even cost 1G for the power that hexproof offers. Like if asked "Which one would snowball harder in a given match?" everyone is going to point to the scout as it has no power ceiling.
I don't mind the new sliver wording as much as I care about how they look. I really disliked the humanoid appearance they took on... it kind of ruined their uniqueness. The wording was more or less to prevent confusing game states where you had two or more players with slivers and global abilities affecting them all.
I’m so sick of the “confusing game state” argument. It’s not that complicated, it’s not that hard to track.
Now, I will say that creatures benefiting all other creatures of the same type regardless of which side of the battlefield they’re on doesn’t make sense mechanically.
If I’m leading an army of goblins into battle, why would my leadership positively influence my opponents army of goblins? (Speaking in +1/+1 of course).
There’s really no excuse for the hex proof / shroud thing. That’s just terrible design. Hexproof is far more complicated than shroud. It was powercreep for the sake of selling new cards.
A reason could be that I, as a Sliver player, don't want to be in a situation where I'm boosting my opponent's things without being able to do anything about it by just playing the creatures in my deck if it's a Sliver mirror, especially since that means I have a lot more to keep track of than just what abilities my own mobs are getting.
Any other match-up results in the drawback being virtually non-existent, so why keep it?
At least that's the rationale I imagine was used for the change.
That's like saying, "I play Sligh. Just in case my opponent plays white, WotC please make all damage unpreventable," or, "I play Stompy and hates creature removal, WotC please give all green creatures hexproof and/or indestructible."
Every color/deck is suppose to have some weakness, why should developer remove all inconvenience so players don't even have to think about how to get around it? Back when counter-Sliver deck was prominent, players win mirror matches by sideboarding extra counters and creature removal, or additional card draws to outpace opponent. If a player likes a deck enough, s/he will find ways to work around its flaws, which is why I disagree with WotC handing things out on a platter in past years, instead of challenging the players to think they force deck types onto players, just so the environment remain "predictable".
Black still has cards that drain you for using them or require you to sacrifice creatures to use them. You just don't have to approach near-death by doing so.
Which is why I call it uncharacteristically tame, mildly touching the surface instead of diving into the core of a color, any color. Arc-Slogger was a tournament staple for a while because people see its benefit outweighs the cost, and befits red's recklessness. I hope such cards come up again.
Which is why I call it uncharacteristically tame, mildly touching the surface instead of diving into the core of a color, any color. Arc-Slogger was a tournament staple for a while because people see its benefit outweighs the cost, and befits red's recklessness. I hope such cards come up again.
Arc-Slogger, such a derpy looking beast with a weird activated ability. But it was a skill tester card that can lead to victories by either getting the last bits of damage in directly or destroying potential blockers. Plus a 4/5 for 3RR wasn't horrible at all. I'll admit I wasn't too keen on it until I actually understood its potential.
But yeah black has lost much of its old "power at any cost" mentality. It still gets a few of these cards from time to time, but nowhere near the same scale or quantity. Sui back in the day embodied that style of play. With stuff like City of Traitors, Phyrexian Negator, Demonic Consultation, Hatred, Carnophage, Kaervek's Spite, Spinning Darkness, Unmask and even Sarcomancy. Though its not just black, other colors have also become much more tame compared to their old selves in some manner.
Could come up in a core set, especially with Ascend as a new mechanic.
Ascend is too thematically tied to Ixalan though. The 'Blessing of the City' is clearly that lost city they are looking for (whose name escapes me) If it was more generic (something like "You gain 'Ascendant'" then it could be in more sets.
I don't mind the new sliver wording as much as I care about how they look. I really disliked the humanoid appearance they took on
I'm reasonably sure that is a world-specific trait (I seem to recall MaRo saying so also) It's kind of like how Lorwyn's Kithkin have huge eyes and Tarkir's goblins are super hairy. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples that are escaping me at the moment.
I'm confident that the 'new' sliver look is a Shandalar-specific trait, and that Slivers on Dominaria will return to their classic appearance.
Now, I will say that creatures benefiting all other creatures of the same type regardless of which side of the battlefield they’re on doesn’t make sense mechanically.
It's a thematic thing. Slivers are a bit of a hive mind/group creature. They gain additional power from each other regardless of which side of the battlefield they are on (at least in the original conception) In the story, Volrath created the Metallic Slivers in order to try to influence the tribe. That wouldn't have worked unless slivers share traits regardless of who controls them.
It's not like it's a conscious buffing of one's team (like in your Goblins example.) It is an innate thing that buffs all other slivers, and has nothing to do with their allegiance - it's a genetic trait.
Every color/deck is suppose to have some weakness, why should developer remove all inconvenience so players don't even have to think about how to get around it?
I agree with you. I didn't say I agreed with Wizard's reasons for changing the wording - I was just stating the reason as I understood it.
I think there are several angles they could provide Sliver Players.
1. Taxing/Stack Interaction Sliver - possibly PentaLord - either straight up Thalia type NonSliver spells cost - (1) more to cast for each Sliver you control. Or Cursecatcher Sliver pr something to help against combo decks.
2. Cheap Card Advantage/Card Selection Sliver - either cheap scry ETB or Draw Card that is CoCoable or a Sylvan Messenger type Sliver effect.
3. Functional Reprints like Crystalline, Hibernation, or Provoke or other similar Keywords but also cheaper like a cheaper than 3 lifelink in white for pauper or Essence Warden Sliver.
4. Utility Slivers - Graveyard interaction/recurrsion Sliver, Hand Disruption Sliver, some added needed utility, etc. More lords with anthems and keywords.
Wither Sliver (Green, black or both)
Hexproof Sliver (Green, blue or both)
Infect Sliver (Any)
Raid Sliver (Any)
Exploit Sliver (Black, blue or both)
Then there is also the possibility of adopting traits from creatures or enchantments. Like for instance a Sliver with Platinum Angel static ability, or a Sliver with Sigarda, Host of Herons static ability, or even what Sandwurm Convergence can do but it makes 5/5 Sliver tokens instead of Wurms.
Slivers are a tribe that can pretty much do anything they want.
imo talking about "lazy design" and slivers at the same time is kind of redundant. as a tribe they are generally a one trick pony. no sliver card can itself be very interesting because it needs to be something which can stack with a bunch of other sliver abilities. what you end up with is a ton of cards which are essentially "flying sliver" and "scry sliver" and "explore sliver" and "banding sliver" and it might be fun to put them all together but i can't imagine the process of designing them is very interesting. never really got the appeal of the things.
For a functional reprint of the Queen, maybe something with :
“Tap two slivers u control: Create a 1/1 colorless sliver token. This token enters the batlefield tapped.”
Not abusable but with combo potential (more than 2 cards combo tho)
But i would like to see more reprints. (Well core set is comming)
With Wizards' development missing a lot of abuse and interactions lately, they'd probably put Intruder Alarm in the very next set.
Arc-Slogger, such a derpy looking beast with a weird activated ability. But it was a skill tester card that can lead to victories by either getting the last bits of damage in directly or destroying potential blockers. Plus a 4/5 for 3RR wasn't horrible at all. I'll admit I wasn't too keen on it until I actually understood its potential.
But yeah black has lost much of its old "power at any cost" mentality. It still gets a few of these cards from time to time, but nowhere near the same scale or quantity. Sui back in the day embodied that style of play. With stuff like City of Traitors, Phyrexian Negator, Demonic Consultation, Hatred, Carnophage, Kaervek's Spite, Spinning Darkness, Unmask and even Sarcomancy. Though its not just black, other colors have also become much more tame compared to their old selves in some manner.
Old T2/Extended environment were diverse, unpredictable, and fun because extreme cards existed. In today's standard where everyone has easy access to all colors and "hoser" cards ceased to be, color identities too withered.
Bestow 7 (If you cast this card for its bestow cost, it's an Aura spell with enchant creature. It becomes a creature again if it's not attached to a creature.)
Enchanted creature gets +7/+7.
Enchanted creature and slivers you control have hexproof.
"You have no idea how much I paid to look this cheap!"
Now, I will say that creatures benefiting all other creatures of the same type regardless of which side of the battlefield they’re on doesn’t make sense mechanically.
It's a thematic thing. Slivers are a bit of a hive mind/group creature. They gain additional power from each other regardless of which side of the battlefield they are on (at least in the original conception) In the story, Volrath created the Metallic Slivers in order to try to influence the tribe. That wouldn't have worked unless slivers share traits regardless of who controls them.
It's not like it's a conscious buffing of one's team (like in your Goblins example.) It is an innate thing that buffs all other slivers, and has nothing to do with their allegiance - it's a genetic trait.
I didn’t know this about the story! That’s very cool. I definitely wish they kept the slivers in their original form from a mechanics perspective!
Now, I will say that creatures benefiting all other creatures of the same type regardless of which side of the battlefield they’re on doesn’t make sense mechanically.
It's a thematic thing. Slivers are a bit of a hive mind/group creature. They gain additional power from each other regardless of which side of the battlefield they are on (at least in the original conception) In the story, Volrath created the Metallic Slivers in order to try to influence the tribe. That wouldn't have worked unless slivers share traits regardless of who controls them.
It's not like it's a conscious buffing of one's team (like in your Goblins example.) It is an innate thing that buffs all other slivers, and has nothing to do with their allegiance - it's a genetic trait.
I didn’t know this about the story! That’s very cool. I definitely wish they kept the slivers in their original form from a mechanics perspective!
While I agree that that is cool, you (not "you" as in you, but anyone writing about them) could justify the one-sided Slivers with lore if you wanted to. It's worth noting too that the one-sided Slivers hail from Shandalar.
While I agree that that is cool, you (not "you" as in you, but anyone writing about them) could justify the one-sided Slivers with lore if you wanted to. It's worth noting too that the one-sided Slivers hail from Shandalar.
It was noted that all one-sided slivers are from Shandalar - I'm reasonably sure someone asked MaRo about whether non-Shandalar Slivers would retain the 'you control' - and that's where he said that 'you control' was the implementation of all slivers going forward. I'll see if I can find the post in a bit.
It's possible that slivers on Dominaria mutated a little and perhaps factions started appearing amongst the tribe after (and I'm a little hazy on the story here) Rath got merged with Dominaria (someone explained it to me once.. I could be wrong) and thus the mutations started being more selective. Or something.
EDIT: Okay looks like I'm conflating posts, the 'you control' comment had nothing to do with Shandalar;
Quote from Blogatog »
Hello Mark, when slivers return will they be "all slivers get" or "sliver creatures you control get"? Also, what was the design decision behind the change?
We shifted all tribal effects many years ago to only affect your stuff. It was what more players intuitively believed was supposed to happen and it leads to less tension when casting the cards.
Future Slivers will all only affect your Slivers.
(Octobet, 2016)
I conflated that with this post, in which MaRo said that they 'might' return to the original look of Slivers, but the mechanical changes were here to stay.
Quote from Blogatog »
Hey Mark, it's been two and a half years since the changes to Slivers - I still feel it was a terrible mistake, both in terms of art and design. I hear the "species" of sliver depicted in M14 and M15 are from Shandalar. I hope that when we return to Dominaria, we can return to what Slivers truly are.
We might return to the previous look on some Slivers but the mechanical changes are here to stay.
(December, 2015)
Hello Mark, when slivers return will they be "all slivers get" or "sliver creatures you control get"? Also, what was the design decision behind the change?
We shifted all tribal effects many years ago to only affect your stuff. It was what more players intuitively believed was supposed to happen and it leads to less tension when casting the cards.
Future Slivers will all only affect your Slivers.
(Octobet, 2016)
Quote from Blogatog »
Hey Mark, it's been two and a half years since the changes to Slivers - I still feel it was a terrible mistake, both in terms of art and design. I hear the "species" of sliver depicted in M14 and M15 are from Shandalar. I hope that when we return to Dominaria, we can return to what Slivers truly are.
We might return to the previous look on some Slivers but the mechanical changes are here to stay.
(December, 2015)
"What more players intuitively believed was supposed to happen," that certainly explains why Counterspell is hated, because people dislike their plans being foiled. Perhaps Maro can promise to get rid of all counterspells from future sets while he's at it, because most players believe their plans would go smoothly.
Or perhaps players should just accept that their spells will be countered at some point in their gaming experience, and not everything should be gains and no losses.
"What more players intuitively believed was supposed to happen," that certainly explains why Counterspell is hated, because people dislike their plans being foiled. Perhaps Maro can promise to get rid of all counterspells from future sets while he's at it, because most players believe their plans would go smoothly.
... that's basically why blue is consistantly designed to be the weakest of the colours (barring gold bordered stuff like Reflector Mage and Spell Queller). Most of the control/lockdown stuff from days of yore are reduced to the point of being barely effective - likely for this exact reason. Blue hasn't yet found it's niche in the new 'noob friendly' vision of Magic that is being pushed - although the last two blocks have had blue get a lot of interesting fast unblockable creatures that made aggro-blue very nearly a possibility, but it is not quite there yet.
Hello Mark, when slivers return will they be "all slivers get" or "sliver creatures you control get"? Also, what was the design decision behind the change?
We shifted all tribal effects many years ago to only affect your stuff. It was what more players intuitively believed was supposed to happen and it leads to less tension when casting the cards.
Future Slivers will all only affect your Slivers.
(Octobet, 2016)
Quote from Blogatog »
Hey Mark, it's been two and a half years since the changes to Slivers - I still feel it was a terrible mistake, both in terms of art and design. I hear the "species" of sliver depicted in M14 and M15 are from Shandalar. I hope that when we return to Dominaria, we can return to what Slivers truly are.
We might return to the previous look on some Slivers but the mechanical changes are here to stay.
(December, 2015)
"What more players intuitively believed was supposed to happen," that certainly explains why Counterspell is hated, because people dislike their plans being foiled. Perhaps Maro can promise to get rid of all counterspells from future sets while he's at it, because most players believe their plans would go smoothly.
Or perhaps players should just accept that their spells will be countered at some point in their gaming experience, and not everything should be gains and no losses.
oh please stop being intentionally ridiculous
Asking that your own Goblin King not help enemy troops for no logical reasons is so far from claiming Counterspells shouldn't exist its silly
You also don't seem to understand the fundamental problem that Wizards is trying to avoid by printing cards this way, the problem isn't just that players naturally feel it shouldn't work that way, its also that it leads to situations were playing correctly means not playing your cards at all, In a Merfolk mirror if you opponent goes Cursecatcher, Silvergil Adept on turn one and two you just can't play Lord of Atlantis likely for the rest of the game, meanwhile Master of the Pearl Trident, while not a game winning play or anything can actually be played and used to effect the board and the game. Wizards wants to inherently avoid printing cards where the correct and realistic way to play them is just to never play them against certain opponents, where the correct play is to pretend your a 56 card deck with 4 completely blank cards shuffled in.
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A reason could be that I, as a Sliver player, don't want to be in a situation where I'm boosting my opponent's things without being able to do anything about it by just playing the creatures in my deck if it's a Sliver mirror, especially since that means I have a lot more to keep track of than just what abilities my own mobs are getting.
Any other match-up results in the drawback being virtually non-existent, so why keep it?
At least that's the rationale I imagine was used for the change.
Black still has cards that drain you for using them or require you to sacrifice creatures to use them. You just don't have to approach near-death by doing so.
Honestly, I'd like a functional reprint of Sliver Queen (Broodmother maybe?). Something that can make tokens without tapping.
This would be funnier if Annihilator wasn't high on the Storm Scale (meaning it has an extremely low chance of seeing the light of day again in a new Standard set).
Could come up in a core set, especially with Ascend as a new mechanic.
GWUBRDraft my Old Border Nostalgia Cube! and/or The Little Pauper Cube That Could!RBUWG
Modern:WDeath & TaxesW | RUGRUG DelverRUG
Would it have been less or more funny if it was Sliverstorm, a storm spell that makes Slivers?
Really I'm just trying to think of something a new lord could do. Landfall, but Slivers? Sliver God, requiring a devotion to Slivers? A Sliver vehicle?
Giving annihilator 1 could be fun, would have been a good (flavorfull) card in Onslaught block (If costed at wubrg)
For a functional reprint of the Queen, maybe something with :
“Tap two slivers u control: Create a 1/1 colorless sliver token. This token enters the batlefield tapped.”
Not abusable but with combo potential (more than 2 cards combo tho)
But i would like to see more reprints. (Well core set is comming)
This give me hope for the return of the Cephalids and also destroy those hopes (unless the empire comes to where the popular kids like to party)
Elvish Lookout and Gladecover Scout. The power difference between these two examples is immense even though are nigh-identitical. The Shroud version can't be directly improved, so you have to figure out indirect ways such as with Elvish Archdruid to make it usable. Yet the Hexproof one can be made better directly and indirectly. Its such a massive creep in power as the scout doesn't even cost 1G for the power that hexproof offers. Like if asked "Which one would snowball harder in a given match?" everyone is going to point to the scout as it has no power ceiling.
Dunes of Zairo
SHANDALAR
Innistrad - The Darkest Night
~THE RAVNICAN CONSORTIUM~
A Community Set
Commander: Allies & Adversaries
Now, I will say that creatures benefiting all other creatures of the same type regardless of which side of the battlefield they’re on doesn’t make sense mechanically.
If I’m leading an army of goblins into battle, why would my leadership positively influence my opponents army of goblins? (Speaking in +1/+1 of course).
There’s really no excuse for the hex proof / shroud thing. That’s just terrible design. Hexproof is far more complicated than shroud. It was powercreep for the sake of selling new cards.
That's like saying, "I play Sligh. Just in case my opponent plays white, WotC please make all damage unpreventable," or, "I play Stompy and hates creature removal, WotC please give all green creatures hexproof and/or indestructible."
Every color/deck is suppose to have some weakness, why should developer remove all inconvenience so players don't even have to think about how to get around it? Back when counter-Sliver deck was prominent, players win mirror matches by sideboarding extra counters and creature removal, or additional card draws to outpace opponent. If a player likes a deck enough, s/he will find ways to work around its flaws, which is why I disagree with WotC handing things out on a platter in past years, instead of challenging the players to think they force deck types onto players, just so the environment remain "predictable".
Which is why I call it uncharacteristically tame, mildly touching the surface instead of diving into the core of a color, any color. Arc-Slogger was a tournament staple for a while because people see its benefit outweighs the cost, and befits red's recklessness. I hope such cards come up again.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
But yeah black has lost much of its old "power at any cost" mentality. It still gets a few of these cards from time to time, but nowhere near the same scale or quantity. Sui back in the day embodied that style of play. With stuff like City of Traitors, Phyrexian Negator, Demonic Consultation, Hatred, Carnophage, Kaervek's Spite, Spinning Darkness, Unmask and even Sarcomancy. Though its not just black, other colors have also become much more tame compared to their old selves in some manner.
Ascend is too thematically tied to Ixalan though. The 'Blessing of the City' is clearly that lost city they are looking for (whose name escapes me) If it was more generic (something like "You gain 'Ascendant'" then it could be in more sets.
I'm reasonably sure that is a world-specific trait (I seem to recall MaRo saying so also) It's kind of like how Lorwyn's Kithkin have huge eyes and Tarkir's goblins are super hairy. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples that are escaping me at the moment.
I'm confident that the 'new' sliver look is a Shandalar-specific trait, and that Slivers on Dominaria will return to their classic appearance.
It's a thematic thing. Slivers are a bit of a hive mind/group creature. They gain additional power from each other regardless of which side of the battlefield they are on (at least in the original conception) In the story, Volrath created the Metallic Slivers in order to try to influence the tribe. That wouldn't have worked unless slivers share traits regardless of who controls them.
It's not like it's a conscious buffing of one's team (like in your Goblins example.) It is an innate thing that buffs all other slivers, and has nothing to do with their allegiance - it's a genetic trait.
I agree with you. I didn't say I agreed with Wizard's reasons for changing the wording - I was just stating the reason as I understood it.
I think there are several angles they could provide Sliver Players.
1. Taxing/Stack Interaction Sliver - possibly PentaLord - either straight up Thalia type NonSliver spells cost - (1) more to cast for each Sliver you control. Or Cursecatcher Sliver pr something to help against combo decks.
2. Cheap Card Advantage/Card Selection Sliver - either cheap scry ETB or Draw Card that is CoCoable or a Sylvan Messenger type Sliver effect.
3. Functional Reprints like Crystalline, Hibernation, or Provoke or other similar Keywords but also cheaper like a cheaper than 3 lifelink in white for pauper or Essence Warden Sliver.
4. Utility Slivers - Graveyard interaction/recurrsion Sliver, Hand Disruption Sliver, some added needed utility, etc. More lords with anthems and keywords.
Hexproof Sliver (Green, blue or both)
Infect Sliver (Any)
Raid Sliver (Any)
Exploit Sliver (Black, blue or both)
Then there is also the possibility of adopting traits from creatures or enchantments. Like for instance a Sliver with Platinum Angel static ability, or a Sliver with Sigarda, Host of Herons static ability, or even what Sandwurm Convergence can do but it makes 5/5 Sliver tokens instead of Wurms.
Slivers are a tribe that can pretty much do anything they want.
With Wizards' development missing a lot of abuse and interactions lately, they'd probably put Intruder Alarm in the very next set.
Modern: (G/U)Infect (G/U)Tron
Legacy: (U/B)Tezzeret (U/B)(W/U)Miracles(W/U)(B/G)Dredge(R/W)
Commander:(U/R)Mizzix (U/R)(W/U)Sydri(U/B)(W/U)Zur(U/B)
Old T2/Extended environment were diverse, unpredictable, and fun because extreme cards existed. In today's standard where everyone has easy access to all colors and "hoser" cards ceased to be, color identities too withered.
Sliver Drag Queen
WUBRG
Legendary Creature - Sliver
7/7
Bestow 7 (If you cast this card for its bestow cost, it's an Aura spell with enchant creature. It becomes a creature again if it's not attached to a creature.)
Enchanted creature gets +7/+7.
Enchanted creature and slivers you control have hexproof.
"You have no idea how much I paid to look this cheap!"
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
I didn’t know this about the story! That’s very cool. I definitely wish they kept the slivers in their original form from a mechanics perspective!
While I agree that that is cool, you (not "you" as in you, but anyone writing about them) could justify the one-sided Slivers with lore if you wanted to. It's worth noting too that the one-sided Slivers hail from Shandalar.
It was noted that all one-sided slivers are from Shandalar - I'm reasonably sure someone asked MaRo about whether non-Shandalar Slivers would retain the 'you control' - and that's where he said that 'you control' was the implementation of all slivers going forward. I'll see if I can find the post in a bit.
It's possible that slivers on Dominaria mutated a little and perhaps factions started appearing amongst the tribe after (and I'm a little hazy on the story here) Rath got merged with Dominaria (someone explained it to me once.. I could be wrong) and thus the mutations started being more selective. Or something.
EDIT: Okay looks like I'm conflating posts, the 'you control' comment had nothing to do with Shandalar;
I conflated that with this post, in which MaRo said that they 'might' return to the original look of Slivers, but the mechanical changes were here to stay.
"What more players intuitively believed was supposed to happen," that certainly explains why Counterspell is hated, because people dislike their plans being foiled. Perhaps Maro can promise to get rid of all counterspells from future sets while he's at it, because most players believe their plans would go smoothly.
Or perhaps players should just accept that their spells will be countered at some point in their gaming experience, and not everything should be gains and no losses.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
... that's basically why blue is consistantly designed to be the weakest of the colours (barring gold bordered stuff like Reflector Mage and Spell Queller). Most of the control/lockdown stuff from days of yore are reduced to the point of being barely effective - likely for this exact reason. Blue hasn't yet found it's niche in the new 'noob friendly' vision of Magic that is being pushed - although the last two blocks have had blue get a lot of interesting fast unblockable creatures that made aggro-blue very nearly a possibility, but it is not quite there yet.
oh please stop being intentionally ridiculous
Asking that your own Goblin King not help enemy troops for no logical reasons is so far from claiming Counterspells shouldn't exist its silly
You also don't seem to understand the fundamental problem that Wizards is trying to avoid by printing cards this way, the problem isn't just that players naturally feel it shouldn't work that way, its also that it leads to situations were playing correctly means not playing your cards at all, In a Merfolk mirror if you opponent goes Cursecatcher, Silvergil Adept on turn one and two you just can't play Lord of Atlantis likely for the rest of the game, meanwhile Master of the Pearl Trident, while not a game winning play or anything can actually be played and used to effect the board and the game. Wizards wants to inherently avoid printing cards where the correct and realistic way to play them is just to never play them against certain opponents, where the correct play is to pretend your a 56 card deck with 4 completely blank cards shuffled in.