Typal strategies are without a doubt some of the most fun decks to play. Whether you’re a fan of Elves or Humans, seeing all of your powerful synergies come to fruition is an incredibly satisfying feeling. Out of all the creature types printed over the years, however, none work in tandem quite like Slivers.
While Five-Color Slivers is a beloved archetype in Commander, building an optimal list can be extremely expensive. Luckily, for anyone looking to play Slivers on a budget, Pauper is the perfect environment. In fact, a $36 deck featuring a whopping 34 maindeck Slivers just 5-0d a Pauper League, showcasing that the creature type has what it takes to compete without forcing you to break the bank.
Pauper Slivers
Pauper Slivers are truly all about the infamous but fan-favorite creature type. Almost every card featured in this deck is a creature with mana value two or less that makes each Sliver stronger in some way. Your most powerful Slivers are your three “Lord” effects. Every copy of Predatory Sliver, Muscle Sliver, and Sinew Sliver you stick makes it easier to apply pressure and helps get your board out of range of damage-based sweepers like Breath Weapon.
From there, Sidewinder Sliver further punishes the opponent for blocking. Because each instance of Flanking triggers separately, Sidewinder Sliver gets even better in multiples. Similarly, landing multiple copies of Virulent Sliver early leads to your most explosive draws and gives you your best chance of racing Storm decks.
While the majority of creatures in this deck are green or white, there are a few like Heart Sliver and Winged Sliver that dip into other colors. The presence of Abundant Growth and Gemhide Sliver allows you to cast these cards without drastically altering your manabase. Both of these splashed Slivers help push damage fast and through opposing creatures.
Rounding things out, Winding Way and Lead the Stampede both appear as two-ofs to provide some extra grinding power. This deck can’t afford to run too many copies in game one since they’re fairly slow, but they make up for this against removal heavy decks by providing tons of card advantage.
A Simple Gameplan
With such a simple approach, this deck can sometimes feel at the mercy of the opponent’s draws. Against archetypes like Mono-Blue Terror that feature very few removal spells and rely on dominating combat with big bodies, your Sliver synergies excel. The sheer efficiency of this deck’s threats makes them line up well versus counter magic, and it won’t take long before your Sliver army dominates combat. Likewise, this deck is built to keep Ninja of the Deep Hours out of Mono-Blue Faeries in check and race the deck’s pesky fliers.
Your combo matchups, on the other hand, will typically feel like two ships passing in the night. This deck is definitely fast, but with no meaningful interaction against Balustrade Spy Combo, a quick combo kill may feel unbeatable. In a similar vein, this deck’s lack of removal makes cards like Guttersnipe an enormous problem out of Burn. Luckily, there’s plenty of life gain in the sideboard, and Hallow even doubles as protection for your creatures against burn spells.
This shell’s biggest weak spot comes against Jund Wildfire and Grixis Affinity, where a single well-timed Krark-Clan Shaman activation may spell doom. All this deck can do is try to use the Lords and Plated Sliver to keep its creatures out of range, which is easier said than done.
This deck’s limitations are clear, but the mix of size and strength of the creature base still makes Slivers a scary archetype to face down. Your relentless assault gives your opponent no time to spin their wheels with cantrips and card draw. So, for all Sliver fanatics out there looking for a budget-friendly angle of attack, consider giving this deck a whirl.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!