Modern does have a degree of luck to it - there are 20+ viable decks plus a bunch of ringers you can come up against.
I've found the best plan is to combat the best decks in your meta and go from there. Goryo's Vengeance is a killer for slivers, but in my local Brisbane I know one person who has played it, it's not worth sideboarding for and if I play him, it's bad beats
As an example there was a post in our facebook group about two weeks ago from a lantern player:
"I just got beat down by slivers, it wasn't even close, how do I sideboard against that?"
the answer was basically
"It's 0.00001% of the meta, just hope you dodge it and don't sideboard for it".
I haven't been doing that well so haven't run slivers for a while, but took it out for a spin last night before the Brisbane GP this weekend. It was a Thursday night 5 rounder, 41 people showed up.
Round 1 Burn
2-0
Game 1 he kept a 1 land hand and didn't draw the second. My syphon sliver's did their job well.
Game 2 he flooded out and I just beat him down.
Round 2 Green devotion.
2-0
Game 1 he didn't think I was on slivers and kept a slow hand...
Game 2 he mulled to 6 and again, the beatdowns happened.
I think this is a really good match up for us, but he had unfortunate draws on top of that.
Round 3 Bant Knight Coco
Bant deck with knights and quellers. Only 1 retreat to coralhelm so not full combo though.
2-0
He didn't seen any spell quellers either game and it was pretty easy.
Round 4 Naya Burn.
2-1
Game 1 I managed to take him down with syphon's
Game 2 I was stuck on 2 lands with 2 syphon sliver's in hand for multiple turns. I finally drew the third land and played one, but he drew a lava spike and I was at 3.
Game 3 He kept a 1 lander and was thoroughly punished.
Round 5 Tron (traditional)
2-0
I got lucky to play someone who'd not played against me before and didn't end up respecting slivers as much as he should have.
Game 1 he cast a Karn on turn 3 and had to exile a card from my hand to try and get value from it. He didn't get value and had no follow up at all so I beat him down and ignored the karn.
Game 2 he mulled to 6 and then got stuck on 3 mana for multiple turns. He had the ugin in hand but never got the mana to cast it.
So I ended up going 5-0.
There was a bit of luck involved to be sure. But the deck held up well and seems to suit my personal style best.
I've got the GP in a few short hours so I'll post the decklist after that.
Going 5-0 means I'll run the slivers in it. Just hoping to make some people cry if I can beat them in rounds 1-3. I've found the easiest way to make someone salty is beat them early in a tournament with slivers. They then complain about dumb scrubby luck for ages
I played Slivers on Friday. I went 3-0 vs. Death and Taxes, Suicide Zoo, and Temur Scapeshift. I used bowman's list outside of replacing the second overgrown tomb with a swamp.
Round 2 - Suicide Zoo - 2-1
These matches were pretty fantastic for both sides. I had the Sliver that I can sac for 3 life each and every game. I was able to get aether vial in a couple games that saved me as well even though an ancient grudge took one at one point. The first game I had to vial in a Harmonic Sliver killing my own aether vial to get another creature on the battlefield to block. Manaweft sliver to cast the swamp for regeneration was extremely crucial to my ability to out last him. In game 3, I found 2 Spellskites which was incredibly useful as they both died, one to a flashbacked ancient grudge and one to normal damage. I won back on the crack back. There were very fun, games about attacking/blocking and sequencing.
How much artifact hate do you think he sided in and did you find the spellskites and aether vials worth keeping in?
One thing I've done a couple of times against burn and naya is side out all the aether vials and leave them stranded with artifact hate in their hand. I've had a couple of games with burn players especially stuck with 2 destructive revelry or smash to smithereens in their hands at the end of the game and it's essentially a free mulligan or two.
I'm not sure of the viability of the strategy on the whole though so would be interested in hearing about some more experiences with decks packing artifact hate and whether we need the artifacts or not.
I was able to tick something off my achievement list - I killed an Emrakul, the aeons torn with a Mutavault so that was fantastic
I was playing around with the mindlash sliver because I want to go higher on the 1 drops. It's also a 1 drop that if the game goes a bit longer, it can lock your opponent out of the game with sliver hive. as you can make them discard in their draw step and it's something extra to play turn 1.
Round 1
I pulled an Adam Bowman. Was late due to an appointment so lost this round.
Round 2
Bant Eldrazi
My opponent was fairly new to the deck and I think we're a pretty good match up here unless they go turn 2 Thought-knot into turn 3 Smasher. I won this fairly easily 2-0.
Round 3
Jeskai Nahiri
My opponent managed to grind me out game 1 with lots of snapcasters and paths, I think I could have managed to win this, but I didn't play as well as I could. This is one of the matchups I have leyline of the void in the deck for - however didn't see them in the sideboarded games.
Game 2 I let my opponent get his Nahiri up to 8 counters, I had 5 land on the table and an aether vial on 3 counters. He searched up Emrakul and I vialled in necroctic sliver at the start of the combat step. Then activated and sac'd Mutavault to kill the Emrakul, which was a nice 2for1 getting rid of the Nahiri as well. The expression on his face was pretty golden as he had never played against slivers before and had no idea what was coming.
Game 3 he flooded out and I ran him over fairly easily.
2-1 win
Round 4
Aggro Elves (the b/g variant)
Game 1 I got my opponent to 1 and then he killed me with Ezuri (I think I messed up? But this was also a mull to 5).
Game 2 I ran him over first.
Game 3 he attacked me, I vailled in a lord and blocked, then dismembered his elvish archdruid netting me a sweet 3 for 1 and he couldn't come back from that.
2-1 win
Round 5
Naya Burn.
I mulled to 5 game 1 and lost.
Game 2 I had darkheart into Syphon
Game 3 I mulled to 6, didn't have a great start and he had goblin guide into double swiftspear for the super fast beats.
1-2
Round 6
R/G Trondrazi.
Game 1 I got stalled on 3 lands with no swamps so the 2 Sedge slivers weren't doing much at all. He eventually ugin'd and slaughtered me.
Game 2 He had some early thought-knots that took the telekinetic sliver and a collected company, but I drew some more collected companies and was able to go over the top.
Game 3 I had a really good draw and he had kept a sketchy hand with no coloured sources. So I managed to get over the top again.
Overall the deck ran fairly well, I finished 13th on breakers. A single 4-2 did make top 8 but sadly it wasn't me
I do want to add a striking sliver or 2 back in and get the 1 drop slivers up to 7. It's such a massive difference to have that early play. The mindlash sliver didn't come up at all so I'll keep it in the deck till I get a chance to try it out a bit more. I think it could be quite tricky, but it might end up being too cute. It does allow me to overextend into mass removal though. If I have 3 slivers and no hand, they cast an anger or wrath, they're looking at discarding 3 cards as well. So in certain situations it could be amazing.
I'm not sure about the sideboard. I like the thought of going back to chalices of the void, but my main issue is that I would be wanting to use them against burn and a lot of burn players put in artifact hate, so I like to remove those targets and leave them with dead cards. I will swap out a frenetic for a cautery sliver though. I was running 1 frenetic main, 1 side before Saturday due to the higher popularity of Jund, but it just wasn't as useful in the bigger event having two. Definitely a meta call.
@overmaster - Bring to light doesn't seem great. It is way too slow and sorcery speed. Being able to search up a hivelord or sliver legion is not really viable. If it was an instant it might be cool.
Gifts Ungiven just seems like a worse Collected Company. You get two slivers to your hand instead of on the battlefield. You could thin out excess vials and stuff with it, but I would not run it as a 5th Company and I wouldn't run it over a Company at all.
I played last on Wednesday night and went 2-1-1. My worst result with slivers so far which made me pretty sad.
Round 1 was against Blue Moon. I won 2-0.
He hadn't played against slivers before and I just overwhelmed him game 1.
Game 2 he kept a hand with 2 islands and did not draw a mountain. This was pretty easy.
Round 2 was From the Vaults (eggs, but I don't like calling it eggs anymore ;p) 2-0
Game 1 I killed him on my turn 4. He tried to go off on his turn 4 but didn't get there.
Game 2 He mulled to 5 and just didn't have enough gas so I was able to drop him again.
Round 3 Rug Delver 1-1 draw.
Game 1, he went turn 1 delver, flipped on turn 2 and cast a turn 2 hooty mandrills. With his bolts and snapcasters this was just too fast for me.
Game 2, he kept a much slower hand and I just swarmed him.
Game 3, I kept a 1 land hand with 4 2 drops, 2 lords, gemhide and venomous, thoughtseize and company. I drew land thankfully. The thoughtseize took out his grim lavamancer and then venomous allowed a sliver to trade with his tarmogoyf. This game went pretty long and we ended up in turns. I was 3 life short of killing him at the end as I had played too conservatively. (I was only 7 life and was worried about bolts and snaps etc). He also gained 15 life from two feed the clans. So I dealt 32 damage over all to him. Should have won this game easily but I played stupid.
Round 4 - Burn 0-2.
Game 1, he went goblin guide into swiftspear into killing all my slivers and killing me.
Game 2, he went goblin guide into swiftspear, then followed up with swiftspear and lavamancer and just rolled me.
I didn't see any lifegain or anything at all during either game unfortunately.
I did make a couple of changes to the deck before playing in that I took out a sedge sliver for a sliver legion (lord for lord swap). Just mainly to play around and test and that I love Sliver Legion.
Venomous Sliver was put in, in place of Cautery Sliver.
Two thoughtsezies in the sideboard as well instead of chalices.
Still haven't played eldrazi.
One thing I am considering is dropping 3 diffusion slivers for 2 evolutionary leaps and something else.
I am generally disappointed by diffusion and I really want to limit the 1/1 slivers. I find them to be so weak against aggressive decks like burn or rug delver.
As far as Eldrazi goes, I've posted every report. I still have not played against them in a local event.
Having had Harmonic main deck for a few events now, I think it's pretty good in the current meta that is full of enchants, Blood moon, Spreading Seas, Worship, Chalice, Eidolon etc.
I agree Necrotic is stronger pre-board and I have had to kill a vial at least once, but I don't want to be running two necrotic at the moment I don't think. The sacrifice is pretty expensive at the moment.
Not a huge fan of shadow sliver. Being able to block is pretty strong.
I took the hivelord out of the sideboard and came up against ye olde grixis control in round 4 with lots of removal, no counters. It was pretty good against me.
Once more another 3-1 result. But not a very interesting event. This is my last one for a while as I'm away next week so it'll be about 2 weeks before I get to sliver again. My friend might play them at the GP next week though. So far my record over the past weeks is 39-10, so just shy of an 80% win rate, which is pretty good, but I haven't been able to 4-0 for a while now.
I definitely think my sideboarding could be much stronger, but it's hard to sideboard for all the various matches. There are a lot of decks that can do some stupid things on turn 3 if you leave them uninterrupted.
A lot of my losses have also come from playing badly around mass removal. I've either played too slowly when they don't have it. Or played too aggressively when they do have it. I can never seem to get that right.
Round 1 - Bye
Round 2 - BW Tokens.
Game 1 my opponent kept a 1 land hand and died on turn 4.
Game 2 my opponent mulled to 5 and died on turn 4.
Round 4 - GW Creatures with counters on them.
Game 1 my opponent kept a 1 land hand and died on turn 4.
Game 2 my opponent mulled to 5 and died on turn 5 or 6 as he managed to get some blockers out and I didn't see a lord for a bit.
Round 4 - Grixis control.
Game 1 I won thanks to a sedge sliver. My opponent bolted it so I said okay, then he bolted again and I tapped my swamp. Then he bolted a third time, I vialled in a mana sliver and regen'd again. Then he used Jace flashback to bolt a 4th time as I had no slivers to tap and no black mana. I activated mutavault and tapped it for a black to regen the 3rd time and that was game.
Game 2 he had all the removals.
Bolt
Terminate
Anger
Olivia Voldaren, I companied and kept a diffusion and sedge sliver.
He topped a terminate for his turn and that was about it.
Game 3 I mulled to 6 and got stuck on 3 land for about 3 turns, then finally drew a fourth land for the 2 collected companies but it was just too late at that point sadly.
That is definitely a match up where we need a really good draw. An average to normal draw just doesn't cut it.
I take out Necrotic vs. ultra-fast decks
I take out sentinel so much that I am removing it.
I take out syphon vs. decks where lifelink doesn't matter as much
I take out diffusion against decks with little to no interaction and are fast.
I will take out Striking in decks that don't have a lot of creatures or it doesn't matter.
I try not to take any manaweft, lord, or galerider.
This is my new thought on the deck. Torpor Orb might be good instead of grafdigger's cage, but I think grafdigger's cage has wider use against trouble aspects of the deck. I kinda also want to include at least one leeching sliver somewhere to get around worship or phyrexian unlife.
I have six flex spots in the main - 1 Necrotic Sliver, 2 Striking Sliver, 1 Syphon Sliver, 2 Venom Sliver.
I would like to find a home for the second Necrotic Sliver. However, this might be a better configuration for a Eldrazi focused field. It also has some limited game against infect,affinity, and other creature based wins with Venom Sliver
I haven't missed sentinel sliver since I took it out. I did think it was amazing when I had it, it was so great with Sedge and Necrotic, but it's last on my list to add back in.
Have you considered a Harmonic main instead of leeching? Harmonic can also hit blood moon, spreading seas, ensnaring bridge, Eidolon of the great revel, affinity. It can be awkward very occasionally with the aether vial if they have nothing. But I think it's worth the risk with the current meta.
I like the inclusion of two venom slivers, I really need to pick some up and give them a try.
@Jim_Prov
Have you tried 3 sliver hives and 4 cavern instead? The extra sliver hives are useless except in rare games, but having access to uncounterable slivers is still really useful in some games. I'm never unhappy to have 2 Caverns as you can drop two uncounterable slivers if needed.
There is a deck button on the post that will put the deck /deck thing around your cards as well. Congrats on 3-1 and welcome to slivers :).
I've found two things out about slivers. One is that I have to mull a fair bit, the second is that they mulligan really well. So any kind of hand that is full of 3 drops, or seems bad, throw it back. For example, tonight I had to mull to 4 and proceeded to win the game.
I went 3-1 again tonight, been playing a lot as there is a big interest in modern at the moment. The Melbourne GP is up next weekend with a modern format. I can't make it due to a wedding, but had a bet on with a friend. If I can 4-0 again, he'll play slivers for me. I've gone 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1 since then ~_~.
I used the list from a couple of posts above, except I modified the sideboard to have 3 Grafdigger's cage instead of Telekinetc sliver and the 2 Rest in peace.
I was on the draw for all 4 rounds. My dice rolls were bad
Round 1 (2-0) - UR delver. But this guy wasn't on the best build, it was more of a homebrew with some ... interesting choices. He also didn't see a young pyromancer either game.
Game 1 was pretty standard sliver beatdown.
Game 2 I mulled to 4. My opponent was sympathetic to the point where he was like "I'm pretty sad, this hand seems great and I wanted to really see what slivers could do. I kept 2 fetch lands a company and.. something else.
He was on UR so I fetched basic swamp into basic forest. He played a blood moon and then I managed to draw into stuff to play a company and beat him down. It was pretty nice. I've won from at least 6 mull to 5's with slivers, but can't even remember the last time I mulled to 4, let alone won a game from there.
Round 2 (2-0) - UW Control.
Game 1 - This was fairly straightforward if a bit long. I managed to play around all his removal and got him to low enough life that I was able to finish him off.
Game 2 - I had a super aggressive start with 9 power of slivers on the board (including a mana sliver) on turn 3 and a collected company in hand. He did not play a 4th land and tapped out for a kitchen finks. I company'd into a blur sliver and sedge sliver and attacked for 22 on my turn. Apparently he drew 3 kitchen finks for his draw steps.
Round 3 (2-0) - Affinity.
Game 1 - We both mulled to 6 and he thought about it for a bit and kept. He attacked me a little bit and I played some slivers. This went on for long enough for me to have multiple activations of sliver hive as I just could not draw a lord so was chumping constantly. I eventually got some lords and attacked for lethal. He had 5 land on the table and showed me his hand of 3 mox opals.
Game 2 - He mulled to 6 again and thought about it. I kept a very strong 7. He played a memnite turn 1 and passed. I went aether vial. He went turn 2 mox, springleaf oveseer. Then he played a ravager, then another overseer.
I managed to get enough slivers on the top and got aether vial up to 3 counters as his draw was a bit slow for all it's power. I then dropped a sedge sliver and blocked with regen, then killed him on my turn.
Round 4 (1-2) - Blue Moon.
Game 1 I played around his turn 3 blood moon and beat him down quite easily.
Game 2 I mulled to 6 and kept 1 land aether vial. He had his 1 of vandalblast to kill it, then spreading seas, then blood moon and I could not draw a forest.
Game 3 I mulled to 6 again. This game I could have won, but I was tired and stupid and for some reason did not think I could cast collected company even though I had an overgrown tomb (fetched from a polluted delta) on the table. I was stuck thinking I needed to draw a fetch to hit the forest, when I had green on the table. He played a blood moon and then a few turns later he double anger of the gods in one turn to kill my 2 slivers. I had my swamp to regen once but could not regen it twice. I did not draw a way to cast any spells or any more sedge slivers and he won. If I had of cast the collected company in response to his moon I would have had two more slivers and would have easily won. So I feel a bit dumb there.
One question I have is what do you guys take out when you sideboard?
I still have no idea what to remove against various decks. I never want to take out collected company because it's so strong. It's card, mana and raw power advantage. Aether Vial I rarely want to take out even if I think they'll have artifact hate as it's so good at getting around sorcery speed removal. Or making them waste their removal when you vial in an answer sliver.
That just leaves slivers to take out and which ones are worth taking out for things like gut shots and spells as if you take out too many slivers you dilute the deck.
The only thing I am sure of is taking out the aether vials vs jund and usually abzan. Those midrange decks don't really need the explosive start and having the extra creatures to overpower their removal is really great.
I usually take out 1 sedge vs the fast decks, 1 syphon if the lifegain isn't really relevant, Cautery if they don't have a lot of 1 toughness creatures. I think I need to start taking out the galeriders and striking vs other decks and some decks I take out diffusion against.
You'd have to side out collected company for the grafdigger's cage though, is it worth it? I ran 2 Rest in peace in the sideboard tonight, it might be better to side in cages and side out collected companies instead of running Rest in peace. Now that I think about it a bit more, cage could be a much stronger option. It's cheaper and easier to play and stops opposing companies and chords, so it's useful vs kikki chord as well.
I went 3-1 tonight.
Lost round 1 to affinity.
Game 1 I had a slowish draw and he got me to 6 with two attacks on turn 2 and 3. I was just about to turn the tide and crush him with Syphon and Sedge, but he untapped and hit me with two galvanic blast.
Game 2 I was able to beat him down, a company into harmonic sliver sealed the deal.
Game 3 I kept what I thought was a good hand, 2 Striking Sliver, 2 Sinew Sliver, 1 Aether Vial, 2 Land. In retrospect it was terrible. No way to deal with fliers and no interaction. I should have gone to 6 cards. He attacked me on his turn 3 with an inkmoth nexus and made it a 3/3. Then on his turn 4 he played another ravager, a cranial plating and attacked for lethal in the air with the inkmoth. I did not see any sideboard cards, stony silence, dismember, harmonic sliver, or galerider sliver. Any 1 of those cards would probably have made this an easy win.
Round 2 was the bye ~_~
Round 3 was against storm.
I won game 1 with an aggressive start, diffusion sliver, dark heart sliver and syphon sliver made it pretty hard for him to kill me, he did not have a pyromancer ascension active and I could get up to 32 life by sac'ing my 4 slivers with Darkheart.
Game 2 I had the turn 2 Rest in peace. Also a slow draw. Turn 4 he made 10 goblins. Turn 5 he made another 6 goblins. I would have been able to deal with the original 10, but the following 6 killed me.
Game 3 I had turn 2 Rest in peace again, followed up with turn 4 chalice for 2. He bounced my rest in peace in response to the chalice and then didn't do anything for the rest of the game.
Round 4 was elves.
Game 1 He had an okay hand but just didn't draw anything useful and I managed to beat him down.
Game 2 He kept a 1 land hand. Turn 2 I played gemhide, he attacked a nettle sentinel into it and I used aether vial to drop a striking silver and double block to kill it. Then he drew a land 2 turns later, I vialled in a necrotic sliver and blew up both his lands with the striking and gemhide slivers. He scooped.
I think I would probably take out the telekinetic sliver and 2 rest in peace from the sideboard for 3 grafdigger's cage. I mainly run the telekintec for eldrazi, reanimator and through the breach decks.
Affinity is about 50/50 I find. It's very similar to the burn matchup. Being on the play is very helpful (obviously).
If they drop their hand turn 1 and have an active Overseer on turn 2 or 3 the game is pretty hard. If you can live to turn 3 or 4 and keep a galerider alive the game gets much easier. After sideboard you really need some strong interaction on turn 2 or 3. A hardcast harmonic with a vialled sliver, or a company that hits harmonic is ideal and makes the game almost impossible to lose. If they vomit out 2 platings and you can't answer the creature it's also pretty bad. Galerider is key here.
I've found most affinity players get pretty scared of slivers if you can give them a good show in game 1 though and they over sideboard and sideboard wrong. If you're lucky they'll get stuck with a slow hand that's full of sideboard answers that don't do a lot. Whipflare is something to be careful of and that's about it.
I'm tossing up some stony silences in the sideboard in place of pithing needle for this match, tron and ad naseuam and stuff.
Infect is just tough. Blighted agent is the worst thing as if you can't answer it you just die. It's worth blocking their other creatures early, as even if they kill your sliver, you'll get a pump out of their hand which means they aren't killing you. Watch out for slip through space. I found the 3 Gut shots on my sideboard very good, but it does take up 3 sideboard slots which is a lot. Cautery Sliver is either the best thing ever, or just too slow as you can die on their turn 3 with aether vial on 1 counter and no mana from hard casting Cautery. If you can survive to your turn 3, vial in the sliver and shoot their infect creatures and they almost can't win.
I'm running 1 necrotic and 1 harmonic main for the Bridges/Worships. It seems to be working out so far.
I haven't actually played against living end, but Dredgevine is a pretty easy win. You just need Sedge sliver and you essentially can't die. They could possibly kill you on turn 2 - but it is almost impossible for them to do. With living end I'm crossing my fingers for a Cautery or Darkheart sliver to show up and then I'm pretty sure they can't win either. The worst deck in my local meta to face is infinite life melira. Which you need similar quick answers to like infect. I was thinking about main decking a poison sliver, but from your report 2 striking slivers may be better main deck overall against more common decks. The poison sliver can potentially give you an extra turn if they gain infinite life on their turn but can't draw the Redcap to finish you off. You can still maybe attack for the win on your turn. However I'm considering a singleton Rest in Peace for all these decks instead of poison sliver. Relic could be better though as it's colourless, but it's not a permanent solution.
Heya - it was cool to see you in the chat, I had to leave after round 4, but slivers took out the win which was a weird coincidence
I don't like the Cautery against Merfolk, Zoo, Ad Nauseam, any of the reanimator decks. I find it has a use against most other decks even if in some cases it's not great.
Any deck with a 1 toughness creature it's great against. Infect (although it can be too slow still), Affinity, Jund (Dark Confidant killer), Abzan company (you can shoot the seer or double shoot Melira/Anafenza. It might also be useful against eldrazi as you can shoot down the mimics etc.
It's also good vs any deck running Ensnaring Bridge as you can just start throwing Slivers at their face, I've found I can get them below 10 life before the bridge comes down and then it doesn't take too many slivers to just machine gun at them.
It has a minor use against burn. You can save slivers depending on what you want to keep around, or prevent some damage to yourself to get an extra turn. It's also a 2/2 so it can trade with Goblin Guide straight up and only needs 1 lord to try to trade with a swiftspear.
It's also useful to shoot down lingering souls tokens if you get desperate. It's not ideal, but again, can keep you above 3 life for an extra turn or more.
Played on Friday night and went 3-1 again. 30-7 overall for the past few weeks. It should be 32-5 but I have made some stupid mistakes in a few games that cost me a couple of matches.
I made two minor changes to the above list, swapped out the Harmonic Sliver for a Cautery Sliver and swapped out the Watery Grave for a Godless Shrine. I still think a main Harmonic or 2 main necrotic is needed at the moment with all the Lantern control, ensnaring bridges and worships. I've even seen the eldrazi decks running Worship main or sideboard at the moment and having an easy way to deal with bridges and worships is quite important. On the sideboard I took out a nature's claim to put the third Harmonic Sliver back there.
Round 1 was against Bant good stuff. I just walled up and then crushed him. Necrotic sliver was great in stopping any of his Venser tricks and stopping him from gaining infinite life with Archangel of Thune and Spike Feeder. Both games were pretty similar. This felt like a really good matchup. 2-0
Round 2 was against Jund. This was pretty easy. I haven't lost against Jund at all. In game 2 I always side out the aether vials for more slivers and just tend to overwhelm them with targets. Collected company is amazing. 2-0
Round 3 was against Abzan midrange. This is actually a fairly tight much. They have better creatures than Jund and just as much removal. Lingering Souls also proves problematic as they find it pretty easy to deal with Galerider Slivers. This went to game 3, I mulled to 6, my opponent mulled to 5 and it was drawn out. Eventually he had 4 souls tokens, a kitchen finks and a 6/7 Tarmogoyf. I had about 9 lands, 2 mana slivers and a cautery sliver. I kept making tokens to block the tarmogoyf and shoot the souls. Eventually I managed to draw a couple of lords and overwhelm him, but it was very close.
The 5 he kept was two lands and 3 abrupt decays. It was a great 5 against my six. 2-1
Round 4 infinite life is hard to beat. I scooped rather than trying to drag game 1 out for the draw. It just wasn't worth the effort. The guy I was playing gained infinite life turn 3 of both games. Game 1 he was on the play. Game 2 I kept a 7 in hand that had a turn 4 kill, or forcing him to block on turn 4 at least. I probably should have mulled to find a gut shot or mulled to 5 at least in trying. 0-2
What do you guys think of Suppression Field Vs Stony Silence on the sideboard? On the one hand Suppression Field hits us a little bit, but on the other hand, it works against a lot more decks, all the infinite life gain combo's etc. Stony Silence is much better for us but only really hits lantern, affinity and a bit of tron, it doesn't work against the other combo decks.
I would definitely be running two basics, forest and a swamp. Lots of ghost quarters and path to exiles running around.
I went 3-1 with the following list last night - my only loss was to affinity and that was because I mulled 4 times in 3 games and to be honest, it should have been 6 mulligans. Game 1 I went to 6 and should have gone to 5. Game 3 I went to 5 and probably should have gone to 4. The hands were that bad. Game 2 I won from a mull to 6.
I beat two infect decks and a blue tron gifts deck as the other 3 matches. 1 infect player was very new and it was still a tight match. The gut shots on the sideboard did help out hugely against infect, but you kind of need to make sure you kill the blighted agents and just keep blocking the rest. I think I'll swap out the nature's claims for stony silence and put in a godless shrine for tonight. But that makes me a bit more worried about the burn matchup.
The frenetic and necrotic slivers main deck were amazing. Frenetic allowed a mana sliver to dodge two path to exiles and necrotic allowed me to blow up so much stuff.
I would like to fit a Cautery Sliver or two back in the deck, I missed them a lot, they're surprisingly versatile and were better than I expected.
Gut shot - Infect and Eldrazi matchups. If Eldrazi are siding in Gut Shot against Eldrazi, it's good enough for us as well. It's also pretty useful vs Melira combo.
Nature's Claim or Vampiric Link - Primarily for Burn. I can see Nature's Claim being super useful, it kills Eidolon cheaply and it can also eat my own Aether Vial if they try to use Destructive Revelry on it. That's a 6 point life swing which is pretty huge. I'm leaning towards nature's claim instead of the new one printed in Oath because the 4 life is fairly inconsequential in most matchups, but against Burn we can use to gain 4 life if we really need to. That may be too cute though.
Nature's claim also has the advantage of being some nice early interaction against affinity. It is another way to kill the plating or overseer before harmonic comes online and against their nut draw, harmonic sliver is too slow.
Vampiric Link - Nature's claim or this. I prefer this against Burn, but it's pretty useless vs Affinity. Against burn though, we have the option of casting it on Eidolon, or on our own creature.
I've found the best plan is to combat the best decks in your meta and go from there. Goryo's Vengeance is a killer for slivers, but in my local Brisbane I know one person who has played it, it's not worth sideboarding for and if I play him, it's bad beats
As an example there was a post in our facebook group about two weeks ago from a lantern player:
"I just got beat down by slivers, it wasn't even close, how do I sideboard against that?"
the answer was basically
"It's 0.00001% of the meta, just hope you dodge it and don't sideboard for it".
I haven't been doing that well so haven't run slivers for a while, but took it out for a spin last night before the Brisbane GP this weekend. It was a Thursday night 5 rounder, 41 people showed up.
Round 1 Burn
2-0
Game 1 he kept a 1 land hand and didn't draw the second. My syphon sliver's did their job well.
Game 2 he flooded out and I just beat him down.
Round 2 Green devotion.
2-0
Game 1 he didn't think I was on slivers and kept a slow hand...
Game 2 he mulled to 6 and again, the beatdowns happened.
I think this is a really good match up for us, but he had unfortunate draws on top of that.
Round 3 Bant Knight Coco
Bant deck with knights and quellers. Only 1 retreat to coralhelm so not full combo though.
2-0
He didn't seen any spell quellers either game and it was pretty easy.
Round 4 Naya Burn.
2-1
Game 1 I managed to take him down with syphon's
Game 2 I was stuck on 2 lands with 2 syphon sliver's in hand for multiple turns. I finally drew the third land and played one, but he drew a lava spike and I was at 3.
Game 3 He kept a 1 lander and was thoroughly punished.
Round 5 Tron (traditional)
2-0
I got lucky to play someone who'd not played against me before and didn't end up respecting slivers as much as he should have.
Game 1 he cast a Karn on turn 3 and had to exile a card from my hand to try and get value from it. He didn't get value and had no follow up at all so I beat him down and ignored the karn.
Game 2 he mulled to 6 and then got stuck on 3 mana for multiple turns. He had the ugin in hand but never got the mana to cast it.
So I ended up going 5-0.
There was a bit of luck involved to be sure. But the deck held up well and seems to suit my personal style best.
I've got the GP in a few short hours so I'll post the decklist after that.
Going 5-0 means I'll run the slivers in it. Just hoping to make some people cry if I can beat them in rounds 1-3. I've found the easiest way to make someone salty is beat them early in a tournament with slivers. They then complain about dumb scrubby luck for ages
How much artifact hate do you think he sided in and did you find the spellskites and aether vials worth keeping in?
One thing I've done a couple of times against burn and naya is side out all the aether vials and leave them stranded with artifact hate in their hand. I've had a couple of games with burn players especially stuck with 2 destructive revelry or smash to smithereens in their hands at the end of the game and it's essentially a free mulligan or two.
I'm not sure of the viability of the strategy on the whole though so would be interested in hearing about some more experiences with decks packing artifact hate and whether we need the artifacts or not.
4 Galerider Sliver
3 Diffusion Sliver
1 Gemhide Sliver
2 Manaweft Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
1 Sentinel Sliver
1 Darkheart Sliver
1 Syphon Sliver
1 Necrotic Sliver
4 Sedge Sliver
2 Blur Sliver
1 Spellskite
4 Aether Vial
4 Collected Company
4 Cavern of souls
4 Sliver Hive
3 Mutavault
1 Polluted Delta
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Godless Shrine
1 Sliver Hivelord
3 Harmonic Sliver
1 Spellskite
2 Leyline of the Void
1 Darkheart Sliver
2 Frenetic Sliver
2 Pithing Needle
1 Homing Sliver
1 Telekinetic Sliver
1 Dismember
I was able to tick something off my achievement list - I killed an Emrakul, the aeons torn with a Mutavault so that was fantastic
I was playing around with the mindlash sliver because I want to go higher on the 1 drops. It's also a 1 drop that if the game goes a bit longer, it can lock your opponent out of the game with sliver hive. as you can make them discard in their draw step and it's something extra to play turn 1.
Round 1
I pulled an Adam Bowman. Was late due to an appointment so lost this round.
Round 2
Bant Eldrazi
My opponent was fairly new to the deck and I think we're a pretty good match up here unless they go turn 2 Thought-knot into turn 3 Smasher. I won this fairly easily 2-0.
Round 3
Jeskai Nahiri
My opponent managed to grind me out game 1 with lots of snapcasters and paths, I think I could have managed to win this, but I didn't play as well as I could. This is one of the matchups I have leyline of the void in the deck for - however didn't see them in the sideboarded games.
Game 2 I let my opponent get his Nahiri up to 8 counters, I had 5 land on the table and an aether vial on 3 counters. He searched up Emrakul and I vialled in necroctic sliver at the start of the combat step. Then activated and sac'd Mutavault to kill the Emrakul, which was a nice 2for1 getting rid of the Nahiri as well. The expression on his face was pretty golden as he had never played against slivers before and had no idea what was coming.
Game 3 he flooded out and I ran him over fairly easily.
2-1 win
Round 4
Aggro Elves (the b/g variant)
Game 1 I got my opponent to 1 and then he killed me with Ezuri (I think I messed up? But this was also a mull to 5).
Game 2 I ran him over first.
Game 3 he attacked me, I vailled in a lord and blocked, then dismembered his elvish archdruid netting me a sweet 3 for 1 and he couldn't come back from that.
2-1 win
Round 5
Naya Burn.
I mulled to 5 game 1 and lost.
Game 2 I had darkheart into Syphon
Game 3 I mulled to 6, didn't have a great start and he had goblin guide into double swiftspear for the super fast beats.
1-2
Round 6
R/G Trondrazi.
Game 1 I got stalled on 3 lands with no swamps so the 2 Sedge slivers weren't doing much at all. He eventually ugin'd and slaughtered me.
Game 2 He had some early thought-knots that took the telekinetic sliver and a collected company, but I drew some more collected companies and was able to go over the top.
Game 3 I had a really good draw and he had kept a sketchy hand with no coloured sources. So I managed to get over the top again.
Overall the deck ran fairly well, I finished 13th on breakers. A single 4-2 did make top 8 but sadly it wasn't me
I do want to add a striking sliver or 2 back in and get the 1 drop slivers up to 7. It's such a massive difference to have that early play. The mindlash sliver didn't come up at all so I'll keep it in the deck till I get a chance to try it out a bit more. I think it could be quite tricky, but it might end up being too cute. It does allow me to overextend into mass removal though. If I have 3 slivers and no hand, they cast an anger or wrath, they're looking at discarding 3 cards as well. So in certain situations it could be amazing.
I'm not sure about the sideboard. I like the thought of going back to chalices of the void, but my main issue is that I would be wanting to use them against burn and a lot of burn players put in artifact hate, so I like to remove those targets and leave them with dead cards. I will swap out a frenetic for a cautery sliver though. I was running 1 frenetic main, 1 side before Saturday due to the higher popularity of Jund, but it just wasn't as useful in the bigger event having two. Definitely a meta call.
Gifts Ungiven just seems like a worse Collected Company. You get two slivers to your hand instead of on the battlefield. You could thin out excess vials and stuff with it, but I would not run it as a 5th Company and I wouldn't run it over a Company at all.
I played last on Wednesday night and went 2-1-1. My worst result with slivers so far which made me pretty sad.
Round 1 was against Blue Moon. I won 2-0.
He hadn't played against slivers before and I just overwhelmed him game 1.
Game 2 he kept a hand with 2 islands and did not draw a mountain. This was pretty easy.
Round 2 was From the Vaults (eggs, but I don't like calling it eggs anymore ;p) 2-0
Game 1 I killed him on my turn 4. He tried to go off on his turn 4 but didn't get there.
Game 2 He mulled to 5 and just didn't have enough gas so I was able to drop him again.
Round 3 Rug Delver 1-1 draw.
Game 1, he went turn 1 delver, flipped on turn 2 and cast a turn 2 hooty mandrills. With his bolts and snapcasters this was just too fast for me.
Game 2, he kept a much slower hand and I just swarmed him.
Game 3, I kept a 1 land hand with 4 2 drops, 2 lords, gemhide and venomous, thoughtseize and company. I drew land thankfully. The thoughtseize took out his grim lavamancer and then venomous allowed a sliver to trade with his tarmogoyf. This game went pretty long and we ended up in turns. I was 3 life short of killing him at the end as I had played too conservatively. (I was only 7 life and was worried about bolts and snaps etc). He also gained 15 life from two feed the clans. So I dealt 32 damage over all to him. Should have won this game easily but I played stupid.
Round 4 - Burn 0-2.
Game 1, he went goblin guide into swiftspear into killing all my slivers and killing me.
Game 2, he went goblin guide into swiftspear, then followed up with swiftspear and lavamancer and just rolled me.
I didn't see any lifegain or anything at all during either game unfortunately.
I did make a couple of changes to the deck before playing in that I took out a sedge sliver for a sliver legion (lord for lord swap). Just mainly to play around and test and that I love Sliver Legion.
Venomous Sliver was put in, in place of Cautery Sliver.
Two thoughtsezies in the sideboard as well instead of chalices.
Still haven't played eldrazi.
One thing I am considering is dropping 3 diffusion slivers for 2 evolutionary leaps and something else.
I am generally disappointed by diffusion and I really want to limit the 1/1 slivers. I find them to be so weak against aggressive decks like burn or rug delver.
Having had Harmonic main deck for a few events now, I think it's pretty good in the current meta that is full of enchants, Blood moon, Spreading Seas, Worship, Chalice, Eidolon etc.
I agree Necrotic is stronger pre-board and I have had to kill a vial at least once, but I don't want to be running two necrotic at the moment I don't think. The sacrifice is pretty expensive at the moment.
Not a huge fan of shadow sliver. Being able to block is pretty strong.
Once more another 3-1 result. But not a very interesting event. This is my last one for a while as I'm away next week so it'll be about 2 weeks before I get to sliver again. My friend might play them at the GP next week though. So far my record over the past weeks is 39-10, so just shy of an 80% win rate, which is pretty good, but I haven't been able to 4-0 for a while now.
I definitely think my sideboarding could be much stronger, but it's hard to sideboard for all the various matches. There are a lot of decks that can do some stupid things on turn 3 if you leave them uninterrupted.
A lot of my losses have also come from playing badly around mass removal. I've either played too slowly when they don't have it. Or played too aggressively when they do have it. I can never seem to get that right.
Round 1 - Bye
Round 2 - BW Tokens.
Game 1 my opponent kept a 1 land hand and died on turn 4.
Game 2 my opponent mulled to 5 and died on turn 4.
Round 4 - GW Creatures with counters on them.
Game 1 my opponent kept a 1 land hand and died on turn 4.
Game 2 my opponent mulled to 5 and died on turn 5 or 6 as he managed to get some blockers out and I didn't see a lord for a bit.
Round 4 - Grixis control.
Game 1 I won thanks to a sedge sliver. My opponent bolted it so I said okay, then he bolted again and I tapped my swamp. Then he bolted a third time, I vialled in a mana sliver and regen'd again. Then he used Jace flashback to bolt a 4th time as I had no slivers to tap and no black mana. I activated mutavault and tapped it for a black to regen the 3rd time and that was game.
Game 2 he had all the removals.
Bolt
Terminate
Anger
Olivia Voldaren, I companied and kept a diffusion and sedge sliver.
He topped a terminate for his turn and that was about it.
Game 3 I mulled to 6 and got stuck on 3 land for about 3 turns, then finally drew a fourth land for the 2 collected companies but it was just too late at that point sadly.
That is definitely a match up where we need a really good draw. An average to normal draw just doesn't cut it.
I haven't missed sentinel sliver since I took it out. I did think it was amazing when I had it, it was so great with Sedge and Necrotic, but it's last on my list to add back in.
Have you considered a Harmonic main instead of leeching? Harmonic can also hit blood moon, spreading seas, ensnaring bridge, Eidolon of the great revel, affinity. It can be awkward very occasionally with the aether vial if they have nothing. But I think it's worth the risk with the current meta.
I like the inclusion of two venom slivers, I really need to pick some up and give them a try.
@Jim_Prov
Have you tried 3 sliver hives and 4 cavern instead? The extra sliver hives are useless except in rare games, but having access to uncounterable slivers is still really useful in some games. I'm never unhappy to have 2 Caverns as you can drop two uncounterable slivers if needed.
I've found two things out about slivers. One is that I have to mull a fair bit, the second is that they mulligan really well. So any kind of hand that is full of 3 drops, or seems bad, throw it back. For example, tonight I had to mull to 4 and proceeded to win the game.
I went 3-1 again tonight, been playing a lot as there is a big interest in modern at the moment. The Melbourne GP is up next weekend with a modern format. I can't make it due to a wedding, but had a bet on with a friend. If I can 4-0 again, he'll play slivers for me. I've gone 3-1, 3-1, 3-1, 3-1 since then ~_~.
I used the list from a couple of posts above, except I modified the sideboard to have 3 Grafdigger's cage instead of Telekinetc sliver and the 2 Rest in peace.
I was on the draw for all 4 rounds. My dice rolls were bad
Round 1 (2-0) - UR delver. But this guy wasn't on the best build, it was more of a homebrew with some ... interesting choices. He also didn't see a young pyromancer either game.
Game 1 was pretty standard sliver beatdown.
Game 2 I mulled to 4. My opponent was sympathetic to the point where he was like "I'm pretty sad, this hand seems great and I wanted to really see what slivers could do. I kept 2 fetch lands a company and.. something else.
He was on UR so I fetched basic swamp into basic forest. He played a blood moon and then I managed to draw into stuff to play a company and beat him down. It was pretty nice. I've won from at least 6 mull to 5's with slivers, but can't even remember the last time I mulled to 4, let alone won a game from there.
Round 2 (2-0) - UW Control.
Game 1 - This was fairly straightforward if a bit long. I managed to play around all his removal and got him to low enough life that I was able to finish him off.
Game 2 - I had a super aggressive start with 9 power of slivers on the board (including a mana sliver) on turn 3 and a collected company in hand. He did not play a 4th land and tapped out for a kitchen finks. I company'd into a blur sliver and sedge sliver and attacked for 22 on my turn. Apparently he drew 3 kitchen finks for his draw steps.
Round 3 (2-0) - Affinity.
Game 1 - We both mulled to 6 and he thought about it for a bit and kept. He attacked me a little bit and I played some slivers. This went on for long enough for me to have multiple activations of sliver hive as I just could not draw a lord so was chumping constantly. I eventually got some lords and attacked for lethal. He had 5 land on the table and showed me his hand of 3 mox opals.
Game 2 - He mulled to 6 again and thought about it. I kept a very strong 7. He played a memnite turn 1 and passed. I went aether vial. He went turn 2 mox, springleaf oveseer. Then he played a ravager, then another overseer.
I managed to get enough slivers on the top and got aether vial up to 3 counters as his draw was a bit slow for all it's power. I then dropped a sedge sliver and blocked with regen, then killed him on my turn.
Round 4 (1-2) - Blue Moon.
Game 1 I played around his turn 3 blood moon and beat him down quite easily.
Game 2 I mulled to 6 and kept 1 land aether vial. He had his 1 of vandalblast to kill it, then spreading seas, then blood moon and I could not draw a forest.
Game 3 I mulled to 6 again. This game I could have won, but I was tired and stupid and for some reason did not think I could cast collected company even though I had an overgrown tomb (fetched from a polluted delta) on the table. I was stuck thinking I needed to draw a fetch to hit the forest, when I had green on the table. He played a blood moon and then a few turns later he double anger of the gods in one turn to kill my 2 slivers. I had my swamp to regen once but could not regen it twice. I did not draw a way to cast any spells or any more sedge slivers and he won. If I had of cast the collected company in response to his moon I would have had two more slivers and would have easily won. So I feel a bit dumb there.
One question I have is what do you guys take out when you sideboard?
I still have no idea what to remove against various decks. I never want to take out collected company because it's so strong. It's card, mana and raw power advantage. Aether Vial I rarely want to take out even if I think they'll have artifact hate as it's so good at getting around sorcery speed removal. Or making them waste their removal when you vial in an answer sliver.
That just leaves slivers to take out and which ones are worth taking out for things like gut shots and spells as if you take out too many slivers you dilute the deck.
The only thing I am sure of is taking out the aether vials vs jund and usually abzan. Those midrange decks don't really need the explosive start and having the extra creatures to overpower their removal is really great.
I usually take out 1 sedge vs the fast decks, 1 syphon if the lifegain isn't really relevant, Cautery if they don't have a lot of 1 toughness creatures. I think I need to start taking out the galeriders and striking vs other decks and some decks I take out diffusion against.
I went 3-1 tonight.
Lost round 1 to affinity.
Game 1 I had a slowish draw and he got me to 6 with two attacks on turn 2 and 3. I was just about to turn the tide and crush him with Syphon and Sedge, but he untapped and hit me with two galvanic blast.
Game 2 I was able to beat him down, a company into harmonic sliver sealed the deal.
Game 3 I kept what I thought was a good hand, 2 Striking Sliver, 2 Sinew Sliver, 1 Aether Vial, 2 Land. In retrospect it was terrible. No way to deal with fliers and no interaction. I should have gone to 6 cards. He attacked me on his turn 3 with an inkmoth nexus and made it a 3/3. Then on his turn 4 he played another ravager, a cranial plating and attacked for lethal in the air with the inkmoth. I did not see any sideboard cards, stony silence, dismember, harmonic sliver, or galerider sliver. Any 1 of those cards would probably have made this an easy win.
Round 2 was the bye ~_~
Round 3 was against storm.
I won game 1 with an aggressive start, diffusion sliver, dark heart sliver and syphon sliver made it pretty hard for him to kill me, he did not have a pyromancer ascension active and I could get up to 32 life by sac'ing my 4 slivers with Darkheart.
Game 2 I had the turn 2 Rest in peace. Also a slow draw. Turn 4 he made 10 goblins. Turn 5 he made another 6 goblins. I would have been able to deal with the original 10, but the following 6 killed me.
Game 3 I had turn 2 Rest in peace again, followed up with turn 4 chalice for 2. He bounced my rest in peace in response to the chalice and then didn't do anything for the rest of the game.
Round 4 was elves.
Game 1 He had an okay hand but just didn't draw anything useful and I managed to beat him down.
Game 2 He kept a 1 land hand. Turn 2 I played gemhide, he attacked a nettle sentinel into it and I used aether vial to drop a striking silver and double block to kill it. Then he drew a land 2 turns later, I vialled in a necrotic sliver and blew up both his lands with the striking and gemhide slivers. He scooped.
I think I would probably take out the telekinetic sliver and 2 rest in peace from the sideboard for 3 grafdigger's cage. I mainly run the telekintec for eldrazi, reanimator and through the breach decks.
4 Galerider Sliver
2 Striking Sliver
1 Darkheart Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
2 Diffusion Sliver
2 Gemhide Sliver
1 Manaweft Sliver
4 Sedge sliver
2 Blur Sliver
1 Necrotic Sliver
1 Syphon Sliver
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Cautery Sliver
4 Aether Vial
1 Dismember
4 Collected Company
Land
2 Mutavault
4 Sliver hive
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Breeding Pool
1 Swamp
1 Forest
3 Polluted Delta
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Telekinetic Sliver
1 Syphon Sliver
1 Darkheart Sliver
2 Harmonic Sliver
1 Frenetic Sliver
2 Gut Shot
1 Dismember
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Stony Silence
2 Rest in Peace
If they drop their hand turn 1 and have an active Overseer on turn 2 or 3 the game is pretty hard. If you can live to turn 3 or 4 and keep a galerider alive the game gets much easier. After sideboard you really need some strong interaction on turn 2 or 3. A hardcast harmonic with a vialled sliver, or a company that hits harmonic is ideal and makes the game almost impossible to lose. If they vomit out 2 platings and you can't answer the creature it's also pretty bad. Galerider is key here.
I've found most affinity players get pretty scared of slivers if you can give them a good show in game 1 though and they over sideboard and sideboard wrong. If you're lucky they'll get stuck with a slow hand that's full of sideboard answers that don't do a lot. Whipflare is something to be careful of and that's about it.
I'm tossing up some stony silences in the sideboard in place of pithing needle for this match, tron and ad naseuam and stuff.
Infect is just tough. Blighted agent is the worst thing as if you can't answer it you just die. It's worth blocking their other creatures early, as even if they kill your sliver, you'll get a pump out of their hand which means they aren't killing you. Watch out for slip through space. I found the 3 Gut shots on my sideboard very good, but it does take up 3 sideboard slots which is a lot. Cautery Sliver is either the best thing ever, or just too slow as you can die on their turn 3 with aether vial on 1 counter and no mana from hard casting Cautery. If you can survive to your turn 3, vial in the sliver and shoot their infect creatures and they almost can't win.
I'm running 1 necrotic and 1 harmonic main for the Bridges/Worships. It seems to be working out so far.
I haven't actually played against living end, but Dredgevine is a pretty easy win. You just need Sedge sliver and you essentially can't die. They could possibly kill you on turn 2 - but it is almost impossible for them to do. With living end I'm crossing my fingers for a Cautery or Darkheart sliver to show up and then I'm pretty sure they can't win either. The worst deck in my local meta to face is infinite life melira. Which you need similar quick answers to like infect. I was thinking about main decking a poison sliver, but from your report 2 striking slivers may be better main deck overall against more common decks. The poison sliver can potentially give you an extra turn if they gain infinite life on their turn but can't draw the Redcap to finish you off. You can still maybe attack for the win on your turn. However I'm considering a singleton Rest in Peace for all these decks instead of poison sliver. Relic could be better though as it's colourless, but it's not a permanent solution.
I don't like the Cautery against Merfolk, Zoo, Ad Nauseam, any of the reanimator decks. I find it has a use against most other decks even if in some cases it's not great.
Any deck with a 1 toughness creature it's great against. Infect (although it can be too slow still), Affinity, Jund (Dark Confidant killer), Abzan company (you can shoot the seer or double shoot Melira/Anafenza. It might also be useful against eldrazi as you can shoot down the mimics etc.
It's also good vs any deck running Ensnaring Bridge as you can just start throwing Slivers at their face, I've found I can get them below 10 life before the bridge comes down and then it doesn't take too many slivers to just machine gun at them.
It has a minor use against burn. You can save slivers depending on what you want to keep around, or prevent some damage to yourself to get an extra turn. It's also a 2/2 so it can trade with Goblin Guide straight up and only needs 1 lord to try to trade with a swiftspear.
It's also useful to shoot down lingering souls tokens if you get desperate. It's not ideal, but again, can keep you above 3 life for an extra turn or more.
I made two minor changes to the above list, swapped out the Harmonic Sliver for a Cautery Sliver and swapped out the Watery Grave for a Godless Shrine. I still think a main Harmonic or 2 main necrotic is needed at the moment with all the Lantern control, ensnaring bridges and worships. I've even seen the eldrazi decks running Worship main or sideboard at the moment and having an easy way to deal with bridges and worships is quite important. On the sideboard I took out a nature's claim to put the third Harmonic Sliver back there.
Round 1 was against Bant good stuff. I just walled up and then crushed him. Necrotic sliver was great in stopping any of his Venser tricks and stopping him from gaining infinite life with Archangel of Thune and Spike Feeder. Both games were pretty similar. This felt like a really good matchup. 2-0
Round 2 was against Jund. This was pretty easy. I haven't lost against Jund at all. In game 2 I always side out the aether vials for more slivers and just tend to overwhelm them with targets. Collected company is amazing. 2-0
Round 3 was against Abzan midrange. This is actually a fairly tight much. They have better creatures than Jund and just as much removal. Lingering Souls also proves problematic as they find it pretty easy to deal with Galerider Slivers. This went to game 3, I mulled to 6, my opponent mulled to 5 and it was drawn out. Eventually he had 4 souls tokens, a kitchen finks and a 6/7 Tarmogoyf. I had about 9 lands, 2 mana slivers and a cautery sliver. I kept making tokens to block the tarmogoyf and shoot the souls. Eventually I managed to draw a couple of lords and overwhelm him, but it was very close.
The 5 he kept was two lands and 3 abrupt decays. It was a great 5 against my six. 2-1
Round 4 infinite life is hard to beat. I scooped rather than trying to drag game 1 out for the draw. It just wasn't worth the effort. The guy I was playing gained infinite life turn 3 of both games. Game 1 he was on the play. Game 2 I kept a 7 in hand that had a turn 4 kill, or forcing him to block on turn 4 at least. I probably should have mulled to find a gut shot or mulled to 5 at least in trying. 0-2
What do you guys think of Suppression Field Vs Stony Silence on the sideboard? On the one hand Suppression Field hits us a little bit, but on the other hand, it works against a lot more decks, all the infinite life gain combo's etc. Stony Silence is much better for us but only really hits lantern, affinity and a bit of tron, it doesn't work against the other combo decks.
I went 3-1 with the following list last night - my only loss was to affinity and that was because I mulled 4 times in 3 games and to be honest, it should have been 6 mulligans. Game 1 I went to 6 and should have gone to 5. Game 3 I went to 5 and probably should have gone to 4. The hands were that bad. Game 2 I won from a mull to 6.
I beat two infect decks and a blue tron gifts deck as the other 3 matches. 1 infect player was very new and it was still a tight match. The gut shots on the sideboard did help out hugely against infect, but you kind of need to make sure you kill the blighted agents and just keep blocking the rest. I think I'll swap out the nature's claims for stony silence and put in a godless shrine for tonight. But that makes me a bit more worried about the burn matchup.
The frenetic and necrotic slivers main deck were amazing. Frenetic allowed a mana sliver to dodge two path to exiles and necrotic allowed me to blow up so much stuff.
I would like to fit a Cautery Sliver or two back in the deck, I missed them a lot, they're surprisingly versatile and were better than I expected.
4 Galerider Sliver
1 Striking Sliver
1 Darkheart Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
3 Diffusion Sliver
2 Gemhide Sliver
2 Manaweft Sliver
4 Sedge sliver
2 Blur Sliver
1 Necrotic Sliver
1 Syphon Sliver
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Frenetic Sliver
3 Aether Vial
1 Dismember
4 Collected Company
Land
2 Mutavault
4 Sliver hive
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Watery Grave
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Breeding Pool
1 Swamp
1 Forest
3 Polluted Delta
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Telekinetic Sliver
1 Syphon Sliver
1 Darkheart Sliver
1 Sliver Hivelord
2 Harmonic Sliver
2 Nature's Claim
3 Gut Shot
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
My current sideboard is:
Trying to fit in some of the following:
Gut shot - Infect and Eldrazi matchups. If Eldrazi are siding in Gut Shot against Eldrazi, it's good enough for us as well. It's also pretty useful vs Melira combo.
Nature's Claim or Vampiric Link - Primarily for Burn. I can see Nature's Claim being super useful, it kills Eidolon cheaply and it can also eat my own Aether Vial if they try to use Destructive Revelry on it. That's a 6 point life swing which is pretty huge. I'm leaning towards nature's claim instead of the new one printed in Oath because the 4 life is fairly inconsequential in most matchups, but against Burn we can use to gain 4 life if we really need to. That may be too cute though.
Nature's claim also has the advantage of being some nice early interaction against affinity. It is another way to kill the plating or overseer before harmonic comes online and against their nut draw, harmonic sliver is too slow.
Vampiric Link - Nature's claim or this. I prefer this against Burn, but it's pretty useless vs Affinity. Against burn though, we have the option of casting it on Eidolon, or on our own creature.