Slivers have long been known to be absolutely
devastating in large number, and can all but
guarantee a victory if you can get a critical
mass of them on the field. Dormant Sliver helps
you do just that-- every Sliver you put down
draws you a new card, and in a good Sliver deck,
every draw should have a 50/50 shot of being a
Sliver. Since you draw a card each turn anyway,
that means you're drawing two cards a turn-- one
of which is a Sliver-- and playing one Sliver
each turn. Since every turn makes your whole
board stronger, you will quickly have the
winning army.
That pesky defender looks like a problem (and
makes the cantrip ability look "fair") but there
are so many Slivers that grant a sacrifice
outlet or can otherwise remove themselves from
play that you're basically just waiting to draw
into one, then deep-six the Dormant Sliver and
swing for the team. Frenetic Sliver is a
favorite for that role, since it costs zero mana
to get Dormant off the table, and if you win the
coin flip you get it back. The game should be
over by the time you'd get it back, but just in
case the opponent manages to Quicken a Day of
Judgment or something, you might want to get the
Dormants back so you can start rebuilding right
away.
Remember the Sliver combo deck I mentioned
the other day? This seemingly innocuous and
difficult to use card ended up being part of it:
a card-drawing engine that happens to have the
relevant creature type for your tribe is
amazingly powerful (note that Humans have been a
viable deck in Tribal Wars ever since Ravnica
and Dark Confidant). With an overabundance of
ways to get rid of a Dormant Sliver when you
need to attack again, this card is well worth
considering for a Sliver deck where it fits the
mana curve.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
Dormant sliver a powerful sliver that turns all
your slivers into a card drawing engine but at
the cost of rendering them unable to attack.
Traditionally this card has been used to power
out sacrifice engines for slivers or assemble an
army before ridding yourself of this sliver via
Hibernation sliver or a sliver sacrifice outlet.
In all constructed formats this card has not
seen play since its inception as it does cost
four mana and transforms a traditionally
agressive tribal deck into a slower more
controlling or even combo route. The decks that
exist to take advantage of this cards have not
appeared at present but with a recent influx of
interest in slivers this card could see some
modern brewing. In casual and multiplayer it
goes against the sliver philosophy but the
amount of advantage it could provide may make it
a useful addition in sliver decks that can
remove it from the board when needed. This card
requires a bit more thinking and planning than
traditional sliver cards making it an effective
but limiting its effectiveness in general good
stuff sliver decks. in limited if heavy on
sliver it could prove a useful tool to build
around but once again its downsides become
apparent without a way to easily get rid of it.
Overall a unique effec that provides a different
direction to build slivers.
Today's card of the day is Dormant Sliver which
is a four mana Green and Blue 2/2 that has all
slivers gain Defender and when they come into
play you draw a card. This is a useful
draw engine in a sliver theme, though the
drawbacks of the fairly high mana cost with
Defender forcing a need to bounce or sacrifice
Dormant Sliver is a sizable price to pay.
Properly supported this is a powerful tool for
the tribe, but the limitations on deck design
keep it from being a must play addition to
sliver builds.
In Limited formats where this is available
having this and a way to get rid of it when no
longer necessary is a major concern and should
keep it out of nearly all decks it could be
played in. If enough slivers are in the
pool to take advantage of the comes into play
effect then the deck can be crippled if this
remains stuck in play. It can work defensively
to force an opponent to remove it or have their
own slivers somewhat locked down, but in that
case it is more of a sidedeck card. It can
safely be passed in Booster, though hate
drafting it to protect your own slivers is an
option if nothing else is vital in the pack, and
sidedecking it in Sealed is probably best.
As a casual player I regularly play a Sliver
deck and one of the largest problems I run into
is losing steam from a lack of accelerated draw
power. True to the natural selection theme of
slivers Dormant Sliver solves this problem. Pay
attention to the wording of the ability: You
don’t need to pay the manna cost in order to
draw the card, it just needs to enter the
battlefield so you can still draw a card if you
cheat the sliver onto the field. (Fun times with
Dormant Sliver+ Hibernation Sliver+ Metallic
Sliver)
