Monday, August 25, 2014

Commander Mondays: Sliver Overlord

As you saw yesterday, we featured the artist Ron Spencer, the artist of Sliver Queen. That was done as a tie-in for today's deck. Although Sliver Queen is not the actual Commander, when I started this deck, it was, but I soon switched to Sliver Overlord. There is a reason for that, and we'll get to it soon.

Sliver Queen  Sliver Legion  Sliver Overlord




Legendary Creatures (3)

x1 Sliver Overlord  (Commander)
x1 Sliver Legion
x1 Sliver Queen

Sorceries (5)

x1 Hive Stirrings
x1 Aphetto Dredging
x1 Distant Melody
x1 World at War
x1 Conflux

Enchantments (4)

x1 Training Grounds
x1 Mana Echos
x1 Parallel Thoughts
x1 Wild Pair

Artifacts (4)

x1 Heartstone
x1 Door of Destinies
x1 Cryptic Gateway
x1 Coat of Arms

Creatures (46)

x1 Galerider Sliver
x1 Plated Sliver
x1 Sidewinder Sliver
x1 Striking Sliver
x1 Crystalline Sliver
x1 Darkheart Sliver
x1 Spined Sliver
x1 Amoeboid Changeling
x1 Diffusion Sliver
x1 Frenzy Sliver
x1 Gemhide Sliver
x1 Heart Sliver
x1 Hunter Sliver
x1 Leeching Sliver
x1 Manaweft Sliver
x1 Muscle Sliver
x1 Predatory Sliver
x1 Quick Sliver
x1 Quilled Sliver
x1 Sentinel Sliver
x1 Sinew Sliver
x1 Venom Sliver
x1 Firewake Sliver
x1 Harmonic Sliver
x1 Necrotic Sliver
x1 Opaline Sliver
x1 Belligerent Sliver
x1 Horned Sliver
x1 Mirror Entity
x1 Syphon Sliver
x1 Chameleon Colossus
x1 Telekinetic Sliver
x1 Bonesythe Sliver
x1 Essence Sliver
x1 Fungus Sliver
x1 Magma Sliver
x1 Mesmeric Sliver
x1 Root Sliver
x1 Vampiric Sliver
x1 Battle Sliver
x1 Brood Sliver
x1 Lymph Sliver
x1 Might Sliver
x1 Synapse Sliver
x1 Ward Sliver
x1 Constricting Sliver
x1 Megantic Sliver

Lands (37)

x1 Command Tower
x1 Maze's End
x1 Mutavault
x1 Opal Palace
x1 Reflecting Pool
x1 Sliver Hive
x1 Thespian's Stage
x1 Azorius Guildgate
x1 Orzhov Guildgate
x1 Dimir Guildgate
x1 Izzet Guildgate
x1 Rakdos Guildgate
x1 Golgari Guildgate
x1 Gruul Guildgate
x1 Boros Guildgate
x1 Selesnya Guildgate
x1 Simic Guildgate
x1 Azorius Chancery
x1 Dimir Aqueduct
x1 Rakdos Carnarium
x1 Gruul Turf
x1 Selesnya Sanctuary
x1 Vivid Meadow
x1 Vivid Creek
x1 Vivid Marsh
x1 Vivid Crag
x1 Vivid Grove
x2 Plains
x2 Island
x2 Swamp
x2 Mountain
x2 Forest

Any Sliver deck is relatively simple to create, although all the parts together could be pricey.

The large portion of the deck was obtained in 2012 when I bought a Premium Deck Series: Slivers from Star City Games for only $45. Of course, now a sealed box costs $150, so I got it at the right time. Additionally, I picked up a Commander's Arsenal for $250 from my local shop. While it had an oversized Sliver Queen, I wanted an original Sliver Queen that I could use in the deck in the event I didn't want to use it as a commander or in the event it was tucked into my library from the battlefield. I found a box on eBay that contained a Sliver Queen, foil Sliver Hivelord, about 100 other random cards for a sliver deck, and opened/played complete Premium Deck Series Slivers and Fire & Lightning. I paid $100 for all of it together, and sold the PDS decks for about $60.

Excluding Commander's Arsenal, which was unimportant for this deck, I paid $85 for everything together, but if you went out and purchased Sliver Queen and a regular Sliver Legion, that would be around $70 on its own. Then there are many cards from Premium Deck Series that are important, but that's only if you wanted to exactly copy my deck.


First, for this deck I wanted to have access to all five colors as a mana base. As a result, there are three very important lands in the deck:

Maze's End  Command Tower  Reflecting Pool

Command Tower is largely important because it makes any color you want in a five color deck and the same thing happens in Reflecting Pool, it just takes a little longer and requires other lands in play, however having something like a Vivid land or Command Tower, it will produce any color. Maze's End is also important because not only does it win games (this happened once for me), but it also finds other lands for you.

Mutavault  Sliver Hive

With Mutavault and Sliver Hive, you get more creatures, but making creatures isn't the purpose of Sliver Hive. It's purpose is to act as a five-color land. Mutavault is, of course, an awesome card in that it is a Sliver and gets all the benefits the rest of them get.

Heart Sliver  Mana Echoes  Training Grounds

In this deck is an infinite combo available involving Sliver Queen, Heart Sliver, Mana Echoes, and Training Grounds. Training Grounds reduces the Sliver token ability to cost a single mana, when one sliver enters, you at least get one mana via Mana Echoes, and once there is an infinite number of slivers, or say somewhere around 2 billion, you are completely capable of attacking with 1 billion tokens as long as Heart Sliver is on the field. I only say half the tokens because players are capable of throwing in a Fog.

Amoeboid Changeling  Chameleon Colossus  Mirror Entity

The only "non-Sliver" creatures in this deck are actually slivers, but are Changelings. Amoeboid Changeling is great because it pairs with Sliver Overlord in being able to make a creature a Sliver, and it can then be taken by Sliver Overlord. Chameleon Colossus can't die to black kill spells, has all benefits from other Slivers, and can boost itself multiple times over. We also have Mirror Entity available that, while a Sliver, can also make all your creatures any size you want.

Now, about the obvious cards of Obelisk of Urd and Sliver Hivelord, if I had them I figure out how to incorporate them into the deck, but maybe I will sometime.

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