This is a classic example of a card that's
valuable to a very specific kind of deck and
useless to anyone else. Sliver decks tend to
almost always be multicolor, and because they
share their abilities they love having more
recruits, so this card solves their color-fixing
issues and gives them a repeatable source of
creature tokens. But the multicolor mana can
only be used to cast Slivers, and the token
ability can't be activated unless you already
have a Sliver on the board, which means this
card does nothing but tap for colorless for any
other deck.
In Limited, I *might* take this if I saw it
early, but in order for it to be worth it I'd
pretty much have to take EVERY Sliver I saw for
the rest of the draft, AND be the only one in my
pod going for it. I'd be more likely to just go
for a generally strong card. If I saw it wheel,
however, telling me nobody else wants to commit
to Slivers either...
In any other format, it's as strong as the
Sliver deck running it.
Today's card of the day is Sliver Hive which is
a land that can tap to add one colorless, one
mana of any color that can only be used to cast
a sliver spell, or for five mana and tapping it
can put a 1/1 colorless sliver token into play
if you control a sliver. The tapping for every
color is of course useful in the typically three
or more color sliver builds, as is the colorless
usage for support cards or activation costs,
plus the ability to add tokens is a very solid
usage later in the game or alongside mana
producing slivers. Overall this will be a four
of staple in every sliver deck going forward for
formats it is available in as it offers
something beneficial in nearly any situation.
In Limited this is at worst a possible token
producer and at best can assist in balancing the
mana base in a multicolor sliver build. The
token production is useful, though without
slivers to enhance them it is vastly reduced in
potential. For Booster it is a fairly weak first
pick unless supported with several colors of
slivers, though drafting into that is risky and
easily disrupted. A Sealed build is more likely
to need multiple colors and this works very well
alongside a few slivers and allows easier
splashing of other choices.
This is the exact land that Sliver decks have
been praying for these past seventeen years.
Reflecting Pool and Exotic Orchard are amazing,
but each relies on other things that are on the
table. Ancient Ziggurat is powerful and lets you
splash any member of the tribe you please, but
doesn't help with the planeswalkers and other
non-creatures who practically beg to be in a
Sliver deck (Domri Rade, Obelisk of Urd, Distant
Melody, etc). City of Brass and Gemstone Mine
are powerful in their own right, but have
built-in brakes on their use. But between this
card and Cavern of Souls, Slivers now have lands
that combine all the benefits of past
iterations, with major benefits besides. And the
planes shall weep.
