Hello and welcome back to Sliver Academia, My name is Tuxebromask, and today, we will be going back to Kindergarten with Sliver Legion. Everyone who has seen the movie “Kindergarten Cop” knows that Detective John Kimble really does love the children which he teaches, all while he is undercover looking for the criminal father of one of the children in his class. He might be strict with them, might even yell at them from time to time, but in his heart, he knows that there is a mission to get done, and that is to help each of those children grow up strong and supported (while still decimating his target).
Much like John, we have Sliver Legion, the Arnold Schwarzenegger of Slivers who might not use every Sliver under the sun, but loves them all, and helps them grow (usually into big beaters with huge P/T stats) and together, they swing in to cause lethal turns when he hits the field. This deck doesn’t use too many combos, and instead focuses on each Sliver doing their part for the common goal of going face.
John Kimble, Sliver Legion
Commander (1)
Lands (35)
Arid Mesa
Blood Crypt
Bloodstained Mire
Breeding Pool
Cavern of Souls
City of Brass
Command Tower
Fire-Lit Thicket
Flooded Strand
Forest x2
Godless Shrine
Hallowed Fountain
Island
Mana Confluence
Mossfire Valley
Mountain x2
Mutavault
Overgrown Tomb
Path of Ancestry
Plains
Polluted Delta
Reflecting Pool
Rugged Prairie
Sacred Foundry
Sliver Hive
Steam Vents
Stomping Ground
Swamp
Temple Garden
Unclaimed Territory
Watery Grave
Windswept Heath
Wooded Bastion
Artifacts (10)
Bident of Thassa
Chromatic Lantern
Coalition Relic
Coat of Arms
Door of Destinies
Fellwar Stone
Herald’s Horn
Lightning Greaves
Sol Ring
Vanquisher’s Banner
Enchantments (6)
Descendants’ Path
Journey to Nowhere
Mirri’s Guile
Shared Animosity
Steely Resolve
Sylvan Library
Instants (5)
Eerie Interlude
Eladamri’s Call
Heroic Intervention
Path to Exile
Teferi’s Protection
Sorceries (4)
Cultivate
Hive Stirrings
Kodama’s Reach
Living Death
//Creatures (39)
Acidic Sliver
Belligerent Sliver
Blade Sliver
Blur Sliver
Bonescythe Sliver
Bonesplitter Sliver
Cleaving Sliver
Cloudshredder Sliver
Crystalline Sliver
Dregscape Sliver
Firewake Sliver
Frenzy Sliver
Galerider Sliver
Gemhide Sliver
Harmonic Sliver
Heart Sliver
Homing Sliver
Horned Sliver
Hunter Sliver
Leeching Sliver
Manaweft Sliver
Mindlash Sliver
Muscle Sliver
Predatory Sliver
Quick Sliver
Sedge Sliver
Sentinel Sliver
Shadow Sliver
Sidewinder Sliver
Sinew Sliver
Sliver Hivelord
Spinneret Sliver
Striking Sliver
Talon Sliver
Tempered Sliver
Two-Headed Sliver
Venom Sliver
Virulent Sliver
Winged Sliver
Aggro!
The Slivers we are using are more straight forth and hyper aggressive this time around, as we want to let the Slivers who have a static buff shine. All the +2/+0 slivers and abilities like Trample, Menace and Flying are in this time, with a lot of low costing Slivers. The real allure the deck is if you get a Gemhide or Manaweft Sliver quickly, you will be dropping your hand probably turn 3, then turn 4 playing Sliver Legion and swinging in for big damage. Virulent Sliver is also a very cute card this time around, as it
uses the old version of infect called poisonous. It functions the same though, they hit 10 counters, they lose, but each Sliver can only leave 1 poison counter on the defending player. It might not be as fast, but it definitely is fun when he pops up late due to maybe Dregscape Sliver for a surprise finisher.
Staying in Tip Top Shape
- Steely Resolve
- Lightning Greaves
- Vanquisher’s Banner
- Door of Destinies
- Coat of Arms
- Heroic Intervention
- Teferi’s Protection
- Eerie Interlude
- Crystalline Sliver
- Sedge Sliver
- Sliver Hivelord
To survive is to thrive, and what better way of keeping your Slivers swinging than making them hard to kill. Crystalline Sliver, Steely Resolve and Lightning Greaves are there methods of keeping your Slivers untargettable, with Heroic Intervention helping out as well. Door of Destinies, Coat of Arms, and Vanquisher’s Banner help keep your Slivers a bit meatier for both attack and toughness (and some draw occasionally with the Vanquisher’s Banner). Eerie Interlude, Teferi’s Protection, Sedge Sliver, Sliver Hivelord and Heroic Intervention help your Slivers stay around after mass removal spells. Usually, you want your Slivers to stay on the board, and board wipes regularly get played turn 3-5, so finding some protection in your opening hand is usually key to have a healthy board.
An Eye for an Eye, A Tooth for a Tooth
- Acidic Sliver
- Belligerent Sliver
- Bonescythe Sliver
- Cloudshredder Sliver
- Firewake Sliver
- Galerider Sliver
- Horned Sliver
- Hunter Sliver
- Mindlash Sliver
- Shadow Sliver
- Sidewinder Sliver
- Striking Sliver
- Talon Sliver
- Two-Headed Sliver
- Venom Sliver
- Winged Sliver
These are the Slivers which make the magic happen. Each has a use to make each of your Slivers more slippery, and more difficult to block. For evasion, we have Belligerent Sliver and Two-Headed Sliver to give Menace, Cloudshredder Sliver, Galerider Sliver, and Winged Sliver to give flying, and if that isn’t enough, Shadow Sliver to give shadow to each Sliver. But what if your opponents have fliers, have a good amount of chump blockers, and maybe they teched some shadow creatures, for a weird match up? That’s when the other Slivers start to party.
We have Bonescythe Sliver to give Double Strike, and Striking Sliver and Talon Sliver to give First Strike. Add a Venom Sliver to give Deathtouch and make your opponents creatures disappear once blockers are made. Want more damage to actually go through? Horned Sliver gives Trample to each Sliver, which has a fun way of making most of the damage go through when your Slivers also have Deathtouch. If you really need to squeeze some more damage in, you can sacrifice your blocked Slivers with Firewake Sliver, to give the unblocked Slivers +2/+2. Why not choose how your opponents creatures block, by using Hunter Sliver to make sure they block poorly with their bigger creatures. Sidewinder also helps making your opponents creatures become a bit tinier while blocking or being blocked by your Slivers.
Lastly, my 2 favourite Slivers of the bunch. Acidic Sliver and Mindlash Sliver. These are great if your opponents use a wrath effect, or if you need to push some damage (or disruption) through. Acidic Sliver can turn your Slivers into Shocks which can be sent straight to the face of your opponents, and Mindlash Sliver gives each of your Slivers the ability to wipe away everyone’s hand, one card at a time. If your Slivers are going down, they are going to take everyone’s hands with them.
Summary
If you are looking for strength in numbers and speed, John Kimble’s got you covered. I really like that this deck focuses on a lot of the Slivers which don’t get much attention in EDH as they are build for a more speedy approach instead of a long game plan which many of the other Legendary Slivers tend to enjoy. What are your thoughts? Any Slivers you would add to the deck to make your opponents go from 40 to 0 lickidy split? Leave a comment with your thoughts.