I am not looking to play Merfolk. I am looking to play Slivers. I am looking to make the best possible deck I can with the tools that I have or could reasonably purchase at this time.
You and me both. I've been slinging Meat Hooks for over 10 years now, not because I need necessarily feel it is the best decision in the format, but because I love the lore of Slivers, and I won't stop until I'm dead. I've spent quite a bit of time piloting other tribal decks so I can improve Slivers, and I feel piloting Merfolk for a while made me a better Meat Hook pilot because I kept trying to pilot Slivers too much like Merfolk, and it wasn't until I played Merfolk that I realized it. They're very similar decks with similar lines of play, but they're different decks that should be played differently.
Sure, and they can visit the Merfolk Legacy forums. This is the Legacy SLIVER forums for discussing SLIVERS and not for discussing MERFOLK.
It is a different deck that offers different strengths and weaknesses. It may be better, it may not be. As for courtesy, you don't generally go into other threats and promote other decks in those forums. It is rude and generally considered trolling and threadcrapping.
We are here to discuss Slivers and how to make slivers better and more competitive especially between the 2 different sliver builds Counter Sliver and All-In Sliver.
Do you have constructive input on how to do this rather than say Merfolk is "better"? I am respectfully asking you to contribute meaningfully to the conversation. How can we make Slivers Stronger Together! I know there are people working on making Merfolk Great Again. I pay some attention to for example Nikachu's Legacy content.
If they wanted Legacy Merfolk, it is a far more known deck with a lot more information out there than Legacy Slivers.
Thank you for contribution that Legacy Merfolk has advantages compared to various versions of Legacy Slivers. I still believe though that Slivers has advantages over Merfolk, but it is also the deck that I have and will continue to play.
I am interested in making Slivers better, not playing Merfolk which is a different albeit viable and more played deck.
Do you have meaningful constructive criticism on how I can achieve that with the All-In Sliver lists? I am looking to buy into this at MTGO with Unclaimed Territory replacing Ancient Ziggurat.
Clearly, n00bZzzz was explaining one of the fundamental tools anyone can use to improve any deck, and that is to ask ourselves if there are any decks similar to ours, if they're better/worse in some ways, and to evaluate what about each of those decks makes it unique. The two decks are similar in many ways, so other than the monetary differences, what makes Slivers the deck to play over Merfolk? Once we know the decks strsngths, we know how to play those unique advantages optimally. We can ask if some of the ideas are something that would also work in Merfolk, and if so, why haven't they tried them yet? Sometimes other decks have had similar ideas playtested ad nauseum, so we can apply that accumulated information here to save us time. Clearly what you're asking for are more non-sliver card ideas to include (because the alternative could be searched up pretty easily), so you should begin by looking at other, similar decks, and see what they're playing, and if it would work for you.
This seems so basic I feel like I'm coming across as patronizing when I explain it, but I assure you that is not my intention.
Thanks for the reports, Mambosong. I've been following Meathooks for years, but haven't had an opportunity to finish the deck myself. Updates like yours keep me motivated, so I wanted to let you all know your work and posts aren't going unappreciated.
Finally got to play this, but due to a lack of friends, it was 1v1. It took a bit of negotiating to set up a situation where they couldn't screw me over as much as I hoped I could screw them, but in the Entropic deck so many of the cards can't really be cast in a way that would harm yourself any more than if you would normally cast them. I cast it late game against the UWRG deck,and let me tell you the immense satisfaction from casting a Reverse the Sands redistributing my own life total back to me (the opposing player in the teens) and tapping us both out for a Collective Voyage that, wouldn't you know, my opponent 'couldn't find' any basic lands in their deck while I managed to track down nine. This card isn't a True-name Nemesis or Baleful Strix by any means, but it has been by far more useful than I gave it credit for. It has the added advantage of aggravating your opponent in that they have to re-read every card you have in play, graveyards, and hand in order to take full advantage of the opportunity to control your own turn (the turn after they watched you rek their own deck), leaving many interactions in the deck overlooked.
Difference is we have opened a similar card, in Bloodbraid Elf, and this is comparable to it. This is about the same power level as BBE and we can see that it really shouldn't be rare when something around the same power level is uncommon. That would be like seeing Swords to Plowshares at rare and Path to Exile at uncommon, they are comparable and about the same level of power and wouldn't make sense to see one higher than the other.
The reason for the rarity disparity lies, just as Yamahako said, in the fundamental nature of the Cascade keyword and its power level at different costs. The fact of the matter is Cascade cards with a CMC of 3 are more powerful than CMC of 4. Bloodbraid is still a bomb, but Shadeless Agent is simply better. I'm sure the price and availability is a factor as well.
Any thoughts on Tragic Arrogance? It is no Cataclysm, but even at 5 cmc it could be game changing enough to warrant inclusion. I'm definitely going to test it.
You and me both. I've been slinging Meat Hooks for over 10 years now, not because I need necessarily feel it is the best decision in the format, but because I love the lore of Slivers, and I won't stop until I'm dead. I've spent quite a bit of time piloting other tribal decks so I can improve Slivers, and I feel piloting Merfolk for a while made me a better Meat Hook pilot because I kept trying to pilot Slivers too much like Merfolk, and it wasn't until I played Merfolk that I realized it. They're very similar decks with similar lines of play, but they're different decks that should be played differently.
Slivers for life.
Clearly, n00bZzzz was explaining one of the fundamental tools anyone can use to improve any deck, and that is to ask ourselves if there are any decks similar to ours, if they're better/worse in some ways, and to evaluate what about each of those decks makes it unique. The two decks are similar in many ways, so other than the monetary differences, what makes Slivers the deck to play over Merfolk? Once we know the decks strsngths, we know how to play those unique advantages optimally. We can ask if some of the ideas are something that would also work in Merfolk, and if so, why haven't they tried them yet? Sometimes other decks have had similar ideas playtested ad nauseum, so we can apply that accumulated information here to save us time. Clearly what you're asking for are more non-sliver card ideas to include (because the alternative could be searched up pretty easily), so you should begin by looking at other, similar decks, and see what they're playing, and if it would work for you.
This seems so basic I feel like I'm coming across as patronizing when I explain it, but I assure you that is not my intention.
The reason for the rarity disparity lies, just as Yamahako said, in the fundamental nature of the Cascade keyword and its power level at different costs. The fact of the matter is Cascade cards with a CMC of 3 are more powerful than CMC of 4. Bloodbraid is still a bomb, but Shadeless Agent is simply better. I'm sure the price and availability is a factor as well.