You can't heal quad with Essense sliver. At the time of printing Essense Sliver, Lifelink wasn't a thing, so dispite having Essense sliver and Siphon Sliver out, you would not be healing for quad. Double strike, on the other hand, does give you double.

Thank you for the comment, Troys50. This is definitely another one of those much needed sanity check moments. However, I think you're wrong. I'll explain in a few points.

• "At the time of printing Essense Sliver, Lifelink wasn't a thing" - if this is the case, then why didn't wizards change the wording when they reprinted the card at a much later date ala Timespiral - Essence Sliver. Wizards had the opportunity to errata the card...but didn't. By timespiral lifelink definitely existed.

• Then I looked up previous rulings and found this: "The Oracle text has the answer: Essence Sliver does neither have nor grant lifelink. It has a triggered ability that's cumulative." - CarstenHaese, Level 2 Magic Judge - Source

So while I appreciate you giving me a sanity check, I think it would be best if you actually gave a source or two when discussing rulings on cards. Tell me your thoughts on this - Did I miss a ruling Wizards gave that erratas Essence Sliver's ability? What made you think that Essence Sliver was modified/changed/corrected?

My god... I wish I can foil out my tribal Dragons lol. And I have always wanted to play with slivers at one point. but I will never be able to afford this XD.

Oh there's way to afford this, you just make some necessary cuts to the manabase as a start. Using weaker lands like Rupture Spire, Opulent Palace, Transguild Promenade, Esper Panorama and the others, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse. It slows the deck down considerably but it would still be playable.

Theres others like Exotic Orchard, Forbidden Orchard, Ancient Ziggurat, that can be swapped in too.

CinnaToastKrunch, this deck was years in the making I kid you not. I fell in love with Slivers from the moment I met them back in Legions. A friend made a standard deck and quickly wiped the floor with me and my Wizard tribal deck (it was a garbage deck, btw). You can build this as well, you just need to carefully spend and plan is all. Delta-117 had the right idea to get the cost down, most of the monies poured into this deck are from the revised dual lands (the cheapest instance of the "original" dual lands, btw). The deck would be around $500-ish dollars if you removed the duals, and some of the high priced counterspells (Mana Drain specifically), artifacts (Mana Crypt) and Fetchlands.

Ah alright haha, thank you so much! I still have a litte work to do with my tribal dragons but It's actually pretty fast as it is! Thanm you both Delta-117 and LVL_666

Actually, CinnaToastKrunch I think if you want to pursue a Mana Crypt (which is a must have for any EDH deck) now would be the time to do it since there are so many fresh instances of the card roaming around. I think you could get a MP copy for around $50 to $40. Your dragons will be much faster with a Mana Crypt in their coffers.

Well that's a bit unfortunate with the fact i sold one when EMA came out lol. But I feel you are right and I will try and trade for one or something! Thank you!

@LVL_666 I had heard this from my friends that this was not the case, that quad healing wasn't something possible with Essence Sliver. Guess you can't trust your friends, huh? Hail the Brood Queen! Bows

Troys50, you don't need friends when you have slivers LOL.

Commander 2017 has been announced for August.

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/announcing-commander-2017-edition-2017-04-18

In summary there will only be 4 decks rather than 5 this time around, but they will be different than usual. These will be based on "some of Magic's most popular, and interesting, tribes!"

Do you think there is any slight chance of stuff for sliver cards? Or is it more likely going to be elves, zombies, goblins, and merfolk?

First of all, I must give my love to the hive. These are my favorite critters in all of Magic.

More importantly, though, I have seen this in many other Sliver decks and feel the need to bring it to your attention as well. It concerns the Crystalline Sliver. Since it gives Slivers shroud, it hurts the use of certain other Slivers, as well as the Amoeboid Changeling + Sliver Overlord combo (can't swipe opponents' critters with the Crystalline in play).

I mention this because I ran into similar problems with my Sliver EDH deck. The Crystalline Sliver hampered the use of certain abilities unless I had ways of returning it to hand before using said abilities. Obviously, though, this made the Slivers vulnerable to opponents' spells/abilities while I was trying to do other things.

marcus1679 thanks for your input and upvote, the hive is most pleased. I share your concerns about Crystalline Sliver, that's why I kept the number of Slivers with targeting based abilities down to a minimum - there's only Crypt Sliver and Amoeboid Changeling in the deck. Ideally, i'd like to have Magma Sliver in the deck, but due to the high likelihood of Crystalline Sliver being in play I decided against it.

The combo between Amoeboid Changeling and Sliver Overlord is amazing, but it's not essential to me getting a wincon...so it's worthwhile to keep. Crypt Sliver is just good to have in case I don't have Crystalline out on the field. One of the best synergies in the deck however, is Crystalline Sliver and Sliver Hivelord - Indestructible AND shroud? yes please. If only there were a well crafted sliver that also had/shared the ability of hexproof. One can only dream...

LVL_666, I agree with the hexproof ability. It's something I have been dreaming about for a while as well.

As far as the Crypt Sliver is concerned, consider replacing it with the Clot Sliver. You would still have regeneration, but without the need to target. And with Mana Echoes and Training Grounds, the mana cost for the Clot's ability is negligible.

Yeah I think that would be neat, I had thought of a sliver with hexproof like that too. I even thought up a name for it at one point, and I thought it could be called Apex Sliver or something like that, and it would be another 5 colour sliver potentially.

LVL_666 I don't think you noticed my earlier comment but I mentioned anyways the announcement of commander 2017, and there will be 4 rather than five. However they will be focused on tribes this time around. There accordingly is going to be a total of 56 new cards across the 4 four decks.

Wouldn't it be amazing to get something for slivers, potentially even some new ones? I do hope this happens. Do you think Wizards statement of "some of Magic's most popular, and interesting, tribes!" might mean this?

Also I thought I would mention the existence of the new land card Cascading Cataracts which you might find interesting despite the fact by turn 4-5 you will ideally have all your colors anyways, I think despite that it might still be useful here potentially.

Delta-117, you're awesome with always bringing me the latest and greatest. Thank you, the hive should consider you it's herald lol. But the very interesting announcement you sent has my hive mind teeming with excitement... but as for your question...a hopeful maybe- i'll say 65% yes. Why? Because Slivers are incredibly popular, but have been limited to a sometimes only affair- Wizards introduces new broodlings every few years or so, rarely producing new slivers in large groups. The last time a large group was made was back in Time Spiral when they introduced 26 new slivers at once - source. Ever since then they've introduced them in smaller numbers. If they do make slivers one of the four choices in Commander 2017, then they might make a few new slivers unique to the set due to the following statement in the article you linked before:

"The set features four new tribal-themed, 100-card decks including 56 all-new Magic cards legal in Vintage and Legacy."

I'm truly hopeful for that, but take it worth a grain of salt. Additionally, if The Professor of TolarianCommunityCollege was accurate in his prediction of the set after Amonkhet (I can't remember which video...but he said it!) will be set back on the plane of Dominara, which is the new home of the Slivers due to Rath being destroyed. If we don't see slivers in Commander 2017, then Wizards may reintroduce Slivers in a Time Spiral-esque fashion by introducing a large new set of broodlings. Obviously i'd like to see Slivers in both sets. Sliver Legion is LONG past due for a new printing in my opinion.

Sorry for ranting, hope you enjoyed reading.

I do hope The Professor's prediction comes true, I never was playing magic at the time of Dominara even though I do know a lot of the lore now.

I never got to play with slivers early on. I only discovered slivers about 3 years ago (Started magic at around Journey into Nyx and mainly played with a lot of theros stuff first) when I had a friend who happened to have some m14 slivers and I one day I traded for some such as a Galerider Sliver and 2 much older Russian Sidewinder Slivers who he originally got from someone else I think. I didn't even know at the time that there was more older ones but I found these interesting and wanted the ones he had.

Later on when where I lived actually got a game store that opened and had started to doing Fnms had I found out from two people the format of commander who both owned Sliver Overlord edh decks that there were more slivers. At this point I was practically already playing with a commander deck lol, as my casual magic deck was a deck featuring cards like Prophet of Kruphix, Heroes' Bane, Arcanis the Omnipotent, Horizon Chimera, and a bunch of other things. This became later my first commander deck with Vorel of the Hull Clade (Now it's an Atraxa, Praetors' Voice deck with Vorel still in it btw) and I started to also plan a Sliver Overlord deck.

One of the two I mentioned at my lgs even in time decided to sell his sliver overlord deck because he never got to play it enough, so I traded for some older slivers like Sinew Sliver, Brood Sliver, Fungus Sliver, and a couple others he had. He however wanted to keep Sliver Legion, Sliver Queen, Sliver Overlord and Sliver Hivelord.

I have my own Sliver Overlord, and Sliver Hivelord now but I still need to in time buy the others. Then I got to acquire some of the lands to finish my deck. I regret earlier trades that I have done however, use to have a Wooded Foothills, Windswept Heath,Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta, Steam Vents and Temple Garden but I traded them all away thinking I wouldn't need them, and I sure was very wrong. It was rather silly of me still being new to the game sort of then.

Like I even opened at one point a Windswept Heath expedition not knowing it's entire value but I sleeved it still because they looked nice. I later discovered and sold it for store credit at a store and bought a bunch of cards with it like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Omnath, Locus of Mana, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, I think you get the point. All these big splashy cards to go into my casual magic decks to use on my friends. Then I later when I started playing magic a bit more seriously it rather sucked to realize I had no use for them in standard or modern or wanted to use them for edh any longer. That store even had Sliver Legion and Sliver Queen but I didn't yet know about slivers :(

Going to now anyways buy them next once I first open a bunch of Amonkhet for standard stuff perhaps. Although it would be nice to see a reprint for the Sliver Legion. The next set after Amonkhet however though has turned out to be one called Ixalan I think it was spelled? This looks to be a mesoamerican inspired plane so there's no hope for slivers in September/January. More likely will get a few merfolk instead is my guess. However maybe the block after in the summer could be dominara? I would live to see slivers as first of all I would enjoy playing them in standard as I never got to do that earlier. Then anything for edh would be awesome. Currently have my Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, Sliver Overlord although the lands are fairly budget, and Athreos, God of Passage for my edh decks. I am trying to upgrade them all slowly over time as I'm as well upgrading my very costly modern infect deck (Need Noble Hierarch playset and 5 more green related fetchlands) and a little before that my b/g delirium deck for standard (rather absurd its more than my Atraxa deck in $ right now thanks to a playset of Grim Flayer, Liliana, the Last Hopes, Blooming Marsh, and what not making it like over $470 I believe, use to be a bit more value but it's falling). As you can see I'm trying to slowly upgrade rather a lot of things even though my standard I'm happy with for now, but I do hope to finish Slivers maybe by the fall is my guess?

Now if you thought you were ranting then that is nothing compared to all of this! This is much worse so I do apologize. (Longest TappedOut comment I have made I think in the little more than a year on here now lol).

Delta-117, I enjoyed reading your experience with the game. I started magic back in 2002 during the Onslaught block. I played off and on between high school, college and now as an adult with a professional job. I consider myself a "serious-casual" - I don't participate in drafts/game day/FNM/tournaments often, but I do frequent my lgs from time to time. Additionally, I have one really high end deck in my format of choice. I also have a few other decks for less serious play - casual EDH or casual. As the years go on, i'll just maintain and update this deck while picking up a few new cards here and there, or maybe a Commander deck that looks interesting.

As for the trading of cards that turn out to be more valuable down the road...hindsight is 20/20. I've traded away more Fetchlands than I could count...back in onslaught I remember getting annoyed because all I would seem to open were Polluted Deltas...I traded away a foil one. So yeah, I feel your pain. Every time I go to this page I always cringe a little bit looking at TCGPlayer's pricetag on this deck, I feel so silly spending so much money on just...cardboard. Best believe I didn't spend $3K...more like...$1,500-$1,700. I like to think of this deck as a reminder for me to keep my spending under control.

Sliver Queen, my favorite sliver unfortunately will never have a new printing due to her being on the reserved list. So when new slivers are printed demand for her will likely rise...so if you do plan on getting the legendary Slivers, i'd go for her first. But be weary, decks that have her have combos built around her, so you will have to make room for the other cards that compliment her directly i.e. Mana Echoes, Basal Sliver, and Training Grounds just to name a few. If you want to focus on strictly aggro, then she may not contribute as much. I'd say Sliver Legion would be your best choice. If we do see Sliver Queen in the future, then I think she'd have to be an all new planeswalker...which would be AMAZING. If she also had a built in tutor ability, then she'd obviously be the new general of this deck...but one can dream.

It's always a pleasure talking magic with you Delta-117, please keep me posted with whatever stuff you find. Additionally, i'm working on a page for Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder, but progress is slow because i'm lazy. But I promise you once it debuts, it'll be a really awesome deck page...and a good casual deck as well.

Well looks like something got leaked early, and so wizards made an official announcement of it anyways. It's called Iconic Masters.

http://magic.wizards.com/en/products/iconic-masters

You earlier mentioned you thought it was time for Sliver Legion to have a reprint and maybe that could very well come true with this. This following statement I think could support that.

"Iconic Masters offers players a tour through some of the most powerful cards in over 23 years of Magic history. Featuring new artwork on many cards, the set brings an array of massive Angels, Sphinxes, Demons, Dragons, and Hydras alongside some of our favorite and most memorable spells."

I hope to see some commander goodies from this.

I should soon before too long be getting my own copy of Sliver Queen and Sliver Legion (and some stuff for a modern deck) as part of a trade. That friend of mine I mentioned earlier has decided he is going to part with these slivers as he already sold off his sliver commander deck about a year ago as he never got to play it much and was just losing a bit of interest in the format previously. I'm going to be buying him 2 Chalice of the Void that he needed for modern, once I soon get my store credit for selling some cards mostly from standard and a couple from mm2017.

Once I have these I need to just focus on lands to upgrade my rather budget mana base.

Delta-117, iconic masters would be a great opportunity to see a reprint of Sliver Legion, but I think it may be too early to get our hopes up. If anything, I think it'd be a great opportunity to branch out and acquire some of the more popular "traditional" creatures in Magic. Personally, I want to build a Dragon themed commander deck and from what I recall Commander 2017 will feature one. Can't wait to pick it up.

Regarding your trade agreement for Sliver Queen and Sliver Legion with your friend, I would be weary of your arrangement. According to StarCityGames, the Mirrodin release for Chalice of the Void runs for about $70 - $80 (source) while Sliver Queen runs for about $40 (source) and Sliver Legion goes for about $37 - $40 (source). Since you're acquiring and trading two Chalices for the Slivers you'd be paying roughly $80 more than you should be. You should reassess your trade and ask for more in return.

Edit for the previous post: So I just re-read your comment, and saw that you were also getting some misc. popular modern cards in addition to the Slivers. Make sure they are worth at least $80!

Yeah I could have added on to that a bit, I'm getting 2x Wurmcoil Engines, a playset of Remands, a 1x Sundering Titan, and 1x Solemn Simulacrum with this as well. All of that is for a modern deck I'm building instead of infect which I'm postponing finishing for now to instead build something cheaper.

But we follow prices of the store Face to Face Games, not sure if you have heard of them however as they are a Canadian store. Wurmcoil Engines for example are about $19-20 CAD/ US $14. While the NM slivers go for about $50 CAD / $36-37 US, and i'm buying him the two chalices for $170 CAD / $125 US for those 10 cards in return.

I was using about $110 Cad/ $80 US store credit I had to pay towards this anyways from a bunch of standard stuff like a foil Chandra, Torch of Defiance, 3 Spirebluff Canals, a Craterhoof Behemoth, etc which was all stuff I was relatively not using so i'm not too sad too see them go to actually pay less of this myself.

Going between these prices all must seem a little confusing sorry about that, and while I didn't still didn't even list everything mentioned the trade is one I'm fine with as I was paying for a good chunk of it with store credit. But thank you for your concern anyways in suggesting the trade might not have been in my favour.

I was building Mono Blue Tron anyways if you have heard of the deck for modern, if your not aware it feature's Urza's Tower, Urza's Power Plant, and Urza's Mine along with Expedition Map to produce tons of mana quickly to play threats like Wurmcoil Engine and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. It features Treasure Mage which can find a variety of artifact cards like a 1x Platinum Angel, a Sundering Titan the 2x wurmcoils, and Mindslaver which you can use alongside Academy Ruins for some fun for you anyways. Then in the early turns you have Remand, Condescend, Spatial Contortion among other things to slow your opponent down and of course preventing them from killing you before you can play your threats.

I pretty much go to fnm each week for every format, I have a deck for standard, 2 decks for commander, this deck I'm working on for modern as well as my rather budget infect (The friend I mentioned after this trade is going to let me borrow the remainder of what I need for this Mono Blue tron deck at fnms until I either buy/trade for it or acquire my own pieces). Still need an Academy Ruins, a playset of the urza lands (have 1 tower though) and a Oblivion Stone.I as well have even a deck even for pauper ( Slivers featuring playsets of Muscle Sliver, Sinew Sliver, and Predatory Sliver and others bolstered by things like Rancor and Armadillo Cloak it's a lot of fun and is cheap :) ).

I play with a similar deck (..."all hail the Hive!"...) and Blood Moon got me big time the last time.

Also there is another player that has an elf deck that is so much faster than slivers... and still I prefer the hive...

I look forward to new sliver cards, and definitively we should get the 1st 5-color planeswalker.

As for deciding between Arcane Denial and Force of Will, it all comes down to your meta's power level and preference. I personally like Force better because it can be cast quicker, but without knowing the power level of your group I can't say if Denial would be better or not (I am not really sure if this is a tuned Slivers list because they all look the same to me... sorry about that).

If your playgroup is powerful, run Force. If not, keep Denial in.

One more suggestion I have is for one of my pet cards - Xenograft. It gives you a lot more flexibility in being able to run more utility creatures while still getting benefits from them.