Hello everyone! If you played during the Standard era of Rath and Urza's Blocks, then you know that card from Tempest in the most decks that won was Living Death. It was in the Golgari Spike Girls deck that sacrificed things like Spike Feeder for value. Then we had it as the win-con in Rec/Sur that used one to grab all of the best stuff and toss it into the yard while using Rec to grab the best one at sorcery speed and then Living Death won.

It was combined with Urza's Saga's cycling dorks with Fluctuator that dropped it turn two and then cycled their team into the graveyard and then used the Death to bring them all back and kill in one hit. I ran it with Sneak Attack and Lifeline in my unique brew for Standard called "Abe's Deck of Happiness and Joy" that won Standard tournaments. And then there was Sliving Death!

This was a Dimir take on Slivers. There was a cycle of Silver from Tempest that let Slivers sacrifice for two mana each to get a cool effect. The two that were card advantage with drawing and discarding were in Dimir (Mindwhip Sliver; Mnemonic Sliver) and then you would sac all of your Slivers and then cast Living Death to win.

I wanted to do a take on Living Death twinned with sacrificial Slivers since we just got a new batch of Slivers and fun lovers in Commander Masters.

Here is the question...who is my Commander? Do I want all five colors from a Sliver? Or do I want something that that feeds my graveyard. I feel like either work well here.

What do I want? Let's look at Commander eligible Slivers. Or Morophon. There are six legal options, and of them I like Sliver Queen best because she can make tokens that I can sac for effects. I like the Sliver Gravemother that gives Slivers in our graveyard a one-shot ability (they self-exile afterward). I like the cascading of The First Sliver and the indestructible of the Sliver Hivelord. The Queen seems the best fit for fodder for blocking or sacrificing.

Let's do the Queen!

Mana, Ramp, Lands

Let's start with ramp, rocks, and lands! This Lantern costs three, ramps and fixes your mana so you can have a fourth-turn Sliver Queen. It's the best Manalith ever printed. It's the only Manalith in my deck. The Silver arrives turn 2, taps for any color of mana on a 1/1 body. It also lets your Slivers tap for all of the colors. I am also running Gemhide Sliver.

Timeless Lotus costs five and arrives tapped, but taps for all five colors. In a five-color deck like this one, it's worth the time you take off since no matter your lands and what colors they tap for, this will guarantee a sixth-turn Sliver Queen. Similarly, Shard Convergence searches out every basic land type save for Forests and puts it into your hand, including the 10 shocklands I'm running.

Black Market is nasty mana ramping in a deck that emphasizes self-sacrifices. In Red, Mana Echoes costs four and when a critter ETBs, you can make colorless mana equal to that creature's shared types. That means that if you drop Virtual Sliver when you control three other Slivers, you'll make four mana. With a mana sink in the Command Zone making Sliver tokens and mana needed for sacrifices, this pair should prove quite good together.

Now let's turn to lands. The Hive arrives untapped and taps for one of any color for Slivers, and then can be tapped with five mana to put a 1/1 Sliver dork onto the battlefield. Can you say mana sink? The Cataracts has indestructible, taps for colorless and you can spend 5 to tap and make 5 mana of any combo of colors, ideal in our deck. Nice pair!

The colorless identity land arrives untapped and ready to be used, and you can spend one to turn it into a 2/2 Sliver dork for your stuff. Nicely done! The Black color identity Stronghold taps for colorless and can be tapped to reload a dork from your graveyard to your battlefield. That's great dork quality with my emphasis on self-sacrificing Slivers.

Let's finish up this section with The World Tree and Exotic Orchard. The Tree is great fixing later in the game, though we can't use its final ability for value. The Orchard taps for any color that my foes have, which is hopefully most or all colors. I also am running five-color lands like Forbidden Orchard, City of Brass and Mana Confluence.

Key Slivers

Now let's turn to Slivers. The two-drop rare is a Grizzly Bear body and gives your Slivers replicate for their mana cost. You can do this any number of times as you have mana. This is a great mana sink for the Echoes and Market, or ramping out your battlefield with dorks for attacking and sacrificing.

The four-drop uncommon also has a 2/2 body, and it will make itself and your other Slivers uncounterable. Cloudshredder Sliver costs two for a 1/1 that gives your Slivers haste and flying, so evasion and an early swing. In one body! It's very strong in all of the key ways!

Brood Sliver is an expensive five mana for a 3/3, but when your Slivers deal combat damage to a foe, you'll make a 1/1 Sliver token. For a go-wide, token-making Commander, that could be quite the feat over time and win the game.

Synergies and Winning Conditions

Now let's finish with Living Deaths. I have four: Living Death, Twilight's Call, and this pair. The Bidding costs five, you'll name Slivers and everyone returns them to the battlefield and then each foe names a creature type that gets returned too. In any deck like this, it's essential. The Voyage costs six, has foretell for seven, and you name a creature type. If you cast it normally, you recur two Slivers. Then if it was foretold, you return them all. Nasty synergy with your sacrifices and this quartet.

Heartstone was played in Standard in this deck and Dark Spike Girls too since it drops their activation cost by two down to one. But remember that it helps all costs, not just yours. I am also running one-drop enchantment Training Grounds to reduce your Sliver-making costs. Reflections of Littjara costs five, will choose a critter type on arrival and then when you cast one of those, you get a free copy. In this deck with the fodder for going wide with the combat damage token maker and more sacrifice fodder this is very strong here!

Now let's turn to Black Slivers. Lazotep Sliver costs four and comes with a nice 4/4 body. Your Slivers get afflict 2 to make sure damage gets through even if blocked. That's synergy and win con in one body. Then when your non-token Slivers die, you amass Slivers too, so you'll make a 2/2 or add to a Sliver token by +2/+2. That death trigger is why it's here. With all of my self-sacrificing, you'll net tons of triggers over time!

Mindlash Sliver costs one for a 1/1 body and all Slivers have 1 to sac and everyone discards a card. It's here for a few reasons. First, in a multiplayer game you can really add to your discarding from Mindwhip Sliver. Then you can force you to discard too, and you can discard a Sliver to load up for your Living Death effects.

The Blue card costs is a 2/2 for four, and then your Slivers cannot be blocked save by other Slivers. That's strong evasion here and can help to grab a Commander Damage kill or 40-damage kill out of nowhere. It synergizes with all of our combat damage triggers.

I am not running most of the pump Slivers save for the massive +3/+3 Megantic Sliver, but I am running the 7/7 Sliver Legion for five mana. All your Slivers are pumped by size equal to your Siver count, which is a ton. With some of the abilities from your other Slivers, that can be an immediate gamewinner.

Basal Sliver is three for a 2/2, and your Slivers can be sacrificed for two Black mana each. That doesn't cost anything like tapping or discarding or mana, it's just a free way to sacrifice a whole lot of stuff for a whole lot of mana. Nasty! Bonescythe Sliver costs one more for the same size, but gives your team double strike, so your Sliver Queen will kill with Commander Damage twice as fast or your other stuff will kill quickly too. Very strong pair here!

The Golgari two-drop 2/2 will let your Slivers sacrifice for free for three life each. Don't need the mana, or don't have the Basal one? Get three life instead! The Shapeshifter costs three, is a 2/3 with Sliver and you can cast the top card of your library if it's a Sliver. Great card flow in the creature zone.

Card Flow

Let's turn to two card flow cards from the same deck. The Titan costs six for a 6/6 Illusion Sliver, and when it ETBs or attacks, you draw and discard equal to your Sliver count. Note that this counts as a card flow like Looting, but not card draw. Since you are running a lot, that could be a lot of cards, and you discard so you build up your graveyard or a Living Death effect. Or discard extra lands since you probably drew a lot. The Ancestors costs three first and then flashes back for four, both cheap, at instant speed. Then you call "Slivers" dig six and reveal all Slivers and draw them, the rest head to your library, so you could draw three or four over both casts. Great pair!

Now let's turn to a key Azorius pair! Opaline Sliver costs three for a 2/2 and then whenever a foe targets your previous Slivers with a spell, you can draw a card. Note this is not abilities or triggers, just spells, but that's pretty common and likely to make foes only target the big stuff!

Kindred Discovery costs five, and you should always choose "Slivers" when it resolves. Then you can draw a card when one ETBs, so that's strong card advantage over time. Note a key word missing here is "nontoken" so everything will draw you cards. You'll also draw when you attack with Slivers too. Note that's an attack trigger not a combat damage one...like...say...

...this. The Synapse one costs five and gives you a 3/3 body in Blue. Then when your Slivers deal combat damage to a foe you draw a card. Combine it with Shifting Sliver to draw an epic amount of cards. The Hollowhead one gives your Slivers the ability to tap to discard and then draw (called rummaging in Red, as opposed to Looting in Blue where you draw then discard).

Answers

Now let's turn to answers. We'll start with answers to answers. In Selesnya colors are three answers that are heavily played that answer a key removal spell, and all three are in my deck.

The first is the Green one, that protects your whole team from targeting by giving hexproof and removal by giving indestructible for two mana. The Protection costs three, and your things phase out so they cannot be targeted this turn (and your life total can't change), so you cannot be attacked while they are phased out. Then I am running the sometimes-free Flawless Maneuver which gives your stuff indestructible for the turn for free if you control your Commander.

I am also running Hibernation Sliver that will let you spend life to bounce your Silver to protect them from targeted removal or combat damage, and Crystalline Sliver to give your team shroud proactively.

Now let's turn to counters. In a five-color deck we aren't likely to have the right mana early for Counterspell proper, so I am not running it. But easy to cast spells? Sure.

Negate counters all the things we need to and is easy to cast. Fierst Guardianship counters all non-dorks for three, but is also free to cast if you control a Commander. We also have Arcane Denial and Dovin's Veto, which is easier on the mana than Counterspell.

Let's finish with removal! Acidic Sliver costs two for a 2/2 and then you can spend two to sacrifice a Sliver to Shock something. It's great sacrifice removal here! Ditto the Orzhov Necrotic Sliver that sacrifices for three to Vindicate targets!

We'll finish with this pair. The Boros one costs two, rocks a 2/2 body and gives your Slivers an extra pair of abilities. The first will shoot any target for one; the second will prevent one damage to something. The first is a nice ping and the second is great at saving a key Sliver. The Selesnya one costs three for a small 1/1 body and then your Slivers will destroy an enchantment or artifact on arrival to the battlefield, and note this'll work with tokens too. This is nasty, but it's not a "may" effect and we might not want to hurt our key stiff, so it might not always work like we want.

Ready for the decklist?

Sliving Death | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Sliver Queen

• Creatures (30)
• 1 Acidic Sliver
• 1 Bonescythe Sliver
• 1 Brood Sliver
• 1 Cautery Sliver
• 1 Cloudshredder Sliver
• 1 Crystalline Sliver
• 1 Darkheart Sliver
• 1 Gemhide Sliver
• 1 Harmonic Sliver
• 1 Hatchery Sliver
• 1 Hibernation Sliver
• 1 Hollowhead Sliver
• 1 Lazotep Sliver
• 1 Manaweft Sliver
• 1 Megantic Sliver
• 1 Mindlash Sliver
• 1 Mindwhip Sliver
• 1 Mnemonic Sliver
• 1 Necrotic Sliver
• 1 Opaline Sliver
• 1 Realmwalker
• 1 Root Sliver
• 1 Sentinel Sliver
• 1 Shifting Sliver
• 1 Sliver Legion
• 1 Synapse Sliver
• 1 Taunting Sliver
• 1 Titan of Littjara
• 1 Victual Sliver
• 1 Ward Sliver

• Instants (9)
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Dovin's Veto
• 1 Fierce Guardianship
• 1 Flawless Maneuver
• 1 For the Ancestors
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Negate
• 1 Teferi's Protection
• 1 Utter End

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Distant Melody
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Haunting Voyage
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Migration Path
• 1 Patriarch's Bidding
• 1 Shard Convergence
• 1 Twilight's Call
• 1 Vastwood Surge

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Black Market
• 1 Cryptolith Rite
• 1 Kindred Discovery
• 1 Mana Echoes
• 1 Reflections of Littjara
• 1 Training Grounds

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Chromatic Orrery
• 1 Heartstone
• 1 Timeless Lotus

• Lands (39)
• 5 Forest
• 2 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Cascading Cataracts
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Forbidden Orchard
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Mutavault
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Secluded Courtyard
• 1 Sliver Hive
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 The World Tree
• 1 Volrath's Stronghold
• 1 Watery Grave

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There we go, I hope that you enjoyed my Commander take on this Classic Standard deck that dominated tables with Slivers and Living Deaths! Enjoy it!