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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day

Daily Since November 2001!

Sliver Hivelord
Image from Wizards.com

Sliver Hivelord
- M15

Reviewed Nov. 19, 2014

Constructed: 3.00
Casual: 4.50
Limited: 3.17
Multiplayer: 3.75

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible  3 - Average.  5 - Awesome

Click here to see all of our 
Card of the Day Reviews 

BMoor

Deck Garage

Sliver Hivelord

The new "lord" of the Slivers, after they received their M15 makeover. Slivers of the new generation no longer grant abilities to opponents' Slivers, so the new Lord can't quite push the power limits like it used to. Honestly, I think this is a good place to settle. Indestructible has always been a power for all five colors to tentatively share, owing to its origins as an artifact-based ability. It's also just the kind of thing a Sliver deck wants to grant all its creatures, since it wins entirely by amassing a wide variety of Slivers on the board and most opponents know very well that they need to kill those Slivers. I am a little disappointed that the Hivelord is a 5/5 instead of a 7/7 like its predecessors, but then again, WUBRG has been getting progressively easier to pay over the years.

Constructed- 3
Casual- 4.5
Limited- 4.75
Mutliplayer- 4.5

David Fanany

Player since 1995

Sliver Hivelord
 
If the other legendary Slivers make you win the game, the Hivelord takes it to the next level by making you not able to lose the game either. There's nothing Sliver decks hate more than mass destruction effects, and turning them off invalidates a lot of the ideas people go to when they metagame against Slivers. You still have to be careful of exile effects (because Freyalise forbid that modern sets not be full of "removal plus card drawing" decks), but that's a relatively minor wrinkle compared to his upside - it doesn't come up against most red decks, it doesn't come up against most green decks, and if they're relying on temporary effects like Banishing Light, well, most casual decks should be maindecking Disenchant effects anyway.
 
In fact, my only complaint about this guy is that he's 5/5 and not 7/7, to have symmetry with the other legendary Slivers. I know Slivers are all about evolution, but it would have been nice.
 
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 5/5
Limited: 2/5 (effect is amazing, casting him is hard)
Multiplayer: 3/5
Michael "Maikeruu" Pierno

Today's card of the day is Sliver Hivelord which is a five mana and five color 5/5 that gives slivers you control Indestructible.  This is a very strong effect and can more or less end a game when it hits play if the opponent doesn't have non-destruction forms of removal or an alternate win condition.  It doesn't help build up a sliver force like the Queen or Overlord, so it is unlikely to take slots in a deck before them.  As something for the Overlord to search out and to help support a swarm of tokens this is quite nice and a worthwhile addition to an existing five color sliver build.
 
In a Limited format with this it is a very difficult card to utilize as it has five colors, though a 5/5 Indestructible for five is solid it needs other abilities to really stand out with the mana requirement.  In Sealed it can be built around if there is enough support, but running is problematic at best with anything less than an excellent draw.  For Booster it has value as a rare draft, though slivers are popular and drawing a pool for it depends on the pod.
 
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.0
Limited: 3.0
Multiplayer: 4.0

Mattedesa

Deck Garage
Sliver Hivelord
 
Unlike yesterday's sliver lord, today's has a much more useful ability, and if I were to build a sliver deck, I would probably include the Hivelord. One of the weaknesses of a sliver deck is that it is made up of a bunch of creatures, and creatures are fragile. One untimely Doom Blade can weaken all your remaining Slivers, turning a favorable combat step into a disaster in a hurry. Sliver Hivelord greatly reduces the risk of  that scenario. 
 
It still requires that you find ways to make all 5 colors in your deck, but unlike the Legion, I think the work to make that happen is worth it. Not much is more difficult to get around than a horde of indestructible creatures across the table from you.
 
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.0
Multiplayer: 3.5

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