I'm going to play in a local PPTQ with my slivers deck next week. The local meta is one I know well, and although there will be some new decks I expect I'll be fine against most. However, last competition I lost against Jund. Badly. This time, there will be multiple Jund decks around, and I still haven't found a way to beat them. I'm even thinking of playing Leyline of Sanctity 4x sideboard to help against this matchup, but do we have any other cards that help against Jund that I might not be aware of? 4x Diffusion wasn't enough
I think it's not playable, except as an cheap replacement for Caverns. Caverns, Sliver Hive and Mutavault all play a critical role in the deck. This land looks great at first, but I don't see it replacing anything just yet.
Right, results Tournament had only 10 players with top 4, unfortunatly.
Round 1: Death and taxes. Game 1 I took some hits, getting way behind with just a Galerider on the board. As my only out I had to skip blockers, take 11 t the face, going dwn to 4. I then had to pull a CoCo ánd hit two 2/2's, preferably with a Blur sliver. Start of turn, I drew a CoCo, shocked my fourth land, going to 2, and pulled Blur and Necrotic, swinging for 10 through the sky, which was just enough to win the game. Game 2, I had an T1 Aether vial, which I got up to 2 and then put out a lord every turn. Took me 3 Galeriders to win, but I did. So won 2-0
Round 2: Tooth & Nail. This deck tries to get the Xenagod god enchantment and Emrakul on the board by casting Tooth & Nail with Entwine. It can go off in turn 3, but mostly wins in T4. I know, because this was my husband playing against me I usually lose, but we decided to battle it out. Game one, I just went nuts with Slivers, winning easily. Game two, I put Pithing Needle on Arbor Elf turn one, basically stopping him from getting too much mana. He managed to get a Garruk Wildspeaker out though, which made some annoying beasts and even more annoying mana. Fortunatly, he flooded on mana, so I got him down eventually. Won 2-0.
Round 3: Bant Knightfall. Game one went both ways, untill he managed to kill most of my creatures through paths and much-needed blocks. I managed to hold his Knight off a while by making Sliver tokens with the hive, but I never managed to get back. Lost the game. The next two games though were a lot better. Galerider being the MVP it is, I won both games. Game 2 I went Galerider-Predatory-Sinew-Cautery, and he Spell Quellered the Cautery, not realising he was dead on the board if he didn't block with the Queller, so I got my Cautery anyway. Mirran Crusader was really good in this matchup, as it has protection from green, and when I got it out I basically won game 3. Won, closely, 2-1
Round 4: I was the only player with 9 points at this moment, so I knew I needed a draw to get into the top 4. My opponent was at 6 and needed a draw or a win to get in. We decided on an ID to both get into top 4 (and give me time to run to the shop to get some food ).
Top 4:
The decks into top 4 were: 1st: Slivers, 2nd: Tooth&Nail, 3rd: Jund Deathshadow, 4th: Jund.
I got paired against Jund, and he just did Jund things. I played everything I had, so game 1 just went my way. Game 2 was close, but I didnt manage to grind him down enough. Game 3 I manascrewed with just a Mutavault on the board, having my other land and my two Manawefts destroyed. Lost 2-1.
Considering my local meta I'd love your opinions on sideboard. I know I dont play the "Standard" list, but I've decided to Sliver Cannon mainboard (Cautery + Venom) to see how often this works. My local meta consists of:
EldraTron (One or two), Death and Taxes (multiple), Green Devotion/Tooth&Nail, Burn/Goblins, Abzan Combo/Knightfall, U/W control, Jund and Grixis DS.
Affinity is lacking (as I'm one of the usual players and I'll play Slivers). I'm also expecting people to have switched to Abzan Combo.
Now, mainboard, I know I need to work on my land base, but this is the best I have atm.
To be honest, I've not had a problem against mono-red, or red-green aggro. Mainboard, yes, it's a race to get to fogs, but my manabase seems to support me very well. It's not an easy matchup mainboard, that's true, but you only need 2 mana for most fogs anyway. Sideboard, having Gideon online and Repel the Abominable to save him from burn does the trick. Also, counterspells and Cast out against Chandra. Having Authority of the Consuls helps, too. Dont forget to sacrifice your manlands as chump blockers when you need to survive. They can trade fine with most red creatures.
Cats, Vehicles, Zombies(though the lifedrain is annoying, use your boardwipes here), any midrange creature deck (best matchups) are really good. Against other control decks I do fine as well, because I play two Approaches mainboard. No one I played against so far expected the second one after they countered the first. Commit//Memory can help draw the game into overtime after your first win. I know, it's not classy, but a 1-0-1 is still a win for us.
Red Deck Wins and all variants are and will remain the bane of this deck. It's just so hard mainboard to win, but aggro to control always is. Truth be told, I'm expecting the meta to shift to midrange really fast (midrange > aggro) to beat the red decks, making our deck that much better (as we outlast the midrange decks with ease. Half their deck is removal, which is useless against creatureless fog). Hazoret, believe it or not, is not a big problem as long as you dig hard for Approach. Because their decks carry removal that they can't use, and are usually low on lands, it's hard for them to get <1 cards in hand.
I could post my last results with this deck if you want? I did change my list around after the Pro tour (swichtching Gearhulks and Kefnet for Ulamog and two Authorities, and changing the sideboard a bit). I'll be running this deck both on my local FNM and on the upcoming gameday.
Edit: Oh, and having played TurboFog in Modern as well helps a lot. Though, I prefer having a mill-option in Archive Trap or Sphinx's Tutelage. I really miss the mill in standard atm with this deck.
I did look at Chameleon Colossus but I can't get over the fact that he's not fetchable with Collected Company.
Bonescythe is fun, but its a win-more card. I usually side it out, because of the same fact: You can't get him with CoCo.
Mirran Crusader, although double white, isn't too hard to cast in my deck. I summon him up with CoCo. Also, all my fetches can fetch white (Hallowed Fountain), and I even once just Caverned on Knight to cast him.
I tried out Rhonas, but I'll probably side him out for Hivelord because he's rather hard to activate multiple times in this deck. Lifegain, I'd have to look at it. I haven't played much against burn yet, that's why it's not in there.
Now, I'd make a few changes after the Pro Tour. To start, -1 Hour of Revelation for +1 Descend upon the Sinful Mainboard I think I'd remove all creatures, so -1 Kefnet and -2 Torrential. Then, add one or two Authority of the Consuls. Sideboard, I'd add Gideon's Intervention against Walking Ballista. This deck hates Chandra's and other planeswalkers, so I might add some more planeswalker removal mainboard (like Cast Out). My version of Fog wins on manlands, awakened lands or, mainly, Approach. I need to tweak the card draw around a bit more as well. The Pulls can be awkwards, but they can also really help with finding or digging for Approach. However, if you are playing Torrentials, the Glimmers do so much work being flashed back after casting your first approach (just scry two to the bottom and draw the other two and you're 4 cards closer to the second Approach). Lifegain is really good against the monored decks, so you might want to add another Fumigate as well.
Hey there! I'd thought to show my deck and get some help in playing Slivers I'm usually an Affinity player. However, I recently bought into Inventions for my Affinity deck. They happen to be a bit bend- causing the cards to be recognizable in the deck and therefore having an illegal Affinity list Luckilly, I noticed this before I signed up on a tournament. But, last weekend I was participating in a PPTQ and I needed a deck.. So I got back into Slivers, my second deck (the third being TurboFog, which I wasnt too keen on (I know, I'm a horrible person for having Fog in the fist place!)). So, this is the deck I brought:
I play a "slightly" different list then most sliver decks. For one, when I built this deck, I didnt want to spend too much money on it (enter Caverns.. That didnt work out too well ;)). It's tuned to my personal playstyle a LOT. Let me explain some choices. I've chosen 4 basic lands because in my local meta there are a lot of Ghost Quarters and Paths. Might as well be able to fetch a few basics. My own fetches can fetch every single color mana I could need, which makes most hands with one fetch and one other land viable. I'm not playing the full 12 colorless cards because I only have 2 caverns. I cut a fouth Mutavault for another basic land (plains) because of my sideboard.
My sideboard is a total mess. I know that. I picked Grafdigger's Cage against Counters Coco, Paths to interrupt them as well. Warping Wail and Telekinetic are against EldraTron. Warping Wail also comes in againt Baby Jaces and bard wipes. Mirran Crusader against Deaths Shadow. Rhonas against the longer board stalls. Virulent Sliver against infinte life and to close matchups a bit faster if needed. Kataki and Harmonic Sliver against every deck that plays artifacts.
On to the PPTQ. I finished 2-4, but the last 4 decks are the reason I came here (and I hope to get some help from you guys ).
Round one: Vs. Elves. Won 2-0. He mulled to 5, I started with Cavern into Aether vial. He did the same. I then started pumping out Galerider and Predatory, followed up by Sedge with a fetch for Overgrown Tomb into another Predatory with the Vial. Second round he got a lot of Elves but I had an Sentinel Sliver. He was afraid of attacking into my slivers. One moment he had at least 8 elves on the board against my 3 Slivers. He was trying to Shaman of the Pack me out, but only got me down to 9 with that. I Coco'ed into a Mirran Crusader with a Rhonas and then proceeded to kill him in one turn due to double strike, trample, and the Rhonas buff.
Rond two: versus EldraTron. Won 2-0. Rond one, I started off with a Galerider into Predatory into Necrotic. Then found a Manaweft and a Sinew and just went for it each combat phase. Rond two, I kept a hand with Cavern, Aether Vial, 3 Sinews and a Mutavault. Scryed a Bonescythe down and ended up with Galerider on top. Went Cavern-Aether vial. Turn two I got a Sedge off top, played the mutavault and a Sinew. Opponent went land-go. Put my Galerider onto the field with Aehter Vial. Then picked up an Overgrown Tomb from the top, playing Sedge and mainphase Aether Vial into another Sinew. Opponent sighed as I swung for a lot, picked up his next card and showed his hand- 2 Thought Knots and 2 Reality Smashers, but no lands at all.
Rond three, four, five and six were all against Abzan Counters Company. I lost all of them. One 2-0, the others 2-1. I just didn't have anything to interrupt their combo, except curving out and hope their coco misses. So, I'd like to know how all of you combat this matchup ?
Taking a look at the coco-less slivers, wouldn't you rather play Dismembers or Abrupt Decay mainboard for them?
Round 1: Death and taxes. Game 1 I took some hits, getting way behind with just a Galerider on the board. As my only out I had to skip blockers, take 11 t the face, going dwn to 4. I then had to pull a CoCo ánd hit two 2/2's, preferably with a Blur sliver. Start of turn, I drew a CoCo, shocked my fourth land, going to 2, and pulled Blur and Necrotic, swinging for 10 through the sky, which was just enough to win the game. Game 2, I had an T1 Aether vial, which I got up to 2 and then put out a lord every turn. Took me 3 Galeriders to win, but I did. So won 2-0
Round 2: Tooth & Nail. This deck tries to get the Xenagod god enchantment and Emrakul on the board by casting Tooth & Nail with Entwine. It can go off in turn 3, but mostly wins in T4. I know, because this was my husband playing against me
Round 3: Bant Knightfall. Game one went both ways, untill he managed to kill most of my creatures through paths and much-needed blocks. I managed to hold his Knight off a while by making Sliver tokens with the hive, but I never managed to get back. Lost the game. The next two games though were a lot better. Galerider being the MVP it is, I won both games. Game 2 I went Galerider-Predatory-Sinew-Cautery, and he Spell Quellered the Cautery, not realising he was dead on the board if he didn't block with the Queller, so I got my Cautery anyway. Mirran Crusader was really good in this matchup, as it has protection from green, and when I got it out I basically won game 3. Won, closely, 2-1
Round 4: I was the only player with 9 points at this moment, so I knew I needed a draw to get into the top 4. My opponent was at 6 and needed a draw or a win to get in. We decided on an ID to both get into top 4 (and give me time to run to the shop to get some food
Top 4:
The decks into top 4 were: 1st: Slivers, 2nd: Tooth&Nail, 3rd: Jund Deathshadow, 4th: Jund.
I got paired against Jund, and he just did Jund things. I played everything I had, so game 1 just went my way. Game 2 was close, but I didnt manage to grind him down enough. Game 3 I manascrewed with just a Mutavault on the board, having my other land and my two Manawefts destroyed. Lost 2-1.
4 Galerider Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
3 Manaweft Sliver
3 Sedge Sliver
2 Blur Sliver
2 Cautery Sliver
2 Diffusion Sliver
2 Gemhide Sliver
2 Sentinel Sliver
2 Necrotic Sliver
1 Venom Sliver
Spells
3 Aether Vial
4 Collected Company
4 Mutavault
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Sliver Hive
2 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Plains
2 Pithing Needle
1 Crook of Condemnation
2 Warping Wail
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Virulent Sliver
1 Pharika, God of Affliction
1 Mirran Crusader
2 Harmonic Sliver
1 Telekinetic Sliver
1 Syphon Sliver
1 Sliver Hivelord
Considering my local meta I'd love your opinions on sideboard. I know I dont play the "Standard" list, but I've decided to Sliver Cannon mainboard (Cautery + Venom) to see how often this works. My local meta consists of:
EldraTron (One or two), Death and Taxes (multiple), Green Devotion/Tooth&Nail, Burn/Goblins, Abzan Combo/Knightfall, U/W control, Jund and Grixis DS.
Affinity is lacking (as I'm one of the usual players and I'll play Slivers). I'm also expecting people to have switched to Abzan Combo.
Now, mainboard, I know I need to work on my land base, but this is the best I have atm.
Cats, Vehicles, Zombies(though the lifedrain is annoying, use your boardwipes here), any midrange creature deck (best matchups) are really good. Against other control decks I do fine as well, because I play two Approaches mainboard. No one I played against so far expected the second one after they countered the first. Commit//Memory can help draw the game into overtime after your first win. I know, it's not classy, but a 1-0-1 is still a win for us.
Red Deck Wins and all variants are and will remain the bane of this deck. It's just so hard mainboard to win, but aggro to control always is. Truth be told, I'm expecting the meta to shift to midrange really fast (midrange > aggro) to beat the red decks, making our deck that much better (as we outlast the midrange decks with ease. Half their deck is removal, which is useless against creatureless fog). Hazoret, believe it or not, is not a big problem as long as you dig hard for Approach. Because their decks carry removal that they can't use, and are usually low on lands, it's hard for them to get <1 cards in hand.
I could post my last results with this deck if you want? I did change my list around after the Pro tour (swichtching Gearhulks and Kefnet for Ulamog and two Authorities, and changing the sideboard a bit). I'll be running this deck both on my local FNM and on the upcoming gameday.
Edit: Oh, and having played TurboFog in Modern as well helps a lot. Though, I prefer having a mill-option in Archive Trap or Sphinx's Tutelage. I really miss the mill in standard atm with this deck.
Bonescythe is fun, but its a win-more card. I usually side it out, because of the same fact: You can't get him with CoCo.
Mirran Crusader, although double white, isn't too hard to cast in my deck. I summon him up with CoCo. Also, all my fetches can fetch white (Hallowed Fountain), and I even once just Caverned on Knight to cast him.
I tried out Rhonas, but I'll probably side him out for Hivelord because he's rather hard to activate multiple times in this deck. Lifegain, I'd have to look at it. I haven't played much against burn yet, that's why it's not in there.
2 Torrential Gearhulk
1 Kefnet the Mindful
Spells:
3 Anticipate
3 Pull from Tomorrow
3 Glimmer of Genius
3 Commit//Memory
3 Bounty of the Luxa
4 Encircling Fissure
4 Haze of Pollen
3 Repel the Abominable
4 Commencement of Festivities
1 Fumigate
1 Hour of Revelation
2 Approach of the Second Sun
2 Fortified Village
2 Irrigated Farmland
1 Port Town
1 Scattered Groves
4 Aether Hub
2 Lumbering Falls
4 Island
3 Forest
4 Plains
3 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Disallow
1 Kefnet's Last Word
4 Cast Out
2 Gideon of the Trials
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Now, I'd make a few changes after the Pro Tour. To start, -1 Hour of Revelation for +1 Descend upon the Sinful Mainboard I think I'd remove all creatures, so -1 Kefnet and -2 Torrential. Then, add one or two Authority of the Consuls. Sideboard, I'd add Gideon's Intervention against Walking Ballista. This deck hates Chandra's and other planeswalkers, so I might add some more planeswalker removal mainboard (like Cast Out). My version of Fog wins on manlands, awakened lands or, mainly, Approach. I need to tweak the card draw around a bit more as well. The Pulls can be awkwards, but they can also really help with finding or digging for Approach. However, if you are playing Torrentials, the Glimmers do so much work being flashed back after casting your first approach (just scry two to the bottom and draw the other two and you're 4 cards closer to the second Approach). Lifegain is really good against the monored decks, so you might want to add another Fumigate as well.
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Blood Crypt
1 Marsh Flats
3 Polluted Delta
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Mutavault
4 Sliver Hive
3 Aether Vial
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Collected Company
Creatures
4 Galerider Sliver
1 Darkheart Sliver
2 Sentinel Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
4 Manaweft Sliver
3 Diffusion Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
2 Sedge Sliver
3 Blur Sliver
2 Necrotic Sliver
1 Bonescythe Sliver
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Telikinetic Sliver
2 Warping Wail
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Harmonic Sliver
2 Rhonas, the Indomitable
2 Path to Exile
1 Mirran Crusader
2 Virulent Sliver
I play a "slightly" different list then most sliver decks. For one, when I built this deck, I didnt want to spend too much money on it (enter Caverns.. That didnt work out too well ;)). It's tuned to my personal playstyle a LOT. Let me explain some choices. I've chosen 4 basic lands because in my local meta there are a lot of Ghost Quarters and Paths. Might as well be able to fetch a few basics. My own fetches can fetch every single color mana I could need, which makes most hands with one fetch and one other land viable. I'm not playing the full 12 colorless cards because I only have 2 caverns. I cut a fouth Mutavault for another basic land (plains) because of my sideboard.
My sideboard is a total mess. I know that. I picked Grafdigger's Cage against Counters Coco, Paths to interrupt them as well. Warping Wail and Telekinetic are against EldraTron. Warping Wail also comes in againt Baby Jaces and bard wipes. Mirran Crusader against Deaths Shadow. Rhonas against the longer board stalls. Virulent Sliver against infinte life and to close matchups a bit faster if needed. Kataki and Harmonic Sliver against every deck that plays artifacts.
On to the PPTQ. I finished 2-4, but the last 4 decks are the reason I came here (and I hope to get some help from you guys
Round one: Vs. Elves. Won 2-0. He mulled to 5, I started with Cavern into Aether vial. He did the same. I then started pumping out Galerider and Predatory, followed up by Sedge with a fetch for Overgrown Tomb into another Predatory with the Vial. Second round he got a lot of Elves but I had an Sentinel Sliver. He was afraid of attacking into my slivers. One moment he had at least 8 elves on the board against my 3 Slivers. He was trying to Shaman of the Pack me out, but only got me down to 9 with that. I Coco'ed into a Mirran Crusader with a Rhonas and then proceeded to kill him in one turn due to double strike, trample, and the Rhonas buff.
Rond two: versus EldraTron. Won 2-0. Rond one, I started off with a Galerider into Predatory into Necrotic. Then found a Manaweft and a Sinew and just went for it each combat phase. Rond two, I kept a hand with Cavern, Aether Vial, 3 Sinews and a Mutavault. Scryed a Bonescythe down and ended up with Galerider on top. Went Cavern-Aether vial. Turn two I got a Sedge off top, played the mutavault and a Sinew. Opponent went land-go. Put my Galerider onto the field with Aehter Vial. Then picked up an Overgrown Tomb from the top, playing Sedge and mainphase Aether Vial into another Sinew. Opponent sighed as I swung for a lot, picked up his next card and showed his hand- 2 Thought Knots and 2 Reality Smashers, but no lands at all.
Rond three, four, five and six were all against Abzan Counters Company. I lost all of them. One 2-0, the others 2-1. I just didn't have anything to interrupt their combo, except curving out and hope their coco misses. So, I'd like to know how all of you combat this matchup