Petition for Slivers?
General forum
Posted on Dec. 5, 2012, 11:34 p.m. by UmbrotheUmbreon
Guys, we should get a petition going for Wizards to bring Slivers back. These creatures are among some of the coolest in Magic, and have the most unique ability of any other creature. Their designs are interesting too, as well as their strength.
Would anyone want Slivers to return?
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #3
I love Slivers. I know they plan the sets years in advance, but maybe I can send them my ideas for the Zendikar Slivers vs Eldrazi block. Who knows, they might accept it :)
This was more or less just a way to see if anyone else wanted Slivers to return.
December 6, 2012 1:20 a.m.
Soo any idea what wizards could do with slivers that isn't mostly just reprint them? Aside from just slapping on a bunch of mechanics that have come up in the years after their last set printing they can't really do much with them in a newer set. As for printing them just for players who want to play them again they already did a premium deck. Also their ability isn't unique at all, they're simply a tribe where almost every single creature in the tribe is a tribal lord.
December 6, 2012 1:57 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #5
Does that not make them unique? No other tribe in Magic shares abilities in the manner that Slivers do.
Canonically, the Slivers that still remained after all the chaos on Dominaria were timeshifted and supposedly developed new abilities. While it would take some special mechanics to make them worth bringing back, I don't think it's impossible. At most, though, it's improbable.
December 6, 2012 2:01 a.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #6
They made quite the unique twist canonically. Because the ones who timeshifted the Slivers back neglected the importance of the Queen, it is why they went berserk. The planeswalker I made known as Markosi, is able to control and lead them similarly to the Queen, and can also produce and generate Slivers from the DNA.
Yes, giving them new, special mechanics is hard to do for slivers, esp with their ability to share abilities. However, I think it is possible to twist some mechanics and smash them with others. Either that or just make entirely new whacky mechanics that get people to hate Slivers more lol
December 6, 2012 2:23 a.m.
atreyujames says... #7
Honesty I despise Slivers. I know they have a very large fan base, but I've always found them to be a horrible experience to play against, as well as I feel like a dick when I have played them. I've only been playing for a couple of years now, but I can see that almost everybody at my local stores hate them. I can't imagine what it was like to have them in standard, but I've played them many times in EDH and a couple times in Casual. Every time I feel like im playing against the same decks; decks that just load in all kids of slivers and have almost no variance in the other cards they play. The only thing I enjoy about them is that when I know im gonna be playing a sliver deck, I add a Hivestone to my deck just for them.
December 6, 2012 3:05 a.m.
Personally, I would rather that Wizards spend their time designing new types of cards instead of re-hashing old ideas. The opportunity cost of having new slivers would mean that we don't get cards with actual new mechanics because Wizards spent that time designing slivers instead. The new mechanic might be better or it might be worse, but it would certainly be more interesting. Leave nostalgia in the past where it belongs; give me innovation.
December 6, 2012 9:08 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #9
The next time the Expansion Block goes back to Dominaria, it's most likely going to be something strongly independent of anything that has come before. Wizards hit the nostalgia button way too hard during Time Spiral block, to the point that the resulting complexity and flavor disconnect drove many newer players away from the game. Slivers are pretty much the definition of cards that cause crazy complexity and dig too deep into the game's past to be accessible as a nostalgic callback, so I don't see it happening anytime soon.
December 6, 2012 9:48 a.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #10
@Rhadamanthus: I can dream can't I? Besides, I know it might not happen, and may never happen. I was not really looking more for an actual petition, but to see if anyone loved the slivers and wanted to see them return like I do.
@graft: Yeah I would like to see new mechanics and keywords too, but sometimes you need or want to relive the old days.
@atreyujames: Slivers can be defeated with either Plague Sliver , burn, or land destruction. Yes, they are one of, if not the most evil creatures in Magic, for the soul purpose of how they work like a team. It's just one of those things where if you don't eliminate the creatures or kill the opponent quickly you die. I actually have a sliver deck on here that I think is quite unique to others The Endgame
December 6, 2012 9:57 a.m.
MagnorCriol says... #11
One of the reasons to have hope is Future Sight. Frenzy Sliver is a sliver with a futureshifted frame and story-hinting flavor text, and Vedalken AEthermage has an anti-sliver ability (sadly, no room for flavor text).
Neither of these things represent concrete guarantees that they're going to reprint them, of course. But Frenzy Sliver's flavor text shows us that they do have at least the basic idea for a continuation of the story filed away - I think I read somewhere, maybe MaRo, that making the futureshifted cards was also their time for "let's brainstorm up a bunch of vague story ideas that we can pull on later."
December 6, 2012 12:13 p.m.
My thoughts on it.
Create a block which has no slivers, but rather creatures who have come to learn about slivers. - The story line being that somehow this Plane was introduced to their presence and unique properties.
Various creatures and other mechanics could have ways of producing ('calling'/'summoning") slivers. And/Or providing abilities to those slivers (or tokens generically). As well, various spells/abilities which combat slivers could be made.
This would be similar in style to the Eldrazi Spawn tokens, in that there was no Creature Spell for the 0/1 creatures, but many creatures and spells could create and/or take advantage of them.
The difference here being that the Plane has no native slivers, so the tokens would not share a creature type with any Creature Spells from the set (Though being able to change a creatures type to 'sliver', may be possible).
This would develop the sliver idea further, without nearly as many re-prints as there would otherwise be, while being able to provide additional cards for Modern/EHD....etc. which could enhance sliver decks beyond what they currently are. (as well as possible sideboard cards against them)
December 6, 2012 1:13 p.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #13
That'd be cool Rayenous. I still think having new slivers with some of the new keywords would be great though, like Hexproof or Undying :D
December 6, 2012 1:40 p.m.
jan2692wal says... #14
I like that idea it would work much like Blade Splicer and Wing Splicer . I also think that a few new sliver's here and there should be added in future blocks due to all of the new mechanics available, like undying, soulbond, landfall, maybe even a few tribal sliver spells could be nice.
December 6, 2012 1:46 p.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #15
Soulbond defeats the purpose of the Slivers, as they would only give one other sliver that ability instead of all slivers.
December 6, 2012 1:54 p.m.
jan2692wal says... #16
or, the soulbond ability makes the bonded creature a sliver, opening doors for other creatures to share the abilities. or something along the lines of "all slivers have the abilities of the bonded creatures"
December 6, 2012 1:56 p.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #17
I think a non-Sliver creature with soulbond turning a creature into a Sliver is amazing! Brilliant idea :)
December 6, 2012 2:10 p.m.
jan2692wal says... #18
obviously a set like this would lead to people being against the slivers, so creatures will also produce slivers that are poisonous to the hive, so something that gives all slivers vanishing or something that can turn them all into defenders will be included as well to balance things out
December 6, 2012 2:13 p.m.
Yes, the Splicers are a better example of the concept than Eldrazi Spawn tokens.
Also combine in some "chosen creature type" type abilities, such as the one Adaptive Automaton has, or card:Pack's Disdain. That way there are cards useable for slivers, but other tribes can make use of them as well.
Of course, a few new slivers would be okay... a couple of each colour for the new abilities would make sense.... perhaps a functional reprint of Virulent Sliver , but with Infect, as it should probably have...
Soulbond could work, but all the soulbond would have to effect things on a global scale, such as "So long as these creatures are bound, they both have 'all slivers get +1/+1'."... or something like "Tap: Put a 1/1 sliver token into play that is the same colours as this creature."
December 6, 2012 2:19 p.m.
I loves me some slivers.However for every person i know that loves them i know 2 or 3 that hate them. And besides, Zendikar already had slivers, they were just called allies. Still though, i would LOVE to see an exalted sliver.
Epochalyptik says... #2
I don't really think a petition is going to accomplish much that wasn't already planned. WotC designs sets at least a year in advance and they only really change the plans if something comes up that needs to be answered (such as a prominent deck or card not having viable counterdecks or countercards).
I do agree that Slivers are interesting enough to be brought back at some point, but I think it will be in a block with canonical reason for them being there. They have a story that is deeply involved in the early history of the Multiverse itself, and it would hardly do them justice to be included in a core set as the tribe of the evening.
December 5, 2012 11:41 p.m.