Note that Slivers have changed over time, some of which I don’t like much. The initial concept of the Silvers is that there is an intelligent race of creatures on the Plane of Rath that give each other their abilities. The more Slivers in a room, the more on the battlefield. And their hivemind works so well that all Slivers, even enemy ones, get their abilities. That’s why Volrath made the Metallic Sliver, as a constructed Sliver fake and spy that would get all of the benefits of the hive, even when not giving anything itself. The fact that Slivers help one another, including their enemies, is a key part of the story line.

Anyways, we saw Slivers in that take, with them hitting Rath Block, and later Onslaught Block and Time Spiral Block. Lots of Slivers for everyone! And lot’s of variants on Slivers as well. Great!

And then we got a new slate of Slivers for the core sets. And they made two major, highly criticized changes to the tribe. The first was changing the look, which is a classic and iconic look to something a lot more generic. They argued that the art department needed these changes to better represent the Slivers in question. And flavor wise, the Slivers are about evolution, and will often grow extra physical aspects like Two-Headed Sliver or Plated Sliver, so changing their base form is in line with who they are. But we got that same, “Evolution is who they are,” argument for New Phyrexia and why these Phyrexians are very different than those that came before. Why change a good thing?

The second change was mechanical, as they removed the ability for Slivers to help all other Slivers. Now they just affect your own, in line with how other racial bonuses are templated. That change felt wrong to me. The core concept of the tribe is everyone, enemies and friends, gets the ability. The disadvantage makes it fair. This is a tribe where virtually every single entry acts like Diregraf Captain and adds an ability to the team. There was no reason to change the Slivers. They acted as their own answer, if that makes sense. You could have kept the old template as the defining characteristic of the race moving forward.

I was thinking about the modern take on Slivers, as well as some of the great classic Slivers from old. And there are Slivers out there that get played in decks that . . . shockingly . . . don’t run a bunch of other Slivers. Crazy, I know! I know that the tribe has an “All In” reputation, that you have to play all of the Slivers or none of the Slivers.

But that’s not true. There are tons of Slivers out there that work very well without any help. Unlike Metallic Sliver or the otherwise over-costed Heart Sliver, there are many examples of Slivers that are good on their own. I thought it would be fun to take a look at them, and unpack them in a Top Ten List!

10. Screeching Sliver

Screeching Sliver was the first 1-drop in Blue with the simple ability to tap and force someone to mill a card from their library to their graveyard. In fact, even through today, just one more has been printed, Cathartic Adept. Having the ability on a 1/1 creature that can do things other than mill people out is pretty keen. Want to attack? Block? There are a lot of options out there for this body, in addition to tapping and reducing that library’s size each turn.

9. Telekinetic Sliver

Only two Blue creatures in Magic have the basic ability to tap themselves, and then tap a permanent. There are only a small number that can even do it with restrictions, like Rimewind Taskmage, because of how useful this is. Fatestitcher and then this Sliver. That’s it. In fact, only three other Blue creatures can, and they require mana or hoop jumping in addition to their tapping. This has to be rare because it’s powerful. Consider the value of tapping a land in someone’s upkeep or tapping a Maze of Ith before you attack. Locking down a key artifact? Tapping a Howling Mine after you drew, so it only works on you? Tapping a creature for any number of reasons? Soot, you can even tap down Gideon Jura so he can’t swing at you. This thing is worth the price of admission.

8. Plague Sliver

A 5/5 for 4 mana that tings you each upkeep is very much on the Juzam Djinn list of creatures to consider for various occasions, including Commander, where you start with 40 life. It’s brilliant on its own, since you will hose others that are running Slivers. (Want to really Johnny this up? Play and Donate Hivestone). And the Plague Sliver will be good even if your foes aren’t running Slivers, just as a great beater. Dark Ritual on turn two for this Sliver. A 5/5 ends games quickly. Not even modern Green stuff tends to be as good for 4 mana as this 5/5. It’s not only strong on its own, but you want to play it there too!

7. Harmonic Sliver

This is a great three-mana variant of Acidic Slime or Reclamation Sage. You don’t have to have any other Slivers for it to work. I used to run in in Equinaut, one of my Commander Decks that used self-bounce of cards like Fleetfoot Panther to collect a lot of triggers from other cards, and this would be a fun creature to bounce and replay a few times. The fact it was both Green and White made it better with cards that cared about colors in my deck, and I even ran a Gemhide Sliver, just in case that mattered.

6. Sliver Hivelord

Ignore the Sliver concepts. Your 5 mana investment reaps a 5/5 with the single best keyword in existence — indestructible. Imagine if in the five-color themed Conflux set just how well received Fusion Elemental would have been as a 5/5 instead of an 8/8, but with indestructible. It would have been huge. And this does not get the play it should. For example, I see a lot of Five Color Commander decks that run a lot of sweeping removal and indestructible dorks for defense and survival that don’t run this. You could use it as the key Commander for a Five Color Sweep and Keep deck that blows everything else up, but keeps your stuff up and running. There are so many ways to harness the power of a cheap, big, indestructible creature that’s only weakness is the five color component. So unlock the crazy power here today!

5. Brood Sliver

There are a number of Green creatures that make tokens when they hit or attack, and encourage you to swing. And the Brood Sliver does that from two separate angles. First of all, when you smash someone with the Mr. McBrood, you can spit out another 1/1 Sliver token. And then, when your Tokens smash, you get more Slivers. So you are increasing your Sliver count each turn, especially if you can slip through. After three attacks, you have 8 Slivers out, and one more gets you to 16. It compares nicely to Inexorable Blob or Spawnwrithe. You can run it easily in a token creature deck without any need for more Slivers.

4. Manaweft Sliver/ Gemhide Sliver

Everybody likes the mana. They like playing lands, and tapping things for the mana in order to cast their spells. And these 2-drops are perfectly fine at doing that. 1-drops that tap for all colors of mana are basically just Birds of Paradise. 2-drops are remarkably absent in Green as well. Utopia Tree. Sylvan Caryatid. These two and . . . that’s it. There are just four 2-drop Green creatures that tap for any color of mana. So in a format where you want a 2-drop that taps for any color of mana, or one that can swing and carry equipment and add to your creature density, these two are preferred.

3. Mindlash Sliver

Ah yes, the little Sliver that could. This is one of the most disrespected and underappreciated Slivers of all time, to my mind. It is so good on its own! How? Do you not see it?

Madness Enabler . . . 

Oh yes. Comprehension is a beautiful thing. This thing is one of the best madness enablers at the kitchen table, especially in multiplayer. Drop it on the first turn, when you probably weren’t doing anything anyway. Whenever you need to, spend a mana to sacrifice it and force everyone to discard a card. Discard and activate madness. Result? Amazing!

Here’s just one simple example. Reckless Wurm. Tap a colorless mana at a table with 4 players, and discard the Wurm, pay the madness, drop it onto the battlefield. You get a 4/4 with trample, you spent 4 mana, you lost a 1/1, and your foes lose three cards from their hands. It’s nasty in those decks.

Plus it’s so good everywhere else too. There are tons of decks that want everyone to discard, you as well. Cursed Scroll. Megrim. Ensnaring Bridge. Waste Not. Hellbent cards. You get the idea. Plus, one other note. Unlike most other discard effects, this one is not a sorcery. You can do it in the draw step after someone draws, for example, to lock out their card for the turn. Just an epic amount of awesome in this tiny little package.

2. Sliver Queen

Her highness has arrived. Due to her presence on the Reserve List, she can’t ever be reprinted, and she is amazing all on her own because you can spit out tokens for two colorless mana a pop. And her five color capacity is often a boon. One example? Secret Forces, the deck that would sacrifice a cheap Green creature for a big fatty with Natural Order required a Green creature to be sacrificed and another to be fetched up. You’ll note her Her Highness is a Green creature, so she was often used as a key target. Reanimation. Oath of Druids. Five Color tokens. Commander. Coalition Victory. She does so much good with her life! You can win with the Sliver Queen so easily that she clearly has a lot to offer!

1. Necrotic Sliver

Because it’s a solid 3-drop, that can be cast and sacrificed later when you need, and it’s a very useful version of the Vindicate, Necrotic Sliver is the single best solo Sliver of all time. But what makes it really, truly great is that creature status. Bring it back with Karmic Guide! Sacrifice it again. And it’s cheap cost! Bring it back with Sun Titan when it arrives at the battlefield. Use it. And then each time you attack with the Titan, bring it back, and sacrifice it to hit a blocker or something very powerful and such and keep it going. This thing is awesome from pretty much any angle.

And there you have it! 10 great Slivers that work all day long all by themselves. You don’t need to bring the team to show off your best Slivers! I hope you found something in here you liked! If not, well, it’s the Sliver Overlord’s fault! I can’t do anything when it’s around.