Essence Sliver

Creature — Sliver

Whenever a Sliver deals damage, its controller gains that much life.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (44)

Mortlocke on A Pimp Named Sliver Overlord

1 month ago

What's funny is that if you have Lavabelly Sliver, Essence Sliver, Syphon Sliver and the aforementioned Black Market Connections, you gain 3 life per Sliver ETB trigger - negating the life loss completely for the Changeling body.

Mortlocke on A Pimp Named Sliver Overlord

1 month ago

To answer your question - Yes. You would gain 2 life for every 1 damage dealt per Sliver ETB trigger via Lavabelly Sliver with Essence Sliver on the field.

Mortlocke on A Pimp Named Sliver Overlord

1 month ago

Always glad to see another Sliver deck out there in the wild. I see you have Syphon Sliver, did you know that its ability stacks with Essence Sliver? This is a common misunderstanding, but Essence Sliver's ability is NOT Lifelink, nor was it ever errata'd into becoming "All Slivers gain Lifelink". With both Syphon Sliver and Essence Sliver in play, you gain double the amount of life for damage dealt by your Slivers. However, that's only the beginning - with Bonescythe Sliver in play, that goes from double to Quadruple the amount of life gained for the amount of damage dealt. With just these three Slivers in play you would definitely secure a life lead. To make room, i'd cut Opaline Sliver to make room. Thoughts?

dkostna on The Sliver Platter

11 months ago

Combos: ◦ Lavabelly Sliver + Basal Sliver + Dregscape Sliver = infinite damage ◦ Hibernation Sliver + Gemhide Sliver + Lavabelly Sliver + Essence Sliver = infinite damage ◦ Amoeboid Changeling + Sliver Overlord = steal opponent’s creatures

MagicMarc on 5color Sliver

1 year ago

I don't agree about Jodah, Archmage Eternal or Fist of Suns. I think both of those cards actually hurt your deck instead of help it. Your mana costs are not high enough for replacing them with WUBRG. Neither of those cards brings what Morophon, the Boundless does to the table. I would dump Fist of Suns for Fellwar Stone or something like Cryptolith Rite. Even Birds of Paradise or something similar is a way better card for this deck than either of those. I would dump Winged Boots for Lightning Greaves. Haste is better than flying and shroud is better than ward.

You have way too few slivers in your deck to "Swarm" anyone. Let alone a table full of opponents. Your deck also has a lot of cards that are targeted creature removal. I would dump a lot of that removal for adding quality slivers that provide removal or create removal for you. Take a hard look at your sorceries and instants and see if there is a sliver that does the same thing. Then replace that card with the appropriate sliver. You also need more card advantage to refill your hand once you start slamming slivers down. You can combo using your mana slivers, Intruder Alarm and cards like Vanquisher's Banner. With those cards in play, every time you cast a sliver you will draw a card and untap your slivers which can let you chain through your library in no time.

For more card advantage and more slivers I would suggest the looking to add some of the following depending on your budget; Herald's Horn, Icon of Ancestry, Cryptic Gateway, Descendants' Path, Guardian Project, Kindred Discovery, and The Great Henge. Since you don't have Sliver Queen you can make more slivers with Maskwood Nexus or Birthing Boughs. Realmwalker is another great card. Adding 4-6 of some of these will really speed your deck up.

Good slivers to replace sorceries, instants or land you take out:

Necrotic Sliver, Essence Sliver, Two-Headed Sliver, Fury Sliver, Belligerent Sliver, Galerider Sliver, Bonescythe Sliver, Venom Sliver, Syphon Sliver, Diffusion Sliver, Hibernation Sliver, Brood Sliver, Crypt Sliver, Blur Sliver, Opaline Sliver, Toxin Sliver, Tempered Sliver.

You don't have to use all of these but some of them are insanely good like Necrotic Sliver. You don't need any removal spells if you have a bunch of slivers and this one in play.

rb701 on Xenomorphic Expanse

2 years ago

Pulmonic Sliver recycles slivers on death and gives flying, but has a high CMC. Poultice Sliver grants regen, which is handy. Thorncaster Sliver, Bonescythe Sliver, Quilled Sliver, Essence Sliver, Fungus Sliver are all fun. it really just depends on how high you are willing to go with your mana curve. for any tribal deck, i always recommend Door of Destinies to give the extra "thump"

Inigmatix on Sliver in my Thumb

4 years ago

Starting from the Premium Deck is a pretty good place to begin crafting slivers and it's what I did myself and have been playing slivers for a number of years now.

Now for quite a lot of suggestions and thoughts that I hope will be helpful for you

Recommended Cuts

You really don't need Mana Reflection in slivers or most other decks for that matter. It's really a "win more" kind of card and if you're doing well enough that you have the 6 mana to burn on it you're probably better off just dumping more slivers into play or tutoring for slivers that will allow you to win the game with your Sliver Overlord. If you're using it to go infinite and win with Sliver Queen then your Mana Echoes will provide the same effect for that combo but either of the 4-cost token doublers can also work. Anointed Procession Parallel Lives

You also don't really need bombs like Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, when you can spend less mana on more creatures that generate more value, putting 11 mana into a single creature will feel kind of bad. Also, a 10/10 among a board of 20/20 unblockable, vigilant, double striking, lifelink, flying, deathtouch, trample, etc. creatures isn't going to provide much of a bonus, it actually ends up being less of a threat than the rest of your board. Plus, if it gets countered, you’re down 11 mana whereas if somebody counters a sliver then you’re down like 2-4 mana and can still play more slivers.

Mycosynth Lattice opens up your entire board to artifact removal (including your lands) you may want to reconsider this include as it doesn't really provide any benefit to you for all the risk that comes with it.

Sensei's Divining Top may not be as useful in a deck where you have as many tutors as you do and your commander can tutor all your value pieces since you’ll probably be shuffling your deck a lot.

Amulet of Vigor doesn’t actually do that much for you, out of all your permanents there is only one that always enters tapped, Vesuva. With the number of shock and check lands you run, you probably do not need this and can use this slot for something else. (I get that it also works with Cryptic Gateway but without a source for card draw, you’ll run out of slivers to play quite quickly anyway)

Quick Thoughts

Crystalline Sliver turns off any and all "target sliver" abilities like Crypt Sliver and Magma Sliver (You also won’t be able to steal things with Overlord). If you find yourself subject to frequent spot removal and need to bring Crystalline out often to protect your Slivers you can at least keep the regenerate ability with Clot Sliver or Sedge Sliver

Harmonic Sliver can potentially ruin your infinite Token Queen combo as the pieces that enable that combo are all artifacts/enchantments and this sliver’s ETB is not a ‘may’ ability. You must destroy something if there is a legal target on the board so you would end up destroying your Training Grounds, Mana Echoes, etc. If you still want this ability I would recommend swapping this with Aura Shards as it is the same ability with the same trigger but it is a ‘may’ ability and you can choose not to destroy something.

Useful Slivers

Hibernation Sliver is one of the best slivers for avoiding removal. Paying 2 life to protect any sliver from being destroyed, exiled, stolen, etc. is very useful

Belligerent Sliver/Two-Headed Sliver making it harder to block your slivers means more bodies getting through to hit face.

Essence Sliver this is not Lifelink, and because it isn’t it actually stacks with Syphon Sliver for more life points

Dormant Sliver It’s fairly easy to dump your hand when playing slivers but this leaves you with an empty hand and not a whole lot of options. Very good for keeping your hand full of slivers to play. Defender can be a problem but who says you have to attack to win with slivers ;)

Screeching Sliver alternate win, tack this onto infinite sliver tokens combo from the Queen to mill out your opponents. Good if locked out of attacking for some reason

Lavabelly Sliver another non-combat win with Queen combo

Homing Sliver another way to tutor for any sliver you need besides Overlord’s ability

Mesmeric Sliver only card with Fateseal in the game, great for controlling your opponent’s next draw. Force them to only draw lands or maybe give them no lands at all.

Necrotic Sliver having spot removal for any permanent on every single one of your creatures is terrifying a very valuable. Strongly recommend this as an include.

Shadow Sliver I have never encountered anyone playing creatures with Shadow in EDH in all my years of play. This most certainly will let you get through and hit face to win a game, just make sure you kill all your opponents or get rid of it after combat as it leaves you with no blockers

Virulent Sliver I know there are mixed feelings about poison counters in the magic community but hey you get 2 counters on someone with double strike creatures.

Fun and Useful Tribal Cards for Slivers

None of these are particularly pertinent includes and some came with the Premium Deck, but these are just some Tribal cards that I have used over time while playing with slivers. Some I still use and some I do not.

Kindred Summons, Wild Pair, Herald's Horn, Coat of Arms, Kindred Discovery, Descendants' Path, Patriarch's Bidding, Kindred Charge, Vanquisher's Banner, Distant Melody, Kindred Dominance, Living Death, Primal Surge, Harsh Mercy, Door of Destinies

Closing Thoughts

Slivers can be a lot of fun to play but keep in mind that they are very aggressive and can draw a lot of hate from your opponents. Players that have experienced playing against slivers are likely to counter your high-value creatures like Gemhide or Queen and will try keeping your board as small as possible since slivers win by swarming and overwhelming your opponents. I have found that this can be mitigated somewhat by changing your commander since slivers have 3 good options. Sliver Overlord, Sliver Queen, and The First Sliver.

Overlord and Queen are quite similar as they both conducive to trying to hit Queen’s infinite combo as quickly as possible but I have found that Queen tends to make people more nervous than Overlord does since you can create a wide board very quickly with her. Not only that but if you are relatively uninterrupted then silvers can combo out relatively consistently by turn 4 or 5 (depending on how lucky you get). If you like a combo victory, then that’s great, but the combo has very little variance and I personally got bored of it after playing it like that for so long.

Using The First Sliver as your commander is a whole lot less consistent if you’re going for combo but overall I’ve found it to be significantly more fun to play as I can sometimes rip 3-4 slivers for free off the top of my deck. The win is the same with overrunning your opponents but not using an infinite combo every time was very refreshing.

Hopefully you find some of this helpful, slivers are my all-time favorite tribe in mtg and it was great to see them get some love in Modern Horizons.

CrimsonWings3689 on Beware the Hive - Sliver EDH

4 years ago

@The_Munchkin: Sol Ring's exclusion was less of an oversight and more of a "I shouldn't need it" at the time when I originally made the deck. Colored mana production was at a premium, but I'm open to trying it out and cutting one of the redundant slivers like Essence Sliver to see if it's impactful enough. (it's likely to be)

Cascading Cataracts is there as a means of making 5 colors in the event that the Magic gods have seen fit to screw me on colors, but I still have access to enough mana to make use of the land and get the 5 I need. While not having all 5 colors by turn 5 is a rarity, it's insurance for that, if nothing else.