Fan Favorite MTG Creature Type Is Back! But Not as Players Hoped

Having been around for almost 30 years, it’s safe to say that there are a lot of Magic: the Gathering cards. In fact, according to Scryfall, 25,353 unique MTG cards have currently been either spoiled or released. Wizards has released many different mechanics, creatures, and permanent types throughout the years to keep that massive list of cards interesting. For many players, these key components are the core of MTG, providing a frame to build their decks around. Creature-type themed Commander Tribal decks, for instance, are incredibly popular within the format. 

While there are a lot of MTG cards, however, not all creature types are treated equally. Some creature types, such as Badgers, only have a few cards; others, like Goblins, have hundreds. Due to how underrepresented certain creature-type tribes can be, MTG players often request to fix this imbalance. For instance, MTG’s Lead Designer, Mark Rosewater, is constantly inundated with requests for new niche tribal cards. While Rosewater receives no end of suggestions, Slivers frequently appear as a highly requested creature type. Thankfully, at long last, Slivers are finally being released into the wild once more. Unfortunately, however, the reappearance of Slivers might not be what MTG players are hoping for. 

Secret Bonus Slivers

As one of the most synergistic tribes in all of MTG, Slivers are adored by much of the MTG community. Subsequently, it’s not uncommon to see Slivers reprinted in supplemental MTG products. Most recently, Frenetic Sliver Frenetic Sliver All Slivers have "{0}: If this permanent is on the battlefield, flip a coin. If you win the flip, exile this permanent and return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step. If you lose the flip, sacrifice it." appeared in the Heads I Win Tails You Lose Commander Deck. Before that, players enjoyed Slivers once more during 2021’s Time Spiral Remastered. While this Remastered set provided players with plenty of Sliver reprints, new Slivers haven’t been released since 2019’s Modern Horizons. Due to this long wait, the calls for new Sliver cards have only gotten louder. Unfortunately, however, it appears that these requests have seemingly fallen on deaf ears. 

Instead of releasing new Slivers, Wizards of the Coast has been reissuing reprints. As we last saw in July, these reprints are being delivered alongside Secret Lair Drops as the sometimes mysterious Bonus Card. These Secret Lair Slivers are nice, featuring partially zoomed-in borderless art, but ultimately not what the community is asking for. Nevertheless, appearing as Bonus Cards for the October 2022 Secret Lair Superdrop, it’s hard to complain about surprise free additions. Since these reprints are all cards we’ve seen before, we don’t really have much to say about them. So, here’s a quick list covering the Secret Lair Bonus Card Slivers that have been discovered so far. 

• Basal Sliver Basal Sliver All Slivers have "Sacrifice this permanent: Add {B}{B}." – u/Xichorn
• Dredgscape Sliver – u/TeaComfyOfficial
• Homing Sliver Homing Sliver Each Sliver card in each player's hand has slivercycling {3}.
  Slivercycling {3} ({3}, Discard this card: Search your library for a Sliver card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.) – u/Balbasur
• Leeching Sliver Leeching Sliver Whenever a Sliver you control attacks, defending player loses 1 life. – u/JCarnacki
• Muscle Sliver Muscle Sliver All Sliver creatures get +1/+1. – u/Maloth_Warblade
• Necrotic Sliver Necrotic Sliver All Slivers have "{3}, Sacrifice this permanent: Destroy target permanent." – u/NastyDad
• Plague Sliver Plague Sliver All Slivers have "At the beginning of your upkeep, this permanent deals 1 damage to you." – u/TeaComfyOfficial
• Pulmonic Sliver Pulmonic Sliver All Sliver creatures have flying.
  All Slivers have "If this permanent would be put into a graveyard, you may put it on top of its owner's library instead." – u/ValerieVoir
• Quick Sliver Quick Sliver Flash
  Any player may cast Sliver spells as though they had flash. – u/J3lackJ3ird0501
• Shadow Sliver Shadow Sliver All Sliver creatures have shadow. (They can block or be blocked by only creatures with shadow.) – u/NastyDad
• Telekinetic Sliver Telekinetic Sliver All Slivers have "{T}: Tap target permanent." – u/JebusKrizt
• Virulent Sliver Virulent Sliver All Sliver creatures have poisonous 1. (Whenever a Sliver deals combat damage to a player, that player gets a poison counter. A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game.) – u/J3lackJ3ird0501

Are These Secret Slivers Worth Anything? 

As Slivers, each of these new old cards features some highly synergistic abilities. This, however, doesn’t make the cards exceptionally valuable. While players do thoroughly enjoy the unparalleled synergy of the Sliver tribe, it’s ultimately a niche archetype. Subsequently, similarly to other Tribal archetypes, there isn’t the demand fuelling exorbitant prices. Instead, outside of choice, powerful cards like Sliver Hivelord Sliver Hivelord Sliver creatures you control have indestructible. (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy them.) and Sliver Legion Sliver Legion All Sliver creatures get +1/+1 for each other Sliver on the battlefield. , most Slivers are only worth a few dollars. 

Many of the Extended Art Foil Slivers that have been released as Secret Lair Drop cards are bucking this low-pricing trend somewhat. For instance, the typically inexpensive Harmonic Sliver Harmonic Sliver All Slivers have "When this permanent enters, destroy target artifact or enchantment." sells for around $25 – $30 as an extended art Bonus Card. That’s over twenty times more expensive than the base version of the card from Time Spiral. Unfortunately, for players looking to recoup the cost of their recent Secret Lair purchase, not all Bonus Card Slivers are that expensive. Ward Sliver Ward Sliver As this creature enters, choose a color.
All Slivers have protection from the chosen color. , which appeared as a bonus card in July, only sells for around $3 – $5. That is only twice as expensive as base Ward Slivers and over six times cheaper than foil variants from Legions. 

Similar to Ward Sliver and the other recent Secret Lair Drop Bonus Cards, it doesn’t appear that the new Slivers will be tremendously expensive. While the new Secret Lair Slivers are predominantly yet to be listed on TCGplayer, base versions of the cards are relatively cheap. Out of all the newly revealed bonus cards, Telekinetic Sliver Telekinetic Sliver All Slivers have "{T}: Tap target permanent." is currently the most expensive at just $1.25 on average. Notably, one of the new Bonus Card Slivers has been sold thus far on TCGplayer. Just yesterday Basal Sliver Basal Sliver All Slivers have "Sacrifice this permanent: Add {B}{B}." sold for a staggering $22 to an eager collector. 

When Will Slivers Return

Thankfully for fans of Slivers, Wizards hasn’t sunset the creature type entirely. Instead, Slivers appear to be waiting in the wings for the right time to return. As we noted previously, Wizards of the Coast is very aware of player demand for more Slivers. Mark Rosewater has even promised that, eventually, more Slivers will be made. After fielding a request from Tumblr user Nik-murphy, Rosewater stated, “I do think we’ll make more Slivers in future sets. I’m not sure those sets will be premier though.” Subsequently, it should hopefully be a matter of time before MTG players finally get more Slivers to enjoy. 

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