Mesmeric Sliver
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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
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Mesmeric Sliver

Creature — Sliver

All Slivers have "When this permanent enters the battlefield, you may fateseal 1." (Its controller looks at the top card of an opponent's library, then he or she may put that card on the bottom of that library.)

Lanzo493 on We Don't Talk About Bruno!

2 years ago

Oh, and Spin into Myth is great because it’s one of two cards with the fateseal ability. There’s also Mesmeric Sliver and Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

HCO_Guitars on I Hope You Like Slivers

2 years ago

mortlock wow thats good to know, i have a cool FNM Megantic Sliver ill add, now with Urza's Incubator he is a little less of a pain to play. Thanks for looking into the Mesmeric Sliver bit. He was always just a good politics player imho.

Mortlocke on I Hope You Like Slivers

2 years ago

Asked for a ruling regarding multiple instances of Mesmeric Sliver being in play. The good news is that you would get multiple instances of Fateseal 1 firing off, the bad news is that you can't dig further than 1 card deep each trigger:

According to Kichirou (discord handle x_kichirou_x#7469, on tappedout rules discord forum): ""the effect is cumulative, but it wouldn't be "fateseal 2",

your slivers would just have:

  • When this permanent enters the battlefield, you may fateseal 1.

  • When this permanent enters the battlefield, you may fateseal 1.

so you would fateseal 1, twice. Mechanically, it's the same as scry, but you're just scrying your opponent's deck... if you want something to stay on the top of their library you'ld have to leave it there, you couldn't look at any cards past it."

So ideally, with 3 copies of Mesmeric Slivers in play you could fateseal all opponents with just one ETB trigger.

Mortlocke on I Hope You Like Slivers

2 years ago

Some additional Slivers I think you should include are Megantic Sliver and Sinew Sliver. The more lords you can copy over and over, the better. Separately, I'm not sure on this but I think Mesmeric Sliver's ability is a cumulative effect. So when copied you could fateseal for 2, 3, etc. I'm not exactly sure if I'm right, and will ask a judge. But if I'm right, Mesmeric could lowkey be really nasty.

Mortlocke on I will have just a sliver of that rainbow cake.

4 years ago

Always happy to see another Sliver deck i've yet to come across. It's a shame that your playgroup tends to single you out due to Sliver Hate™: "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.

My advice to combat Sliver Hate™ is to have a turn 0 talk before every game, which is structured as "1. Hi i'm bringing

Now, moving on to your deck proper - interesting choice in choosing The First Sliver as your commander, but I think you can do so much better in terms of building around it. First things first - I know running ALL the keywords is cool, but unfortunately it hurts the consistency of your deck, putting you in more situations where you just don't have the interaction or options necessary to succeed. Yes, you need to cut some creatures. How many? I recommend between 15 and 13. Here are some suggestions (just to name a few):

  • Acidic Sliver: Sacing a creature let alone a Sliver to deal a paltry 2 damage is laughable at best. This sliver will not create any meaningful impact unless you have an infinite creature combo going. It's not worth the inclusion.
  • Constricting Sliver: The high CMC for an Oblivion Ring-esque effect for all Slivers you control is neat - the problem however is just getting to that 6 mana. You could be casting your commander, or at the very least multiple Slivers onto the battlefield. CMC for temporary removal at best isn't good enough.
  • Diffusion Sliver: This is commander. If someone wanted to pay an extra 2 to get rid of a troublesome sliver - they could do it without even thinking twice. This Sliver is designed to work in a format where you could have multiple copies on the field that would stack this effect. It doesn't work in a singleton format. Cut it.
  • Frenzy Sliver: Refer to my comments on Diffusion Sliver.
  • Fury Sliver: The CMC is far to high for the effect. Run Bonescythe Sliver instead.
  • Ghostflame Sliver: A cute effect. Only relevant if you are running Slivdrazi Monstrosity as your commander or you are running All Is Dust - or ideally both. Unfortunately you are running neither so this Sliver does literally nothing to advance your boardstate. Cut it.
  • Groundshaker Sliver: The CMC is too high for the effect. Run Horned Sliver.
  • Leeching Sliver: Refer to my comments on Diffusion Sliver.
  • Lymph Sliver: Refer to my comments on Diffusion Sliver.
  • Megantic Sliver: This Sliver is only relevant if you have a deck that focuses primarily on Combat Damage as a wincon. This one i'm honestly a bit iffy on cutting as it is a decent sliver. Just not a Great sliver in my opinion. For such a high CMC, i'd want a sliver to be downright game changing when it hits the board. This one just feels kinda..."Meh".
  • Mesmeric Sliver: Refer to my comments on Diffusion Sliver.
  • Poultice Sliver: This is honestly just a bad design. You don't need this Sliver. Get Sedge Sliver instead.
  • Mindlash Sliver: Paying mana to activate the ability, sacrificing a sliver, and you also have to discard a card as well? Terrible. Terrible design. I don't think this Sliver ever worked outside of it's draft format.
  • Screeching Sliver: Milling a player in EDH is hard. Milling a whole table? Even harder. Since mill isn't a primary theme within your deck - i'd recommend you'd cut this. It's just not contrubuting to anything.
  • Victual Sliver: This Sliver isn't really doing much. It just isn't. I'd run Hibernation Sliver instead. That sliver makes your Slivers nigh impossible to deal with as when your opponents cast targeted removal you can just go "return to hand" and play the creature on your next turn.
  • Vampiric Sliver: This is just a bad Sliver by design. I get that it's a reference to Sengir Vampire - which is cool and all. But by today's standards that mechanic is trash.
  • Virulent Sliver: Ah, the ol' Poison counter sliver. Refer to my comments on Diffusion Sliver.

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.

austintayshus on Card creation challenge

4 years ago

Sealer of Fate

Creature - Archon Horror

When ~ enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, fateseal 1 each opponent.

When ~ leaves the battlefield, each opponent may scry 1.

3/4

Just a heads up, the reminder text for fate seal is:

to fateseal X, look at the top X cards of an opponent's library, then put any number of them on the bottom of that player's library and the rest on top in any order.

Fateseal has only ever appeared on Mesmeric Sliver and Spin into Myth , but has also appeared in spirit, if not by name on Jace, the Mind Sculptor .

Ninja'd! Do rdean14 challenge above.

I'd like a Green slug for this group (fateseal or fateseal relevant)

Sectiron on Sliver Storm

4 years ago

Thanks TefflonDice!

Recently more edh videos on Youtube have emerged regarding The First Sliver , however they have not come very close to a victory. Infact, most games I've watched see the deck being the first to be killed. I don't believe that will happen in the case of this deck, being much faster. The decks on Youtube play much more non-creature spells and low cmc non-slivers which end the cascade chain. I personally enjoy my more sliver-centric, pseudo-power build.

In my opinion, if you want to play The First Sliver you might as well be abusing the cascade ability, otherwise other sliver commanders, such as Sliver Overlord or even Morophon, the Boundless are much better. We're not playing The First Sliver to go slow. I've had wins in my semi-competitive meta with this deck, purely because of the sheer overwhelming nature of the deck.

In saying this, I am currently experimenting with these cards:

Some weaker slivers I MIGHT get rid of:

  • Mesmeric Sliver (although it can screw with an opponents deck, it doesn't do much for the board or the opponents hand; in a pinch it can be not so good)
  • Lavabelly Sliver (with Purphoros, God of the Forge it can do wonders. Without, one damage and one life per sliver is quite lack lustre, especially when you already have lords to pump +1/1, equaling to one damage PER TURN)
  • Shapesharer (3 mana is actually quite expensive to activate an ability in this deck. And the ability of Shapesharer only lasts until your next turn. Very few situations have I found its copy ability to be useful in the deck, at best copying a small pump ability. Even when copying the opponents creatures, I have found very few relevant ones. Perhaps the right situations haven't come up yet, so I'm still placing hopes on this card)

Due to the amount of cards I need to move around and test (as you can see above), the next update might be in a while. I want to do a big update soon, providing as accurate information as possible on how these cards do. Hopefully, if you're interested, you can test with me and provide suggestions!

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