Expect to see a bit of this guy around. If
everyone likes Juzam Djinn, they are going to
love this guy. It's just like a Juzam Djinn in
many ways, but it even has the added bonus of
hurting your opponent's Sliver laden game plan.
The Powers That Be here at Pojo.com Magic HQ
have a real soft spot for Juzam Djinn. I wonder
what they said when they saw this. It's a 5/5
for 4, at the reasonable cost of 1 life per
upkeep. But it's a Sliver, so it gives every
Sliver on the board the Juzam Whammy. I would
not recommend playing this in a Sliver deck. I
would recommend it for any deck that Juzam of
old would've helped, except this one is even
more painful in multiples. If you play two, each
one will cause you to lose 2 life a turn, for a
total of 4 life a turn. So treat it as a
Legend-- one at a time please. The other obvious
job for this is as sideboard tech against other
Sliver decks. Your opponent's Slivers will give
this guy all their power-ups, while yours gives
all the opponet's Slivers the Plague! Ouch!
Plague Sliver -
This card is not a Sliver. Or rather, it doesn't
fit many of the definitions of a sliver. Slivers
work well together and poor apart. Plague Sliver
works terribly in a sliver deck and
fantastically anywhere else - especially against
a Sliver deck. If I opened up a sealed deck that
had only one sliver in it (aside from Venser's
Sliver) I would rarely put it into my deck for
fear of boosting my opponent's slivers. This
one, on the other hand, would make the cut every
time. In fact, I would pull other slivers out of
the deck in order to include it. In case the
reference is lost on anyone, this is a Juzam
Djinn. A 5/5 for 4 that cost a life every turn.
It has the additional flaw of making some other
creatures cost you life, but that's easy to fix
- just don't play them. Plague Sliver is going
to see constructed play. I guarantee it.
The irony is, you don’t want to play this Sliver
in a Sliver deck- that’s just suicide. Instead,
play this fellow like the Juzam Djinn remake he
is- alone, without any other Slivers, otherwise
you’re just asking for trouble. Otherwise, he’s
as good as his predecessor, an efficient 5/5
fattie for four. There are better creatures to
play, but that doesn’t detract from this
Sliver’s usefulness.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4
Aethereal
Plague Sliver
Now we have a Juzam Sliver. Why you would play
this in a sliver deck is beyond me, as it makes
your slivers kill you rather quickly. Sorry, but
I'm not paying 4 to die in 4-5 turns and get a
5/5 body with potential for more. This is much
more of a sideboard card, as you can side it in
against a sliver deck and watch them cry if they
can't remove it. However, I don't see slivers
being tournament-worthy anytime soon. Maybe if
Crystalline Sliver got reprinted, but not
without it.
In casual, this obliterates a popular deck type.
You'll get hated for playing it.
In limited, it depends on what else you drafted.
If you have lots of slivers, I definitely would
not play this guy, but as a standalone creature
he is decent at a 5/5 for 4. He's also highly
effective against your opponent's slivers.
Constructed - 2
Casual - 1
Limited - 3
Matt Cortez
Plague Sliver
Constructed - I see this getting some play. Of
course someone will have a sliver deck and how
to you fight fire? With fire. It's a 5/5 body on
a four casting cost creature and the drawback is
not a draw back at all. It will get all the
abilities from your opponent's sliver's and they
get, At the beginning of your upkeep you die,
basically. Sideboard it and see what happen's.
Casual - You know that one friend who built that
sliver deck that get's you frustrated every time
you play against it. Use this.
Limited - A small drawback if your not playing
sliver's. Take it. Small drawback for a big
body. If you are playing sliver's, take it
anyway. You don't want to go against this.
Constructed - 4.5 if against sliver's, 2.5 if
not Casual - 4 Limited - 4
Cyrus Huang
Throwback to
Juzamn Djinn blah blah blah blah. A really
strange card because you can't play him with
slivers, like the rest of the slivers are
designed to do. Instead, you use him against
slivers or by itself.
Constructed: Bad. You'll see it in budget black
aggro-control decks just like how yukora the
prisoner was used but it'll never be a tier one
choice. Like yukora, bad in multiples, and like
yukora, not going to make much of an impact.
If the world blows up and slivers see
constructed play, ie never, this guy will be a
sideboard card in all black decks.
1.2/5
Limited: By itself, this card is great. A 5/5
beater on turn 4 will make any opponent
extremely worried. 1 life per turn isn't a big
deal when you're either taking out a creature or
doing 5 to the dome every turn. Also, slivers
are very popular in sealed play and this guy
simply punishes your opponent for having any.
However if you plan to go slivers as well, you
have to suck it up and take this guy out since
you'll just kill yourself.
Bottom line: You play it if you got the colors
and you're not going slivers. Undercosted 5/5's
are good (excluding that piece of crap from
coldsnap).
4/5
