Magic Deck Vortex: The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.

Without competition, there would be no struggle for survival. Each species on Earth would thrive in its own environment, but would languish when the nature of that environment ultimately changed. The species would founder and ultimately wane into extinction, a victim of its own fragility. Competition eliminates the weak and rewards resilience, innovation and adaptability. Those that survive reap the rewards of prosperity and a stake in the future of the world that they inhabit. But, not all will survive.

In Part One of this article, I presented a concept for a fun deck-building contest based on Slivers. Having posted my idea in the Magic Deck Vortex (MDV) Forum, a contest was born. In Part Two, we take a look at the rules of the contest, the deck submissions, and finally announce the winner.

The Rules of Engagement

The rules of the contest were debated in the MDV Forum and finally resulted in the following:

Decks must contain at least 60 cards.
Decks must contain at least 20 Sliver creature cards.
Decks will be tested against one another, and when playing the decks against one another, the word "Slivers" will be replaced with "Slivers you control".
Decks must be Legacy legal.
Decks must cost less than $60.00 to build. See 1. Cost, below.

Deck submissions were judged in 4 categories:

1. Cost
The total cost of the deck was determined by checking the current prices at the time of judging using MTG Fanatic as the price guide. NOTE: Sale prices were not considered. Decks score points for cost as follows:

Total Deck Cost
$0.01 - $19.99: 5 Points
$20.00 - $29.99: 4 Points
$30.00 - $39.99: 3 Points
$40.00 - $49.99: 2 Points
$50.00 - $59.99: 1 Point
$60.00+ : Disqualified.

Note that basic lands did not count toward the total cost of the deck.

Rating out of 5.

2. Effectiveness
Round Robin Play: Each deck was tested against each other deck following the rules of the contest. A best two out of three was played between each submitted deck by the judges. If one deck beat the other in the first two games, a third was not played.

For each match up, the deck received points as follows:

2 Wins: 5 Points
1 Win: 2.5 Points
0 Wins: 0 Points

After all decks had been tested against one another, the total points accumulated in this category were divided by the number of opponents to get an average score (rounded to one decimal place). This was the category score.

Rating out of 5.

3. Flavor
A subjective rating of how well the deck conforms to the genetic engineering/survival of the fittest Sliver species creation theme of the contest.

Rating out of 5.

4. Style
A subjective rating of how interesting / unique / well structured the deck is from an MTG point of view.

Rating out of 5.

There were 6 total submissions. The deck descriptions below each of the deck listings are edited versions of the descriptions provided by the contestants themselves, the decks were judged by Kozy and myself.

Each is presented below with their individual results. The results presented represent an average score based on the individual judges’ ratings.

Big Kozy wanted to make this Standard Legal, though it probably could have benefited from some of the Slivers available in Extended. He chose Red-Green for its natural strength in creature-based beatdown decks.

The goal of the deck is fast beatdown, with alternate win conditions based on Virulent Sliver and Disintegrate for those pesky decks that won't go down in combat. Homing Sliver helps to fetch the needed slivers.

Cards that fit well together here are: Virulent Sliver and Two-Headed Sliver or Battering Sliver; Gemhide Sliver and Disintegrate.

It’s a bit difficult to get a read on this Sliver species. It is two-headed, spined, pumped up, fast to the attack, over-bearing…and web spinning and poisonous on top of it all! The deck uses a number of additional spells. Avoid Fate does support the Slivers but is direct rather than having the Slivers do the work. Disintegrate is direct damage against opponent or Slivers. Having the Slivers themselves doing this type of damage would be more true to the theme. Acidic Sliver and Cautery Sliver are good examples of this.

This deck has 30 creatures plus 8 basic supporting spells which are used to counter a spell that targets the Slivers or clear out the opponent's creatures. There is a dearth of good early drops. Spinneret, while efficient in and of itself, brings little to the party unless the opponent has fliers in play. Most Sliver decks do not feature fliers. Including Muscle Sliver would have improved the overall strength of the deck. In addition, there seems to be a bit of a lack of focus – despite the fact that certain card pairs work well together, it still feels like a pile of Sliver cards rather than a focused Sliver strategy.

This deck faired well against the slower combo decks, but ultimately could not match the other fast decks and did not have the muscle to smash through The Sliver Wall (see below for the decklist).

Evolution has constantly been defined as the survival of the fittest. Time and time again, nature has proven to favor the small, the quick, and the hardy. Species likes ants and cockroaches have flourished for ages while giants that roamed the oceans, lands, and skies have all but disappeared. Even now creatures such as the Elephant and Whale struggle, while Squirrels, Pigeons, and Minnows flourish.

Nature also tends to favor the hardy. Creatures that are fragile or too easy to catch get wiped out naturally or by man. Long gestation periods and neurotic behavior has even made it hard to preserve species with the full support of humanity behind them. Yet, despite internationally combined efforts, the mosquito remains the greatest threat to humanity.

Such is the nature of this submission. With only a single sliver over 2 casting cost and utilizing AEther Vial you can easily generate a small horde of slivers in play very quickly. A single Hunter Sliver in the fray will whittle down any early opposition, while Sidewinder Sliver and Sinew Sliver eat away any early defenders that pop up. Two-Headed Sliver and Blade Sliver provide a beautiful finishing pair, upping damage while ensuring that the horde of weenies eats straight into an opponent. Cautery Sliver turns your Sliver army into a powerful volatile finish converting them straight into the necessary damage to finish an opponent if no other method presents.

While you may argue Evolution favors the strong, you have to realize that Strong doesn't mean size; these bite size killers will prove that a horde of ants can tear apart the worst creatures faster than anyone can handle.

AEther Vial is a good selection, allowing Slivers to "reproduce" faster. Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion is a good choice for granting creatures a special ability. Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix make it into a better deck, but not really corresponding to the theme. Acidic Sliver and Cautery Sliver are good for this. Essence Sliver really does the job of Lightning Helix, and Victual Sliver is an option for more life gain. I have to give a half-point bonus for a great deck description!

Straightforward but reasonably effective, this deck features Creature damage along with some burn to clear the way. Granting double strike from a land is a nice touch. Mana fixing would improve the deck. In play testing it lost one game due to lack of white mana. Terramorphic Expanse and/or Boros Garrison could help with mana fixing.

This deck had trouble primarily with Green / White speed deck and also had some trouble punching through The Sliver Wall.

This deck contains nothing but Slivers. Mainly, it's a defensive-control deck that tries to deck the opponent. Watcher Sliver, Ward Sliver, Quilled Sliver, Telekinetic Sliver and Crystalline Sliver are used for protection. Then the tactic is to deck the opponent with Screeching Sliver. Synchronous Sliver can help you attack AND use abilities. Psionic Sliver, Poultice Sliver and Talon Sliver provide additional defense.

With nothing but Slivers, this deck is definitely Sliver focused. While the contest format and intent certainly allow for leeway when it comes to tweaking what your Slivers can do, this deck falls squarely within the spirit of the contest. Creating defense-oriented species was an interesting approach. This species just grows stronger and stronger until it begins emitting a terrible noise that drives its enemies away – a low rumbling at first, building to a crescendo, definitely different.

At first glance, this deck may appear to have no style at all, since it contains nothing but creatures and basic lands. However, considering the deck is intended to be a control deck using nothing but creatures and that the desired win condition is to deck the opponent, this deck has some interesting style. My primary concern is that additional spells at the expense of a few Slivers may have better supported the intent of the deck.

Note that decking the opponent did not often work but the deck nevertheless was surprisingly successful due to its ability to withstand the onslaught of opposing Slivers. I think that this deck might be worth putting up on the lift to tinker with the engine.

This deck features some of the most cost-effective Slivers in their colors (with a few notable exceptions) and tries to abuse Fungus Sliver and Pestilence. Fungus Sliver makes your Slivers larger when they take damage, and Pestilence clears the board of opposing threats while "poking" your Slivers at the same time. Instead of activating Pestilence all at once, use it one activation at a time, let its ability resolve, and then let Fungus Sliver's trigger resolve before activating it again. In no time, your opponent's board will be clean and you'll have an army of MASSIVE Slivers. Consume Spirit allows you to finish the game quickly with some aid of Basal Sliver if the board gets gummed up for some reason (i.e. you don't draw Pestilence), and the rest is just basic utility. Dimir House Guard was added because it's a cheap (money-wise) tutor that finds the key parts of this deck (Pestilence and Fungus Sliver) and provides a warm body when it's needed.

$55.56 = 1 Point. 1 Point deducted due to original submission over $60 leaves 0 Points. (The submission was edited to get it back under the $60 limit).

I like the style of a Sliver species that brings disease into the mix, and only gets stronger from it itself. Muscle Sliver helps the home team better able to live through the disease. Regenerating (Clot Sliver) and Darkheart are nice touches as well – the species is hard to kill and even cannibalize their own to ensure that the brood survives. However, the deck depends on Terror to clear the path, Naturalize to deal with certain threats and Consume Spirit for the kill or to stay alive if necessary. While these are good cards in general and good MTG strategy, they do not suit the flavor of the contest.

Going for the interesting combo is always fun. Using Transmute for the appropriate tutor is good as well - I may have put more in to make the deck more consistent. Also, Worldly Tutor might have been a cheaper casting option for this in Green. Consume Spirit and the ability to use Basal Sliver's ability is a nice touch. The primary problem is the time it takes to setup this deck. Given the speed of opponent's Sliver decks, this deck lacks some mechanism beyond Terror to slow down the opponent until Pestilence is in play. For the money, the mana base could have been built more cheaply and some more money dedicated to acceleration or slowing down the opponent. Once Fungal Sliver and Pestilence are in play though, the combo is pretty effective.

Unfortunately, whether it was the deck or the player, this deck did not perform consistently enough to win matches.

The deck is pretty straightforward. Drop as many Slivers as you can, and pump them with Sinew Sliver, Muscle Sliver and Might Sliver. Make them even more lethal in combat with Sidewinder Sliver and Talon Sliver, while Plated Sliver and Ward Sliver do their best to protect them. Congregation at Dawn will get you all the Might Slivers in your deck, for you to start the real beating, or get you those Essence Slivers if you happen to get low on life. Pacifism is there to take care of stuff like Akroma, Darksteel Colossus, and other stuff that happen to be larger than your average sliver. In the background of all this, Gemhide Sliver and Terramorphic Expanse fix your mana.

A strong, sidewinding, and quick striking species, this Sliver deck epitomizes the strength and speed of Slivers. Congregation at Dawn shows propensity for producing certain types of Slivers and even making the species slightly adaptable depending on the situation. Pacifism serves a utility purpose but doesn't necessarily fit in with the overall theme. It might fit the flavor of the contest more if the Slivers themselves created the effect. For example, Toxin Sliver removes damaged opponents; Necrotic Sliver can remove any permanent from the game, etc.

This deck is a pretty straightforward creature deck. However, the choice of colors and Slivers makes this deck simple but effective. With all of that creature pump, Trample might be effective, so perhaps Horned Sliver there. Like I said in Part One, I think Alpha Status works pretty well here too.

The priority for this deck is to win with the help of one of two near-infinite combos:

1. Sliversmith + Intruder Alarm + Dormant Sliver + Gemhide Sliver + Screeching Sliver (+ Repopulate + Reflex Sliver)
(Tap 1 Sliver for mana and 2 to mill, pay 1 and discard a card for a token, untap Slivers and draw a card, rinse and repeat for near-infinite tokens and near infinite mill (using Repopulate for more fuel and Reflex Sliver to make the tokens mill away too), and also near-infinite mana if you wish)

2. Equilibrium/Cloudstone Curio + Gemhide Sliver + Intruder Alarm + Dormant Sliver + another cheap Sliver (+ Reflex Sliver)
(Replay Slivers infinitely to draw your deck and win with whatever)

To get these combos: there are the cycling lands, Repopulate can cycle early on (but cycling both would be bad for the first combo), Mnemonic Sliver, and Dormant Sliver. (No Homing Sliver, unfortunately -extra cards help with the Smith and I have many non-Slivers that are very useful). There is also defense in Unnatural Selection, Equilibrium, and Intruder Alarm (kind of) to keep you alive until you get something.

A secondary win condition would be swarming with tokens, if there are enough and you have enough mana to make your opponent's army worthless via Unnatural Selection.

The judges particularly liked the overall effect of this deck. This species lies dormant until it either screeches loud enough to kill its opponents, or it suddenly creates an infinite army of Slivers to swarm the opponent. Rather than creating an aggressive species, Maleficent created a species that appears to be doing nothing at all until it suddenly devours it’s enemies.

Five-plus card combos are interesting and deserve an A for effort. Still, it’s difficult to put it all together in practice. The fact that there are two different combo possibilities and that both combos contain some of the same cards gives a little more flexibility. For better consistency, I might have used tutors. Worldly Tutor helps find the creature components of the combos.

When one of the key combos goes off, it’s pretty much a same turn victory or at least next turn guaranteed (for example you can create infinite Sliver tokens so you can guarantee at least 20 not to be blocked next turn no matter how many your opponent has). The problem is that getting the pieces together in a timely fashion proved very difficult indeed.

The Genetic Engineering: Survival of the Fittest Champion is…Your Worst Nightmare, with Green and White Slivers! This deck was simple in its construction yet cost-effective and powerful on the table. The old KISS approach wins again.

Special thanks to the judges and participants for making the contest entertaining, the contest was a lot of fun to put together. The cost category potentially skewed the results a bit and, in future, it may make more sense to simply set a limit and judge all decks equally. Nevertheless, the deck that performed the best on the table is the deck that ultimately won the contest, and there is something right and good about that.

While you may not have learned too much about winning tournaments and creating the ultimate deck, I hope that you have at least learned a little about how to have fun and perhaps will look a little differently at Slivers the next time you are working on a great deck idea.

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.
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