Confirmed by Mark Rosewater today (see attached image): "Slivers were on the short list, but were problematic in that they require a significant commitment to space and doing so would have lessened how many other references we could make, so we made the tough decision to leave them out of Dominaria."
Aww, Slivers and the Phyrexian Invasion (and time holes) are most of the old story that I know about. Hopefully this means they'll include some old Phyrexian weapons or something.
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Bummer. My heart kinda sunk. Maybe we’ll for sure get them in M19. I’m still interested in Dominaria to see how they enable us to competitively play a multi-colored Sliver deck from Dominaria’s card selections.
I for one am glad. I’ve strangely never liked slivers. I know they belong on both Dominaria and Shandalar but I’d be happy if they became just a Shandalar thing.
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Missed opportunity imo. We have unclaimed teritory which would have been perfect for them. Also, IRC manaweft sliver had a decently high pick rate in draft because it was a powerful effect by itself. Would be nice to see stronger stand alone cards that get a slight bump for economies over the opposite. Would solve the issue of "design space" and "draft archetypes." Then it only takes 1-2 more in the core set to follow to potentially make them constructed viable.
This feels kinda lame to me, because in their place we're going to get random creature types when there could have easily been a mono colored uncommon cycle as a throwback.
As much as it is disheartening to hear that Slivers will not in Dominaria (though that doesn't necessarily exclude potential Masterpieces) it is probably the right call. It seems like it would be somewhat disappointing to get 5 Slivers, 1 in each color (as leslak suggests) and then not be playable in Limited or Standard because 5 is likely to not be enough. Also, there is little reason to think they would not give us another 5 color Sliver Legend as they said that is part of the tradition of Slivers in sets so that adds another slot.
Note that I could be wrong as M15 only had 6 slivers (with the obligatory 5 color one) but I did not pay enough attention at the time to whether people felt this was too few. It was certainly fewer than they had ever done up to that point.
In reality, Dominaria has around 10 years of cards and lore to tap into and I am sure Wizards is going to try to fit as many things as possible into it. Making a tribal subtheme takes up room and I can see where they feel it would be too much to devote to it to make it playable that it took too much away from other things.
I agree with people above that Slivers will be seen in Core Sets (maybe even as soon as C19).
As much as it is disheartening to hear that Slivers will not in Dominaria (though that doesn't necessarily exclude potential Masterpieces) it is probably the right call. It seems like it would be somewhat disappointing to get 5 Slivers, 1 in each color (as leslak suggests) and then not be playable in Limited or Standard because 5 is likely to not be enough. Also, there is little reason to think they would not give us another 5 color Sliver Legend as they said that is part of the tradition of Slivers in sets so that adds another slot.
Note that I could be wrong as M15 only had 6 slivers (with the obligatory 5 color one) but I did not pay enough attention at the time to whether people felt this was too few. It was certainly fewer than they had ever done up to that point.
In reality, Dominaria has around 10 years of cards and lore to tap into and I am sure Wizards is going to try to fit as many things as possible into it. Making a tribal subtheme takes up room and I can see where they feel it would be too much to devote to it to make it playable that it took too much away from other things.
I agree with people above that Slivers will be seen in Core Sets (maybe even as soon as C19).
Why not just include a few Slivers in Dominaria and then a bunch in Core 19 like they did in M14? Using the OG Dominaria/Rather slivers not the Shandalar predator ones.
Slivers are too beloved to just leave out of Dominaria. I feel like a lot of people are going to grill Wizards on this and after the disappointment that was Masters 25, it isn't the best time to hand out more let downs.
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Dominaria, like A25, has the problem of covering so much time that they will never make everyone happy. I am extremely surprised to see Slivers be a no-go considering the inter-block synergy, but MaRo's reasoning makes sense. At first, five common slivers seem fine and there is enough design space...or is there?
Let's say you do a White one that's just like Predatory Sliver - 1/1 for 1W, all +1/+1. Black is easy; Menace is a new keyword and the "Menace" sliver is red, so a black menace sliver (maybe a 2/2 for 2B) feels fine. But now what? Prowess, Hexproof, and Indestrucible are also more liberally used now, and Scry is evergreen, but granting something related to those at common would either be disappointing (all slivers have 2U: Gain Hexproof") or not common at all ("All slivers have prowess" has serious MTGO implications; it's why Soulblade Djinn and Jeskai Ascendancy don't grant prowess).
In addition, 5 common slivers would feel like too few to really make a go of it for limited or constructed as they'd demand some sort of multicolor support in the set. 10 is closer, but still puts constraints on artifact/nonbasic lands and now that's closer to 15 slots. Most folks will expect more though, and suddenly you have 15-18 slivers in the set and then 4-6 supporting cards, and now that's just too much.
Maybe they'll be in Battlebond, or Coreset. If not, they'll take over a Masters edition eventually I am sure.
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I don't get why people are surprised by this. I was not expecting Slivers, for the exact reason they gave. It's already going to be a super packed set, there is way too much to do, too much to throw back to, and having something like Slivers that requires quite a few card slots to be worth it would just limit how many other cool things they can do. I would only really expect Slivers in the Core sets.
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I came into magic late and fell in love with tribal themes. Wizards has been doing a good job on various tribal themes and cards from Commander to Ixalan and parts in between. I am very disappointed as each set I focus on tribal themes.
I love slivers as the tribiest and tribes. Dominaria doesn't mean much to me storywise as Journey into Nyx was my intro. I mean I am happy that perhaps some Elves, Goblins, Birds, Merfolk, and Zombies might be getting some love.
Slivers in modern, pauper, and legacy.
Elves and Merfolk in modern.
I have Allies, Rats, Werewolves, and Shamans built for modern. I am planning when prices decrease for Minotaurs, Snakes, Humans, and Eldrazi.
I can clearly picture 10 to 20 cards on the set that nobody would miss and could perfectly be replaced by slivers during the next spoiler season
There's probably going to be a ton of cards at common and uncommon that are made specifically for limited that no one will care about outside of sealed/draft like there is in every set. Some of those could have probably been Slivers but whatever
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"Pop in, find a dragon, roast a dragon."
-Chandra Nalaar
Slivers will come back eventually, especially if we go to Shandalar. The story involving Melira and Yisan left a lot of loose ends involving the slivers, hinting at their potential to become a plane-wide threat (if not multiverse-level threat).
But still too bad that they won't be back in Dominaria, which is where they originated (technically, they came from Rath, but Rath is on Dominaria now after the planar overlay).
I see this as a upcoming problem with tribals in the one block paradigm.
Will anythng be able to be covered in just one.....?? Even themes and storylines will need to be wrapped up in one set.....A card depicting the beginning and a card with the end of an arc both in the same set...??
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Been a member here for over a dozen years. Playing since '95 just got lost in the twitch shuffle.
Personally after Ixalan I'm kinda glad that they don't want to do more tribal, maybe we'll get fun archetypes again....instead of more tribal, i'm bored of kaladesh archetypes, and merfolk, so more tribal would have been awful....sad to see em go maybe they'll be in the next core set which i'm so glad are back!
With this years Core Set initially being part of Dominaria block (at least that's what I remember) there's a decent chance that the slivers that might have been in Dominaria are now in the core set.
As long as they print something with Karn on it I could care less what they print in dominaria.
As long as they print something actually GOOD with Karn on it I'll be happy. After that trip down agony lane with the M25 spoilers I've got so little faith in this company knowing what people actually like.
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1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
Originally Dominaria was a two set block, so I imagine they might have shown up in one of the two sets. Once you drop down to one set, I can get why they were cut. Maybe they will wind up in M19.
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Sad. R&D should do more fan service than trying to do a cool thing that 60% will not like
Art is life itself.
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
This feels kinda lame to me, because in their place we're going to get random creature types when there could have easily been a mono colored uncommon cycle as a throwback.
Note that I could be wrong as M15 only had 6 slivers (with the obligatory 5 color one) but I did not pay enough attention at the time to whether people felt this was too few. It was certainly fewer than they had ever done up to that point.
In reality, Dominaria has around 10 years of cards and lore to tap into and I am sure Wizards is going to try to fit as many things as possible into it. Making a tribal subtheme takes up room and I can see where they feel it would be too much to devote to it to make it playable that it took too much away from other things.
I agree with people above that Slivers will be seen in Core Sets (maybe even as soon as C19).
Spot on thoughts.
Slivers are too beloved to just leave out of Dominaria. I feel like a lot of people are going to grill Wizards on this and after the disappointment that was Masters 25, it isn't the best time to hand out more let downs.
-Chandra Nalaar
Just kidding. It's sad to hear, but the reasons are understandable. Also hoping for core set slivers.
Let's say you do a White one that's just like Predatory Sliver - 1/1 for 1W, all +1/+1. Black is easy; Menace is a new keyword and the "Menace" sliver is red, so a black menace sliver (maybe a 2/2 for 2B) feels fine. But now what? Prowess, Hexproof, and Indestrucible are also more liberally used now, and Scry is evergreen, but granting something related to those at common would either be disappointing (all slivers have 2U: Gain Hexproof") or not common at all ("All slivers have prowess" has serious MTGO implications; it's why Soulblade Djinn and Jeskai Ascendancy don't grant prowess).
In addition, 5 common slivers would feel like too few to really make a go of it for limited or constructed as they'd demand some sort of multicolor support in the set. 10 is closer, but still puts constraints on artifact/nonbasic lands and now that's closer to 15 slots. Most folks will expect more though, and suddenly you have 15-18 slivers in the set and then 4-6 supporting cards, and now that's just too much.
Maybe they'll be in Battlebond, or Coreset. If not, they'll take over a Masters edition eventually I am sure.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
I love slivers as the tribiest and tribes. Dominaria doesn't mean much to me storywise as Journey into Nyx was my intro. I mean I am happy that perhaps some Elves, Goblins, Birds, Merfolk, and Zombies might be getting some love.
Slivers in modern, pauper, and legacy.
Elves and Merfolk in modern.
I have Allies, Rats, Werewolves, and Shamans built for modern. I am planning when prices decrease for Minotaurs, Snakes, Humans, and Eldrazi.
(W/U)(B/R)GForm of Progenitus, Shape of a Scrubland
BRGJund Tokens with Prossh, the Magic Dragon Foil
URGAnimar, the RUG CleanerFoil
RRRFeldon of the Third Path 2.0 Foil
BG(B/G)Not Another Meren DeckFoil
UR(U/R)Mizzix, Y Control and X Burn Spells
(W/U)(B/R)GHarold Ramos - The 35 Foot Long Twinkie (In +1/+1 counters)
UB(U/B)Dragonlord Silumgar
-Chandra Nalaar
That.
Instead of the vanila 5/4 for 3R. Make a red sliver for 3R that give s +1+0 or +2+0 and make it a "virtual" limited place holder.
I just hope they skipped them and didn’t* let crab/lobster people see the sun light
But still too bad that they won't be back in Dominaria, which is where they originated (technically, they came from Rath, but Rath is on Dominaria now after the planar overlay).
Will anythng be able to be covered in just one.....?? Even themes and storylines will need to be wrapped up in one set.....A card depicting the beginning and a card with the end of an arc both in the same set...??
As long as they print something actually GOOD with Karn on it I'll be happy. After that trip down agony lane with the M25 spoilers I've got so little faith in this company knowing what people actually like.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
And slivers always delivered.
If there is no replacement, thats a negative for me.
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