The Queen's Egg
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 720 | 856 COMMENTS | 116856 VIEWS | IN 397 FOLDERS
A drunk impulse buy and a three hour duel... —Aug. 12, 2017
Everyone, I have a confession to make. I got drunk and bought a Volrath's Stronghold. Am I ashamed? Maybe a little. But Xcallion had a point - more recursion is needed in this deck. Last night I went out to my LGS - Shout out to Games and Stuff of Glen Burnie, MD. There, I bought the stronghold and swapped it in for Mutavault. Also since it was FNM I stayed to play some EDH.
I played against two Zur the Enchanter decks that were constructed VERY differently from each other, and a Scion of the Ur-Dragon deck. One of the Zur decks was a fairly decent combo deck with multiple options. The other Zur deck however, was a cobbled together mess that hardly ever worked but contained a very unexpected surprise - Approach of the Second Sun. It was cast once, and was ALMOST cast again...but unfortunately the player forgot...and shuffled his deck when it was RIGHT ON TOP of his library ready to be drawn next turn. Everyone (excluding him) had a good laugh.
The game went on for THREE SOLID HOURS - with the constant destruction and rebuilding of the board. It glorious, painful, disheartening, but most of all...fun. And that leads me to the point of this update...I took an incredibly powerful, well tuned, and beautiful deck...and I chose to hold off on trying to crush everyone with a boardstate tougher than MC Hammer's popularity during the 90's. I avoided trying to cast both Crystalline Sliver and Sliver Hivelord onto the battlefield at the same time. Additionally, I didn't go for any Queen combos. I just wanted to play -not trying to go for the throat and just ruin everyone. I enjoyed just building up things...and destroying others. Having interactions with the other players by actively engaging them through dialogue and gameplay.
The game ended without anyone's life total hitting 0, so the victor was decided by who had the highest life total. I didn't win. Actually...I chose to set up the poorly constructed Zur deck to win by attacking the players with the higher life totals. He had a really tough time getting things together for the entire duration of the game, and hardly even played or did much of anything...I guess I wanted him to have fun too.
I have to say though, the Scion of the Ur-Dragon deck pulled off one really clever move near the end of the game: Patriarch's Bidding + Crux of Fate. That was a delicious play. Unfortunately my Yawgmoth's Will and the newly installed Volrath's Stronghold never made it into my hand or play. Earlier in the game my Patriarch's Bidding was countered, so I was hoping for ONE last bid - Yawgmoth's Will into the previously countered Patriarch's Bidding. THAT would have made one hell of a play...but it never came to be as it was shuffled too far into the deck, beyond the reach of Scroll Rack. But the game was a blast none the less, and the most fun i've ever had playing magic. Thanks for reading, and keep on Slivering.
jplvette, welcome to the hive. Thank you for visiting the page. To answer your question, yes Intruder Alarm has been mentioned before. My conclusion regarding the card has not changed - It has far too much potential to backfire to be considered useful. Cards like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Stonybrook Schoolmaster, and Lullmage Mentor (just to name a few) are all lurking out there in EDH. Since the card can be taken advantage of by anyone at the table I could unknowingly enable someone else's wincon. Therefore, the card is just invalid in my eyes. But for more, (and less ) I can keep that potentially game ending effect all to myself - enter Paradox Engine.
tl:dr - Intruder Alarm can easily backfire and lose me the game automatically. It's not worth it.
August 2, 2017 8:49 a.m. Edited.
Ruffigan, I took your comments into account. Just wish you posted them on my deckpage. I changed the .navbar-fixed-top transparency (only made it slightly transparent) -enough so that the reader can easily differentiate between the comments section and the words themselves. I also took things one step further and lowered the brightness of all the words in the comment section, so that they'd be easier on the eyes. What do you think?
It feels like a bit of a shame that the deck has little room for growth. At least in my opinion. When it plays, it plays like a well oiled machine. All I do at this point is watch each new set for any cards that could help enhance or add to the deck. I'm hoping Ixalan or Commander 2017 will yield something worthwhile.
August 2, 2017 11:36 a.m.
So, I was scrolling through my comments, and forgot that I didn't actually answer you Troys50:
@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
To answer your question: Your friends are 100% WRONG. If you refer the accordion up top, and go to: The Hivestone > The Strategy > Combos and Synergies and look at Syphon Sliver + Essence Sliver I explain everything at length. When they doubt you, just point them straight to that section, and it will silence them. With slivers, it is actually possible to get DECUPLE-life gain. Yes. That's right. If you have 4x Essence Slivers, 1x Syphon Sliver, and 1x Bonescythe Sliver in play then that's 4 separate triggered effects and 1 static effect going on two times in one strike. Say it with me now: DECUPLE-LIFE-GAIN. (that means times ten). Mind you it can only in a casual game. But it can happen. So tell your friends to stick that in their pipe and smoke it for ever doubting the queen's majesty.
August 2, 2017 12:33 p.m. Edited.
Slivers was always an archetype that interested me when I was thinking about getting into magic and the idea of making a sliver deck is what finally pushed me to buying my first cards. I always loved the swarm "theme" from various games (zerg in starcraft come to mind). When I started buying cards to make my sliver edh deck, your deck was my main influence for deckbuilding. I've been playing slivers for a couple months now and loving every second of the hate I get. Thanks for being such a valuable resource to me for deckbuilding.
I've been running living death in addition to yawgmoth's will and patriarch's bidding and it's been pretty effective. Have you considered adding that, or living end to your deck for more graveyard recursion? I find that when I lose it's because I got boardwiped, all my good slivers got countered or removed or I just didnt hit the mana I needed. The first two are answered by the mass recursion effects. The latter will eventually be fixed as I make my landbase better.
August 9, 2017 2:12 p.m.
Xcallion, i'm flattered that you would consider my deck a valuable resource for your own deckmaking - thank you for the compliment. I put alot of time, energy, and way more money than I should have assembling this beautiful monstrosity. Glad someone else is finding it worthwhile.
As for your suggestion, the idea of adding more graveyard recursion has been rattling around in my head for sometime. Living End and Living Death have crossed my radar briefly, and I considered swapping them in for Unnatural Selection. Unnatural Selection's use in this deck is very niche, but i'm hesitant to remove it because I can outright control a whole board using it and my commander. Nothing feels better than taking someone else's commander, and hitting them in the face with it.
I've actually been considering Volrath's Stronghold for a little while now, swapping it in for Mutavault. While it's not quite as dramatic as Living End/Living Death, it's something that can be done every turn, and is relatively protected due to the minimal land hate in my meta. I think it's differences compliment Yawgmoth's Will and Patriarch's Bidding quite nicely.
Mutavault is wonderful in that it's an extra Sliver in the deck - and A 2/2 for no less. My only issue however is that it's not as impactful as I would like. It's a manland that's only as good my boardstate - more slivers = better Mutavault. Also, opponents are usually quick to forget about it's ability. But despite all that, I think what Yawgmoth's Tomb brings is just far more worthwhile for the deck to perform consistenly. What are your thoughts? Do you have Mutavault in your deck? How has it performed for you? Have you been considering Yawgmoth's Tomb as well? Have I asked you enough questions? Ha. Thanks for commenting, the hive is pleased.
August 10, 2017 12:20 p.m. Edited.
Xcallion, in regards to "Have you been considering Yawgmoth's Tomb as well?" I meant to say Volrath's Stronghold. My mistake.
August 10, 2017 10:18 p.m.
Delta-117, I didn't realize the spoilers came out! Thanks for keeping me aware. So, after doing a brief perusal of Commander 2017's offerings a few cards piqued my interest:
Hearld's Horn: It's like a slightly weaker combination of Urza's Incubator and Mirri's Guile.
Kindred Boon: an Enchantment that creates indestructable creatures...not bad.
Kindred Discovery: It's like a strictly better Synapse Sliver...but not a sliver. I wish this was a Sliver.
Kindred Summons: That CMC is almost too high to make this card worthwhile for Slivers, but it's interesting nonetheless. Good synergy with cards like Mirri's Guile, but it's largely dependant on my boardstate. Maybe it could serve as a decent wincon?
Heirloom Blade: An interesting piece of equipment that keeps a hand full of creatures. I can see this being very useful with Sliver Queen. Doesn't exactly wow me though.
Path of Ancestry: I don't exactly like the comes into play tapped part...but for a mana of any color then scry 1? Yes please.
Delta-117, are there any spoiled cards you think I've missed that are worthwhile?
jplvette says... #1
I don't think it has been mentioned yet, but Intruder Alarm has a similar effect to Paradox Engine.
August 1, 2017 5:20 p.m.