Good in Sliver decks! My first impression of
this card was that it was WAY too good for
limited. A 1/1 creature for only two mana that
taps for ANY color, and it’s COMMON too! Well,
Gemhide Sliver may not replace Birds of Paradise
in constructed decks anytime soon, but in
limited, Gemhide Sliver is a MUST PLAY in all
green decks, regardless of whether that deck has
other Slivers in it as well.
Sliver decks are typically five color decks.
Gemhide here is what makes them possible in Time
Spiral block, though in Constructed you've got
Ravnica's mana fixers to ensure you don't need
to tap your creatures for mana. Limited, this is
the Sliver that makes or breaks your deck. You
mght get a decent Slver deck without it, but not
likely.
Gemhide Sliver
- Of all the slivers in Time Spiral, two of them
fit well in a non-sliver deck. The first is the
almighty Plague Sliver. The second is this
little bugger. Ignoring for a moment the ability
to make other slivers into mana producers, what
we have here is a slightly overcosted Birds of
Paradise. It is Gemhide Sliver's presence in
Time Spiral that makes three and four color
decks playable in limited. I wouldn't say that
it makes them particularly great, but they are
at least viable. If you want to play a 4 (or 5)
color sliver deck, Gemhide is an absolute must.
This is the one that I'm definitely the most
excited about. It's great mana acceleration,
especially if you had a turn 1 sliver drop. And,
in a format like Peasant Magic (5 uncommons, 55
commons), it gives some much needed color fixing
without taking up your uncommon slots. I
definitely see this fitting into some decks when
Birds of Paradise rotates out. Until then,
probably not.
Birds of Paradise on a sliver, and I think this
wins the prize for my favorite sliver in the
set. It's not that useful in constructed, due to
sliver decks in general not being useful (not to
mention Birds is a turn faster) but this thing
is great in limited. It's a powerful mana fixer
and accelerator (the former being the more
important trait) if you're running additional
slivers. If you're playing green in limited, you
definitely play this.
In casual, this fits perfectly into a sliver
deck, as it lets you accelerate to play more
slivers and fixes your mana, necessary in sliver
decks as they are required to run multiple
colors. It even makes it easier to play the
Queen and Overlord.
Constructed - 2.5 (because it still taps for any
color)
Casual - 5
Limited - 4
