Throughout Magic: the Gathering’s history, there may not be another creature type more beloved and feared than the Sliver. First released in the Tempest set back in 1997, Slivers generally have unique abilities or effects that affect all other Sliver creatures you control and sometimes sliver creatures your opponent controls too.
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With 109 Slivers printed, there are some choices you’ll have to make when including them in your deck. Whether you are building a Commander deck or looking to take your Sliver deck to your local Modern tournament, you will want to include most of these cards in your deck.
10 Diffusion Sliver
Giving all your slivers what is effectively ward 2 is a huge deal in Commander. It suddenly makes all your opponent's single-target removal spells much worse to cast, particularly in the first few turns of the game.
In the late game, you can efficiently tie up your opponent's removal spells if they don’t want to waste on the Sliver that likely isn’t the most dangerous one on the table. Diffusion Sliver might seem worse than Crystalline Sliver, another card higher up on this list, but doubling up on these types of effects is always a good idea.
9 Essence Sliver
Essence Sliver is an interesting card that requires a little more consideration before using. While it reads like it gives all Slivers lifelink, it doesn’t. What Essence Sliver does is separate the two instances of combat damage and then the life gain.
All your damage, whether from combat or not, will resolve, and then a separate trigger will occur for each Sliver, gaining life equal to the damage that was dealt. This is incredibly important to keep in mind if you’re looking to stay alive after taking a big attack since state-based actions will have you losing your life points before you can gain them back.
8 Predatory Sliver
Generally, Sliver creatures are on the smaller side when it comes to their power and toughness. You’ll see lots of 1/1s and 2/2s, but anything larger typically requires a significant mana investment. With Predatory Sliver, however, you can turn your little army into a big one. At just two mana, you can drop Predatory Sliver early for a good starting board presence or hold off for a late-game push once you have some protection out.
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Stacking multiple Predatory Slivers gives multiple instances of +1/+1, so creating token copies or clones of this Sliver can be vital for creating a stable army.
7 Sliver Hivelord
One of five Sliver Legendary creatures in Magic, Sliver Hivelord fills an important role in protecting your creatures. By all your Slivers indestructible, you have stopped all forms of removal except exiling effects, anything doling out -1/-1 counters, or a similar effect.
If your opponents are staring down an army of Slivers, and the Hivelord is in play, it may cause them to overestimate its threat level and waste their removal on it rather than something more important in play.
6 Gemhide Sliver
A turn two Gemhide Sliver can very easily have you emptying your entire hand a turn or two later, thanks to its ability. With Gemhide Sliver in play, all Slivers gain the ability to tap and add mana of any color. This ability is particularly important in a five-color Sliver Commander deck, where hitting your mana curve can be difficult since it’s spread across all five colors.
With a Gemhide Sliver in play, you can be a little loose in how you tap your lands for mana and keep creatures untapped to surprise your opponents with activated abilities or an instant spell even after your lands are all tapped.
5 The First Sliver
Another Legendary Sliver creature, The First Sliver gives all your Sliver creature spells cascade. When you cast a spell with cascade, you exile the top cards of your library until you find a card that costs less than the card's mana value and cast that spell.
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The neat thing with giving all your Slivers cascade is that they also have the effect when cast from your library, so you’ll get to trigger another instance of it cascade. With a high density of Sliver creatures in your deck, you’ll be able to get multiple creatures in play off of just one card.
4 Crystalline Sliver
The perfect shield to protect your Slivers comes as a double-edged sword. Giving all your Slivers shroud means nothing your opponents do can target them, but you can no longer target them either. Even with its drawbacks, Crystalline Sliver severely limits your opponents’ options.
This forces them to target other opponents with their spells in an attempt to eliminate one of them first or to use large board wipes when they might not have wanted to. Just make sure to equip and enchant the creatures you want before you play Crystalline Sliver, and you’ll be good to go.
3 Virulent Sliver
When you say that you’re running a Sliver deck, most people will think of a massive board filled with tons of keywords and creatures. While that’s generally true, you can also sneak in an alternate win condition with just one Virulent Sliver. Giving all your creatures poisonous 1 means when an opponent is dealt combat damage, they gain a poison counter.
Get a player to ten counters and they automatically lose the game. If ten creatures deal damage to an opponent and they all have poisonous 1, that player is out. Even funnier, if you clone or copy this Sliver, there are multiple instances of poisonous 1 going around, so each creature could add two poison counters per attack.
2 Sliver Overlord
Easily the best choice for Commander in Sliver-themed deck is the Sliver Overlord. Like every Sliver Legendary creature, it is all five colors, allowing you to play any Slivers you like. Its ability to search your library for any Sliver card and put it in your hand makes it so strong.
Depending on the situation, you can tutor up any Sliver from your deck. The Sliver Overlord is a huge target, so don’t expect it to stay around too long but make use of that ability and get as many Slivers in your hand as possible.
1 Cloudshredder Sliver
Hands down, Cloudshredder Sliver is the best creature you can play in your deck. It pulls double duty with its abilities, giving all your Slivers haste and flying. Multiple other Slivers grant flying, and several more give haste, but having them both on one creature is exceptionally powerful.
If not answered immediately, Cloudshredder Sliver can lead to some massive swings. As an extra synergy with Cloudshredder Sliver in play, your Gemhide Sliver can tap for mana the turn they’re played.
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