Like Muscle and Sinew Sliver before it, Megantic
Sliver has misleading stats-- it's actually a
6/6 as long as it's in play (and still counts as
a Sliver). As a +3/+3 boost to all your other
Slivers, the real misleading here is the idea
that it's a creature and not an Overrun effect.
At six mana, the correct use of Megantic is to
play him as the lynchpin in an army of Slivers
already on the field, as you've now suddenly
added an incredible amount of power to the board
and can probably alpha strike for the win right
there and then.
So, this is the second Sliver this week that
looks (to me at least) like it has some
Phyrexian influences in its style. Just be glad
there's no Sliver that grants infect. Still, how
exactly do you choose which power and toughness
boosting Sliver is right for your deck? A lot of
it has to do with context. The aggro-control
style decks that a lot of people like and that
have appeared from time to time in Legacy
tournaments only use the cheap ones. The
midrange style decks that you often see in
casual settings will often do well with the more
expensive ones, including Megantic Sliver.
Slower creature-based decks often like to attack
with their early plays when they have a chance
(think Noble Hierarch and Fyndhorn Elves), and
often include measures that make those early
plays stronger in combat, like Overrun or Sword
of Fire and Ice. Slivers are lucky: they get a
measure like that that's also a finisher.
Today's card of the day is Megantic Sliver which
is a six mana Green 3/3 that gives your slivers
+3/+3. The mana cost is a little high,
potentially making it too slow and a stalled
card in your opening hand, but that can be
mitigated by Manaweft Sliver's tap for mana
effect. As a finisher it has some
competition with Battle, Thorncaster, and
Groundshaker though this is generally the best
of the four with only Thorncaster potentially
adding much to most sliver builds. With
two one mana slivers and Manaweft it can enter
the battlefield as early as the third turn
making it a notable threat. Overall this
is the most aggressive of the current batch of
slivers to run at the top of the mana curve and
for that it will see some play.
In Limited this is a bomb for an existing sliver
pool or as the first pick in assembling one,
though by itself is not really worth running
which makes other picks essential. The
single Green mana allows this to be easily
included in the typically multicolor sliver
builds, which is true for all of the slivers in
the set and further supported by Manaweft when
available. The slower format and general
power of the sliver tribe in the set has this as
an obvious first pick for as much of a dedicated
sliver deck as possible or hate drafted to
prevent the serious threat it would be across
the battlefield. In Sealed it depends on
your pool of slivers and can be safely kept in
the sideboard if a very small number is
maindecked and that point of the mana curve is
too high or already filled.
Without any support this heavy hitter is
essentially a 6/6 for G5. It's strength is
directly proportional to the number of slivers
you have on the field. Hopefully by the time
this behemoth makes the scene you've got some
support from any other sliver ability (I'm a big
fan of trample and double strike)
Beware over committing and swinging with him. A
single well placed doom blade will suddenly
shrink your attacking force.
Constructed:4
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4 (Good luck living long enough to
play him if the table learns you're running
slivers)
