Sliver

Sliver

 

Trivia

 

Sliver
Creature Type
(Subtype for creature/kindred cards)
Beeble Scale	6
Statistics	115 cards 17.4% 13% 13% 18.3% 15.7% 1.7% 1.7% 1.7% 1.7% 1.7% 0.9% 0.9% 0.9% 2.6% 0.9% 5.2% 2.6% 12 Sliver creation cards 25% 8.3% 8.3% 16.7% 25% 8.3% 8.3% as of Commander Masters
Scryfall Search
type:"Sliver"

Slivers are creatures that share a hive mind, which allows them to share their abilities with other nearby slivers. Cards with the creature type Sliver have an ability or characteristic that they share with other slivers. Early slivers share with all slivers in play, while later slivers only affect the player's side of the board.

Description

The original Slivers were depicted with an armored vertebrate body, a long, bifurcated whip-like tail, one arm with a single talon for a hand, and a singular head with an armored crest. Variations of this appearance existed per the abilities each has to offer to the hive. An evolved form has humanoid features.

A Sliver begins to show distinct physical attributes within a few days of its birth and reaches maturity within weeks, connecting to the hivemind and incorporating the characteristics of nearby Slivers. What defines a Sliver's traits is unknown, but some believe that Rath's Slivers' attributes were controlled before birth by Volrath himself.

Slivers hunt in packs. Groups of unaugmented slivers are called "thrums." Slivers prefer warm regions, hanging from ceilings in groups that resemble large pinecones.

Mechanically, each Sliver in a set is expected to produce a unique ability to share with its fellow Slivers, though redundant abilities occur across sets. One of the bigger design problems is that without blocks and core sets, Slivers require a large chunk of set density to be worthwhile, and most sets would not have many new keywords to gift. Printing Slivers in supplemental sets such as Modern Horizons solved some of these issues, as they could use any keywords, have a higher power level or complexity, and did not need to factor into the plot.

Storyline

Origin

Eons ago, sentient species on an unknown plane used Slivers as beasts of burden. They were domesticated for their ability to adapt and many empires were built upon their service. However deep beneath the surface of the plane, in caverns that ran along every continent, a Sliver queen bided her time. As above, so too below were empires birthed and torn down, only these epochal cycles were orchestrated by the patient queen, a vast and unknowable mind seeking alien perfection. Each generation of Slivers grew stronger than the last until this queen, the Gravemother, finally completed the ultimate evolution: to conquer death. In a single night, kingdoms were reduced to rubble as their former servants were joined by the Gravemother's hardened brood. No trace of the plane was spared: the Slivers razed villages and castles alike. Landslides buried the plains, as mountains were torn apart by Slivers bursting from the vast burial calderas hidden beneath the ground. Countless armies were crushed beneath the stampede of Slivers, awoken by the sound of their encampments and comrades being torn to shreds by the living dead. Now, no living thing exists on that plane except what the Gravemother permits: empires reduced to cattle for her hive to feast upon when the time calls for it.

Discovery

Volrath visited an as-yet-unidentified plane and discovered slivers. A fellow shapeshifter and an obsessive zoologist, he was so fascinated by these mesomorphic, hive-minded creatures that he brought the Sliver Queen to Rath. He then took a number of her brood away from her (and stuck them in the Furnace of Rath) so he could study them.

Rath

Volrath is said to have genetically modified the slivers, but to what extent is also unknown. He attempted to create artificial slivers, but these were a poor approximation of the real thing and had no innate abilities to share with the hive. These Metallic Slivers were used to spy on the sliver hive. Before the Dominarian invasion, there were no more than 5,000 slivers on Rath.

Volrath used the hive to guard the Legacy and to attack Weatherlight and her crew on their quest to retake those artifacts and their captain, Sisay. Thanks to Hanna, who realized how the slivers' hive mind worked, the crew defeated them in the Furnace of Rath and Karn was able to convince the Sliver Queen to release the Legacy to him, arguing that the artifacts were as much a part of him as the slivers were a part of her.

Dominaria

Rathi Overlay

During the Rathi Overlay the slivers were transported to Urborg. Most of them were killed when they materialized in the heart of a volcano, and all the others were killed in the subsequent battles of the Invasion.

Riptide Project

One hundred years later, wizards involved in the Riptide Project on Otaria discovered sliver remains in the ruins of the Stronghold in Urborg and planned to bring them back to life to study them. The Riptide wizards successfully created entirely new varieties of slivers, but without knowing the importance of the Sliver Queen, didn't recreate her. Without her, the slivers went rampant, proving impossible to tame and breeding out of control. They quickly overran the island housing the project.

At the same time, the Mirari was causing havoc all over Otaria. The magical waves it produced accelerated the slivers' growth, but it also lured them to the mainland since they confused its call with their deceased queen's. Most of the slivers were therefore present at the battle at Sanctum and were killed in the magical explosion that created Karona. However, a small group of slivers survived and fused into the ultimate manifestation of the hive mind, the Sliver Overlord.

After the apocalypse

Venser's sliver, an artificial sliver.

Slivers that survived the apocalypse caused by Karona's destruction and a few breeds that were "timeshifted" into the present by the violent upheavals of the time stream were among the few creatures that were able to flourish on the dying plane of Dominaria. As other species fought for survival in a world almost completely drained of mana, the slivers continued to multiply and mutate into new forms. Some of these new breeds mimicked traits of other life forms in the multiverse; the vampiric sliver fed upon the life essence of its prey and was strengthened in return, much like the dreaded Sengir clan and their ilk. The gemhide sliver adopted an ability similar to that of the fabled Birds of Paradise, creating mana of any color whenever it wished. Basal slivers possessed the innate drive to sacrifice themselves to provide for their nestmates, similar to the way the master breeders of the Ebon Hand used Basal Thrulls for their dark rituals. Another new strain present during this time was the shadow sliver, trapped between two worlds when the nest within the bowels of Volrath's Stronghold was overlaid on Urborg. Presumably, this breed was a terror to the Rathi Tribes who were also caught in the overlay in their home, the City of Traitors. Without the leadership of their Queen, these sliver swarms raged across the plane, largely unstoppable when gathered in great enough numbers. The destruction caused by the slivers was not necessarily malevolent, the hive-minded creatures only sought a new queen, new leadership to guide their numbers.

For a time, the planeswalkers Freyalise and Lord Windgrace maintained some control over the slivers in their respective realms. Once the Weaver King discovered the simplicity of their hivemind, he quickly took control of them for his purposes and used them to wage war on their former masters. Since his destruction, the slivers are presumably once again without leadership, though it's indicated that the slivers' hivemind is slowly becoming sentient and self-aware, negating the further need for a Queen.

The Hivestone, a strange artifact discovered within the ruins of the Stronghold, was later found to have been used by the various evincars of Rath's past to control the seething sliver hive and its Queen. Upon its rediscovery, however, the device became a curse to its wielder, bending its possessor's will to the will of the swarm.

Slivers are implied to survive well into the future of Dominaria, taking on even more new and bizarre abilities.

Shandalar

The prime slivers with their humanoid forms differ greatly from the more primitive predators.

On the shores of the eastern Sea of Shandalar, an evolved race of slivers inhabits the "Skep", a great nest or hive. These slivers have gleaming, gemlike eyes and "hair" more like the squirming tentacles of a jellyfish or polyp. Two varieties exist: the insectile human-sized less brood that can be found on other planes (also called lesser slivers or predators), and primes, which are bipedal, humanoid, and slightly more sapient. All are covered with chitinous plates that glisten and slide about like oiled pieces of machinery. The creatures use a high-pitched, chittered speech, akin to a cricket. An insectile hivelord rules over the primes and predators of the hive. The hivelord is around 20 times the size of a human. The biologist who discovered the slivers was a shapeshifter, so the effect went unnoticed, but the two who followed in his footsteps found that they became slivers while in the Skep, which suggests the presence of a hivestone or similar effect.

Alara

Slivers may also have appeared on Alara. The First Sliver, First Sliver's Chosen, and Dregscape Sliver have Cascade, Exalted and Unearth respectively, which are keywords from the Alara block. The Dregscape is also a location on Alara. These facts, however, do not outright prove that Slivers did appear but offer the possibility that they might have.

Mirrodin

The Tempered Sliver seems to be located at Mirrodin/New Phyrexia.

Amonkhet

Lazotep Sliver appears to be located on Amonkhet. It was later clarified that the card isn't canon.

Notable Slivers

The First Sliver from unknown plane.

Rath

• Sliver Queen

Dominaria

• Sliver Overlord
• Sliver Legion

Shandalar

• Sliver Hivelord

Unknown

• The First Sliver
• Sliver Gravemother

As cards

The creature type Sliver was introduced in Tempest. It was originally designed by Mike Elliott for the unpublished expansion Astral Ways. Slivers were inspired by the card Plague Rats from Alpha.

The creature type has been found in the Tempest block, the Onslaught block, the Time Spiral block, Magic 2014, Magic 2015, Modern Horizons and Commander Masters sets. Most Slivers have an ability that grants all Slivers the same ability. Exceptions to this rule include Metallic Sliver, Sliver Construct, Sliver Overlord, Sliver Queen, and Venser's Sliver.

Tempest

Slivers first appeared in Tempest.

• A common cycle of 1/1 Slivers with a mana cost of M (M being one colored mana). These are Talon Sliver, Winged Sliver, Clot Sliver, Heart Sliver, and Muscle Sliver.
• An uncommon cycle of 2/2 Slivers with a mana cost of M. These are Armor Sliver, Mnemonic Sliver, Mindwhip Sliver, Barbed Sliver, and Horned Sliver.
• Metallic Sliver is a common artifact creature - Sliver with a mana cost of . Unlike most other Slivers, it has no abilities but can gain abilities granted by other Slivers.

Stronghold

Stronghold included another uncommon cycle and the rare Sliver Queen.

• Uncommon cycle of 2/2 Slivers with a mana cost of two, with one for each allied color pair. These are Crystalline Sliver, Hibernation Sliver, Acidic Sliver, Spined Sliver, and Victual Sliver.
• Sliver Queen is an atypical Sliver for multiple reasons. It costs WUBRG, is 7/7, and it grants no abilities to Slivers, but it has an activated ability that produces 1/1 colorless Sliver creature tokens, which can gain the abilities granted by other Slivers.

Legions

Slivers returned five years later in Legions, the second set of the Onslaught block.

• A common cycle of 1/1 Slivers — Plated Sliver, Mistform Sliver, Crypt Sliver, Hunter Sliver, and Quick Sliver.
• An uncommon cycle of 2/2 — Ward Sliver, Shifting Sliver, Spectral Sliver, Blade Sliver, and Root Sliver.
• The first rare cycle Slivers, all 3/3 — Essence Sliver, Synapse Sliver, Toxin Sliver, Magma Sliver, and Brood Sliver.
  • Brood Sliver produces 1/1 colorless Sliver creature tokens.

Scourge

Scourge had only the legendary Sliver Overlord, which was printed in homage to Sliver Queen, a very popular card in casual Magic. Sliver Overlord was meant to be a "Sliver King" of sorts, but that does not fit with Sliver biology, so it instead became an overlord. Like Sliver Queen, it shares both its 7/7 size and WUBRG cost. Its activated abilities represent its ability to call and control other Slivers, which can be used with other type-changing effects and abilities to take control of opponents' creatures.

Time Spiral

Three years later Time Spiral added 26 new Slivers, as well as reprinting Essence Sliver and Spined Sliver as "Timeshifted" cards. The set included two commons, one uncommon, and one rare of each color; one uncommon for each of the allied color combinations, and one artifact Sliver.

• The commons are Sidewinder Sliver, Watcher Sliver, Screeching Sliver, Shadow Sliver, Mindlash Sliver, Basal Sliver, Two-Headed Sliver, Bonesplitter Sliver, Gemhide Sliver, and Spinneret Sliver.
• The uncommon single-color Slivers are Quilled Sliver, Telekinetic Sliver, Vampiric Sliver, Fury Sliver, and Might Sliver.
• The uncommon two-color Slivers are Opaline Sliver, Dementia Sliver, Ghostflame Sliver, Firewake Sliver, and Harmonic Sliver.
• The rare Slivers are Pulmonic Sliver, Psionic Sliver, Plague Sliver, Sedge Sliver, and Fungus Sliver.
• The artifact Sliver is Venser's Sliver, a 3/3 for with no abilities.
• Also, the set added Hivestone, an artifact that makes all creatures you control Slivers.

Planar Chaos

Planar Chaos added another eleven:

• A common cycle: Battering Sliver, Poultice Sliver, Reflex Sliver, Spitting Sliver, and Synchronous Sliver.
  • Sinew Sliver exists outside the cycle as a homage to Muscle Sliver.
• A cycle of uncommon enemy-colored slivers that paid homage to previous cards of their color; Dormant Sliver, Necrotic Sliver, Frenetic Sliver, Darkheart Sliver, Cautery Sliver.

Future Sight

Future Sight had one cycle, one legendary sliver, and two cards that referred to slivers:

• The cycle consisted of five common slivers; Frenzy Sliver, Homing Sliver, Lymph Sliver, Mesmeric Sliver, and Virulent Sliver.
• As a final tribute to the Queen, a new legendary WUBRG 7/7 sliver was printed: Sliver Legion, which pays homage to Coat of Arms.
• The Spellshaper Sliversmith produces 1/1 colorless Sliver artifact creature tokens named Metallic Sliver
• Vedalken Aethermage returns target Sliver to its owner's hand when it enters the battlefield.

Magic 2014

Six years later, Slivers once again returned in Magic 2014. These partially humanoid Slivers now only affected the player's side of the board. 14 Slivers were printed, tilted towards the shard.

• Rare cycle: Bonescythe Sliver, Galerider Sliver, Syphon Sliver, Thorncaster Sliver, Megantic Sliver
• Three uncommons: Battle Sliver, Manaweft Sliver, Steelform Sliver
• Five commons: Blur Sliver, Groundshaker Sliver, Predatory Sliver, Sentinel Sliver, Striking Sliver
• A common artifact sliver, Sliver Construct, a 2/2 for with no abilities.
• Hive Stirrings produces 1/1 colorless Sliver creature tokens.

Magic 2015

Only one year later, Slivers returned in Magic 2015. Notable is the return to the original art style in Sliver Hive.

• Mythic rare sliver: Sliver Hivelord, which costs and is the first Legendary Sliver to not be a 7/7, instead being a 5/5.
• Uncommon cycle: Constricting Sliver, Diffusion Sliver, Belligerent Sliver, Leeching Sliver and Venom Sliver
• Sliver Hive produces 1/1 colorless Sliver creature tokens.

Modern Horizons

Slivers were considered for the return to Dominaria, but were found too problematic in that they required a significant commitment to space that wasn't available. It was announced that the next time we would see Slivers there would be a good chance that they would resemble their original body shape. Asked if they would affect all Slivers in play, Mark Rosewater declared that that ship has passed.

Shortly after, Slivers in their original (pre-M14) form were featured in Modern Horizons, where they are the white-red draft archetype.

• Mythic rare sliver: The First Sliver, which costs and gives Slivers cascade.
• Red/white slivers: Cloudshredder Sliver (rare) and Lavabelly Sliver (uncommmon)
• Red rare: Spiteful Sliver
• Uncommon cycle (all colors): First Sliver's Chosen, Scuttling Sliver, Dregscape Sliver, Hollowhead Sliver, and Tempered Sliver
• Red and white commons: Bladeback Sliver, Cleaving Sliver, Enduring Sliver , and Lancer Sliver

Time Spiral Remastered

Time Spiral Remastered featured a selection of the slivers of the Time Spiral block, concentrated in red, green, and white. In addition, Cloudshredder Sliver appeared on the Timeshifted sheet.

Commander Masters

The Commander Masters preconstructed deck Sliver Swarm features a new cycle of monocolored slivers alongside the commander of the deck, Sliver Gravemother. This Sliver is a 6/6 and unusually has three abilities. Additionally, a different style of a five-color sliver-focused commander was printed in the form of Rukarumel, Biologist. Notably, following the return of the original sliver design in Modern Horizons, all slivers featured in this deck feature the original sliver design. As a consequence, many slivers in this deck received new artwork.

Tokens

Token Name	Color	Type Line	P/T	Text Box	Source	Printings
Sliver	Colorless	Creature — Sliver	1/1		Brood Sliver Hive Stirrings Riptide Island Rukarumel, Biologist Sliver Hive Sliver Queen Sliver Queen, Brood Mother
Sliver Army	Black	Creature — Sliver Army	0/0		Lazotep Sliver
Metallic Sliver	Colorless	Artifact Creature — Sliver	1/1		Sliversmith

Test cards

Token Name	Color	Type Line	P/T	Text Box	Source	Printings
Eldrazi Sliver	Colorless	Creature — Eldrazi Sliver	1/1	Sacrifice this creature: Add .	Slivdrazi Monstrosity

See also

• Sliver/Trivia
• Premium Deck Series: Slivers
• Magic Arcana (March 11, 2004). "Sliver Checklist". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.