Arctic_Ghost's picture
By: Arctic_Ghost, Arctic_Ghost
Aug 22 2016 12:00pm
0
Login to post comments
2010 views


Hello and welcome to another episode of the Arctic Pauper Show. I am playing with GW Slivers this week and we are going to find out just how good or bad it may be in the current format. Slivers are not known for being very powerful by themselves, but when you play a bunch of different slivers and combine all of their abilities, they can make for a very deadly army. They can win very quickly and make the combat step one of the most annoying things for any opponent.

 

 

As always, if the video isn't good for you, or you just prefer a deck list, then here it is for your pleasure.

 


When you look at the deck, you will notice that the slivers aren't very impressive on their own, but when you combine them and have a bunch on the battlefield at once, they can be almost impossible to beat. A big reason this deck is so deadly is because it has access to 3 different sliver lords (Muscle Sliver, Sinew Sliver and Predatory Sliver ) and you are able to play 4 of each, making it easy to make all your slivers huge creatures and not only hard to kill, but also very hard to attack through. You also have access to beating your opponent with poison counters and that is thanks to Virulent Sliver, which allows you to race any strategy and win quickly (Fun fact: if you have more than 1 Virulent Sliver in play, your slivers get multiple instances of poison, allowing you to give your opponent a large amount of poison counters in 1 turn). I think I have rambled on enough, so let us check out how the deck plays.

 

Match 1 vs Affinity

 

 

Game 1 I took a mulligan to 6 and had a decent hand on the draw. My opponent started off strong by having 4 creatures on turn 2, but I had 2 Sidewinder Slivers on the battlefield and was able to start attacking.  I found a Sinew Sliver off of my Commune with Nature. My opponent made an early block with their Frogmite, but I suspect it was due to lack of familiarity with the Slivers archetype. I started to draw fairly well and was able to attack past my opponent's creatures thanks to Plated Sliver and was able to remove my opponent's Atog with a Journey to Nowhere. I resolved a Muscle Sliver and the game ended shortly after that.

 

Game 2 my opening hand was fine, but it was a little slow. My opponent had another explosive hand and had a Galvanic Blast to kill my creature. I drew a Sunlance and a Journey to Nowhere and was able to remove 2 of my opponents threats, but was not able to stabilize because my opponent had too much gas left in their hand. When I tried to kill another Myr Enforcer, they had a Fling and killed my Sinew Sliver and resolved a Carapace Forger, but I had another lord and an Armadillo Cloak, so I was able to attack and gain some life. We both were in top deck mode for few turns, but I drew into 2 Plated Sliver and it was too much for my opponent to get through and I earned the win.

 

This matchup favors Slivers if the Affinity deck doesn't have much removal and if the game goes long because eventually your creatures will be so big that your opponent will not be able to attack past or kill any of your creatures. That being said, the Affinity deck is much faster than you are and also because of the Atog combo with Fling or Temur Battle Rage, they can win out of nowhere and there isn't much you can do about it. I think the way you win is by being patient and chipping away at your opponent when you can, until you have enough lords out and your creatures are big enough to safely attack and win in just a few turns.

 

Match 2 vs UR Drake Control

 

 

Game 1 I felt my opening hand was decent and all I needed was my deck to be kind to me. I shortly found out it was UR Drake control and I knew I was in trouble. No matter what creature I played, it just got killed almost instantly and soon enough my opponent got the combo going and we were on to game 2.

 

Game 2 went almost the same as the first game, it just took a bit longer for me to lose. My opponent had an answer for everything I did and I was stuck on 2 lands, so I wasn't able to play more than 1 spell a turn. I got close because my opponent started to run out of gas and I started create a good board state, but eventually my opponent got the combo again and I was dead.

 

This matchup is just straight up horrible and it's not the combo that is the problem. The problem is the UR Control shell that the deck has and the fact that they draw a ton of cards and keep refilling their hand with more counterspells and super cheap removal spells, all the while you are living off the top of your deck. You don't have anything to stop the combo and they don't need the combo to win either, making it almost impossible to win this matchup. If you were going to sideboard graveyard hate, I would go with Faerie Macabre because you're going to be living on a little amount of land, so keeping mana open for Relic of Progenitus could hurt you more than help.

 

Match 3 vs Izzet Tron Control

 

 

Game 1 I took a mulligan and had a decent 6 card hand. It got a bit better when I drew a second lord and a second Virulent Sliver, but it didn't take long for my opponent to take control of the game. I drew 2 Journey to Nowhere and a few too many lands, so I ran out of gas rather quickly. My opponent was able to kill every creature I had and although I may have scooped early, I felt the odds of me coming back were so minimal, I would rather just go to game 2.

Game 2 I felt my opening hand was great with a couple of lands, a couple of lords and 2 Plated Sliver and so I quickly decided to keep. I drew into a Predatory Sliver and decided to just throw it out there in the hopes my opponent had nothing and to my luck, they did not. My opponent played a Compulsive Research on turn 3 and my turn 4 was spent playing a Sinew Sliver and another Plated Sliver and my opponent conceded.

 

Game 3 I felt my opening hand was fine and I decided to keep it. This game wasn't to eventual because I drew 3 copies of Virulent Sliver and my opponent had turn 3 Urza Tron, but never found a piece of colored mana and I quickly won the game.

 

Where we go from here? Updates to the deck list, aftermath thoughts and possibly more!

 

We have no seen what the deck is capable of. How strong it can be, how weak in can be and how the deck functions. Although the slivers on their own are not very strong cards, when you put them together, they can be very scary and it doesn't take long to lose to them either. I have made some changes to my list, let's see what they are.

GW Slivers
Suggested Deck - 75 Cards Total
Creature
4 Predatory Sliver
1 Metallic Sliver
4 Plated Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
4 Sidewinder Sliver
1 Spinneret Sliver
4 Muscle Sliver
3 Sentinel Sliver
4 Virulent Sliver
29 cards

Instant
2 Gods Willing
2 cards

Sorcery
2 Commune with Nature
2 Hive Stirrings
3 Travel Preparations
7 cards
Enchantment
4 Journey to Nowhere
4 cards
 
Land
4 Blossoming Sands
7 Forest
7 Plains
18 cards

Sideboard
1 Thrill of the Hunt
1 Hive Stirrings
1 Gods Willing
3 Armadillo Cloak
2 Prismatic Strands
3 Natural State
3 Sunlance
1 Vines of Vastwood
15 cards

 

In the main deck I took out 2 Commune with Nature for 2 Gods Willing because although being able to find another lord type card ( Muscle Sliver for example), I find that being able to protect one you already have in play is better for you because it helps you win the game faster and also being able to scry can be very useful. I took out 2 Spinneret Slivers because I found them to be very weak and having 1 is nice, but you don't need to see them early and I also took out 1 Hive Stirrings because I find that game 1, you want to be as quick and aggressive as possible and the card can be a little slow and make it hard for you to win fast if you draw it too early. I added 3 Travel Preparations to have another lord type of effect in the deck because all you want to do is make your creatures bigger and win the game faster and honestly I don't know how I forgot about this card.

 

In the sideboard I removed the Quick Slivers because they were just not good and never needed, so I replaced them with 1 Vines of Vastwood so that I could have a counter type spell in green and 1 Thrill of the Hunt so that I could have a cheap pump spell that not only can help me win a combat step, but also can be a counter spell against certain types of removal ( Disfigure for example) and against burn spells. I also replaced 2 Gods Willing for another Armadillo Cloak and 1 Hive Stirrings for when I need to go a little wider by flooding the board or I need the extra power and life gain (examples are matchups such as Affinity, Goblins and Stompy).

 

My verdict on this deck is that it's very fun to play, but it isn't very good in the format right now. It has a horrible Peregrine Drake matchup no matter what version you face and against just about everything, you need to get a little luckier then you usually would if you were playing something like Stompy or GW Hexproof. I ended up going 3-2 in the league, losing to Delver Blue and getting extremely lucky against Burn. It may be true that my build wasn't very good, but even when playing the new build I felt the same way. I am by no means an expert on slivers and this is just all my opinion, but I would choose something else to grind leagues with.

 

Twitch.tv/arcticghost_tv

 

Pauper Classic Tuesdays happens every Tuesday on Gatherling.com at 8:00pm, always Eastern Standard Time. It's free to enter a lot of fun. I also stream it as well every Tuesday! I will be looking to stream more during the week when I have time, I hope to see you all there!

 

Thank you all so much for reading and watching and I'll see you next time!