Hey all! I actually just joined the forum. I'm not totally sure where the best place to put this was, but since this deck I'm working on isn't really trying to adhere to any format (I just like playing Magic with my buddies), I figured in casual would be fine. So this is a bit of a Johnny deck I'm working on, combining Virulent Sliver with weak unblockable creatures and Hivestone. Essentially trying to bump the opponent to 10 poison counters as fast as possible.
Here's what I currently have in the deck (I'll explain my reasoning for some).
Spells Hivestonex4 Muddle the Mixturex4(The primary uses for this are ensuring I pull out Hivestone, and if I already have it out, grabbing a Blighted Agent, but it's also just nice to have a counter) Mangara's Tomex1(Sort of risky, but if the match is going on long enough and I pull it out, can help speed things back up for me)
Lands Ancient Zigguratx4(Since the deck is so creature heavy) Unclaimed Territoryx2(I'd like a ruling to see if choosing "slivers" would let me play non-slivers with it after playing Hivestone, but this is more for dropping the more expensive slivers)
Forestx4
Islandx10
Some ideas I already have...
Since the Virulent sliver is so important in this deck, I was also thinking about maybe swapping two of the Muddle's for 2 Homing Slivers, since using it just as a Tutor makes its color irrelevant.
I was also considering perhaps Coat of Arms to beef up Blighted Agent and place more weight on its "Infect" ability.
Also a pretty recent card, Animation Module, looks like it could be useful, via its second ability.
As it stands, my testing has shown that I can reasonably manage a turn 6 or 7 victory, but I'm pretty sure a turn 5 victory is possible with my current cards.
So does anyone have any ideas or suggestions in regards to the info here that could perhaps make my deck more consistent or even knock out 10 poison counters faster than turn 5? Keep in mind, this is casual, so I'm really not super interested in spending more than $10-$20 on a single card (and even at those prices I'd hold off on buying for a whiiiiile)
First, the rules question:
No, Hivestone does not make your creature spells into sliver spells, only actual creatures on the battlefield will be slivers. So Unclaimed Territory set to slivers doesn't help with casting nonslivers. You would need Arcane Adaptation to get that effect.
One idea I have for you is Mirrorweave. With that, you can turn your unblocked creatures (and all others as well) into Virulent Slivers. Since all creatures are that same sliver and it doesn't distinguish between your slivers and your opponent's, each creature on the field grants poisonous 1 to all creatures on the field. This includes your opponent's creatures. And since poisonous stacks with itself, all your attackers will essentially have poisonous X, where X is the number of creatures on the battlefield. That should easily go beyond 10 or even 20 poison counters in one swing. Even if you don't have the Virulent Sliver, with say 3 unblocked attackers suddenly turning into the biggest critter on the board, this can easily take out an opponent. (Note, that copy effects only copy what's printed on the orignal card, so +1/+1 counters and other buffs are not copied.) And in a pinch, since your creatures are small, you can use it defensively as a kind of Fog effect, by turning your opponent's big attackers into your small dudes (just make sure it's not the Virulent Sliver!).
Shadow Sliver is risky, because shadow also prevents the creature from blocking creatures without shadow.
Proliferate card from the Scars of Mirrodim block, like Tezzeret's Gambit can give you some card draw while increasing your opponent's poison counters. Also works against opponent with massive -1/-1 counter shenanigans, etc.
Synchronous Sliver isn't worth it. Your creatures are small by nature, so you don't want to block with them anyway. It's better to focus on taking out the opponent.
Running appropriate multilands is a good idea for any multicolored deck, so if you have some available, use them. I would probably shy away from those that enter the battlefield tapped, though, since the creatures are cheap and you want to playa them as soon as possible. Having to wait a turn to use your new land will hurt. You also may want to up the total number of lands in the deck, maybe to 22 or even 23.
That's it for now. I hope there's something useful in there for you. Happy brewing.
Hot damn those are some good tips! I've never seen Mirroweave before, that's diabolocal! I didn't even consider a card that could just straight up turn everything into a Virulent Sliver!
I should also suggest Mirroweave to my friend's Biovisionary deck.
But it looks like if I had some kind of mana ramp in here, like, i dunno Lotus petals or something, I could get a victory in turn 3 with Mirroweave. I'd just have to be able to get enough mana off.
Turn 1 I can get a Virulent Sliver, then turn 2 I can get 2 1-drop unblockables. Turn 3 I just need 1 more 1-drop unblockable and Mirroweave, as all 3 unblockables would essentially have poisonous 4. But that means I would need 5 mana to use in turn 3.
Yea that's fair, would really show up my friend. He has decks that use totally B.S. combos with banned cards, but they usually take a bit to set up. Such as this one exploit combo in his Myr deck that allows him to repeatedly tap and untap a few of his Myr for infinite Mana.
Also, any recommendations on good, quick tutor cards? As I said, I was considering Homing Sliver to get out Virulent Sliver, but also Mystical Tutor for Mirrorweave and maybe Worldly Tutor for Virulent, although Worldly Tutor is pretty expensive by my standards, haha.
Side note, do you think I really need Mangara's Tome at this point, or should I free that slot up for a different low-drop card? I am trying to keep my deck at exactly 60 cards.
Augury Owl gives scry 3 and another creature to turn into a Virulent Sliver, plus it comes with built-in evasion. Its predecessors Sage Owl and Spire Owl as well as their walking counterpart Sage of Epityr can dig quite deep but cannot get rid of the cards you don't need. Sensei's Divining Top is another digging tool to consider. For the later cards, you then probably want some shuffling effects, like fetchlands, to change the top cards of your library.
At this point, if you want to pursue the Mirrorweave combo, I think, you want cheap cards. 5 mana is already quite expensive, in my opinion. The Tome can get you your missing pieces quite reliably, though, but it takes some time.
edit:
Just had an idea on how to get Mirrorweave or Virulent Sliver with the same tutor: Chord of Calling can get the sliver or Kaho, Minamo Historian, the later can search and exile the Mirrorweave. And since Chord is an instant, you can tutor up Kaho during the opponent's end step and have it active on your turn already. A single copy of Kaho would suffice, I think, since it is just meant as a piece in a tutor chain to get Mirrorweave.
I should also suggest Mirroweave to my friend's Biovisionary deck.
A word of warning here:
First, to get the Biovisionary trigger, Mirrorweave has to be used before the end step, so in the second main phase of the turn at the latest.
Second, turning all creatures into Biovisionaries in time will make the player last in turn order with at least 4 creatures win the game, not nessessarily the controller of the original Biovisionary. This is because triggers that go on the stack at the same time are put there in APNAP order (Active Player Non Active Player). So the first player to the right of the active player (or against turn order) with 4+ creatures will have his/her triggers on top and resolve one first, winning the game.
This can still work out well, your friend just hast to make sure to cast Mirrorweave at the right time during the right turn, or when he is the only player with 4+ creatures.
So any thoughts? From my testing with this, it looks like it's now waaaay easier to reach victory conditions on turns 6, 5, and 4.
Also, any ideas for my Sideboard? I've found by testing against others on Untap.in, that my deck gets toootally butchered by cards like Drown in Sorrow
One thing, that still bothers me when looking at your list is the land count. 20 is not much, the sweet number for most decks is somewhere between 22 and 24. Yours can probably do with 22. While you do have a bunch of cantrips now, every mana you spend on finding a land for your next land drop will not be available to assemble your winning creature team.
After contemplating a bit, a rough sketch of a deck of mine would look something like this:
This brew should be able to get a turn 3-4 win quite reliably, which is what you should aim for. Any later and your creatures will be outclassed too much, plus your opponents will have the mana to screw you over. To win you have to be fast. The numbers of course aren't final, as I said, it's a sketch.
Mass removal will of course be your bane, as it is for any deck that relies heavily on creatures. Mass removal should be expected and feared, so some answers should be run main. One of the reasons Chord of Calling is my tutor of choice is, that as an instant it is very versatile, allowing you to get a creature that can counter troublesome spells for example. Two of them are in my list, Judge's Familiar and Spiketail Drakeling. Other options are Cursecatcher, Spiketail Hatchling, Wizard Replica, or Mystic Snake. The thing that makes the Chord so amazing is convoke, which lets you tap your creatures to pay for part of its mana cost, even colored costs (!), so it can potentially even be cast for "free" by tapping creatures.
You can also try to save your creatures from a lesser mass removal like Drown in Sorrow by increasing their toughness in response. Preferably with a "free" spell, like Gather Courage, Mutagenic Growth, or Invigorate. There are also some cheap spells, that can save two or more creatures from that, cards like Symbiosis, Synchronized Strike, Barkshell Blessing, or Tower Defense. Of course, there are also the many Giant Growth variants, which can save one creature. Blue has some tools for this, too, like Triton Tactics. The big problem is, that every mana you spend may delay the combo, and after turn 5, you have pretty much lost the game.
I imagine the deck to perform somewhat like this:
turn 1: land; mana dork
turn 2: land; two unblockables plus VSliver
turn 3a: land; attack, then Mirrorweave for the win
turn 3b: land; if win is not yet possible, don't attack, keep mana open and use Chord to get the missing piece in your opponent's end step; and since you have mana open until then, you can also use Chord to counter a mass removal. This will delay you but won't wreck the deck.
Noble Hierarch and other cards in my list aren't cheap, but can be replaced. For example, Arbor Elf in conjunction with a Breeding Pool serves the same purpose as the Hierarch.
edit:
A small adjustment to the list. You could run only a single copy of Judge's Familiar or two, and even none of Spiketail Drakeling to make room for some Merchant Scrolls. This frees up the Chord a bit by letting you search for Mirrorweave with the Scroll while still being able to cast the Chord with X=1 to get the VSliver, a mana dork, an Unblockable (TM), or a Familiar to counter. Thus making it more likely to combo out on turn 4 and having some means to protect it.
Alright, a lot of good ideas in here. I'm really torn on Chord of Calling. Granted, it does let you pull a creature of any color, and that Kaho combo is pretty dang sweet, but with the extra 2 mana cost, that makes for a total of 7 permanents/lands tapping just to pull her, and 4 tapping if i just want to pull out one of my 1 drop creatures.
There is also the matter of wanting some defense and deck-digging cards in here, so, going off what you've provided, I've made some concessions and here's where I'm currently at.
Thoughts? Also, can you think of anything I could use as opposed to Breeding Pool? I really would rather not spend $40+ getting all 4 of those for my deck. Anything like Gemstone Mine perhaps? Since this deck is supposed to win in as few turns as possible, I'm not so sure the limited use would be an issue. Chord of Calling is pretty pricey too, but, I think I may just have to wait a paycheck and bite the bullet on that one. Expensive hobbies are still hobbies, I suppose, haha.
edit: Also, forgot, with a few quick tests, I was able to get a win-condition with this setup even with a fairly rough starting hand by turn 5.
Unfortunately, Breeding Pool is the only dual land that's both an Island and a Forest, besides Tropical Island, which is both not legal in Modern and even more expensive. Without such a land, the Arbor Elf could just as well be an Elvish Mystic or Llanowar Elves. Though you could enchant a Forest with Utopia Sprawl naming blue to create your own budget Breeding Pool, a combination, that can even get you 4 mana on turn 2.
edit: Avacyn's Pilgrim may be a mana dork to consider, since its mana can pay for Mirrorweave and Judge's Familiar. That last card could even replace some unblockables, since flying is not far off on that.
Chord of Calling is one of those cards, that you can use in many decks, so even if you dismantle this deck, the Chord would still be useful for many others. Likewise, a playset of a shockland will be useful for many decks to come. I know that those cards aren't cheap, and I myself have invested quite some time and money to get such cards, but I have not regretted buying them. I aquired a few copies every few months in addition to buying a booster box of a new set. That way it didn't feel like I just burned a lot of money just to get a handful of cardboard pieces that wouldn't even cover a book page. I the meantime, you can use proxies to play the deck and replace them with the actual cards whenever you get another piece. Or use less expensive duals, like painlands. A problem with that is, however, that this makes it more likely for Hinterland Harbor to enter the battlefield tapped.
Rregarding the digging spells, in the deck, digging and tutoring essentially serve the same purpose, to get the missing pieces. Tutors are more reliable, so I think, that you should choose tutors over digging spells when possible. I know I said, that I would use cantrips to dig into the deck, but that was when I was gathering ideas. Now, with the deck taking shape, that particular idea seems less practical to me.
Also, it doesn't matter how many permanents you tap to get the card you need, if it lets you win the game. If anything, tapping everything means, that you pulled maximum value out of all your cards. And it occured to me, that playing a 1-drop creature on turn 3 doesn't impact the Chord, since the mana you spent on the creature you can save by tapping that creature for convoke. So the fact, that almost all your creatures are 1-drops, makes me want for you to play Chord even more. It also makes the Judge's Familiar more appealing to me, and I would now try to run a full 4 copies, as it is built-in defense against devastating spells while being very synergistic with the deck's goals. On a sidenote, playing a 0-cost creature like Ornithopter can actually inrease your Chord capacities.
Like that Judge's Familiar, Birds of Paradise is extremely synergistic with the rest of the deck, providing color fixing, ramp, and a cheap evasive creature, so I urge you to include that fourth copy if at all possible.
Alright, you make a lot of strong points. Really I would love to get a set of Breeding Pool, so, I may just spread it out and buy them a little at a time like Chord. As for Judge's Familiar, I was a little confused at first as to why you were pushing that card so hard, but I suppose since I'm aiming for victory by turn 4, that payment of 1 extra mana on the opponent's part can really **** with them? Especially since I guess it could be really easy for them to be tapped-out by the time it gets to my turn that early in the game.
So that considered, here's another edit of my deck.
As you can see I kept Preordain in there, really just because I really want something to draw cards. Although if you can think of anything better than Preordain purely for drawing cards then by all means shoot. If I was a millionare I'd just buy 4 Ancestral Recall's, but sadly I'm not. Braingeyser maybe?
Also, I realized the other night that Mirrorweave is actually SUPER good for Slivers in general, since a lot of their abilities stack, such as Leeching Sliver, Frenzy Sliver, Diffusion Sliver(I think), Opaline Sliver, Harmonic Sliver, and any of the +1/+1 slivers. So I think I may buy multiple playsets of Mirrorweave to have handy to just toss in to any future sliver decks I do, haha.
Yes, 1 mana more or less is very important in the early game. Just like your deck wants to use every mana it has each turn, so do your opponent's decks. Even draw-go decks need their full mana for their counterspells, draw spells and flash creatures. One extra mana means one extra turn at this stage of the the game. Judge's Familiar was a popular tournament card during its time in Standard for that very reason. And don't forget, multiples make it even worse for your opponent.
The slivers you listed are cummulative, yes, but keep in mind, that Mirrorweave still isn't that well suited for many of them due to the nature of their trigger conditions. You can't respond to an opponent targeting a sliver by making them all into Diffusion Slivers and expect them to all apply. The opponent still only has to pay for those DSlivers, that were around and had the ability when they targeted with their spell. You cannot retroactively make something trigger for an event that has already happened. Same with Opaline Sliver.
A similar problem arises with Frenzy Sliver, since you would have to use Mirrorweave before blockers are declared, thus robbing all your slivers of their other abilities, most troublesome would be the loss of evasion, like flying. Doing it after blockers have been declared is too late to trigger frenzy because becoming unblocked happens during the blocker declaration turn based action, which is the first thing that happens during that step and no player has priority at that time. And for Leeching Sliver, too, you would have to use Mirrorweave before you declare attackers.
Hm, draw spells, ... draw spells, um ... The best I can think of right now, that would somewhat fit the deck without breaking the bank further are Concentrate and Harmonize, since you want those spells to be cheap yet draw lots of cards. Ancestral Vision would maybe fit your needs best, but is also not cheap. Treasure Cruise is closest to a reprint of Ancestral Recall, but I don't see you putting 5-7 cards into your graveyard with this deck. You could add some selfmill cards, but I can't think of any right now, that would fit the deck's overall strategy. (Also note, that Treasure Cruise is banned/restricted in Modern and the eternal formats for being so close to Ancestral Recall.)
Anyway, the deck looks good. And I may even build it myself, since I already own most of the pieces. If you want I will also help you create a sideboard, though for that I have to know what troubles you are facing, since sideboards are made for the metagame.
Yea, cool thanks! If you do decide to build this yourself, you should send me a PM some time and let me know how it goes for you Once I've played the deck for a while and worked with it a bit, I may even consider trying my hand at a Legacy tournament with it, everything I've put in comes up as legal, so, I see no reason not to.
And yea, I'd have no idea what to even put in a sideboard right now anyways.
Legacy is a very dangerous beast to tackle, a turn 3-4 combo is actually rather slow in that format. You'll also be facing many "free" spells that can screw you out of nowhere.
The deck is also almost legal in Modern, with only Preordain being banned.
As a general sideboard tip, try to adjust to your tutors' strengths: cheap creatures for Chord, blue instants for Merchant Scroll, and generally cheap instants for Kaho. This way, you can make your sideboard into a silver bullet tool box, that has answers for pretty much everything as even a single copy of a card you side in is essentially already in the deck with X+1 copies, where X is the number of ways to tutor for it. If you encounter the same problem over and over, you can even add a single copy of an answer into the main to be able to deal with it right away.
As for what to look for, I think, artifact and enchantment hate would be essential. Maybe some land hate to deal with all those pesky utility lands. More Tower Defenses perhaps, or some Triton Tactics. Some hard counterspells or more versatile ones maybe, for when the Familiar doesn't suffice, or Spiketail Drakeling to substitute for the Familiar.
I finally got around to tinkering with this deck myself. And while actual games will still have to wait for a few days, I did some goldfishing, and decided, that I wanted something like Virulent Sliver in addition for more redundancy. And while looking through possibilities, I found me some interesting options. First, lord types like Muscle Sliver that affect all ceatures of the appropriate type. Though since I myself want to stay in Modern, I'm trying out Lord of Atlantis. The second idea was to use some cheap but inherrently big creature, like Lupine Prototype, to make the unblocked 1-drops into unblocked 5/5s and hit for 15-20 or so. And I found me something, that could become really nasty against nonbue players: Dandân. Mirrorweave everything into that after attackers have been declared, and everone who doesn't control an Island will have to sacrifice all their creatures. Plus, you get to hit for quite some damage.
Here's what I currently have in the deck (I'll explain my reasoning for some).
Creatures
Triton Shorestalkerx4
Virulent Sliverx4
AEther Figmentx4
Blighted Agentx4
Invisible Stalkerx4
Deathcult Roguex4
Latch Seekerx4
Shadow Sliverx2(I figured if I get several actual slivers out, this could be played at the last moment to make everything unblockable and finish)
Synchronous Sliverx1(Seemed like it'd be nice just in case letting my creatures swing and block would save my ass)
Spells
Hivestonex4
Muddle the Mixturex4(The primary uses for this are ensuring I pull out Hivestone, and if I already have it out, grabbing a Blighted Agent, but it's also just nice to have a counter)
Mangara's Tomex1(Sort of risky, but if the match is going on long enough and I pull it out, can help speed things back up for me)
Lands
Ancient Zigguratx4(Since the deck is so creature heavy)
Unclaimed Territoryx2(I'd like a ruling to see if choosing "slivers" would let me play non-slivers with it after playing Hivestone, but this is more for dropping the more expensive slivers)
Forestx4
Islandx10
Some ideas I already have...
Since the Virulent sliver is so important in this deck, I was also thinking about maybe swapping two of the Muddle's for 2 Homing Slivers, since using it just as a Tutor makes its color irrelevant.
Also some of my lands could perhaps be swapped for some dual-color lands, stuff like Botanical Sanctum, Breeding Pool, Flooded Grove, or Temple of Mystery(for the added scry).
I was also considering perhaps Coat of Arms to beef up Blighted Agent and place more weight on its "Infect" ability.
Also a pretty recent card, Animation Module, looks like it could be useful, via its second ability.
As it stands, my testing has shown that I can reasonably manage a turn 6 or 7 victory, but I'm pretty sure a turn 5 victory is possible with my current cards.
So does anyone have any ideas or suggestions in regards to the info here that could perhaps make my deck more consistent or even knock out 10 poison counters faster than turn 5? Keep in mind, this is casual, so I'm really not super interested in spending more than $10-$20 on a single card (and even at those prices I'd hold off on buying for a whiiiiile)
No, Hivestone does not make your creature spells into sliver spells, only actual creatures on the battlefield will be slivers. So Unclaimed Territory set to slivers doesn't help with casting nonslivers. You would need Arcane Adaptation to get that effect.
One idea I have for you is Mirrorweave. With that, you can turn your unblocked creatures (and all others as well) into Virulent Slivers. Since all creatures are that same sliver and it doesn't distinguish between your slivers and your opponent's, each creature on the field grants poisonous 1 to all creatures on the field. This includes your opponent's creatures. And since poisonous stacks with itself, all your attackers will essentially have poisonous X, where X is the number of creatures on the battlefield. That should easily go beyond 10 or even 20 poison counters in one swing. Even if you don't have the Virulent Sliver, with say 3 unblocked attackers suddenly turning into the biggest critter on the board, this can easily take out an opponent. (Note, that copy effects only copy what's printed on the orignal card, so +1/+1 counters and other buffs are not copied.) And in a pinch, since your creatures are small, you can use it defensively as a kind of Fog effect, by turning your opponent's big attackers into your small dudes (just make sure it's not the Virulent Sliver!).
Shadow Sliver is risky, because shadow also prevents the creature from blocking creatures without shadow.
Coat of Arms can easily turn against you, and for +1/+1 effects you could much easier turn to the sliver tribe itself, in Muscle Sliver, Predatory Sliver, etc. At 5 mana you can get Might Sliver.
Proliferate card from the Scars of Mirrodim block, like Tezzeret's Gambit can give you some card draw while increasing your opponent's poison counters. Also works against opponent with massive -1/-1 counter shenanigans, etc.
Triton Shorestalker can be upgraded with Gudul Lurker and/or Slither Blade. Or run some of those alongside it.
Synchronous Sliver isn't worth it. Your creatures are small by nature, so you don't want to block with them anyway. It's better to focus on taking out the opponent.
Running appropriate multilands is a good idea for any multicolored deck, so if you have some available, use them. I would probably shy away from those that enter the battlefield tapped, though, since the creatures are cheap and you want to playa them as soon as possible. Having to wait a turn to use your new land will hurt. You also may want to up the total number of lands in the deck, maybe to 22 or even 23.
That's it for now. I hope there's something useful in there for you. Happy brewing.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
I should also suggest Mirroweave to my friend's Biovisionary deck.
But it looks like if I had some kind of mana ramp in here, like, i dunno Lotus petals or something, I could get a victory in turn 3 with Mirroweave. I'd just have to be able to get enough mana off.
Turn 1 I can get a Virulent Sliver, then turn 2 I can get 2 1-drop unblockables. Turn 3 I just need 1 more 1-drop unblockable and Mirroweave, as all 3 unblockables would essentially have poisonous 4. But that means I would need 5 mana to use in turn 3.
Turn 1: Forest, Birds of Paradise
Turn 2: Island, 2x Triton Shorestalker/Gudul Lurker/Slither Blade, Virulent Sliver
Turn 3: Land, attack with the two unblockables if the opponent has a blocker, or both of those and the Sliver if there's no blocker, Mirrorweave after blockers have been declared with mana from Birds and your three lands.
I wouldn't press too hard to get something like tis going, though, and concentrate more on getting a reliable turn 4 win.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Also, any recommendations on good, quick tutor cards? As I said, I was considering Homing Sliver to get out Virulent Sliver, but also Mystical Tutor for Mirrorweave and maybe Worldly Tutor for Virulent, although Worldly Tutor is pretty expensive by my standards, haha.
Side note, do you think I really need Mangara's Tome at this point, or should I free that slot up for a different low-drop card? I am trying to keep my deck at exactly 60 cards.
Personally, I would try to get some blue cantrips into the deck with which to dig into the library. Cards like Serum Visions, Preordain, Ponder, Sleight of Hand, etc.
Augury Owl gives scry 3 and another creature to turn into a Virulent Sliver, plus it comes with built-in evasion. Its predecessors Sage Owl and Spire Owl as well as their walking counterpart Sage of Epityr can dig quite deep but cannot get rid of the cards you don't need. Sensei's Divining Top is another digging tool to consider. For the later cards, you then probably want some shuffling effects, like fetchlands, to change the top cards of your library.
At this point, if you want to pursue the Mirrorweave combo, I think, you want cheap cards. 5 mana is already quite expensive, in my opinion. The Tome can get you your missing pieces quite reliably, though, but it takes some time.
edit:
Just had an idea on how to get Mirrorweave or Virulent Sliver with the same tutor: Chord of Calling can get the sliver or Kaho, Minamo Historian, the later can search and exile the Mirrorweave. And since Chord is an instant, you can tutor up Kaho during the opponent's end step and have it active on your turn already. A single copy of Kaho would suffice, I think, since it is just meant as a piece in a tutor chain to get Mirrorweave.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
A word of warning here:
First, to get the Biovisionary trigger, Mirrorweave has to be used before the end step, so in the second main phase of the turn at the latest.
Second, turning all creatures into Biovisionaries in time will make the player last in turn order with at least 4 creatures win the game, not nessessarily the controller of the original Biovisionary. This is because triggers that go on the stack at the same time are put there in APNAP order (Active Player Non Active Player). So the first player to the right of the active player (or against turn order) with 4+ creatures will have his/her triggers on top and resolve one first, winning the game.
This can still work out well, your friend just hast to make sure to cast Mirrorweave at the right time during the right turn, or when he is the only player with 4+ creatures.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Creatures
Birds of Paradise x3
Gudul Lurker x4
Slither Blade x4
Triton Shorestalker x4
Virulent Sliver x4
Augury Owl x2
Blighted Agent x2
Spells
Green Sun's Zenith x2
Ponder x2
Preordain x4
Merchant Scroll x2
Mirrorweave x4
Tezzeret's Gambit x3
Lands
Ancient Ziggurat x2
Hinterland Harbor x4
Forest x4
Island x10
So any thoughts? From my testing with this, it looks like it's now waaaay easier to reach victory conditions on turns 6, 5, and 4.
Also, any ideas for my Sideboard? I've found by testing against others on Untap.in, that my deck gets toootally butchered by cards like Drown in Sorrow
After contemplating a bit, a rough sketch of a deck of mine would look something like this:
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Breeding Pool
8 Forest
7 Island
Creatures (29)
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Virulent Sliver
3 Judge's Familiar
4 Slither Blade
4 Gudul Lurker
4 Triton Shorestalker
1 Spiketail Drakeling
1 Kaho, Minamo Historian
4 Mirrorweave
4 Chord of Calling
This brew should be able to get a turn 3-4 win quite reliably, which is what you should aim for. Any later and your creatures will be outclassed too much, plus your opponents will have the mana to screw you over. To win you have to be fast. The numbers of course aren't final, as I said, it's a sketch.
Mass removal will of course be your bane, as it is for any deck that relies heavily on creatures. Mass removal should be expected and feared, so some answers should be run main. One of the reasons Chord of Calling is my tutor of choice is, that as an instant it is very versatile, allowing you to get a creature that can counter troublesome spells for example. Two of them are in my list, Judge's Familiar and Spiketail Drakeling. Other options are Cursecatcher, Spiketail Hatchling, Wizard Replica, or Mystic Snake. The thing that makes the Chord so amazing is convoke, which lets you tap your creatures to pay for part of its mana cost, even colored costs (!), so it can potentially even be cast for "free" by tapping creatures.
You can also try to save your creatures from a lesser mass removal like Drown in Sorrow by increasing their toughness in response. Preferably with a "free" spell, like Gather Courage, Mutagenic Growth, or Invigorate. There are also some cheap spells, that can save two or more creatures from that, cards like Symbiosis, Synchronized Strike, Barkshell Blessing, or Tower Defense. Of course, there are also the many Giant Growth variants, which can save one creature. Blue has some tools for this, too, like Triton Tactics. The big problem is, that every mana you spend may delay the combo, and after turn 5, you have pretty much lost the game.
Just like cheap buff spells, there are also cheap counterspells. Think Swan Song, Mana Leak, Muddle the Mixture, Spell Pierce, ... Counterspell, etc. The "free" counterspells are probably too expensive or too risky for the deck.
I imagine the deck to perform somewhat like this:
turn 1: land; mana dork
turn 2: land; two unblockables plus VSliver
turn 3a: land; attack, then Mirrorweave for the win
turn 3b: land; if win is not yet possible, don't attack, keep mana open and use Chord to get the missing piece in your opponent's end step; and since you have mana open until then, you can also use Chord to counter a mass removal. This will delay you but won't wreck the deck.
Noble Hierarch and other cards in my list aren't cheap, but can be replaced. For example, Arbor Elf in conjunction with a Breeding Pool serves the same purpose as the Hierarch.
edit:
A small adjustment to the list. You could run only a single copy of Judge's Familiar or two, and even none of Spiketail Drakeling to make room for some Merchant Scrolls. This frees up the Chord a bit by letting you search for Mirrorweave with the Scroll while still being able to cast the Chord with X=1 to get the VSliver, a mana dork, an Unblockable (TM), or a Familiar to counter. Thus making it more likely to combo out on turn 4 and having some means to protect it.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
There is also the matter of wanting some defense and deck-digging cards in here, so, going off what you've provided, I've made some concessions and here's where I'm currently at.
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Breeding Pool
6 Forest
8 Island
Creatures (25)
3 Arbor Elf
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Gudul Lurker
4 Slither Blade
4 Triton Shorestalker
4 Virulent Sliver
2 Augury Owl
1 Kaho, Minamo Historian
4 Mirrorweave
4 Chord of Calling
3 Preordain
2 Tower Defense
Thoughts? Also, can you think of anything I could use as opposed to Breeding Pool? I really would rather not spend $40+ getting all 4 of those for my deck. Anything like Gemstone Mine perhaps? Since this deck is supposed to win in as few turns as possible, I'm not so sure the limited use would be an issue. Chord of Calling is pretty pricey too, but, I think I may just have to wait a paycheck and bite the bullet on that one. Expensive hobbies are still hobbies, I suppose, haha.
edit: Also, forgot, with a few quick tests, I was able to get a win-condition with this setup even with a fairly rough starting hand by turn 5.
edit: Avacyn's Pilgrim may be a mana dork to consider, since its mana can pay for Mirrorweave and Judge's Familiar. That last card could even replace some unblockables, since flying is not far off on that.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Rregarding the digging spells, in the deck, digging and tutoring essentially serve the same purpose, to get the missing pieces. Tutors are more reliable, so I think, that you should choose tutors over digging spells when possible. I know I said, that I would use cantrips to dig into the deck, but that was when I was gathering ideas. Now, with the deck taking shape, that particular idea seems less practical to me.
Also, it doesn't matter how many permanents you tap to get the card you need, if it lets you win the game. If anything, tapping everything means, that you pulled maximum value out of all your cards. And it occured to me, that playing a 1-drop creature on turn 3 doesn't impact the Chord, since the mana you spent on the creature you can save by tapping that creature for convoke. So the fact, that almost all your creatures are 1-drops, makes me want for you to play Chord even more. It also makes the Judge's Familiar more appealing to me, and I would now try to run a full 4 copies, as it is built-in defense against devastating spells while being very synergistic with the deck's goals. On a sidenote, playing a 0-cost creature like Ornithopter can actually inrease your Chord capacities.
Like that Judge's Familiar, Birds of Paradise is extremely synergistic with the rest of the deck, providing color fixing, ramp, and a cheap evasive creature, so I urge you to include that fourth copy if at all possible.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
So that considered, here's another edit of my deck.
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Breeding Pool
6 Forest
8 Island
Creatures (25)
2 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Gudul Lurker
4 Slither Blade
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Virulent Sliver
2 Augury Owl
1 Kaho, Minamo Historian
4 Mirrorweave
4 Chord of Calling
2 Preordain
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Tower Defense
As you can see I kept Preordain in there, really just because I really want something to draw cards. Although if you can think of anything better than Preordain purely for drawing cards then by all means shoot. If I was a millionare I'd just buy 4 Ancestral Recall's, but sadly I'm not.
Braingeyser maybe?
Also, I realized the other night that Mirrorweave is actually SUPER good for Slivers in general, since a lot of their abilities stack, such as Leeching Sliver, Frenzy Sliver, Diffusion Sliver(I think), Opaline Sliver, Harmonic Sliver, and any of the +1/+1 slivers. So I think I may buy multiple playsets of Mirrorweave to have handy to just toss in to any future sliver decks I do, haha.
The slivers you listed are cummulative, yes, but keep in mind, that Mirrorweave still isn't that well suited for many of them due to the nature of their trigger conditions. You can't respond to an opponent targeting a sliver by making them all into Diffusion Slivers and expect them to all apply. The opponent still only has to pay for those DSlivers, that were around and had the ability when they targeted with their spell. You cannot retroactively make something trigger for an event that has already happened. Same with Opaline Sliver.
A similar problem arises with Frenzy Sliver, since you would have to use Mirrorweave before blockers are declared, thus robbing all your slivers of their other abilities, most troublesome would be the loss of evasion, like flying. Doing it after blockers have been declared is too late to trigger frenzy because becoming unblocked happens during the blocker declaration turn based action, which is the first thing that happens during that step and no player has priority at that time. And for Leeching Sliver, too, you would have to use Mirrorweave before you declare attackers.
Hm, draw spells, ... draw spells, um ... The best I can think of right now, that would somewhat fit the deck without breaking the bank further are Concentrate and Harmonize, since you want those spells to be cheap yet draw lots of cards. Ancestral Vision would maybe fit your needs best, but is also not cheap. Treasure Cruise is closest to a reprint of Ancestral Recall, but I don't see you putting 5-7 cards into your graveyard with this deck. You could add some selfmill cards, but I can't think of any right now, that would fit the deck's overall strategy. (Also note, that Treasure Cruise is banned/restricted in Modern and the eternal formats for being so close to Ancestral Recall.)
Anyway, the deck looks good. And I may even build it myself, since I already own most of the pieces. If you want I will also help you create a sideboard, though for that I have to know what troubles you are facing, since sideboards are made for the metagame.
Have fun playing.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
And yea, I'd have no idea what to even put in a sideboard right now anyways.
The deck is also almost legal in Modern, with only Preordain being banned.
As a general sideboard tip, try to adjust to your tutors' strengths: cheap creatures for Chord, blue instants for Merchant Scroll, and generally cheap instants for Kaho. This way, you can make your sideboard into a silver bullet tool box, that has answers for pretty much everything as even a single copy of a card you side in is essentially already in the deck with X+1 copies, where X is the number of ways to tutor for it. If you encounter the same problem over and over, you can even add a single copy of an answer into the main to be able to deal with it right away.
As for what to look for, I think, artifact and enchantment hate would be essential. Maybe some land hate to deal with all those pesky utility lands. More Tower Defenses perhaps, or some Triton Tactics. Some hard counterspells or more versatile ones maybe, for when the Familiar doesn't suffice, or Spiketail Drakeling to substitute for the Familiar.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)