Queen of Hordes. Her Majesty.

Do you like Tribal Creatures? Do you enjoy crushing your opponents with endless ranks of creatures that have indestructible, +1,000,000.../+1,000,000..., flash, flying, haste, shroud, regenerate, first strike, doublestrike, AND deathtouch? If so, then Sliver Overlord is the perfect choice for you. With its ability to tutor for any other creature in your deck, you have a complete toolkit for any situation at your disposal. With a little help from the hive Overlord can steal the opponent's most prized creatures, adding their might to your own (and making them a Sliver). Alternatively, you could use Overlord to beseech her Highness, the Queen along with her decree of absolute victory you can become unstoppable - crushing your opponents' hopes and dreams with creatures that have more abilities than the card would have room for.

This decklist is organized into custom categories - for flavor:

  • The Brood: Creatures
  • Legacy Catalysts: Artifacts, Ramp Spells, Tutors/Top-deck manipulation, and Recursion
  • The Hive: Lands
  • Extinction Event: Removal/Interaction and Counter magic

The Queen's Egg is an example of an "ideal" (as in monetary cost is not an issue, only the most efficient cards allowed) mid-range "casual" competitive Sliver tribal EDH build. This deck is intended for use in a tournament or high-power setting where decks are expected to consistently threaten to win between turns 5 and 8. To clarify, this is not a cEDH deck build as it is not built with any of those archetypes in mind. As a point of reference, I also used the following videos from The Command Zone Podcast to try to fairly (and as impartially as possible) assess this deck's Power level:

This deck has been inspired by The Professor of TolarianCommunityCollege's introductory build discussed in the video A Study in Slivers. This deck continues where the Professor's introduction began - ultimately pushing the Sliver tribal archetype to it's most competitive limits in EDH.

The obvious strength of this deck is that Slivers are the greatest tribe in all of Magic (If you disagree with me, then allow me to inform you that you are wrong.) Slivers build off of each other, becoming combo/synergy pieces to establish win states. As a result of the deck being so creature focused the deck is weak against constant mass removal, stax, and sacrifice effects. Additionally, the commander itself can be a liability if stolen by an opponent (specifically Overlord's second ability). Additionally, due to the lack of basic land cards in the deck spells such as Blood Moon, Contamination or Back to Basics can outright shut down this deck's manabase if played at the right time.

There is also a weakness that is unique to all Sliver decks: Sliver Hate™. Wizard Mentor archdukeofevil described it perfectly: "When you sit down at a table consider yourself playing Archenemy, and you don't get the silly cards to help. Usually everyone just blasts the slivers and then continues the game." Sliver decks tend to be politically weak - as in some playgroups they are perceived to be a threat starting at turn 0.

The strategies of this deck are to: pursue an infinite combo with Sliver Queen as the focus, swinging in tall with Commander Damage (basically a Voltron strategy with static creature based abilities) or swinging wide with a large army for Combat Damage. Each strategy can be transitioned to depending on the opponents and resources available - Overlord is a toolbox commander, but for added redundancy the deck has a bevy of various tutors to make sure you get the right tool for the right boardstate.

"Slivers have a vicious bony spear on a flexible limb growing from their chest cavity. With it they inject a corrosive solution that breaks down their prey's body tissue" - Slivers, from "The Art of Magic: The Gathering - The Rath Cycle" - Source

This quote flavors the deck's playstyle which is to attack from multiple angles: Aggressively pursue an infinite combo, while continuing to add pressure on your opponents by attacking with creatures (primarily the Commander) with an ever growing amount of keyword abilities. Interaction is absolutely mandatory, especially in a more competitive meta. Keep in mind that this deck is rarely the fastest at the table, that's why it's mandatory to try and slow down your opponents with your arsenal of interaction to keep them from thwarting your plans.

A good heuristic to follow would be - on turn 5, if you are well ahead of your mana curve (if you have access to at least ) and have at least two of any of the following: Mana Echoes, Gemhide, Heart, Basal, Lavabelly or Queen on the battlefield, then it is feasible to pursue a combo win. If you are behind curve, and do not have at least two of the previously mentioned cards on battlefield, then a win through combat damage or commander damage with some evasion can easily be built up solidifying your position beyond turn 8.

Some general guidelines for building a Sliver deck:

Try and keep your average CMC below 3. Since this is a WUBRG deck and your commander is 5 colors, you need to be lean and fast with your spells. You will need interaction, so Abrupt Decay, Counterspell and spells of that ilk are highly recommended.

Try not to have too many slivers. Yes, keywords are awesome, but you don't need all of them. Focus on the slivers that contribute directly to your game plan. If you want aggro? Change your commander to Sliver Legion or Sliver Hivelord and focus on Slivers that help you get your damage on your opponents. Combo? Change your commander to Sliver Queen and gather her combo pieces. Midrange/Control? Stick with Sliver Overlord and pick Slivers that are flexible enough to lend themselves to ether strategy when needed. A good number of Slivers to aim for (excluding your commander) is around 25 or less. Try not to exceed that.

Your manabase is key. Your deck lives and dies by this. Try to include fetches (Mirage fetchlands are also acceptable!) along with dual lands that have basic land types such as Shocklands, Battle Lands or Bicycle Lands (aka Dual Colored Cycling Lands).

What is planned for this deck going forward?

The deck has reached a Homeostasis in the respect that there aren't going to be many dramatic changes in the foreseeable future. All I do is simply keep an eye out for new cards that I can experiment with in this deck. Also, a big thanks to the TappedOut community - as folks are always suggesting cards that I've completely missed or needed to take a second look at.

Recently, the deck has reached a new tappedout milestone: The Queen's Egg is now (as of May 2020) the highest rated Sliver Tribal + Sliver Overlord deck on the site. It took a lot of advertising, but the deck managed to get 500+ upvotes - overtaking (for now at least)the Professor of Tolarian Community College's Introductory build on Slivers. I'll admit that his build has had an influence on previous iterations of this deck - but I took that basic premise and pushed it to as far as I could.

We Sliver players are a Hive mind race, and as such I wish for this deck to serve as a resource for individuals looking to build a Sliver EDH deck of their own. If you've read this far into my deck description then all I can say is thank you. If you're looking for any help, inspiration, whatever - don't hesitate to ask. Also I do try and help with decks that aren't just Slivers...so again if you're a player that needs help, or just wants to chat then your friendly neighborhood poorly disguised group of slivers is up to the task.


The (Actual) Overlord's Chrysalis Show

Previously, my amazing wife got me a custom handmade box for my favorite tribe, but unfortunately as I decided to upgrade the protection for each individual card the full deck no longer fit in that box. So recently I decided to upgrade and purchase an all new box that had enough room to store the entire deck. Themed after the Original and Secret Lair art prints of the Sliver Overlord (one of my all time favorite MTG Cards) my new deck box - The Overlord's Chrysalis shall house my prized deck from now on. Like the first, this lovely deckbox was crafted by none other than the great Liefkicker and The Being. You can find out more on Liefkicker's Website or Patreon - I personally am a Patron, as I love his stuff. If you want to want to see a more comprehensive review about Liefkicker's products (albeit from awhile ago), I suggest you look at the TolarianCommunityCollege's review: A Review of The Hedron Box for Magic: The Gathering Also, Shout Out to the Professor!

For the few of you who have been keeping track of this deck's progress Gattison crafted some awesome and funny song lyrics which are a parody of We Care Alot by Faith No More. I made an update about this before, but over time it may become lost from the front page, so here's another location where it may be discovered. As a reminder you can find Gattison's Studio right here. He takes requests! So don't hesitate to contact him, for every deck deserves it's own song. So without further ado, here is the official song of The Queen's Egg:

Show

The coding for this primer was developed by Epochalyptik here.

Suggestions

Updates Add

I'm always happy to see new Slivers, especially ones who have interesting and never seen before mechanics. For the sake of brevity, I'll only go into the Slivers that have really caught my eye and am seriously considering for this deck.

Capricious Sliver

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This is quite the exciting ability so long as I have evasion for my creatures and have the mana to take advantage of Capricious' ability during the second main phase. The potential interaction with Bonescythe Sliver seems nice as being able to dig into my library twice as deep can help me find an answer when need. It also makes top deck manipulation (such as Sensei's Divining Top) or tutors like Vampiric Tutor more impactful as I would be able to stack the effect and exile the card or cards I desire to cast before the damage assignment step. But the unfortunate drawbacks of the "until the end of turn" clause and the fact that this is not a "may" ability does give me some pause when wanting to include it.

Regal Sliver

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Monarch has always been a favorite mechanic of mine, and to bring it to Slivers makes me happy. Regal Sliver ensures that i'll always be Monarch as all I simply need to do during my turn is just cast another Sliver to take the crown from another player, and of course the end of turn draw trigger from the Monarch ability does help keep my grip full. The interaction with Sliver Queen, or Brood Sliver + Bonescythe Sliver will make Regal Sliver a threat that must be answered as creating tokens at instant speed or during my combat step for an extra +3/+3 for each Sliver on the second damage assignment step can get out hand very quickly. On second thought, Regal's ability feels "Win-more" as i'd need an already established boardstate to really take advantage of it's ability. I'm going to be hesitant for now on including it - but please someone correct me if i'm wrong with this assessment.

Taunting Sliver

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Currently, this is the Sliver who caught my eye. Relevant at any point in the game, to be able to Goad an important creature into exposing itself while it's controller is unable to support or protect it can destabilize a board state. Better yet, during a late game I can ensure a threat goes to another player at just the right time due to some great interaction with Quick Sliver. This card gives me Harmonic Sliver vibes in that it's a powerful ability that isn't a "may" - but it can absolutely wreck multiple board states with the right timing. But what to cut? The First Sliver - I've always felt that this sliver in particular requires a bit more building around it to really get the best value out of it's cascade triggers. Plus, I've never really found myself wanting to tutor for it during games anyway. I can definitely imagine myself looking to Taunting Sliver to buy time and to even have a bit of political power by choosing one creature over another for a favor. What do you think of this choice? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment of Taunting Sliver? Please let me know in the comments.

P.S. I'm also going to get a copy of that Boarderless Frame Break Kindred Dominance. That art is just amazing.

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Casual

99% Competitive

Revision 181 See all

(2 weeks ago)

-1 Llanowar Wastes main
+1 Overgrown Tomb main
Top Ranked
Date added 8 years
Last updated 2 weeks
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

13 - 0 Mythic Rares

61 - 0 Rares

11 - 0 Uncommons

11 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.34
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Sliver 1/1 C, Treasure
Folders Cool decks, Slivers, Deck Ideas, Sliver, Cool Decks by Other People, EDH, Sliver, good decks, Jesus, Slivers
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