Turbo Sliver - unleash the swarm by turn 2-4

Theoric
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Post by Theoric » 4 years ago

Last week ago it occurred to me that I've never seen a good sliver deck. Everyone brags about how amazing theirs is with stories like "OMG this one time on turn 15, I had SO MANY SLIVERS!!!"
Which is hardly impressive. Sliver decks are slow, and susceptible to boardwipes.

Sure, sometimes a sliver deck gets lucky and combos out with stuff like mana echoes or intruder alarm by turn 4 or 5, but that's not a very satisfying win in my opinion. To me, It feels wrong to make a sliver deck that finishes off people with combo instead of aggro, and it's a slow win at that.

My goal was to build a sliver deck that's consistently capable of filling the battlefield with big, flying, untargetable, indestructible monstrosities by turn 2-4 each game, but doesn't have any 'oops, I win' wincons. A deck that wins the way I feel a sliver deck should - by smashing face. I googled for such a deck and couldn't find one.

So this is what I came up with. It may look weird, but I'll explain how it works down below.
Decklist

Commander (1)

Draw/discard cards (3)

Approximate Total Cost:

Essentially, it's a breakfast/hulk deck without the wincons. There's a few paths you can take to unleash a swarm on the battlefield, and none of them require more than 2 mana.

Method #1:
- Use flash to cheat protean hulk on the battlefield so it dies.
- When protean hulk dies, it puts karmic guide and viscera seer into play from the library - karmic guide puts protean hulk back into play.
- sack protean hulk to viscera seer, which cheats Mikaeus, the unhallowed onto the battlefield.
- sack the karmic guide to viscera seer. Thanks to Mikaeus, the guide has undying so it comes back with a counter on it.
- the karmic guide puts protean hulk back on the battlefield. Sack the hulk to viscera seer, and put some slivers in play.
- the hulk comes back one more time (since Mikaeus gave it undying). Sack the hulk to put more slivers in play.
And boom - you have a bunch of slivers to smash people with.

Methods #2 and #3:
Other methods involve dumping your library into your graveyard with hermit druid or cephalid illusionist + nomads en-kor:
- Your library gets dumped into the graveyard and narcomoeba goes on the battlefield.
- unearth fatestitcher and use him to untap a land. (this step isn't necessary if you already have 3 creatures in play)
- cast dread return (by sacking hermit druid, narcomoeba, and fatestitcher) and put karmic guide into play.
- karmic guide takes angel of glory's rise out of the graveyard and puts it on the battlefield.
- the angel puts all the humans in play, including eternal witness, grand abolisher, cartel aristocrat, amoeboid changeling, loyal retainers, and maybe a couple others.
- eternal witness returns Lion's eye diamond to your hand.
- sack the loyal retainers to put mikaeus, the unhallowed into play. (you'll also want to respond to this by sacking angel of glory's rise to cartel aristocrat, just in case she gets destroyed later and tries to remove mikaeus from the game since he's a zombie).
- once mikaeus is in play, sack karmic guide to cartel aristocrat. The guide comes back (since it has undying) and returns protean hulk to play.
- cast the lion's eye diamond that eternal witness returned to your hand, and sack it for uuu.
- cast echo of eons from the graveyard.
- after everyone shuffles their hands and graveyards into their libraries and draws 7 cards, you'll be left with mikaeus, protean hulk, and a bunch of humans.
- sack protean hulk to cartel aristocrat, putting some slivers into play.
- the protean hulk has undying so it comes back. Sack it again for more slivers.

End result
Whichever method you choose results in sacking protean hulk twice. These are some of the options you can get for each of those triggers:
Option 1: sliver hivelord and galerider sliver.
Option 2: Sliver queen and galerider sliver.
Option 3: Sliver legion and galerider sliver.
Option 4: crystalline sliver, cloudshredder sliver, and manaweft sliver
Option 5: amoeboid changeling, cloudshredder sliver, and manaweft sliver*
Option 6: harmonic sliver and necrotic sliver**
*Note: Option 5- if you went with method #2 or #3, then amoeboid changeling will already be in play because it counts as a human. It's also a sliver, so it can turn something else into a sliver - which means you can do shenanigans like turning Mikaeus, the unhallowed into a sliver to protect it, or turning an opponent's creature into a sliver so sliver overlord can steal it.
**Note: Option 6 is particularly nasty if you do that trigger first so the next trigger brings in more slivers to disenchant more stuff. Also, if you have Mikaeus, the Unhallowed in play, then your slivers have undying - which means any sliver that's sacked using necrotic sliver's ability will come back so you can do it again.

Note: it's really not essential to have the overlord as your commander. The deck cheats in slivers on its own so any of the legendary slivers would work well as general.

In playtesting, it's been faster, more consistent, and more resilient than I ever hoped. At first glance it may appear fragile, but it's FAR more resilient than casting slivers the conventional way - which always seems to lead to a boardwipe that sends you back into the Stone Age. The only weakness I've had to deal with so far is anything that exiles cards that hit the graveyard.
For a while I was having an issue with having combo pieces in my hand instead of being in the library or graveyard where I want them, but I resolved that by putting thirst for knowledge, merfolk looter, and thought courier in it. The latter two create pseudo-card draw since the graveyard is like your second hand in this deck.

Any input is welcome.
Last edited by Theoric 4 years ago, edited 2 times in total.

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benjameenbear
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Post by benjameenbear » 4 years ago

Slow clap from this guy!

Excellent idea. I am no Sliver afficianado, but is there a Hulk pile that really bursts P/T stats? Like a package that has Might Sliver variants? Sliver Legion is great for this; is there a way to safely clone it with a Hulk pile like Spark Double?

Theoric
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Post by Theoric » 4 years ago

benjameenbear wrote:
4 years ago
Slow clap from this guy!

Excellent idea. I am no Sliver afficianado, but is there a Hulk pile that really bursts P/T stats? Like a package that has Might Sliver variants? Sliver Legion is great for this; is there a way to safely clone it with a Hulk pile like Spark Double?
Spark double is interesting but might sliver isn't needed.

Let's say you get sliver legion and galerider sliver with the first hulk trigger, and then cloudshredder sliver, amoeboid changeling (assuming it's not in play already from angel of glory's rise), and crystalline sliver with the second trigger. If the changeling turns the Mikaeus, the unhallowed into a sliver, then all slivers will have haste, flying, shroud, and +5 +5. And they'll hit for 41 damage - an alpha strike for anyone who can't block flyers.

An even more creative alternative is getting sliver legion and galerider sliver with the first hulk trigger, and then cloudshredder sliver, amoeboid changeling and bloom tender with the second trigger. The changeling turns bloom tender into a sliver (giving it haste), and it taps to cast Sliver overlord from the command zone - that works out to 41 flying damage too.

Not a bad result for 1u. And if amoeboid changeling is in play beforehand (ie, by using either the hermit druid or cephalid + nomads methods), then that'll be an additional 12 damage.

Edit: but just for fun, let's say we flash/hulk and the 2 triggers get sliver legion, galerider sliver, spark double, and cloudshredder sliver. Then you'd have 4 slivers with flying, haste, and +6 +6. They'd hit for 41 damage (that's so weird that it keeps adding up to 41). But if we add the changeling to the mix, then that would be 58 damage.

Whiffypenguin
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Post by Whiffypenguin » 4 years ago

Your deck is rife with oops I win combos. Flash hulk is the same thing as mana echoes or intruder alarm. Same for hermit library dump combos. These are not what your self described deck would be. Or at least it's not any different then the lolz I won on turn 15 decks that you make fun of.

I don't really have anything constructive to add, but felt compelled to call out the hypocrisy.

Theoric
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Post by Theoric » 4 years ago

Whiffypenguin wrote:
4 years ago
Your deck is rife with oops I win combos. Flash hulk is the same thing as mana echoes or intruder alarm. Same for hermit library dump combos. These are not what your self described deck would be. Or at least it's not any different then the lolz I won on turn 15 decks that you make fun of.

I don't really have anything constructive to add, but felt compelled to call out the hypocrisy.
I'm not sure if you truly don't understand or if you just missed your nap this morning. Judging by your tone, I'll presume the latter.

If I'm in a multiplayer game and I dump my library, cheat out angel of glory's rise, and animate laboratory maniac and azami, lady of scrolls, that would be an oops I win combo because I win on the spot.
Or if the angel animated auriok salvagers and eternal witness (returning lion's eye diamond to my hand), that would be oops I win since I could create infinite mana, cast my general, tutor out all my slivers and use the queen to make infinite tokens.
Or if I did infinite mana combos with intruder alarm or mana echoes.... you get the point.

What this deck does is put slivers on the battlefield faster and easier than a conventional sliver deck could. No infinite combos, no instant wins, just aggro.

There's really no need to be offended. So call me a hypocrite if that helps you get through the day, but all you're doing is revealing your inability to read.
Edit: I removed the comment that made you all pissy. You're welcome.

Whiffypenguin
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Post by Whiffypenguin » 4 years ago

Theoric wrote:
4 years ago
Whiffypenguin wrote:
4 years ago
Your deck is rife with oops I win combos. Flash hulk is the same thing as mana echoes or intruder alarm. Same for hermit library dump combos. These are not what your self described deck would be. Or at least it's not any different then the lolz I won on turn 15 decks that you make fun of.

I don't really have anything constructive to add, but felt compelled to call out the hypocrisy.
I'm not sure if you truly don't understand or if you just missed your nap this morning. Judging by your tone, I'll presume the latter.

If I'm in a multiplayer game and I dump my library, cheat out angel of glory's rise, and animate laboratory maniac and azami, lady of scrolls, that would be an oops I win combo because I win on the spot.
Or if the angel animated auriok salvagers and eternal witness (returning lion's eye diamond to my hand), that would be oops I win since I could create infinite mana, cast my general, tutor out all my slivers and use the queen to make infinite tokens.
Or if I did infinite mana combos with intruder alarm or mana echoes.... you get the point.

What this deck does is put slivers on the battlefield faster and easier than a conventional sliver deck could. No infinite combos, no instant wins, just aggro.

There's really no need to be offended. So call me a hypocrite if that helps you get through the day, but all you're doing is revealing your inability to read.
Edit: I removed the comment that made you all pissy. You're welcome.
I don't get naps. Two small kids. I capped it off with I had nothing constructive to add.

Perhaps hypocrisy was a strong word.

Your combo lines of flash hulk or hermit Druid to not feel like anything different from your self described oops I win combos. Your still comboing out. What's the difference between mana echos and infinite 1/1s, and dropping all your slivers into play in one turn? Other then just being a worse combo line? It's the letter of your law, but it's not the spirit of it.

You said you wanted to agro people out and flood the board with slivers, what you propose is just regular combo lines with slightly more convoluted outcomes, since your funneling it all through slivers.

It just doesn't read as any different to me. But who cares what I think. I'm a random internet nobody.

Theoric
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Post by Theoric » 4 years ago

Perhaps some context will provide insight on why I came up with this deck.

Slivers are fun once they get going, but this is what usually happens: you cast stuff, then it gets boardwiped. Or, you get sliver hivelord in play, then it gets exiled, and then comes the boardwipe. When you invest more money in cards than most of your friends' vehicles are worth and the deck is so slow that it only functions in an extremely casual meta, that's a drag. But people threat-assess the deck as though it's tier 1 so that big investment results in a deck that's essentially unplayable.

This deck puts untargetable, indestructible slivers (those are essentially the only ones I really care about) in play early, making the deck playable. And sure, the way it cheats out those slivers is a little douchebaggy, but the way it wins isn't. It's a deck for people that want to attack with slivers that can hold it's own in a competitive or semi-casual meta.

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