Screeching Sliver

Creature — Sliver

All Slivers have "Tap: Target player puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard."

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
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (27)

Youaresmelly on Slivers

3 months ago

I play tested the deck a little bit and I think you are running too many high cost slivers, and everything would feel nicer if you replaced them and the mana ramp spells to get to them. Just replace them with lower cost slivers and maybe a land or two. You really want bodies out when you drop that 4 or 5 drop sliver, otherwise they are kinda bad and give your opponent time to respond to the effect if he is your only dude. Alternatively for the more expensive ETB slivers you really want cheap guys you could maybe play on the same turn. If you make your land cheap you could toss in Sliver Overlord and still be cheaper overall, can swap that as your commander when you aren't playing 4 player games.

Things I think are worth adding in :

Plated Sliver , maybe Sidewinder Sliver , Shadow Sliver is just Shifting Sliver but one cheaper , Spinneret Sliver or just Winged Sliver, I think Taunting Sliver is just worse than Telekinetic Sliver besides the double blue cost although I understand the multiplayer use , and its kinda meme but good with your commander to maybe use this on your self when in need Screeching Sliver

Votecat on The Queen's Egg

1 year ago

What do you think about using Screeching Sliver to deal with cards such as Phyrexian Unlife or Lich?

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.

Snake_Oil on Getting my PP out - Mono U - Mill with Persistence

4 years ago

I'd bump up the Phantasms to a full playset, same with Counterspell.

Something to consider with Mystic Sanctuary is Deprive -- It's an effective combo for pauper, being able to have a counterspell in your hand each turn. With that in mind, you can then cut the Didn't Say Please and get the Chronic Flooding in -- Mills for the exact same amount and occurs more often. I love the curse tech, but running a full set of Flooding might work better, though you could always run both.

Tome Scour seems a good pick as a mill 5 for 1 blue mana, though you could also use Thought Scour for mill plus draw -- I'd be inclined to then cut the Mind Sculpts and get some card draw in -- Set of Opt or Accumulated Knowledge. You can have all the mill in the world, but it means nothing if you're topdecking to do it.

If you wanted to go all-in on Sanctuary, you could side a couple of Tragic Lesson just in case.

Are the automatons just a quick and easy one drop? You might get more from a set of Faerie Seer / Faerie Miscreant / Sage of Epityr or even something like a set of Screeching Sliver or Drowner Initiate

That Rotcrown Ghoul seems nice, but if you need a bit of muscle to back up your draw, check out Makeshift Mauler or Stitched Drake -- They don't mill your opponent, but you have enough of that already for a side-option. Sometimes you need a bit of bulk!

Sarkhan420X on Anti-Slivers / Lantern Control / Combo Mill

4 years ago

the majority of slivers that people play in modern will only affect their own side of the board, which means your statement "opponents Sliver abilities will stack on our swarm of 1/1 Slivers" is actually pretty inaccurate.

also, Dormant Sliver will just enable your sliver opponent to just keep drawing cards until they have an answer to it. Homing Sliver will let them get their Necrotic Sliver to blow up your Dormant Sliver .

Screeching Sliver will just let your sliver opponent mill you.

should definitely use more lands if you wanna use cmc 5 cards. theres no guarantee you'll draw a mana sliver.

Quick Sliver is not modern legal.

as someone who has played 5C slivers in modern for over 3 years now, i can safely say that this build wouldn't stop my slivers. i run Aether Vial and Collected Company , which allows me to drop slivers faster, and i also run plenty of buffing slivers ( Predatory Sliver , Sinew Sliver , Sedge Sliver , and Phantasmal Image to copy them) which guarantees my slivers are bigger. so unless you're lucky enough to get a turn 2 Manaweft Sliver followed by a turn 3 Dormant Sliver , i'm gonna win too quick for your plan to work. even then, i'll just grow my army while gaining tons of life off my Lavabelly Sliver (which could also just kill you on its own if you try to stall too long, since its affect stacks with itself, and i have Phantasmal Image to copy it). then when you finally blow up your own Dormant Sliver , i win anyway.

kkounal on Wombo combo budget 15~20$ turn 4 win modern deck

5 years ago

Updated version of my comment about the possible combos

Also here are the possible combos

1)infinite mill Cathartic Adept / Screeching Sliver + Mirran Spy +0 mana artifact+ Zephyr Scribe / Battered Golem / Nettle Drone + Banishing Knack / Retraction Helix

2)infinite damage same thing but replace the Cathartic Adept / Screeching Sliver with Nettle Drone

3)in case of no Mirran Spy just replace the Nettle Drone /Cathartic Adept / Screeching Sliver with Reckless Fireweaver and start bouncing the artifact as normal for infinite damage. Same can achieved with Grapeshot but after the infinite bouncing of the artifact

QuantumSkies on modern slivers

6 years ago

The leylines are at best for the sideboard. Some of the more expensive slivers you have, while good, cost a lot of mana, especially since you are running only 18 lands. Screeching Sliver is not needed because you don't win via your opponents losing their libraries and have you ever heard of Cavern of Souls? Here is a link that shows a pretty solid list for slivers: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/instant-deck-tech-slivers-modern