Some things that you might immediately notice are conspicuously absent:
No Sliver Lords. Why am I not giving all my Slivers +10000/+10000?? Because I don't need to. Poisonous, Double strike, Firewake, and sheer numbers should do the trick.
No Beck//Call. I know, I know. But it's not quite as good as Dormant Sliver here. I mean, it's a lot better in some ways (like not dying to removal), but mostly, being a Sliver is a huge advantage. If I can find room, I'll put 4 Beck//Call in as extra insurance.
No mass bounce effect. Once you start going off, you either need two Dormants, or you'll just be cycling 1-for-1. Bricking is possible, BUT leaves you with a massive setup and board presence.
Only 16 lands. This deck will...not be happy if Blood Moon hits the table. Drop a dork sliver so fast you put scorch marks on the table, and you're fine, but other than that, you're in trouble. Besides dying to Blood Moon, 16 lands is fine in a deck that has 8 cheap ways to make 56/60 cards tap for mana (and 4 more ways to tutor those).
So, the combo. Easy, just take every other deck I've ever built, and put the word "Sliver" into the name of every card. Oh, look, Glimpse of Slivers. Oh, hey, Kobolds of Sliver Keep. So, you land a Dormant Sliver, a Manaweft/Gemhide, and a Blur/Firewake. Proceed to play 1cmc Sliver, draw a card, tap said Sliver for mana. Free cycling. Draw crazy amounts of cards, untapping your Hive when you need tons of mana. When you're done, untap one more time (fusing seems good here for Lifelink and Deathtouch and Indestructibility), sac any Dormants to Firewake or Mindlash abilities, swing with 30+ Poisonous, Hasty, Double Striking slivers.
Mindlash can be fantastic for ripping up an opponent's hand pre- or mid-combo. Firewake can give you a scary clock without ever comboing off. Ready//Willing protects your guys from spot removal and board wipes, gives you the chance to alpha strike and surprise block, and Lifelink/Deathtouch sets pure aggro decks miles back.
Homing Sliver allows a toolbox sideboard full of tasty utility Slivers. Obviously, Harmonic and Necrotic Slivers are fantastic here. Several changelings could be useful. If you want, you can put the Lords and Thorncaster here and go full aggro from the board.
This is all for fun, so I hope it's as enjoyable for everyone as it looks to be.
Edit: Strongly considering Mirror Entity over Bonescythe.
This deck never made it past the goldfishing stage for me. The idea is somewhat like Elves, but your Heritage Druid is split over two cards (you need Manaweft/Gemhide + Firewake/Blur), making the deck both slower and less consistent.
To Arms does not offer Indestructibility, Lifelink, or Deathtouch. Costing one less and drawing a card is minor, since 2/3rds of your deck cantrip already. I much prefer immunity to Pyroclasm and Supreme Verdict.
Ross's article is interesting, though I expect he is much more reliant on good draws to combo, and much more stable as a normal deck when he does not combo. No Homing Sliver in particular means that he is much less all-in on the combo plan.
The comparison between Elves is slightly off. Elves needs Heritage Druid+Nettle Sentinel to actually combo fully, while Slivers needs Manaweft/Gemhide+Blur/Firewake and literally any other Slivers in the deck.
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Slowly breaking.
Any more of this, and Team Troll will be more than just a name.
In a deck like this, costing one less is enormous. In Elves for example, if you have 1 mana floating, 1 untapped elf and a Sentinel, a 1-drop lets you extend the combo. A 2 means you can't continue. This situation is common when you're just beginning to combo off and don't have as much mana as you'd like.
Sweepers are honestly the least of your worries. I played the deck and it doesn't goldfish consistently by turn 4. That's the number one problem: your biggest enemy is yourself. Work on the consistency of the deck first. Once you can hit a T4 goldfish you can start thinking about how to beat disruption. If you can't even win on T4 undisrupted, it's a good sign that the deck needs to be shelved.
Lastly the comparison with Elves is totally apt. Druid is a 1-drop that gives your Elves the ability to tap for mana (1) on the turn they come down (2). In Slivers, functions (1) and (2) are split between 2 cards that cost 2 and 3 respectively. If you want to start talking about Sentinel, fine, then bring whatever untap mechanism Slivers is going to use into the picture. Elves' full combo is Druid+Sentinel. Slivers' full combo is Gemhide/Manaweft+Firewake/Blur+To Arms!/Ready/whatever. Slivers is 3 cards to Elves' 2 - still worse, no matter how you put it.
Lastly the comparison with Elves is totally apt. Druid is a 1-drop that gives your Elves the ability to tap for mana (1) on the turn they come down (2). In Slivers, functions (1) and (2) are split between 2 cards that cost 2 and 3 respectively. If you want to start talking about Sentinel, fine, then bring whatever untap mechanism Slivers is going to use into the picture. Elves' full combo is Druid+Sentinel. Slivers' full combo is Gemhide/Manaweft+Firewake/Blur+To Arms!/Ready/whatever. Slivers is 3 cards to Elves' 2 - still worse, no matter how you put it.
This is true. For some reason in my head I was equating Sentinel with Firewake/Blur+Untap effects.
I can't speak for goldfishing, as I haven't tried it yet. I expect 12 copies of the mana slivers and 9 copies of the haste slivers to be very consistent. Especially since Homing Sliver can come down himself and let you find both of them.
I also strongly disagree on the subject of board wipes and spot removal. Winning on turn 4 undisputed is nice. Winning on turn 5 through disruption is arguably better in most cases.
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Slowly breaking.
Any more of this, and Team Troll will be more than just a name.
Modern is a turn 4 format, so all the aggro and combo decks will be killing you on that turn. When building a combo deck, your goal is first and foremost to reduce your kill turn down to 4 - otherwise in an actual game, your opponent can just race you and he will win the race every time. ONLY after your deck can kill on turn 4 consistently, do you begin thinking about how to handle your opponent's disruption. You do NOT do things the other way around: think of how to handle disruption, then think of ways to boost your speed.
I advise you to goldfish the deck with To Arms! first. If you think it is fast enough, then take it out for Ready/Willing and see if your speed drops. If it isn't fast enough, then you shouldn't waste any more time with either card.
Virulent Sliver and Phantasmal Image. I think there is a blue changeling that is two mana and can clone. Poison counters get sick once you start giving more than one poison counter per damage.
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I made this just for fun over the last few minutes. I spent more time cutting it from 74 to 60 than I spent actually working out the idea.
4 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Mana Confluence
4 City of Brass
4 Ready//Willing
4 Mindlash Sliver
4 Striking Sliver
4 Galerider Sliver
4 Virulent Sliver
1 Sidewinder Sliver
1 Screeching Sliver
4 Manaweft Sliver
4 Firewake Sliver
1 Blur Sliver
4 Homing Sliver
4 Dormant Sliver
Some things that you might immediately notice are conspicuously absent:
No Sliver Lords. Why am I not giving all my Slivers +10000/+10000?? Because I don't need to. Poisonous, Double strike, Firewake, and sheer numbers should do the trick.
No Beck//Call. I know, I know. But it's not quite as good as Dormant Sliver here. I mean, it's a lot better in some ways (like not dying to removal), but mostly, being a Sliver is a huge advantage. If I can find room, I'll put 4 Beck//Call in as extra insurance.
No mass bounce effect. Once you start going off, you either need two Dormants, or you'll just be cycling 1-for-1. Bricking is possible, BUT leaves you with a massive setup and board presence.
Only 16 lands. This deck will...not be happy if Blood Moon hits the table. Drop a dork sliver so fast you put scorch marks on the table, and you're fine, but other than that, you're in trouble. Besides dying to Blood Moon, 16 lands is fine in a deck that has 8 cheap ways to make 56/60 cards tap for mana (and 4 more ways to tutor those).
So, the combo. Easy, just take every other deck I've ever built, and put the word "Sliver" into the name of every card. Oh, look, Glimpse of Slivers. Oh, hey, Kobolds of Sliver Keep. So, you land a Dormant Sliver, a Manaweft/Gemhide, and a Blur/Firewake. Proceed to play 1cmc Sliver, draw a card, tap said Sliver for mana. Free cycling. Draw crazy amounts of cards, untapping your Hive when you need tons of mana. When you're done, untap one more time (fusing seems good here for Lifelink and Deathtouch and Indestructibility), sac any Dormants to Firewake or Mindlash abilities, swing with 30+ Poisonous, Hasty, Double Striking slivers.
Mindlash can be fantastic for ripping up an opponent's hand pre- or mid-combo. Firewake can give you a scary clock without ever comboing off. Ready//Willing protects your guys from spot removal and board wipes, gives you the chance to alpha strike and surprise block, and Lifelink/Deathtouch sets pure aggro decks miles back.
Homing Sliver allows a toolbox sideboard full of tasty utility Slivers. Obviously, Harmonic and Necrotic Slivers are fantastic here. Several changelings could be useful. If you want, you can put the Lords and Thorncaster here and go full aggro from the board.
This is all for fun, so I hope it's as enjoyable for everyone as it looks to be.
Edit: Strongly considering Mirror Entity over Bonescythe.
Any more of this, and Team Troll will be more than just a name.
I know where you post.
This deck never made it past the goldfishing stage for me. The idea is somewhat like Elves, but your Heritage Druid is split over two cards (you need Manaweft/Gemhide + Firewake/Blur), making the deck both slower and less consistent.
FWIW To Arms! is better than Ready//Willing, though I wouldn't play either. Maybe even Village Bell-Ringer, because it can be casted off Ancient Ziggurat.
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Big Johnny.
Ross's article is interesting, though I expect he is much more reliant on good draws to combo, and much more stable as a normal deck when he does not combo. No Homing Sliver in particular means that he is much less all-in on the combo plan.
The comparison between Elves is slightly off. Elves needs Heritage Druid+Nettle Sentinel to actually combo fully, while Slivers needs Manaweft/Gemhide+Blur/Firewake and literally any other Slivers in the deck.
Any more of this, and Team Troll will be more than just a name.
I know where you post.
Sweepers are honestly the least of your worries. I played the deck and it doesn't goldfish consistently by turn 4. That's the number one problem: your biggest enemy is yourself. Work on the consistency of the deck first. Once you can hit a T4 goldfish you can start thinking about how to beat disruption. If you can't even win on T4 undisrupted, it's a good sign that the deck needs to be shelved.
Lastly the comparison with Elves is totally apt. Druid is a 1-drop that gives your Elves the ability to tap for mana (1) on the turn they come down (2). In Slivers, functions (1) and (2) are split between 2 cards that cost 2 and 3 respectively. If you want to start talking about Sentinel, fine, then bring whatever untap mechanism Slivers is going to use into the picture. Elves' full combo is Druid+Sentinel. Slivers' full combo is Gemhide/Manaweft+Firewake/Blur+To Arms!/Ready/whatever. Slivers is 3 cards to Elves' 2 - still worse, no matter how you put it.
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Big Johnny.
This is true. For some reason in my head I was equating Sentinel with Firewake/Blur+Untap effects.
I can't speak for goldfishing, as I haven't tried it yet. I expect 12 copies of the mana slivers and 9 copies of the haste slivers to be very consistent. Especially since Homing Sliver can come down himself and let you find both of them.
I also strongly disagree on the subject of board wipes and spot removal. Winning on turn 4 undisputed is nice. Winning on turn 5 through disruption is arguably better in most cases.
Any more of this, and Team Troll will be more than just a name.
I know where you post.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/527837-are-sliver-decks-viable-in-modern
Slivers can be taken in various possible directions, none of them with any tournament success yet, but let's get working.
Modern is a turn 4 format, so all the aggro and combo decks will be killing you on that turn. When building a combo deck, your goal is first and foremost to reduce your kill turn down to 4 - otherwise in an actual game, your opponent can just race you and he will win the race every time. ONLY after your deck can kill on turn 4 consistently, do you begin thinking about how to handle your opponent's disruption. You do NOT do things the other way around: think of how to handle disruption, then think of ways to boost your speed.
I advise you to goldfish the deck with To Arms! first. If you think it is fast enough, then take it out for Ready/Willing and see if your speed drops. If it isn't fast enough, then you shouldn't waste any more time with either card.
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| Infect
Big Johnny.