Well this deck is a ton of fun to play. Fun too heavy to lift I'll tell ya that much. I mean, maybe if you exercise regularly and stuff you can't nudge the fun. But I for can't lift this much fun, it feels like a ton of fun when I play it.
Win conditions are: 1) cycle for Sliver Legion and swing deadly. 2) ten poison via ten attacks when a Virulent Sliver is in play. 3) Using the sac and pump from Firewake Sliver to get in for the win.
Since no deck would let you just waltz in and pull off a win condition I have the control package of
Telekinetic Sliver
and
Dormant Sliver
. You can do this because it REALLY helps you get to your win conditions faster, as well as locking their board down. In their upkeep you tap down as many permanents as you can and wait them out. both Frenetic Sliver and Firewake Sliver can kill
Dormant Sliver
when you want to win, so there's really no drawback unless you just draw into land the whole time, which can happen.
Galerider Sliver provides evasion to get through, Frenetic Sliver is a crappy version of shroud (no
Crystalline Sliver
in modern after all). However, there is one fairly common instance of removal where Frenetic Sliver is accidently better 50% of the time.
Slagstorm
effects kill shrouded weaklings, but Frenetic Sliver has a 50% chance to succeed where
Crystalline Sliver
would fail here. So that's kind of cool. Anyways, Frenetic Sliver is very much needed because your creatures are all you got, so if they get controlled, ya dunskies. The other option is
Opaline Sliver
(in the maybeboard), but you don't get to (maybe) save the poor fella with that option.
In terms of the competitive power of this deck in modern, it feels like this deck is that (X+1) little dog baby trying to get some milk from its X titted momma, but little dog babies 1 through X are hoggin all the tits. Little (X+1) baby is fighting hard, tryin to squeeze past some of the other babies, but it just ain't workin... yet. If I can, I will help that little dog baby get to that little tit and feed on its momma!
clear throat... moving on...
Sideboard
I can go up to a playset of Harmonic Sliver because it can severly cripple some matchups, namely affinity, but also token decks with all their enchantments, birthing pod sort of, tron sort of. One thing I didn't think about until it happened to me was when I was forced to kill my own Aether Vial in a game. And the same could happen with Pithing Needle out of the sideboard. Be wary of that.
Ghostflame Sliver
is specifically for Blood Moon.
Pithing Needle is a bit of a catch-all. It takes care of lots of problems.
Other than those two I don't really use any other cards in my sideboard, they're filler really. Currently I just have a goofy trick play of sorts where, if I wanted to, I can bring in 6 lords, Predatory Sliver and
Sinew Sliver
. I haven't thought about it really, so it might not be that bad of a strategy, but it at least doesn't feel like it would be. I'd rather have a more thoughtful sideboard. I've brought in Predatory Sliver a few times against decks with Pyroclasm spells. But if they have global damage spells they have Lightning Bolt too, so it's not really a good solution to burn problems, and doesn't even address sweepers like Wrath of God.
My current project is to construct a useable sideboard for this deck. I like my mainboard at this point (maybe some more lands are needed though), so I feel like deck improvement at this point lies in sideboard construction.
Maybeboard
Necrotic Sliver was a one-of in the mainboard at one point, but every time I had it and had a chance to use it I didn't. As in, the mana seems better used in some other way, to cast more slivers or slivercycle, so it's gotten to the point that I don't ever side it in.
I would love to hear some feedback so let me know what you think.
