MTG slivers are one of the strangest original creatures in all of Magic: The Gathering, their bony eyeless beaks and whiplike tails making them instantly recognisable. Here, we’ll help with your deckbuilding and show you the best sliver cards Wizards of the Coast has ever printed.
These days, slivers are usually played in EDH, so with that in mind, much of our advice assumes you’re planning to build a Commander deck around these adaptable predators. We don’t blame you – while they can be pricey, slivers are one of the scariest MTG creature types, lending each other their abilities, working together to form an unstoppable army.
Below we’ll help you find a superb sliver to serve as your MTG commander, and help you fill a good few slots in the 99 as well.
The best MTG Slivers are:
- Sliver Gravemother
- Capricious Sliver
- Sliver Queen
- Lazotep Sliver
- Sliver Overlord
- Cloudshredder Sliver
- Manaweft Sliver
- Dormant Sliver
- Harmonic Sliver
- Crystalline Sliver
- Necrotic Sliver
- Spiteful Sliver
- Sliver Hivelord
- Hatchery Sliver
- Sliver Legion
- The First Sliver
Sliver Gravemother
The latest five-color MTG sliver on the scene, Sliver Gravemother has some truly intriguing abilities. Her encore ability lets you bring slivers back from the grave in multiples for one last attack, which can be very handy to duplicate particular effects. She also stops the ‘legend rule’ applying to slivers, which means other legendary slivers work great in her deck.
Capricious Sliver
While they can’t be beaten for speed and density of MTG keywords, if there’s one thing Slivers aren’t too great at, it’s card draw. But if you have Capricious Sliver on the field, you’ll never run out of gas.
This card can help you recover after you lose your poor slivers to a pesky board wipe, or easily help you generate an overwhelming lead.
Sliver Queen
Sliver decks rely on generating a critical mass of slivers so you can overwhelm your opponents.
As well as being one of a number of great five-color sliver commanders you can put in your sliver EDH deck, Sliver Queen is perfect for quickly building up your board presence, shooting out multiple slivers in a turn without using up your precious cards.
Lazotep Sliver
Lazotep Sliver doesn’t make your creatures unblockable, but when each block costs two life and each kill lets you Amass, suddenly it’s not such an attractive proposition.
Both sides of this card are super strong, helping you close out a game with damage, and giving you a consolation prize if all your slivers bite the dust. You can even pair it with other Amass cards to make a Sliver-orc-zombie army, if you want to.
Sliver Overlord
Another very powerful sliver commander, Sliver Overlord again gives you access to the full five colors, so no sliver is off the table. It performs a similar role to Sliver Queen, helping you build up your sliver collection.
However, instead of making tokens, Sliver Overlord lets you tutor up any sliver you like, ensuring you always have exactly the tool you need, and your game always goes exactly the way you want it to.
Cloudshredder Sliver
Providing two useful abilities (haste and flying) for just two mana, Cloudshredder Sliver is incredibly efficient. Once it’s out on the field your slivers all get much more aggressive, attacking in the skies on the same turn you play them.
Manaweft Sliver
One of the best MTG mana ramp cards in a sliver deck, Manaweft Sliver lets all your slivers tap for mana, letting you play more powerful cards that much sooner. While a super aggressive sliver deck might not need this effect, it’s invaluable in slightly slower strategies. Practically every sliver Commander deck will want one of these.
Dormant Sliver
A bit of a rogue choice next, Dormant Sliver is perhaps the best option a sliver deck has when it comes to drawing cards. Making all your sliver spells cantrip is an absurdly powerful ability. It can really speed up the process of creating a critical mass of slivers, while also giving your deck a lot more longevity and staying power.
Dormant Sliver comes with quite a significant downside, giving all your slivers the MTG Defender keyword. However, there are plenty of sliver cards that provide a way to sacrifice your creatures, letting you choose the perfect moment to launch an all-out assault.
Harmonic Sliver
There are usually a lot of powerful artifacts and enchantments hanging around in Commander games, from benign but handy cards like mana rocks, to game-changing cards like Smothering Tithe. Harmonic Sliver turns each of your slivers into artifact and enchantment removal – very useful for dealing with all kinds of different threats.
Just be aware that the removal ability is not optional – if your opponents don’t have any enchantments or artifacts left, your slivers will end up hitting your own stuff. That downside isn’t enough to knock this card off our list – because MTG sliver decks are heavily focused on creatures, this effect will always be worse for your opponents than it is for you.
Crystalline Sliver
A built-up board full of slivers is almost unstoppable – unless your opponent picks off a key creature at just the wrong moment. Crystalline Sliver prevents that, giving all your slivers shroud.
This ability means none of them can be targeted by spells, meaning your only vulnerability is board wipes. Pair this card with Sliver Hivelord, lower on our list, and you’ll be almost invincible.
Necrotic Sliver
Most sliver decks are light on removal. It’s a simple calculation really – more removal cards equals less space for sliver cards. Fortunately, there are a few MTG slivers that can fill this role for you. Necrotic Sliver is one of the very best choices, letting you sacrifice your worst sliver to deal with any permanent that’s causing you problems.
Spiteful Sliver
Spiteful Sliver makes it very difficult for your opponent to attack you or block your slivers. With Spiteful Sliver on the battlefield, all your slivers can deal back any damage they’re dealt to the player or MTG planeswalker of your choice.
This sliver makes the list because it makes all your opponents’ creatures much less effective. If your foe has large creatures, using them at all can suddenly become a death sentence.
Sliver Hivelord
The main weakness for MTG slivers is board wipes. Since each sliver card you play makes all your other slivers exponentially stronger, you can’t win the game unless you have a lot of slivers under your command. A board wipe can therefore stop sliver decks in their tracks, and put you in a really painful position, struggling to rebuild from scratch with a now depleted hand.
But if you have a Sliver Hivelord, all your slivers are indestructible, and worrying about board wipes becomes a thing of the past. This is another card that makes for a great sliver commander.
Hatchery Sliver
Got a favorite sliver? Sad you can only have one copy of them in your Commander deck? Hatchery Sliver is your solution. The replicate ability on this card is a great mana sink. If you draw a low-cost sliver and have a lot of mana spare, plugging it all into this effect can give you a load of bodies, ready to receive whatever buff your other slivers can provide them.
Even better, there are plenty of good sliver effects that stack. The power to be selective about what you clone and even create more than one copy of particularly strong creatures makes this a truly potent card.
Sliver Legion
One of the simplest legendary slivers, and very effective in any five-color sliver strategy, Sliver Legion is seldom chosen to lead a deck – but you probably want one in the 99. That’s because this card can turn your other slivers into absolute juggernauts.
What the card lacks in utility, it more than makes up for in strength. If you have any kind of board presence when Sliver Legion comes out to play, it’s going to have a Craterhoof Behemoth-type impact on the game, and probably end it that turn.
The First Sliver
Last but not least on our list, The First Sliver gives all your other slivers Cascade.
That’s a mighty keyword indeed – it lets you cast another spell of lower mana value, every single time you cast a sliver. With The First Sliver on the field, each sliver you cast will now summon several more (check our MTG Cascade guide to see how it works when you have multiple instances of this ability.)