Jumpstart is a new Limited format where you shuffle together two packs and immediately begin play. Each pack has a different theme, such as Elves or Goblins. Given that many of the packs are tribal, it's a wonder I've shown as much restraint as I have and not immediately built for my favorite creature type. Yes, I'm referring to the synergistic and slithery slivers.

Last week, I began with Red Slivers, and today we're completing the color pie with four more packs full of the two-tailed beauties. Commander players will be most familiar with Sliver Overlord and five-colored sliver decks. There is even a Discord community of those who battle with the hive in competitive Eternal formats. (Look to the comment section for a temporary link.) Although you can make a prismatic Jumpstart pack, the full rainbow is a theme unto itself. Since our theme is slivers, we're better off not doing anything too crazy with a Limited mana base. Each pack with be monochromatic, beginning with White.

White Slivers | Jumpstart | AE Marling

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Armor Sliver
• 1 Constricting Sliver
• 1 Enduring Sliver
• 1 Essence Sliver
• 1 First Sliver's Chosen
• 1 Plated Sliver
• 1 Quilled Sliver
• 1 Sentinel Sliver
• 1 Sinew Sliver
• 1 Watcher Sliver

• Instants (1)
• 1 Shields of Velis Vel

• Artifacts (1)
• 1 Birthing Boughs

• Lands (8)
• 7 Plains
• 1 Thriving Heath

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I included the beaked hero of Sinew Sliver alongside lesser-known slivers that will generate interesting gameplay, such as Armor Sliver. Plated Sliver and Watcher Sliver will also bolster your defenses. As one snakes its way closer, the carapace off all your nearby slivers will thicken. In a standoff, your tribe will flourish, growing collectively more powerful with each addition to the hive.

We will win the late game with cards like Enduring Sliver and Birthing Boughs. I like including changelings in Jumpstart packs as tribal wildcards. Some colors have few enough slivers that I also needed to bolster their ranks to find enough cards to make a pack. That's not the case with White. A color dedicated to collective strength has more than enough strong slivers, but changeling cards add a unique dimension.

Remember you'll mostly be playing slivers alongside creatures of different types. Tribal changeling spells give those lesser beings the wonderful opportunity to experience the collective consciousness of the hive and the beauty of communal adaptation. Now, you may wonder if I considered also including Mirror Entity, which does the same thing. But I dislike the play patterns of that bomb because if you untap with it in a Limited game you likely just win. And why would we want our games to be over too quickly? We could spend longer enjoying sinuous synergy.

All Jumpstart packs should include some creature interaction. Whenever possible I wanted it to be in the form of more slivers. In White we have the traditional Banisher Priest equivalent, along with a sliver ready to punish any opposing creature that gets into combat. Our next color, Blue, is not known for its creatures or creature interaction and certainly not for creatures that interact. That's why we have fewer slivers and more spells.

Blue Slivers | Jumpstart | AE Marling

• Creatures (9)
• 1 Diffusion Sliver
• 1 Mesmeric Sliver
• 1 Scuttling Sliver
• 1 Synapse Sliver
• 1 Synchronous Sliver
• 1 Telekinetic Sliver
• 1 Turtleshell Changeling
• 2 Winged Sliver

• Instants (1)
• 1 Wings of Velis Vel

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Ichthyomorphosis
• 1 Tightening Coils

• Lands (8)
• 7 Island
• 1 Thriving Isle

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Again, you'll see a changeling instant in Wings of Velis Vel. This combat trick can help one of your fragile slivers win a battle. Or it can elevate a creature from your other pack into soaring sliver status. Though our slivers are slippery and tricky, they are not meaty. Tightening Coils can immobilize an opposing threat, while our slither boys flit overhead thanks to our two Winged Sliver cards.

Winged Sliver has seen the most tournament play, but never underestimate the strength of Telekinetic Sliver. An Opposition in alien form, it is powerful on its own but devastating alongside its best friends, Scuttling Sliver or Synchronous Sliver. Imagine a sliver as delicate as a dragonfly overcoming a dragon. Now that's a potent mind. If you enjoy such a concept, you may be a Blue mage.

Speaking of smarts, Synapse Sliver will make your hand explode with card draw. Remember, our two Winged Sliver will mean our team will often have evasion. Our rare creature turns each of our slivers into a better Ophidian. If you can't wait to get all this knowledge, then you know how the wizards felt in the Riptide Project on Dominaria. They reconstituted the extinct slivers from fossilized remains. Naturally, the slivers overran the wizards Jurassic-Park style. It's tough to kill a sliver and harder still to keep them in the ground.

Black Slivers | Jumpstart | AE Marling

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Basal Sliver
• 1 Clot Sliver
• 1 Crypt Sliver
• 1 Dregscape Sliver
• 1 Graveshifter
• 1 Moonglove Changeling
• 1 Spectral Sliver
• 1 Spitting Sliver
• 1 Toxin Sliver
• 1 Venomous Changeling

• Instants (2)
• 1 Disembowel
• 1 Eviscerate

• Lands (8)
• 7 Swamp
• 1 Thriving Moor

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The most nefarious member in this hive is Crypt Sliver. If you have another sliver without summoning sickness you gain immediate protection against damage-based removal. From there you can grow a resilient community. Or should I say unkillable? Our rare, Toxin Sliver, essentially just grants deathtouch, but that combines well with small slivers that regenerate.

A five-mana sliver that gives first-strike is nothing to be excited about, except in combination with deathtouch, given by our rare or already present on Venomous Changeling and Moonglove Changeling. I also needed to add a third changeling, given the low Black sliver count. Graveshifter can dig up any key creature that died, and its triggered ability is positively diabolical with Dregscape Sliver.

As any Commander sliver player knows, your opponents often wish for your creatures to go extinct. That has happened multiple times to the species on Dominaria alone, but so tough a tribe as ours isn't going to let a little thing like extinction get it down. During Time Spiral, rifts opened, and slivers repopulated the plane, to the rejoicing of all, or at least me.

Thanks in part to a reprint in Mystery Boosters, Toxin Sliver isn't expensive. Other sliver rares often are, however. The first several Jumpstart articles I wrote with budget in mind. That isn't possible for these later packs, which is part of why I saved them until now. But if you would like to save a few dollars, you could always substitute the next Green rare with Megantic Sliver.

Green Slivers | Jumpstart | AE Marling

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Brood Sliver
• 1 Changeling Titan
• 1 Gemhide Sliver
• 1 Horned Sliver
• 1 Might Sliver
• 1 Muscle Sliver
• 1 Quick Sliver
• 1 Spinneret Sliver
• 1 Tempered Sliver
• 1 Woodland Changeling

• Instants (1)
• 1 Ambuscade

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Hunt the Weak

• Lands (8)
• 7 Forest
• 1 Thriving Grove

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As you may have guessed from my card choices and discussion, I have a strong preference for the original sliver art design. The alien physiology of the tribe is one of the more interesting inventions of Magic (as it predated the Zerg). Wizards of the Coast lost their way with the Shandalar slivers, turning a perfectly good faceless monster into a boring biped Predator.

That's also why I chose Gemhide Sliver over Manaweft Sliver, though I still counted it as an uncommon when building the pack. The difference between them is more than aesthetic. The older slivers also have different templating, granting bonuses to all slivers at the table, including your opponent's. This will be relevant when facing down changelings or opposing slivers. Tracking these various bonuses across the board can get confusing. I suggest considering a house rule that all slivers only effect your team, for the sake of simplicity.

You may guess that because I prefer the original art I also like the original rules, but that's not so. It makes sense for slivers to only benefit their friends rather than foes in competing hives. The Modern Horizons slivers have the best of both worlds, with the old art direction and new templating.

Now that I've got slivers out of my system, I can focus on seasonal pack creation. Leave a comment about what sort of spooky Halloween themes you would like me to explore.