Legacy Countersliver
"Slivers are evil and slivers are sly; And if you get eaten, then no one will cry." - Mogg children's rhyme.
A Brief History of Countersliver (or "Back in the Day...")
In 1999, Chris Senhouse and his team shook up the Extended format by garnering several top 8 PTQ berths with their “House of Slivers” creation, which was basically a port of the well-known Type 2 Countersliver deck. Employing the ever-potent trio of Crystalline, Muscle and Winged Sliver as his primary win condition, Senhouse filled out the rest of the deck with counterspells, card-drawers and utility spells. The deck was well-equipped to handle the powerhouse Extended decks of the time, with Crystalline/Worship lock to frustrate Sligh, countermagic to thwart High Tide combo, and countermagic + disenchants to combat Necropotence decks. While Senhouse's initial version ran just three colors (UWG), the deck eventually evolved (with the help of other innovators) into a 4-color variant with black for Hibernation Sliver, Duress and most importantly, the overpowered (and now banned) Demonic Consultation. Countersliver continued to have good success until mid-2000, at which point it fell out of favor due to shifts in the Extended metagame. Once the Revised dual lands rotated out of Extended in 2002, the Countersliver archetype rotated out with them.
Put out to pasture in the Legacy format, Countersliver languished in obscurity for several years, barely played, but not quite forgotten. Around 2006, it reemerged as "MeatHooks," a moniker derived from the hook-like appearance of sliver appendages. Though it was never considered a Tier 1 power, it managed to gain some traction in the metagame for a while. Employing Plated Sliver alongside the usual cadre of Crystalline/Muscle/Winged, the deck's primary appeal was that it was very strong against Goblins, which was considered the strongest deck in the format at the time. However, metagames evolve, and it wasn't long before Goblins began to fade from power. As Goblins receded from prominence, Countersliver began to lose relevance. At the center of this was WotC's commitment to printing increasingly powerful creatures, such as Tarmogoyf. As individual creatures became stronger and more efficient, the hive strategy of slivers became less and less enticing. However, WotC wasn't done with slivers, and with M14 and M15 came a batch of new sliver cards for us to play with. M14 was particularly bountiful, providing highly useful new slivers in the form of Galerider, Predatory, Striking, and Syphon. Then a few years later came the Modern Horizons set to gift us with Cloudshredder Sliver and Unsettled Mariner. Combined with the printing of Cavern of Souls, Sliver Hive, and Unclaimed Territory to bolster a traditionally fragile manabase, there may now be enough tools to breathe life back into this dormant archetype.
Building Countersliver
Previous versions of Legacy Countersliver were typically built to operate on 3 colors (UWG) or 4 colors (UWGB). The manabase consisted largely of dual lands and fetches, with 1 or 2 basics and some mutavaults. Fill out the deck with the obvious core slivers, as well as aether vials, brainstorms, forces, dazes, and plows, and you had yourself a Countersliver deck.
More recently, with the printing of a variety of new rainbow lands and efficient slivers, the deck has evolved into a full-fledged 5-color deck that eschews cantrips, plows, and non-Force counterspells in favor of cramming in as many good slivers as possible. Most notable has been the repeated success of Daniel Nunes with lists very much like the following:
A modern update of the more traditional Countersliver build would look something like the one below. What makes it "traditional" is the complete lack of red, a high blue count, and the barebones fetch/dual/basic engine facilitating the inclusion of Brainstorm. The manabase is surprisingly robust. Any island + rainbow land casts every 2cc spell in the deck. With full sets of dazes and forces, this list packs a good amount of disruption.Nunes "All-In" Slivers
3 Cloudshredder Sliver
4 Crystalline Sliver
4 Galerider Sliver
4 Hibernation Sliver
1 Muscle Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
2 Plated Sliver
4 Striking Sliver
2 Unsettled Mariner
4 Aether Vial
4 Force of Will
3 Wasteland
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Sliver Hive
4 Unclaimed Territory
2 Karakas
1 Ancient Ziggurat
1 Sunbaked Canyon
1 Waterlogged Grove
Sideboard:
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Containment Priest
2 Plague Engineer
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Force of Negation
2 Harmonic Sliver
3 Leyline of the Void
And here is a UWGR variant that forgoes Hibernation Sliver for Cloudshredder Sliver.Traditional Countersliver
4 Crystalline Sliver
4 Hibernation Sliver
4 Galerider Sliver
4 Plated Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
2 Realmwalker
4 Aether Vial
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Unclaimed Territory
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
Sideboard:
2 Grafdigger's CAge
2 Containment Priest
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Harmonic Sliver
2 Plague Engineer
3 Rest in Peace
2 Force of Negation
And finally, if money is tight, you can start with the following list and work your way up to the Nunes "All-In" list.Jeskai Countersliver
3 Cloudshredder Sliver
4 Crystalline Sliver
4 Galerider Sliver
2 Muscle Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
3 Unsettled Mariner
4 Aether Vial
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Wasteland
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Unclaimed Territory
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
Sideboard:
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Containment Priest
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Harmonic Sliver
2 Force of Negation
2 Submerge
1 Invasive Surgery
Budget Slivers
4 Crystalline Sliver
3 Hibernation Sliver
3 Unsettled Mariner
4 Sinew Sliver
3 Predatory Sliver
2 Muscle Sliver
3 Cloudshredder Sliver
4 Galerider Sliver
4 Striking Sliver
2 Sidewinder Sliver
4 Aether Vial
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Mutavault
4 Sliver Hive
4 Unclaimed Territory
3 Ancient Ziggurat
2 Gemstone Mine
3 Plains
1 Island
Sideboard:
4 Containment Priest
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Harmonic Sliver
1 Dismember
The Manabase
You want to run 20 lands, give or take. Start with 4x Cavern of Souls, 0-2x Karakas, 0-4x Mutavault/Wasteland. For the rest of it, you have two choices: 1) fill up with more rainbow lands, or 2) cram in a fetch/dual engine so you can run Brainstorm. Look to the above lists for examples of both strategies.
The order of preference for rainbow lands is Cavern of Souls >>> Unclaimed Territory > Sliver Hive > Ancient Ziggurat. Why Unclaimed Territory over Sliver Hive? Because Unclaimed Territory can name "Humans" for your hatebears out of the sideboard, and because you will *never* use Sliver Hive's tertiary ability in competitive Legacy play.
As for Mutavault vs Wasteland, it's a matter of debate. Mutavault is a natural fit, but Wasteland is also good for all the reasons you'd expect Wasteland to be good. One observation I'll make is that Unsettled Mariner + Wasteland = good synergy. In any case, pick one or the other and run with it.
Maindeck Choices
Aether Vial: Put your slivers into play uncounterably and play combat tricks on your opponent. Automatic 4-of.
Crystalline Sliver: Still the MVP. Listen to your opponent groan as it comes into play. Automatic 4-of.
Hibernation Sliver: Provides resilience to Terminus and Wrath effects, as well as acting as sort of a poor man’s Crystalline. Also useful for dealing with Jitte, Deathtouch, Griselbrand, and other annoyances.
Unsettled Mariner: This changeling gladly joins your hive and provides a bit of maindeck disruption against targeted removal, burn, tendrils of agony, and the like.
Sinew Sliver/Muscle Sliver/Predatory Sliver: Lordy lordy, them slivers are beefy! Make room for at least 8.
Cloudshredder Sliver: A 2-drop that gives your hive flying AND haste? Yes, please.
Galerider Sliver: Flying breaks stalemates and delivers the coup de grace. Automatic 4-of.
Striking Sliver: A nice one-drop that gives your hive first strike. Don’t knock it.
Sidewinder Sliver/Plated Sliver: More one-drops to round out the curve. Both are solid, if not spectacular. Which one is preferred depends on your metagame.
Force of Will: Puts the "counter" in countersliver.
Brainstorm: Only viable if you're playing a fetch/dual manabase to support it. In fact, if you're playing fetches and duals but not Brainstorm, then what are you doing?
Ponder: If Brainstorm is the best cantrip, this is easily the second best one. In some situations, it's actually better, as it allows you to potentially look at 4 fresh cards when searching for the thing you need.
Swords to Plowshares: Again, only viable if you're playing fetches and duals. This card would be a secondary reason to do so. You probably don't want to play any more than 2 or 3 plows, and 0 is perfectly acceptable.
Daze: In years gone by, this card was a staple in the deck. Its purpose was to help stick turn 1 aether vial or turn 2 crystalline sliver, and to buy you an extra turn against combo decks. It can still serve that purpose. However, you need to actually be playing islands for it to work. I wouldn't advise it in builds that run fewer than 8 islands or ways to fetch islands.
FAQ
Q: Should I keep this 1-land hand?
A: A tricky question. If you have a vial and can play it, then probably yes. Otherwise, it depends. Sometimes you can get by with making one-drops for a couple of turns until you draw out of it. Sometimes you get wastelanded to death or take too long to find another land. Them's the breaks.
Q: Merfolk does is better.
A: That isn't a question. I can tell because there isn't a question mark at the end. But, yeah, okay, maybe. What of it?
Q: What happens if I attack with flanking, and my opponent blocks with Ice-Fang Coatl or Baleful Strix?
A: The deathtouch creature dies before it can deliver damage. Your creature survives, but is still blocked.
Q: Does flanking stack?
A: Yes.
Q: Does Unsettled Mariner's effect apply to cards that say "without paying its mana cost?"
A: Yes.
Q: Does Unsettled Mariner's effect apply to spells that "can't be countered?"
A: Yes, but they can safely ignore the effect.
Q: What about this really awesome sliver that costs 4 or 5 mana?
A: It's too difficult to cast. Even 3cc slivers are mostly unplayable.
Q: Slivers are the coolest!
A: Again, not a question. But yes, yes they are.
Tournament History & Proven Lists
mtgtop8.com <-- Select Legacy format and search for decks with maindeck Crystalline Sliver
hareruyamtg.com
Credits
Chris Lennon (Volt)
James Hammer (Pinder)
Brian Crownhart (Maverick676)
John Thomas (xsockmonkeyx)
Gordy Goetz (Tosh)
Sam Blau (Kronicler)
and the rest of Team InfoNinja.
Also, special thanks to Kicks_422, who coined 'MeatHooks' as an alternate deck name for Countersliver.
References & Additional Reading
Who's the Beatdown?
The Secret Life of Slivers
A Sliver Story
Sliver Me Timbers
Sliver Anatomy
Prisoner of the Skep; or, How I Encountered the Slivers—and Lived to Tell the Tale!
Tales from the Crypt Sliver
Take the Sliver Quiz!
Sliver Pâté
This Hive is No Mos Eisley
A Sliver of a Chance
A Sliver of Direction
Slivers
Deck of the Day: Modern Slivers
Treasure Cruisin' Pauper Slivers
Modern Slivers with Modern Horizons
Slivers Through History
10 Strongest Cards for a Sliver Commander Deck
Last edited by Volt; 04-26-2021 at 12:42 AM. Reason: new deck lists; fixed some broken links and added new articles
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