The best advice I have when it comes to sideboarding is to not be afraid to side out Galeriders. In some matches like against heavy removal decks I pulled Galeriders in favor of Frenetics, Homing and Hivelord.
I also play Silvers (GW) in pauper. I am thinking to try a Sidewinder Sliver as an extra 1-drop int he deck, or at least possibly in SB to bring in for creature heavy decks, or ones with tokens. Always the issue is what to remove..... may try to swap out 1 Galerider if I put Sidewinder in SB... Flanking can really confuse opponents on combat math.
I like Sidewinder, but I wonder where in a traditional Adam Bowman list it could be of use especially if we keep striking sliver and/or Sentinel Sliver.
I think Sidewinder Sliver only makes a big splash against Lingering Souls decks and possibly Merfolk due to Master of Waves. I like Sidewinder, but it has only really a place in Fast Slivers and maybe a side board spot for Souls. When it comes to side board, I am really starting to get on the Cautery Sliver bandwagon as it combos with Venom Sliver and helps finish off Death's Shadow.
I am joining the Cautery Sliver bandwagon and moved the card mainboard instead of the Leeching Sliver. I just like the card in many matchups, as it allows you to shoot 1 (relevant) damage when they destroy your slivers. I.e. they bolt/path/push my sliver, I sac it to kill their manadork/confidant/flickerwhisp etc. or just ping 1 to their face. When the venoms come from the sideboard they are even stronger. So far I love it.
Has anyone tried running 4 diffusions? Maybe 1 diffusion in the side? It buys is the time we need to get board presence vs control or decks like jund (death's shadow).
I am joining the Cautery Sliver bandwagon and moved the card mainboard instead of the Leeching Sliver. I just like the card in many matchups, as it allows you to shoot 1 (relevant) damage when they destroy your slivers. I.e. they bolt/path/push my sliver, I sac it to kill their manadork/confidant/flickerwhisp etc. or just ping 1 to their face. When the venoms come from the sideboard they are even stronger. So far I love it.
Has anyone tried running 4 diffusions? Maybe 1 diffusion in the side? It buys is the time we need to get board presence vs control or decks like jund (death's shadow).
I used to run 4 Diffusion Sliver but it became too burdensome with many of my local match ups being faster decks so I cut down to 3. With a new Ad Nauseum player locally and the prevalence of Death's Shadow I could see going back up to 4 copies.
Let me know how the main board Cautery Sliver works out!
Any results from this past weekend? I was down with my yearly spring sinus infection so I did not play. I'm a bit anxious to see how the main board Cautery Sliver played.
Heya! I played at my local FNM last friday and won every match, but I didn't really face though opposition. Most people brought homebrew stuff or low tier decks, so haven't learned much from that.
As for the mainboard Cautery: In my opinion, there are 2-3 flex sliver slots in the deck where we can swap some around. In my old list, I jused 1 Leeching Sliver and I did not like it. It would make me win harder when I already was winning, and would feel really poor when I was behind. I decided that a 2 mana 2/2 body helps alot more in most situations, and an extra effect is icing on the cake.Cautery Sliver I think does a really great job in a world with a lot of removal, because you can sack your sliver in response to removal and actually accomplish something: 1 damage to the face or trade with one of their creatures. Darkheart Sliver does the same thing, but in my current meta I like shooting damage more than gaining life. This is why I wanted to try it out mainboard and I feel it played that role out really well. So I would say if you are in a removal heavy meta (Which I feel is most of modern atm) you could give it a try. HOWEVER! I am not totally sold yet. The R/W casting cost is awkward with out mana base, and I am going to test out replacing the card by Sentinel Sliver mainboard and see if I notice more positive/negative results.
I don't see how new nissa could do anything except win harder when already way ahead. It has nothing to protect itself from goyf's, death shadows, goblin guides etc. I would almost want gideon of trials over nissa, it could potentially buy us some turns against combo decks or stave off a goyf/shadow.
I dont personally think any planeswalker will be worth adding to the deck until they create a Sliver planeswalker itself, and it'll have to be a good one that Sliver Hive and Cavern can pay for.
We generally don't have a reliably way to cast red mana and it isn't great, because at times we we aren't set up to kill. As a desperation card, it might work, but i wouldn't use a sideboard slot for this.
I think a single green symbol or a single black symbol planeswalker could work with us. However, Garruk Relentless is merely ok for us and not amazing as an example.
I think Glorious End isnt great for the reasons Worldsaverinc mentioned, as well as the fact that it is extremely niche (even against combo, its not always useful). That sideboard slot would be better served to a card that catches more decks.
As for Nissa, I think it's great card. However, I would not include it into the deck. Her casting cost is a bit awkward for a non-sliver. I also don't like to add non-Sliver cards as they are nonbo's with Collected Company. So for a non-sliver to be included, it has to have great impact (Aether Vial, Collected Company, Abrubt Decay in Splintertwin days and some removal these days like Dismember). I feel like way to many times this card would turn up in your hand or with a Coco and you wish it would have been a sliver instead. However, I could (and have been before) very wrong about this, so it might be worth to test it out.
I played another local modern tournament, but didn't do so great this time. Got stranded on 3-4. I made some bad plays, and had some rough luck with manascrew. For those still interested (as I don't only want to report on my victories), here is my report:
I played the same list as last time, only swapped out the Leeching Sliver for a Cautery Sliver mainboard. The extra sideboard slot was taken up by a Gemhide Sliver as I dropped Leeching from the list completely. First match: Burn
Game 1 he had a very fast hand. I did however manage to get control of the board. By that time I was at 4 life. In his turn he topdecked a spike, shot me for 3 and passed. I attacked him hard, left up blockers so he couldnt strike me in return with the Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear that he had on board. I was at 1 life by this point and hoped he would topdeck air and I could kill him. He did not topdeck air and a Searing Blood finished me off. Onwards to game 2.
This time I was fast out of the blocks as he seemed to be flooded by lands. When he had emptied out the spells from his hands I was sitting at a comfortable 8. A Darkheart Sliver and a Syphon Sliver joined the board and he was in the awkward position where he had to topdeck burn spells to shoot me down, but he also really had to use them to shoot my creatures. While I gained life and he topdecked mountains and creatures his situation become worse and worse until he scooped. Game 3, looking good!
Game 3 was not good. I kept a very nice hand of 3 lands, vial, galerider, syphon and predatory. He opened very fast with a goblin guide, my predatory caught a Searing Blood, my Syphon caught a lightning bolt and my topdeck skills gave me a second and a third vial, as well as some nice land. Burn did burn things and I died.
1-2, 0-1 in games
Second match: Mill?
I actually do not know what this deck is called. They play cards like Howling Mine to get everyone to draw a hell of a lot of cards. Then they try to mill you with Sphinx’s Tutelage while stopping you from doing damage by playing about 16x Holy Day effect cards. Game 1 he got me, we do not have a lot in the mainboard to prevent him from doing this.
Games 2 and 3 where about the same. Homing Slivers made short work of all his enchantments and artifacts and he had no way to stop me from doing this. He casted a lot of fog effect cards, but that did nothing for him as there was no way he could kill me. Eventually he had no more fog effect cards in his hand and the sliver army trampled over him.
2-1, 1-1 in games
Third match: Affinity
I felt pretty good about my tournament so far. Was curious to see what I would play next, and I found out pretty quickly. He was on the play and almost emptied his entire hand on turn 1. My turn 1 land - Vial looked a bit meagre in comparison. I just couldn't catch up in time and I died.
Game 2 was totally different. He had an extremely slow start with me putting my slivers on the board. I was soon without fear of Whipflare as I had 2 Sinew Sliver online. Dropped a Harmonic and started tearing his board apart.
Game 3 he made a huge error that got me the game. He started really fast again dropping his entire hand on the board. I tried to catch up by dropping slivers, but I thought I was too slow. However, the affinity player got greedy and sacrificed his entire board to his ravager, activated his Inkmoth Nexus with a floating mana, attacked then sacced his Ravager to pump his nexus enough to kill me with 10 poison counters. However, I cast Dismember in response and killed his Nexus. The floating +1/+1 counters had nowhere to go and dissapeared. He muttered: 'Oh, so slivers plays removal' and accepted his fate. On my turn I killed him while he had no board and no cards in hand. Total victory!
2-1, 2-1 in games
Fourth game: Bant Eldrazi
Being up 2-1, I felt like I was on the right track towards a nice tournament. How wrong I was. From this moment onwards, I would experience the cons of playing slivers.
Game 1 I had no land in hand. Mulligand, found no land again. Mullied to 5, no land. Oh no. Mullied to four: Mutavault, Cavern of Souls, Aether Vial, Aether Vial. I decided to keep (what else can you do at this point?) as he was on the play. He opened with Yavimaya Coast into Noble Hierarch and go. I cast Mutavault into vial and passed the turn. He dropped Eldrazi Temple and passed. My draw was another Aether Vial and by this point I accepted my fate. I decided to try and be cheeky and copy Adam Bowman: I cast Cavern of Souls on merfolk and passed. He dropped a land (forgot which one) into Thought-Knot Seer and I resigned.
Alas, my attempt at misdirection did not help me. My opponent did not pack cards like Choke in his sideboard so besides really confusing my opponent when I dropped a Sliver Hive into Galerider Sliver turn 1 in game 2, I accomplished nothing. He played Eldrazi Temple and pass. My turn 2 I dropped a Predatory Sliver and I felt pretty good. That was short-lived, however. On turn 2 he dropped another Eldrazi Temple followed by a Thought-Knot seeer. My turn 3 I did nothing impressive (I think I played a Diffusion Sliver) as on his turn 3 he dropped an Eldrazi Displacer. His turn 4 saw a Drowner of Hope and I he slowly locked me out with the Drowner of Hope + Displacer spawning lots of tokens to tap my boys down with.
0-2, 2-2 in games.
Fifth match: Death's Shadow
2-2 wasn't where I wanted to be, and Death's Shadow was certainly not what I wanted to face. Game 1 I was on the play and I started off really nice. Sliver Hive into Aether vial and pass. On his turn 1 he had no discard and I dropped a Predatory Sliver. On his turn he cast a Tarmogoyf and passed while I vialed in a Galerider. This is about as good a start against Death's Shadow as you can hope for, though I wished I had had a diffusion. On my turn I played a land, a Darkheart and passed. He played another Goyf and started the beatdowns. End of his turn I vialed in a Cautery Sliver. I attacked with all my boys, as he blocked my Darkheart with his goyf. I sacced it and shot him for 1, then after combat sacced all my remaining slivers to Cautery to finish him off. Not bad.
Game 2 I found an opening hand with 5 slivers, a coco and a vial. No lands to cast them, so I did the one thing you never want to do against Death's Shadow: I mulliganed. Found a hand with 4 slivers, 1 vial and 1 land. Risky, but I don't think a 5 card hand would be much better so I kept. And got punished as he opened with a Thoughtseize. Goodbye vial. The rest of this match was him dropping threats as I found no land and died.
Game 3 I opened with a Galerider sliver, which got pushed. Turn 2 I cast a predatory sliver, which caught a tarfire. Turn 3 I cast a Sinew Sliver, which also found a push. By this time he was playing Goyfs and Death's Shadows and I found myself on the defensive end. That is the wrong end to be in this matchup, as his creatures are bigger and he has better removal. His big monsters crushed me, while he had some more removal to make sure I had no hope of ever getting back into this game. Somewhere here his Thoughtseize found my Collected Company, and I really think that I could have gotten back in if I had gotten to cast it. But we will never know!
1-2, 2-3 in games
Sixth game against Ad Nauseam
This guy told me he had a pretty bad run so far, which explains why he was paired with me. Since I also had had a pretty bad run with some bad luck in manascrew, the bad run had to end for one of us. Looking at the matchup, my guess was it would be him. I was right, which is something I guess.
Game 1 he was on the play and had a fast opening. I had a pretty slow start with land, pass, land, Cautery Sliver. Meanwhile he was building up his combo. He went off on turn 4 and I looked at the cards I had in play: Cautery Sliver joined by a Blur Sliver. Not enough.
Game 2 I had to mulligan to 6 but kept a pretty decent hand. I looked at diffusion and hoped to get the trick of countering his Lightning Storm off. I played a Galerider and passed. He suspended a Lotus Bloom on his first turn, while I was building up my board. Turn 2 diffusion followed by turn 3 Vial + Predatory. On my turn 4 I played a Collected Company and found a Sedge + Manaweft. Then he went off with his combo, and he knew his deck well enough to go for the Laboratory Maniac way instead. I had no chance at all, which was comforting in some way as I don't think any misplays I could have made would have mattered here.
0-2, 2-4 in games
Seventh match: Death's Shadow
Most people in my situation dropped by now, but I wanted to play. Partly to try and end on a positive note, but mostly because I just really enjoy playing with this deck. My opponent was a guy I knew, and I also knew he was playing Death's Shadow as he had told me before the tournament. I was a bit surprised to be paired against him as I expected Death's Shadow to do quite well. Appearantly he was doing even worse than I was and had an interesting 1-5 record at this time. I would quickly find out he was playing some weird version of the deck that I did not expect.
Game 1:
I was on the play and had a godly hand: Sliver hive, Mutavault, Aether Vial, Galerider Sliver, Predatory Sliver, Manaweft Sliver, Collected Company. I opened with a Hive into a Vial and passed. He opened with a fetch, found a shockland into a Swiftspear and attacked me for 1. I drew a swamp, played it and a Predatory Sliver and passed. On his turn, he dropped a land and passed again. I vialed in Galerider end of his turn. I untapped, decided to let Vial tick up to 3 and found a Sedge Sliver on top of my deck as a reward. I attacked as he tried to Fatal Push my Galerider. I vialed in Sedge in response and tapped my swamp to regenerate. After the attack step, I cast Manaweft and passed. He was now quite low and cast a Death's Shadow. It was pretty big, but I was so far in front I could not see how I would lose by now. I topdecked a fetchland and found a forest. I decided to be aggressive and went for the mainphase Collected Company, tapping all my 4 lands. I found a Blur Sliver + Sedge Sliver and attacked, leaing my Manaweft untapped in case I needed to regenerate anything (which I doubted). He had no response and died.
I now realized he was playing a list that resembled the older Death's Shadow builds with Temur Battle Rage. After the Gitaxian Probe ban, I never saw these lists anymore. But I was kind of relieved, as this deck did not play Tarmogoyf (or green at all for that matter), less removal and is generally better to deal with. Onwards to game 2!
He actually had some game racing me with Swiftspears and Lightning Bolts. I beat him down to about 8 life when he dropped a Death's Shadow. However, before he could do shenanigans with Temur Battle Rage a Syphon Sliver got me out of range really fast. The race was now in my favor and he had no removal to turn it around. I won!
2-0, 3-4 in games
All in all not the best tournament I ever played. Looking back at the list I think Cautery is better in the side. Venom Sliver really felt lackluster every time I boarded it in. Against Death's Shadow it looks so good, but most of the time I really don't want to trade creatures with him as he already has so much removal I really need something to stay on the board. I think I will drop them from my 75 alltogether and see how it feels. Cautery Sliver is one of my favorites and I will never drop it from the list, but I think it's better suited in the sideboard. I want to try out Sentinel Sliver mainboard instead, either as a 2 off or as a 1 off with 4 diffusion slivers. I'll thinker on my deck a bit more and will post it later. Meanwhile, would love some feedback and thoughts from your side on all of this.
Sounds like a bunch of tough luck, Rymesyt. I again didnt play this week, hoping to get back into a LGS soon. Venom Sliver is really best when paired with other slivers like Striking Sliver, Bonescythe Sliver, Thorncaster Sliver and Quilled Sliver, Dont give up on it just yet. How often did you see the main board Cautery Sliver? Was it relevant when you did see it? Is that what you plan to replace with Sentinel Sliver?
My motivation has taken a severe hit since there are so few big Modern events near me this year. My next big opportunity is at Gencon in Indianapolis in August then December at Grand Prix OKC. I'll probably hit as many IQ's as I can as they schedule them though.
Cautery Sliver was great for me when it was on the board. A 2/2 body is very nice, and I love the sac outlet as a response to opposing removal. The prevent 1 damage seems useless but can be surprisingly relevant in the right situations because people never see it coming. I once used it to lose only half my slivers to a Firespout, which is something. I never felt bad seeing it. I think it's best place is the sideboard because it is not relevant in every matchup, but there sure are arguments to keep it in the main.
Sentinel Sliver would replace the Cautery in the main yes. I think it's a bit easier to cast (RW is tricky) with having only 1 colored mana, and it's abillity is great game against other aggro decks. Not to mention it has great synergy with the mana making slivers.
Out of the Slivers you mention, I only play Striking Sliver. I have to admit that having both that and Venom on the board is great. In what matchups have you sided Venom in? And in those matchups, would you think another sideboard option would have been a better pick? Because most of the time, whenever I draw a Venom, I kind of wish it was something else. But maybe if playing 2+ Striking Sliver things could change. What is your current list?
I also build the deck up online because I face the same struggle as you: Almost no tournaments here. Im really enjoying this deck, even when losing. There are very few matchups where I feel like I have no chance, and there always is a Sliver printed that's a solid answer. Some bad luck with manascrew/flooding I guess is inherent to this deck (though in some extend I had those same issues playing decks like Merfolk or Grixis Delver). I tried running 21-22 land but that doesn't really help. If anything it makes your topdecks and Coco's a little less live, so I wouldn't advise it. Are you running the exact list you posted earlier?
If you are suffering from some mana problems, you could run a Gemhide Sliver. It might help the mana screw problem. However, I have found that it happens no matter what 20 land deck I play. It is going to happen. It might happen less with more land, but then you run into more Mana-flood problems when you need threats.
the last Adam Bowman list that I saw went down to 19 lands with a gemhide main. Its a difficult choice on the whole and the screw is inevitable with 1 land, 1 vial hands especially on the draw against death shadow or any aggressive 1 mana discard deck.
I have mostly though venom sliver as a removal spell with an upside (its a sliver).
The thought of Venom Sliver as a removal spell is interesting. I am going to test the following list very intensively. Before you read the list, know that I realize that this list is crazy. But the thought is in my head now and I really want to try it out. The idea here is that if we see Venom Sliver as a removal spell, it replaces Dismember instead of a sliver. So I moved Dismember to the side for those matches where you really need it. To make sure Venom Sliver has value as a removal card, I moved Cautery Sliver to the main as a 2 off. I would really like to fit in Striking Sliver somewhere but I would really not know what to cut at this point. The idea is that Venom Sliver makes for more live topdecks, better Collected Company hits and is a better topdeck when you're behind as it can provide the beatdowns. The downside is that it can only hit attacking or blocking creatures, and it's not really a surprise if you don't have Aether Vial. To overcome this, Cautery Sliver is now a 2-off. Both Venom Sliver and Cautery Sliver have perfect value when you don't have both of them, so Im not afraid to try this out. I will test this in a LOT of online competitive leagues before I'd ever consider bringing it to a tournament though, since it's a pretty weird list imo. If the Venom Slivers work out better than expected, I'll drop the Dismember from the side completely and add another Darkheart Sliver and possibly a Gemhide Sliver. Would love your thoughts here.
As for the manabase, I am very shy to go to 19 land because my problem with manascrew is not hitting a second or third land; it's not having any land at all in my opening hand. Gemhide Sliver won't help me there. Can you tell me where you find these Adam Bowman lists? I would love to read up more.
... Can you tell me where you find these Adam Bowman lists? I would love to read up more.
The last list I saw was here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/20-10-16-modern-slivers/
It was linked to a Reddit post he made comparing Slivers to Merfolk about 5 months ago. If anyone has a more recent list, would be great to see.
Finally made it back out to play last night. Took me a round to shake the rust off...
3-1, 5th/15
Ran the list in the above link.
Round 1 - 1-2 vs Burn. All started off ok, I kept a hand that against any other deck would have been fine. Things were not fine, the hand was simply too slow to compete with the speed of burn. Game 2, sided in 2 Syphon Sliver and 1 Homing Sliver to help find them, didnt need them due to the 1 copy of Darkheart Sliver I had opening hand. Game 2 was able to keep his stuff in check and won pretty quick. Game 3, the sideboard choice from game 2 bit me here. Definitely made a mistake removing the 3 Diffusion Sliver for the sideboard stuff. He was able to kill my creatures and get in with Goblin Guide and Eidolon of the great revel.
Round 2 - 2-0 vs Grixis Delver. Figured this would be a long grindy match and it pretty much lived up to the reputation. Game 1 on the play, he starts his removal shenanigans almost immediately however he was unable to answer a turn 1 aether vial which was his undoing. Game 2, sided in Hivelord, Homing, 2 Cautery, 2 Frenetic - sided out 2 Blur, 2 Dismember, 2 Darkheart. Frenetic was MVP of game 2, got him out via Vial and immediately won 2 coin flips to save a sedge and himself. My opponents inability to remove my slivers proved too much for him.
Round 3 - 2-1 vs merfolk. Typical fish vs sliver matchup. Won the die roll, won game 1... helps having an opponent stuck at 1 island and 1 mutavault that eventually got dismembered. Game 2 on the draw, fish go 1 drop, lord, lord, spreading seas, good game... Game 3, much better game for me since I remembered to side in 3 harmonic sliver and homing. Destroyed his turn 2 spreading seas that was on my cavern and just rolled it from there.
Round 4 - 2-0 vs Eldrazi tron. ***New player with budget deck*** This was not even close. My opponent never formed tron and the only creature he cast in either game was a Matter Reshaper. This was not a match, this was gold-fishing. On a side note, he is considering building a budget sliver build now...
Overall 7-3 in games, 3-1 in the event. 5th out of 15 players.
WUBRGCoco/Vial Slivers
WUBRGSlivers of the Void
Pioneer
WUBRGCoco Slivers
Legacy
WUBRGAll in Slivers
I like Sidewinder, but I wonder where in a traditional Adam Bowman list it could be of use especially if we keep striking sliver and/or Sentinel Sliver.
WUBRGCoco/Vial Slivers
WUBRGSlivers of the Void
Pioneer
WUBRGCoco Slivers
Legacy
WUBRGAll in Slivers
Has anyone tried running 4 diffusions? Maybe 1 diffusion in the side? It buys is the time we need to get board presence vs control or decks like jund (death's shadow).
I used to run 4 Diffusion Sliver but it became too burdensome with many of my local match ups being faster decks so I cut down to 3. With a new Ad Nauseum player locally and the prevalence of Death's Shadow I could see going back up to 4 copies.
Let me know how the main board Cautery Sliver works out!
WUBRGCoco/Vial Slivers
WUBRGSlivers of the Void
Pioneer
WUBRGCoco Slivers
Legacy
WUBRGAll in Slivers
WUBRGCoco/Vial Slivers
WUBRGSlivers of the Void
Pioneer
WUBRGCoco Slivers
Legacy
WUBRGAll in Slivers
As for the mainboard Cautery: In my opinion, there are 2-3 flex sliver slots in the deck where we can swap some around. In my old list, I jused 1 Leeching Sliver and I did not like it. It would make me win harder when I already was winning, and would feel really poor when I was behind. I decided that a 2 mana 2/2 body helps alot more in most situations, and an extra effect is icing on the cake.Cautery Sliver I think does a really great job in a world with a lot of removal, because you can sack your sliver in response to removal and actually accomplish something: 1 damage to the face or trade with one of their creatures. Darkheart Sliver does the same thing, but in my current meta I like shooting damage more than gaining life. This is why I wanted to try it out mainboard and I feel it played that role out really well. So I would say if you are in a removal heavy meta (Which I feel is most of modern atm) you could give it a try. HOWEVER! I am not totally sold yet. The R/W casting cost is awkward with out mana base, and I am going to test out replacing the card by Sentinel Sliver mainboard and see if I notice more positive/negative results.
I've had my list posted on Tapped out for a little while and got a few comments. There was a less educated comment up front but the second comment has some merit.
WUBRGCoco/Vial Slivers
WUBRGSlivers of the Void
Pioneer
WUBRGCoco Slivers
Legacy
WUBRGAll in Slivers
WUBRGCoco/Vial Slivers
WUBRGSlivers of the Void
Pioneer
WUBRGCoco Slivers
Legacy
WUBRGAll in Slivers
WUBRGCoco/Vial Slivers
WUBRGSlivers of the Void
Pioneer
WUBRGCoco Slivers
Legacy
WUBRGAll in Slivers
WUBRGCoco/Vial Slivers
WUBRGSlivers of the Void
Pioneer
WUBRGCoco Slivers
Legacy
WUBRGAll in Slivers
I think a single green symbol or a single black symbol planeswalker could work with us. However, Garruk Relentless is merely ok for us and not amazing as an example.
As for Nissa, I think it's great card. However, I would not include it into the deck. Her casting cost is a bit awkward for a non-sliver. I also don't like to add non-Sliver cards as they are nonbo's with Collected Company. So for a non-sliver to be included, it has to have great impact (Aether Vial, Collected Company, Abrubt Decay in Splintertwin days and some removal these days like Dismember). I feel like way to many times this card would turn up in your hand or with a Coco and you wish it would have been a sliver instead. However, I could (and have been before) very wrong about this, so it might be worth to test it out.
I played another local modern tournament, but didn't do so great this time. Got stranded on 3-4. I made some bad plays, and had some rough luck with manascrew. For those still interested (as I don't only want to report on my victories), here is my report:
I played the same list as last time, only swapped out the Leeching Sliver for a Cautery Sliver mainboard. The extra sideboard slot was taken up by a Gemhide Sliver as I dropped Leeching from the list completely.
First match: Burn
Game 1 he had a very fast hand. I did however manage to get control of the board. By that time I was at 4 life. In his turn he topdecked a spike, shot me for 3 and passed. I attacked him hard, left up blockers so he couldnt strike me in return with the Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear that he had on board. I was at 1 life by this point and hoped he would topdeck air and I could kill him. He did not topdeck air and a Searing Blood finished me off. Onwards to game 2.
This time I was fast out of the blocks as he seemed to be flooded by lands. When he had emptied out the spells from his hands I was sitting at a comfortable 8. A Darkheart Sliver and a Syphon Sliver joined the board and he was in the awkward position where he had to topdeck burn spells to shoot me down, but he also really had to use them to shoot my creatures. While I gained life and he topdecked mountains and creatures his situation become worse and worse until he scooped. Game 3, looking good!
Game 3 was not good. I kept a very nice hand of 3 lands, vial, galerider, syphon and predatory. He opened very fast with a goblin guide, my predatory caught a Searing Blood, my Syphon caught a lightning bolt and my topdeck skills gave me a second and a third vial, as well as some nice land. Burn did burn things and I died.
1-2, 0-1 in games
Second match: Mill?
I actually do not know what this deck is called. They play cards like Howling Mine to get everyone to draw a hell of a lot of cards. Then they try to mill you with Sphinx’s Tutelage while stopping you from doing damage by playing about 16x Holy Day effect cards. Game 1 he got me, we do not have a lot in the mainboard to prevent him from doing this.
Games 2 and 3 where about the same. Homing Slivers made short work of all his enchantments and artifacts and he had no way to stop me from doing this. He casted a lot of fog effect cards, but that did nothing for him as there was no way he could kill me. Eventually he had no more fog effect cards in his hand and the sliver army trampled over him.
2-1, 1-1 in games
Third match: Affinity
I felt pretty good about my tournament so far. Was curious to see what I would play next, and I found out pretty quickly. He was on the play and almost emptied his entire hand on turn 1. My turn 1 land - Vial looked a bit meagre in comparison. I just couldn't catch up in time and I died.
Game 2 was totally different. He had an extremely slow start with me putting my slivers on the board. I was soon without fear of Whipflare as I had 2 Sinew Sliver online. Dropped a Harmonic and started tearing his board apart.
Game 3 he made a huge error that got me the game. He started really fast again dropping his entire hand on the board. I tried to catch up by dropping slivers, but I thought I was too slow. However, the affinity player got greedy and sacrificed his entire board to his ravager, activated his Inkmoth Nexus with a floating mana, attacked then sacced his Ravager to pump his nexus enough to kill me with 10 poison counters. However, I cast Dismember in response and killed his Nexus. The floating +1/+1 counters had nowhere to go and dissapeared. He muttered: 'Oh, so slivers plays removal' and accepted his fate. On my turn I killed him while he had no board and no cards in hand. Total victory!
2-1, 2-1 in games
Fourth game: Bant Eldrazi
Being up 2-1, I felt like I was on the right track towards a nice tournament. How wrong I was. From this moment onwards, I would experience the cons of playing slivers.
Game 1 I had no land in hand. Mulligand, found no land again. Mullied to 5, no land. Oh no. Mullied to four: Mutavault, Cavern of Souls, Aether Vial, Aether Vial. I decided to keep (what else can you do at this point?) as he was on the play. He opened with Yavimaya Coast into Noble Hierarch and go. I cast Mutavault into vial and passed the turn. He dropped Eldrazi Temple and passed. My draw was another Aether Vial and by this point I accepted my fate. I decided to try and be cheeky and copy Adam Bowman: I cast Cavern of Souls on merfolk and passed. He dropped a land (forgot which one) into Thought-Knot Seer and I resigned.
Alas, my attempt at misdirection did not help me. My opponent did not pack cards like Choke in his sideboard so besides really confusing my opponent when I dropped a Sliver Hive into Galerider Sliver turn 1 in game 2, I accomplished nothing. He played Eldrazi Temple and pass. My turn 2 I dropped a Predatory Sliver and I felt pretty good. That was short-lived, however. On turn 2 he dropped another Eldrazi Temple followed by a Thought-Knot seeer. My turn 3 I did nothing impressive (I think I played a Diffusion Sliver) as on his turn 3 he dropped an Eldrazi Displacer. His turn 4 saw a Drowner of Hope and I he slowly locked me out with the Drowner of Hope + Displacer spawning lots of tokens to tap my boys down with.
0-2, 2-2 in games.
Fifth match: Death's Shadow
2-2 wasn't where I wanted to be, and Death's Shadow was certainly not what I wanted to face. Game 1 I was on the play and I started off really nice. Sliver Hive into Aether vial and pass. On his turn 1 he had no discard and I dropped a Predatory Sliver. On his turn he cast a Tarmogoyf and passed while I vialed in a Galerider. This is about as good a start against Death's Shadow as you can hope for, though I wished I had had a diffusion. On my turn I played a land, a Darkheart and passed. He played another Goyf and started the beatdowns. End of his turn I vialed in a Cautery Sliver. I attacked with all my boys, as he blocked my Darkheart with his goyf. I sacced it and shot him for 1, then after combat sacced all my remaining slivers to Cautery to finish him off. Not bad.
Game 2 I found an opening hand with 5 slivers, a coco and a vial. No lands to cast them, so I did the one thing you never want to do against Death's Shadow: I mulliganed. Found a hand with 4 slivers, 1 vial and 1 land. Risky, but I don't think a 5 card hand would be much better so I kept. And got punished as he opened with a Thoughtseize. Goodbye vial. The rest of this match was him dropping threats as I found no land and died.
Game 3 I opened with a Galerider sliver, which got pushed. Turn 2 I cast a predatory sliver, which caught a tarfire. Turn 3 I cast a Sinew Sliver, which also found a push. By this time he was playing Goyfs and Death's Shadows and I found myself on the defensive end. That is the wrong end to be in this matchup, as his creatures are bigger and he has better removal. His big monsters crushed me, while he had some more removal to make sure I had no hope of ever getting back into this game. Somewhere here his Thoughtseize found my Collected Company, and I really think that I could have gotten back in if I had gotten to cast it. But we will never know!
1-2, 2-3 in games
Sixth game against Ad Nauseam
This guy told me he had a pretty bad run so far, which explains why he was paired with me. Since I also had had a pretty bad run with some bad luck in manascrew, the bad run had to end for one of us. Looking at the matchup, my guess was it would be him. I was right, which is something I guess.
Game 1 he was on the play and had a fast opening. I had a pretty slow start with land, pass, land, Cautery Sliver. Meanwhile he was building up his combo. He went off on turn 4 and I looked at the cards I had in play: Cautery Sliver joined by a Blur Sliver. Not enough.
Game 2 I had to mulligan to 6 but kept a pretty decent hand. I looked at diffusion and hoped to get the trick of countering his Lightning Storm off. I played a Galerider and passed. He suspended a Lotus Bloom on his first turn, while I was building up my board. Turn 2 diffusion followed by turn 3 Vial + Predatory. On my turn 4 I played a Collected Company and found a Sedge + Manaweft. Then he went off with his combo, and he knew his deck well enough to go for the Laboratory Maniac way instead. I had no chance at all, which was comforting in some way as I don't think any misplays I could have made would have mattered here.
0-2, 2-4 in games
Seventh match: Death's Shadow
Most people in my situation dropped by now, but I wanted to play. Partly to try and end on a positive note, but mostly because I just really enjoy playing with this deck. My opponent was a guy I knew, and I also knew he was playing Death's Shadow as he had told me before the tournament. I was a bit surprised to be paired against him as I expected Death's Shadow to do quite well. Appearantly he was doing even worse than I was and had an interesting 1-5 record at this time. I would quickly find out he was playing some weird version of the deck that I did not expect.
Game 1:
I was on the play and had a godly hand: Sliver hive, Mutavault, Aether Vial, Galerider Sliver, Predatory Sliver, Manaweft Sliver, Collected Company. I opened with a Hive into a Vial and passed. He opened with a fetch, found a shockland into a Swiftspear and attacked me for 1. I drew a swamp, played it and a Predatory Sliver and passed. On his turn, he dropped a land and passed again. I vialed in Galerider end of his turn. I untapped, decided to let Vial tick up to 3 and found a Sedge Sliver on top of my deck as a reward. I attacked as he tried to Fatal Push my Galerider. I vialed in Sedge in response and tapped my swamp to regenerate. After the attack step, I cast Manaweft and passed. He was now quite low and cast a Death's Shadow. It was pretty big, but I was so far in front I could not see how I would lose by now. I topdecked a fetchland and found a forest. I decided to be aggressive and went for the mainphase Collected Company, tapping all my 4 lands. I found a Blur Sliver + Sedge Sliver and attacked, leaing my Manaweft untapped in case I needed to regenerate anything (which I doubted). He had no response and died.
I now realized he was playing a list that resembled the older Death's Shadow builds with Temur Battle Rage. After the Gitaxian Probe ban, I never saw these lists anymore. But I was kind of relieved, as this deck did not play Tarmogoyf (or green at all for that matter), less removal and is generally better to deal with. Onwards to game 2!
He actually had some game racing me with Swiftspears and Lightning Bolts. I beat him down to about 8 life when he dropped a Death's Shadow. However, before he could do shenanigans with Temur Battle Rage a Syphon Sliver got me out of range really fast. The race was now in my favor and he had no removal to turn it around. I won!
2-0, 3-4 in games
All in all not the best tournament I ever played. Looking back at the list I think Cautery is better in the side. Venom Sliver really felt lackluster every time I boarded it in. Against Death's Shadow it looks so good, but most of the time I really don't want to trade creatures with him as he already has so much removal I really need something to stay on the board. I think I will drop them from my 75 alltogether and see how it feels. Cautery Sliver is one of my favorites and I will never drop it from the list, but I think it's better suited in the sideboard. I want to try out Sentinel Sliver mainboard instead, either as a 2 off or as a 1 off with 4 diffusion slivers. I'll thinker on my deck a bit more and will post it later. Meanwhile, would love some feedback and thoughts from your side on all of this.
My motivation has taken a severe hit since there are so few big Modern events near me this year. My next big opportunity is at Gencon in Indianapolis in August then December at Grand Prix OKC. I'll probably hit as many IQ's as I can as they schedule them though.
WUBRGCoco/Vial Slivers
WUBRGSlivers of the Void
Pioneer
WUBRGCoco Slivers
Legacy
WUBRGAll in Slivers
Sentinel Sliver would replace the Cautery in the main yes. I think it's a bit easier to cast (RW is tricky) with having only 1 colored mana, and it's abillity is great game against other aggro decks. Not to mention it has great synergy with the mana making slivers.
Out of the Slivers you mention, I only play Striking Sliver. I have to admit that having both that and Venom on the board is great. In what matchups have you sided Venom in? And in those matchups, would you think another sideboard option would have been a better pick? Because most of the time, whenever I draw a Venom, I kind of wish it was something else. But maybe if playing 2+ Striking Sliver things could change. What is your current list?
I also build the deck up online because I face the same struggle as you: Almost no tournaments here. Im really enjoying this deck, even when losing. There are very few matchups where I feel like I have no chance, and there always is a Sliver printed that's a solid answer. Some bad luck with manascrew/flooding I guess is inherent to this deck (though in some extend I had those same issues playing decks like Merfolk or Grixis Delver). I tried running 21-22 land but that doesn't really help. If anything it makes your topdecks and Coco's a little less live, so I wouldn't advise it. Are you running the exact list you posted earlier?
the last Adam Bowman list that I saw went down to 19 lands with a gemhide main. Its a difficult choice on the whole and the screw is inevitable with 1 land, 1 vial hands especially on the draw against death shadow or any aggressive 1 mana discard deck.
I have mostly though venom sliver as a removal spell with an upside (its a sliver).
As for the manabase, I am very shy to go to 19 land because my problem with manascrew is not hitting a second or third land; it's not having any land at all in my opening hand. Gemhide Sliver won't help me there. Can you tell me where you find these Adam Bowman lists? I would love to read up more.
4 Mutavault
4 Sliver Hive
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Godless Shrine
Spells
4 Aether Vial
4 Collected Company
4 Sedge Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
4 Galerider Sliver
4 Manaweft Sliver
2 Blur Sliver
3 Diffusion Sliver
1 Necrotic Sliver
1 Syphon Sliver
1 Darkheart Sliver
2 Cautery Sliver
2 Venom Sliver
1 Homing Sliver
1 Telekenetic Sliver
1 Necrotic Sliver
2 Frenetic Sliver
1 Sliver Hivelord
1 Diffusion Sliver
3 Harmonic Sliver
1 Syphon Sliver
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Dismember
The last list I saw was here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/20-10-16-modern-slivers/
It was linked to a Reddit post he made comparing Slivers to Merfolk about 5 months ago. If anyone has a more recent list, would be great to see.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/27-04-16-modern-slivers/
WUBRGCoco/Vial Slivers
WUBRGSlivers of the Void
Pioneer
WUBRGCoco Slivers
Legacy
WUBRGAll in Slivers
3-1, 5th/15
Ran the list in the above link.
Round 1 - 1-2 vs Burn. All started off ok, I kept a hand that against any other deck would have been fine. Things were not fine, the hand was simply too slow to compete with the speed of burn. Game 2, sided in 2 Syphon Sliver and 1 Homing Sliver to help find them, didnt need them due to the 1 copy of Darkheart Sliver I had opening hand. Game 2 was able to keep his stuff in check and won pretty quick. Game 3, the sideboard choice from game 2 bit me here. Definitely made a mistake removing the 3 Diffusion Sliver for the sideboard stuff. He was able to kill my creatures and get in with Goblin Guide and Eidolon of the great revel.
Round 2 - 2-0 vs Grixis Delver. Figured this would be a long grindy match and it pretty much lived up to the reputation. Game 1 on the play, he starts his removal shenanigans almost immediately however he was unable to answer a turn 1 aether vial which was his undoing. Game 2, sided in Hivelord, Homing, 2 Cautery, 2 Frenetic - sided out 2 Blur, 2 Dismember, 2 Darkheart. Frenetic was MVP of game 2, got him out via Vial and immediately won 2 coin flips to save a sedge and himself. My opponents inability to remove my slivers proved too much for him.
Round 3 - 2-1 vs merfolk. Typical fish vs sliver matchup. Won the die roll, won game 1... helps having an opponent stuck at 1 island and 1 mutavault that eventually got dismembered. Game 2 on the draw, fish go 1 drop, lord, lord, spreading seas, good game... Game 3, much better game for me since I remembered to side in 3 harmonic sliver and homing. Destroyed his turn 2 spreading seas that was on my cavern and just rolled it from there.
Round 4 - 2-0 vs Eldrazi tron. ***New player with budget deck*** This was not even close. My opponent never formed tron and the only creature he cast in either game was a Matter Reshaper. This was not a match, this was gold-fishing. On a side note, he is considering building a budget sliver build now...
Overall 7-3 in games, 3-1 in the event. 5th out of 15 players.
WUBRGCoco/Vial Slivers
WUBRGSlivers of the Void
Pioneer
WUBRGCoco Slivers
Legacy
WUBRGAll in Slivers