The First Sliver – Modern Horizons MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

It’s well known by now how good Slivers are at flooding the table with hard-to-stop creatures. What is going to happen when they gain the most powerful (or perhaps broken) free-spell mechanic of the modern era? For my part, I see at least two ways that The First Sliver can make things get crazy. You can build a deck that’s basically all creatures, and get a turn where you cast basically every creature in your deck for the price of just one. You can also build a less linear deck and get something where every creature comes with either a friend or a utility spell of some kind. Either one is hard for most opponents to keep up with, though they’re held in check somewhat by the fact that you need one mana of each color to cast The First Sliver in the first place. Although, that’s less of a downside in settings like Commander with a color identity, or if you’re just looking for fun spells to fit into the deck and realize that you’re generating all five colors anyway and may as well add all your favorite cards.

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 5/5
Limited: 2/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5

The newest legendary Sliver to the pool of Slivers, the First Sliver is greatest at amassing a very large army of Slivers in record time thanks to cascade, which is notoriously overpowered as far as abilities go…though you might hit other spells in the process. A five-mana 7/7 is nothing to sneeze at either, particularly when it benefits from all the other Slivers, and it can hold up well even with an awkward casting cost. Maybe not the star of your Sliver deck, but one to have somewhere in the body.

Constructed: 2.25
Casual: 5
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 4.25