@Wify There are two infect players at my local store, one with G/U and the other with B/G. They are both fairly good with the deck, but I have 0 problems in any serious game with them. I've played against Infect basically since the creation of Modern with Merfolk and vapor snag is just too good. Plus spreading seas helps take them off green or just shut off their Inkmoths, cursecatcher to chump or stop their pump spells. I've never seen Infect as a problem match up in the years I've played the deck.
In terms of affinity, steel sabotage or annul help out alot since they might try to play about Spell Pierce but 1 cmc counterspells help tons, plus if you run Swan Song giving them a bird is not the worst thing in the world. As already mentioned Spreading Seas helps turn off their lands and we can flood the board just as well as them, it really is just practice against the deck and playing carefully.
I'd say for SB it really depends how much you expect a certain deck to show up, if you are honestly terrified of Affinity you will have to pick a deck to lose to. Twin, Amulet, Abzan, Burn, we only have so many SB slots. I still stand by the idea 2 cmc counters aren't worth playing, flashfreeze is cute in the SB and all but you aren't advancing the board and holding up extra mana when you could pierce and snag or other fancy stuff.
Goblins got 1st in a Legacy Open -_- using cavern of course. As much as I love slivers and want to play CounterSlivers again, this is a pretty clear sign in my book. They still don't have a way to disrupt crystalline, but their cavern now takes away any way we can interact with their board. GG slivers...GG
I'm not sure if all these gimmicks are enough to beat out the top tier decks, merfolk have always been an analog for Slivers and with Merfolks resurgence it must be time for slivers to ascend again as well. The problem I am having however is picking between green and black as the third color.
White
Sinew Sliver
Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile
Plated Sliver
Access to Crystalline Sliver
Blue
Wing Sliver
Force of Will
Ponder
Brainstorm
Access to Daze if desired
Phantasmal Image
now for the options: Black
Hibernation Sliver
Duress and similar hand disruption spells
Green
Muscle Sliver
Sylvan Library
Quick Sliver (will get to later)
Access to Harmonic Sliver in sideboard
For Black: Hibernation has always been a hassle to deal with, but with less and less Wrath effects he is starting to lose his importance in the maindeck. He can also dodge removal if Crystalline isn't out yet. The real power in black though is the disruption, instead of just waiting for your opponent to play something you can attack their hand directly and get rid of that pesky force of will they can't play or that show and tell you could be worried about.
For Green: Muscle is amazing, period. Having access to four more "lord effects" and the potential for even more with phantasmal is just ridiculous. Smashing face for 4 or more per sliver everyturn while standing behind your crystalline shield is the real power of slivers honestly. Harmonic in the sideboard or even the maindeck if you are sick of equipment flows very nicely, but loses a bit of speed since you have to drop hibernation for the loop. Sylvan library is almost like a brainstorm every turn and if you see a muscle or two coming up losing 4 life to win the game is hardly bad. Sylvan also has nice synergy with fetches of course.
Green seems like the way to go, but it is hard to deny the hand disruption which in many ways could replace the clunky late game counterspells everyone is sick of drawing. The backbone of this deck is White and Blue, but if we wanted to add in both Green and Black then we risk being spread to think with Mutavault and our numerous fetches.
Many people are unsure if Aether vial and Cavern of Souls should be run in the same deck and I agree with this as well. I think Vial is outdated now that Cavern is out and green has access to Quick Sliver. Quick+Cavern basically gives us the same effect as vial always did, but harmonic then becomes easier to play and we are less worried about it being shattered. Quick also lets us do silly things with crystalline and plated to goad them into attacking or casting removal only to find their efforts for naught.
I think if you are running green drop vial, but if you are gonna pick black hold onto vial. You will need the open mana for disruption, counters, or straight up kill if you want to go that route too. I played Bant slivers a lot and found them to be powerful, but those late game counterspells drew my ire...at the same time though I was more than happy to have access to my muscles and library to speed the game along. I have been wanting to play around with Esper slivers, but with underground sea floating around $150 each I am less inclined to do so
Lastly, red should be ignored. Heart Sliver is great, but that is the only thing worth playing we gain and it is rendered moot with either cavern+quick or vial for EOT sliver playing. Playing burn spells would only spread our control magic too thin and most of our removal is already better than any burn we could play.
That is all I have for now, let me know if you guys have any thoughts on my ideas and by all means keep experimenting. Maybe we will find the holy grail of sliver decks out there and we will see if M13 has anything worth adding and I have high hopes for Ravnica again.
In terms of affinity, steel sabotage or annul help out alot since they might try to play about Spell Pierce but 1 cmc counterspells help tons, plus if you run Swan Song giving them a bird is not the worst thing in the world. As already mentioned Spreading Seas helps turn off their lands and we can flood the board just as well as them, it really is just practice against the deck and playing carefully.
I'd say for SB it really depends how much you expect a certain deck to show up, if you are honestly terrified of Affinity you will have to pick a deck to lose to. Twin, Amulet, Abzan, Burn, we only have so many SB slots. I still stand by the idea 2 cmc counters aren't worth playing, flashfreeze is cute in the SB and all but you aren't advancing the board and holding up extra mana when you could pierce and snag or other fancy stuff.
White
Sinew Sliver
Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile
Plated Sliver
Access to Crystalline Sliver
Blue
Wing Sliver
Force of Will
Ponder
Brainstorm
Access to Daze if desired
Phantasmal Image
now for the options:
Black
Hibernation Sliver
Duress and similar hand disruption spells
Green
Muscle Sliver
Sylvan Library
Quick Sliver (will get to later)
Access to Harmonic Sliver in sideboard
For Black: Hibernation has always been a hassle to deal with, but with less and less Wrath effects he is starting to lose his importance in the maindeck. He can also dodge removal if Crystalline isn't out yet. The real power in black though is the disruption, instead of just waiting for your opponent to play something you can attack their hand directly and get rid of that pesky force of will they can't play or that show and tell you could be worried about.
For Green: Muscle is amazing, period. Having access to four more "lord effects" and the potential for even more with phantasmal is just ridiculous. Smashing face for 4 or more per sliver everyturn while standing behind your crystalline shield is the real power of slivers honestly. Harmonic in the sideboard or even the maindeck if you are sick of equipment flows very nicely, but loses a bit of speed since you have to drop hibernation for the loop. Sylvan library is almost like a brainstorm every turn and if you see a muscle or two coming up losing 4 life to win the game is hardly bad. Sylvan also has nice synergy with fetches of course.
Green seems like the way to go, but it is hard to deny the hand disruption which in many ways could replace the clunky late game counterspells everyone is sick of drawing. The backbone of this deck is White and Blue, but if we wanted to add in both Green and Black then we risk being spread to think with Mutavault and our numerous fetches.
Many people are unsure if Aether vial and Cavern of Souls should be run in the same deck and I agree with this as well. I think Vial is outdated now that Cavern is out and green has access to Quick Sliver. Quick+Cavern basically gives us the same effect as vial always did, but harmonic then becomes easier to play and we are less worried about it being shattered. Quick also lets us do silly things with crystalline and plated to goad them into attacking or casting removal only to find their efforts for naught.
I think if you are running green drop vial, but if you are gonna pick black hold onto vial. You will need the open mana for disruption, counters, or straight up kill if you want to go that route too. I played Bant slivers a lot and found them to be powerful, but those late game counterspells drew my ire...at the same time though I was more than happy to have access to my muscles and library to speed the game along. I have been wanting to play around with Esper slivers, but with underground sea floating around $150 each I am less inclined to do so
Lastly, red should be ignored. Heart Sliver is great, but that is the only thing worth playing we gain and it is rendered moot with either cavern+quick or vial for EOT sliver playing. Playing burn spells would only spread our control magic too thin and most of our removal is already better than any burn we could play.
That is all I have for now, let me know if you guys have any thoughts on my ideas and by all means keep experimenting. Maybe we will find the holy grail of sliver decks out there and we will see if M13 has anything worth adding and I have high hopes for Ravnica again.