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.

    

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:

    

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.

  

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.

    

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.

    

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.