I hope that many of you have had a chance to try out the latest deck I presented. I've found that the slivers are quite a bit more fun to play than I originally thought they would be. There's an oddly satisfying feeling from winning through sending creatures into the red zone. For reference purposes, here's the list from last week:

[cardlist]

[General]

1 Sliver Legion

[/General]

[A-E]

1 Acidic Sliver

1 Amoeboid Changeling

1 Armor Sliver

1 Barbed Sliver

1 Basal Sliver

1 Battering Sliver

1 Blade Sliver

1 Bonesplitter Sliver

1 Brood Sliver

1 Cautery Sliver

1 Clot Sliver

1 Crystalline Sliver

1 Darkheart Sliver

1 Dormant Sliver

[/A-E]

[F-M]

1 Frenetic Sliver

1 Frenzy Sliver

1 Fungus Sliver

1 Fury Sliver

1 Gemhide Sliver

1 Harmonic Sliver

1 Heart Sliver

1 Hibernation Sliver

1 Homing Sliver

1 Mesmeric Sliver

1 Metallic Sliver

1 Might Sliver

1 Muscle Sliver

[/F-M]

[N-Z]

1 Necrotic Sliver

1 Quick Sliver

1 Reflex Sliver

1 Root Sliver

1 Sedge Sliver

1 Shadow Sliver

1 Sinew Sliver

1 Sliver Overlord

1 Sliver Queen

1 Spectral Sliver

1 Spined Sliver

1 Virulent Sliver

1 Winged Sliver

1 Clone

1 Silversmith

[/N-Z]

[Spells]

1 Tunnel Vision

1 Patriarch's Bidding

1 Twilight's Call

1 Living Death

1 Living End

1 Cover of Darkness

1 Shared Triumph

1 Steely Resolve

1 Aluren

1 Eternal Witness

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Diabolic Intent

1 Survival of the Fittest

1 Aphetto Dredging

1 Coat of Arms

1 Distant Melody

1 Heartstone

1 Wild Pair

[/Spells]

[Lands]

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Scalding Tarn

1 Marsh Flats

1 Arid Mesa

1 Verdant Catacombs

1 Windswept Heath

1 Polluted Delta

1 Flooded Strand

1 Wooded foothills

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Krosan Verge

1 Tropical Island

1 Underground Sea

1 Scrubland

1 Badlands

1 Savannah

1 Bayou

1 Taiga

1 Volcanic Island

1 Tundra

1 Plateau

1 Temple Garden

1 Godless Shrine

1 Breeding Pool

1 Hallowed Fountain

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Blood Crypt

1 Steam Vents

1 Overgrown Tomb

1 Watery Grave

1 Stomping Ground

1 Mountain

1 Island

1 Forest

1 Plains

1 Swamp

1 Vesuva

1 Reflecting Pool

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

There's one glaring admission that was on my original list of good stuff but somehow did not make the final cut, Mirrorweave. We will go over the crazy circumstances mirrorweave will have when we get to the body of the article, but for now let's just say it's super relevant. Adding mirrorweave means we need to make a cut, and unfortunately Heartstone is going to be the one to go. We're not playing an infinite combo deck here and as such heartstone has limited uses at best.

Let's talk about a few interactions with the slivers themselves that can be a little difficult. Brood Sliver only puts one sliver into play whenever a sliver deals damage, regardless of how much damage is dealt. It's a common misconception that if a sliver deals four damage then four tokens are put into play. This unfortunately is not the case. Also, if multiple slivers are dealing damage then you get one token for each creature that dealt the damage.

Another interaction that is creature based is that of Clone with any of the enter the battlefield abilities. Clone will cause those to trigger because he exists on the battlefield as whatever you choose and nothing else. This also means that in the case of creatures like Harmonic Sliver, which is a mandatory ability, if you Clone another sliver you will get to destroy an artifact off the Harmonic Sliver's ability. Even better, clone asks you to choose and not target, meaning even with your shroud slivers and Steely Resolve you can still copy a creature.

While we're on that topic, there's a fine line between choosing targets and making a selection/choice. Targets are selected while casting the spell. For example, the trigger from Eternal Witness requires a target when putting it on the stack. This is different from something such as Patriarch's Bidding. The bidding requires us to choose a creature type and that choice is not made until resolution. Note that any time we are required to make a choice along with the opponent the active player makes their choice first, followed by the non active player.

Aluren is another card that tends to be confusing. Aluren simply lets players cast creatures for free and as though they had flash. This doesn't make the creatures uncounterable, it just makes them free. This also means that Wild Pair will trigger whenever you cast a creature using Aluren. This is at best an unfair interaction. Notice too that the ability from Aluren cannot be countered/stifled! What a fantastic way to cheat creatures onto the battlefield.

Speaking of Wild Pair, here we have a truly problematic card. Wild Pair checks the creature's combined power/toughness when the triggered ability resolves. This means that there is the possibility of other triggers resolving first, or even effects like Giant Growth impacting how big of a creature we get to find. Slivers with nice continuous effects, think Might Sliver, will be impacted by their own ability. This means that if I cast Might Sliver I will get to go and find a creature with total power/toughness of eight! Talk about a nice bonus. It's also worth noting that if a creature dies before the Wild Pair trigger has resolved then the creature's last known power/toughness is used in the calculation. Be sure to include the creature's own effect in your calculation of the combined power and toughness.

The final set of tricky rules interactions stem from our newest card, Mirrorweave. Mirrorweave makes pretty much all of your creatures quite lethal. Each sliver becomes a copy of another sliver, which means those abilities they grant one another get to stack. If you have a Virulent Sliver and 4 other slivers and you mirrorweave the virulent then each sliver gains poison 1 five times! That could easily wipe out a table if left unchecked. Similar broken things happen with the other targets. Note that copying is in layer 1 of the dreaded interaction of continuous effects. This means that items like giant growth will not be copied, but will still impact the card it's cast on. If you have any rules questions specific to mirrorweave feel free to post them in the comments and I'll be happy to answer.

On to a few pieces of strategic advice. If you intend on using one of the mass reanimation effects make sure to empty your side of the board if possible. Remember that your guys are all going to be put in the grave during the resolution of the effects and clearing your board first gives you a nice one sided super wrath/reanimation card. This also gives you some nice double access to those activated abilities that require a sacrifice to use. I would also recommend waiting until you have a creature with haste. It's much more difficult to alpha strike when your opponents get an untap step!

Well, that's my article for this week. Join me next week when I talk about a popular new format that's become big in Orlando and I hope to help spread! Until then this is Benjamin McDole giving you a hundred reasons to play magic!