G/W/b SA (Slurvival Advantage)

[Hanni]

Note: Slurvival was not a typo

In my failed attempts to design a decent UWg Counter Sliver Survival list, I decided to try a Survival list without the blue. Here's the decklist:

G/W/b SA (Slurvival Advantage)

Lands (22)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Savannah
3 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Plains
3 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland

Creatures (22)
3 Gemhide Sliver
4 Muscle Sliver
1 Horned Sliver
4 Plated Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
1 Talon Sliver
1 Essence Sliver
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Firewake Sliver
1 Necrotic Sliver
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

Spells (15)
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Aether Vial

Sideboard (15)
2 Loaming Shaman
1 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Krosan Grip
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Bone Shredder
4 Engineered Plague
4 Chalice of the Void

The fact that the deck has such a low curve, 4 Aether Vial, and 3 Gemhide Sliver allows me to run the RDW/Goblins-style mana denial manabase, even with 3-4 colors. This in itself is pretty great, since the deck runs a much lower curve than Goblins (and other Survival variants).

The important Slivers are 4-ofs (pump Slivers) so that the deck remains consistent without Survival.

The deck does run quite a bit of 1-ofs... however, the toolbox approach is the way to go here. Drawing any of the 1-of Slivers doesn't really hurt since they gain the bonuses of other Slivers. With Survival, each Sliver gains the toolbox ability. This is extremely potent.

The only Sliver that cannot be cast by lands is the Firewake Sliver, so the deck rarely has issues drawing Slivers it cannot cast. Firewake Sliver deserved the slot, since Haste and a sac to pump ability is pretty nice. The deck runs no resiliency like Crystalline Sliver, since the deck runs the Survival engine to keep it from losing steam, and the few sac abilities work fairly well when losing a guy in combat or to removal. This goes for Necrotic Sliver as well.

There is a bit of anti synergy between Harmonic Sliver and Survival but the Cabal Therapy's or sac Slivers can circumvent this. Harmonic Sliver is in the primary colors and extremely versatile in function, with ways to remove him if necessary.

Since the deck runs Vial (and Gemhide), I varied the mana curve a little. There are mostly 2cc guys but the deck also has a few 1cc, 3cc, and even a 4cc guy. The curve still remains much lower than typical Survival with stronger mana acceleration in Gemhide.

The lack of spot removal probably stands out as en eyesore (aside from the lone Necrotic Sliver). I don't really think it's needed, for the most part, since the deck usually develops aggro much faster than most other aggro and they become much larger as well. The deck can board into E Plague vs Goblins and Bone Shredder vs random Stompy variants.

Duress and Cabal Therapy, in addition to the mana denial, make for a great disruption package. Cabal Therapy has the additional use of popping Harmonic and the deck supports the sac cost to Cabal Therapy very well. It replaces the FoW/Daze/Counterspell/Stifle disruption of the Counter Sliver variant and does so very well. They fit extremely well into the manacurve and don't rely on a ton of [blue] spells to be effective (like FoW).

The sideboard is just something I threw together for now. The most controversial option is probably Chalice... the maindeck runs 15 1cc spells. This isn't so bad if you think about it though... 4 are Vial, which when played first gets around Chalice (and gets Plated Slivers around Chalice). Plated Sliver simply pitches for different guys if you have Chalice @ 1 and Survival, and Duress/Cabal Therapy are fighting exactly what Chalice is aimed to fight (Threshold, Combo). I'll gladly hold onto dead discard in hand if I can play Chalice, but I want the discard for when I don't have Chalice. Additionally, Chalice @ 0 is still very effective for Tendrils-based combo.

[Radley]

So a Squee discarded a turn for survival? I suggest you put at least 1 genesis. If only you can add red for anger ^_^.

[aznfoodgood]

Wow, this looks like a great deck, the only problem I can see is your lack of clock against combo decks. Even if you are packing viles and mana slivers, many survival decks have problems against combo. I remember seeing a agro rock deck, (assume they play similarly as the rock player had a mediocre clock) dressed, turn 1, caballed turn 2 and then on turn 5 he tried to hymn. The solidarity player went off and won… Even though hand destruction is very damaging against many different players, with out a quick clock, they could just play meditate and watch as you work on setting up your clock. The mana denial seems very interesting, I like port a lot =D. I also don’t see many turn 1 answers to lacky but then again, your advantage is comparable to theirs. Thought of ways to tutor for survival? Just a couple of thoughts

[Hanni]

So a Squee discarded a turn for survival? I suggest you put at least 1 genesis. If only you can add red for anger ^_^.

Survival + Squee = 1 card advantage per turn, except I get to choose the Sliver I want. Why would I splash in red lands just so I can run Anger? If I need Haste, I'll cast Fires of Yavimaya (Firewake Sliver).


Wow, this looks like a great deck, the only problem I can see is your lack of clock against combo decks. Even if you are packing viles and mana slivers, many survival decks have problems against combo.

Turn 1 Plated, turn 2 Muscle, turn 3 Muscle, turn 4 Sinew is a 4 turn clock vs combo. Otherwise, the deck stays pretty consistent with all the pump beats anyway.

Then again, I'm also running 4 Duress and 3 Cabal Therapy vs combo, with 4 Chalice post board. Most Survival lists are midrange aggro with a bunch of 4cc guys. This deck runs a much lower curve for a reason. I don't think combo is nearly as bad for this deck as you think it is. Not only that but I'm running Port/Wasteland to answer decks like TES and IGGy.

If Solidarity can combo off through Duress/Therapy/Chalice and my Sliver clock, I applaud them. Hopefully they dont get the nuts draw again. This deck is as much aggro/control as it is aggro... it's not really a whole lot different from Counter Sliver, which already has a good combo matchup. All I did was trade in countermagic for discard/mana denial, Chalice for Mage, and Survival for cantrip.

I love the RDW-Goblins land configuration. Turn 1 Vial followed by Port and Waste is so strong.

I had considered Enlightened Tutor since I run Plague and Chalice in the sideboard but ultimately sided against it. This deck does not need to see Survival and does not want to lose tempo and card advantage early on by casting Enlightened Tutor.

I am considering a 1-of on Crystalline Sliver though.

EDIT: I think the list right now is far from optimal, although it hasn't been performing too bad. I have been thinking that maybe dropping Firewake, Essence, and a few other Slivers for some Dearkheart Slivers wouldn't be a bad idea. It turns all of my guys into Baloth's basically and becomes as large as Baloth with 2 Muscle Slivers on board. I'm still not quite sure yet how to go with the concept of Slurvial but the current list hasn't been doing too bad.

[Nydaeli]

I agree with adding Genesis to the deck, especially with the addition of Dark Heart Sliver. It would help to feed Dark Heart and Necrotic's activations. The idea of becoming a pseudo-prison deck in the late game with recurring Necrotic activations is really awesome, if generally unfeasible.

Quick Sliver might be worth trying as a 1-of, mostly for janky combat tricks / Survival tricks.

[Hanni]

Recurring Necrotic for a prison lock doesn't make much sense... if I'm going to use Necrotic, I'm more than likely going to fetch out Plated Slivers or Gemhide Slivers, cast those, and sac those to Necrotic. The same applies to recurring Dark Heart's.

The only real reason to run Genesis is to recur the 1-of's that get put in the graveyard or to bring back guys in the yard when Survival gets removed or Needle'd. The only matchup where Genesis would be worth running would be against board control, which makes it a sideboard card moreso than a maindeck card.

As far as Quick Sliver... I'm already running Vial.