As promised last week, Chris brings us his newest Standard creation — Black/White Slivers. He takes us through five different iterations of the deck, and shares some of his thoughts in testing and beyond. All this, plus a few match walkthroughs to boot! Looking to abuse the power of Necrotic Sliver? Then maybe this is the deck for you…{From Right Field is a column for Magic players on a budget or players who don’t want to play netdecks. The decks are designed to let the budget-conscious player be competitive in local, Saturday tournaments. They are not decks that will qualify a player for The Pro Tour. As such, the decks written about in this column are, almost by necessity, rogue decks. The author tries to limit the number of non-land rares as a way to limit the cost of the decks. When they do contain rares, those cards will either be cheap rares or staples of which new players should be trying to collect a set of four, such as Dark Confidant, Birds of Paradise, or Wrath of God. The decks are also tested by the author, who isn’t very good at playing Magic. He will never claim that a deck has an 85% winning percentage against the entire field. He will also let you know when the decks are just plain lousy. Readers should never consider these decks "set in stone" or "done." If you think you can change some cards to make them better, well, you probably can, and the author encourages you to do so.}
In an effort to make Craig’s editing duties easier this week, I’m just a-jumpin’ right in.
Three weeks ago, I tossed out a deck idea that included what one of the world’s best-looking Magic writers has called “the best non-rare creature in Planar Chaos.” That card is Necrotic Sliver, and that writer is me. The deck looked like this:
Creatures (20)
Lands (24)
Spells (16)
Almost immediately after the article hit the site, before I even had a chance to actually play the deck, a whole bunch of smarty pants had all sorts of high-falootin’ suggestions. For example:
“Why not use Mortify instead of Chill to the Bone?”
Um.
…
…
…
Because…
…
…
…
I dunno.
You will, please, to be excusing me for the phart of the brain, please, thank you.
Honestly, there’s no good reason to run Chill to the Bone over Mortify. In addition to, maybe, but not over it. This is why the acronym RTFC is so good to know. RTFC, for the uninitiated, means “read the flippin’ card.” Which really means “the answer to your question is probably on the actual card about which you are asking, if you’d only look closely at it and read the entire thing carefully.” You see, I thought, don’t ask me why, but I thought that Chill to the Bone didn’t allow the creature to Regenerate. Not a bad ability to have, except that Chill to the Bone doesn’t have it.
Why would I think this, though? I will now invoke the seldom-used concept of the Marcel Mulligan.
Marcel Mulligan – noun: to inadvertently add, ignore, or modify a word, phrase, or clause, esp. as applied to Magic: The Gathering cards and their rules text (fr. circa 2000, actions and omissions by Dan Marcel)
The History of The Marcel Mulligan
Back when Invasion Block was just all the cat’s meow, the bee’s knees, and Antonella’s Barbas, a friend of my friend Karl Allen was coaxed back into the game. His name was – and most likely still is – Dan Marcel. Dan’s a great guy, as is his wife Sarah. By that, of course, I mean that Sarah is great like Dan is great, not that’s she’s a guy like Dan is a guy. Both played Magic. Both were / are very smart. Dan just had this, for lack of a better word, “habit” of simply missing stuff on or adding stuff to Magic cards. It was never malicious or intentional. As he once said “If I was doing this on purpose, I’d make sure I actually won a match or two.” It was usually fairly funny when it happened. Here’s a typical Marcel Mulligan that may or may not have happened exactly this way.
Dan was playing a tight game against one of the locals who had once played on the Pro Tour. It was an epic battle, the kind that someone would someday write about on StarCityGames.com. We’ll say that it was during a tight third game because it’s much more dramatic that way. Bill, Dan’s opponent, had dropped a Skizzik with Kicker. So, Dan had five points of Hasted, Trampling damage pointed at him.
Bill entered his Combat Phase. Turning the beefy Red critter ninety degrees, he announced, “Swing with Skizzik.”
Without hesitation, Dan proudly announced, “Strafe targeting your Skizzik.”
“It’s Red,” replied Bill, quite matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, I know,” said Dan. “Three damage for one mana. Pretty good Red spell, huh?”
“No, I mean Skizzik’s Red.”
“Uhhhhh-huhhhh,” Dan responded, obviously perplexed as to why Bill would point out such an obvious fact.
Bill exhaled. “Strafe deals three damage to a non-Red creature.”
“… Oh… It does, doesn’t it?”
“Also, it’s a Sorcery.”
“Then I guess I’ll put that back in my hand like so and take five damage.”
In another exercise of a classic Marcel Mulligan, Dan once had two copies of Tahngarth, Talruum Hero, in play at the same time in a draft game. (Yes, Dan had a very good draft.) In Dan’s defense, they were two different cards. Dan had drafted both the regular and alternate-art versions of Tahngarth. Moreover, even his opponent didn’t notice the mistake / rules violation. It wasn’t until another player started watching the game that everyone realized what had happened.
OBSERVANT ONLOOKER: Why do you have two Tahngarths in play?
DAN: (a bit confused by the question) Because he’s really good. Two of him is even better than one…
O.O.: Yeah, he’s really good. That’s why he’s a Legend.
DAN: (looking from one Tahngarth to the other and back) Well, isn’t that special.
Not all of Dan’s Marcel Mulligans were with Red cards. They’re just the ones that I remember the best.
So, I had taken a Marcel Mulligan on Chill to the Bone, adding the clause “It can’t be regenerated.” Obviously, that role will now be played by Mortify, a three-mana (not four-mana) Instant that kills creatures (but they can still be Regenerated) as well as Enchantments (which Chill to the Bone can’t kill).
Another quick couple of changes have to do with the manabase. I completely miscalculated the need for Black mana. I was quite embarrassed by this since one of the things I usually do very well is get my mana right. The deck needs a skoosh more Black mana, leading me to drop a Plains and the Ghost Quarter for another Swamp and a second Urborg. Version one-point-two of the deck now looks like this:
Creatures (20)
Lands (24)
Spells (16)
I’m not gonna lie. I love the support spells in this deck. I love Necrotic Sliver, Sinew Sliver, and Skeletal Vampire. I’m not crazy about either Basal Sliver or Mindlash Sliver. Without Grave Pact or Necrotic Sliver, those two aren’t gonna be too frightening. With Sinew Sliver on board, they’re pretty good, but I like creatures that can stand tough on their own. Still, this is how we start this process.
I have another confession. The entire time I was working on this, I kept hearing Richard Feldman words after our Battle Royal match. “Chris – play more lands!” Skeletal Vampire is the most expensive spell in the deck, but this deck wants to have mana available for Stupid Sliver Tricks once Necrotic Sliver hits. Of course, Basal Sliver… oh, never mind.
Finally, I was worried about the mana curve. The one-slot is okay, but not out of this world. The two-slot is only Sinew Sliver. Ugh. The thing it bottled up at three. Clearly, this is not how the deck will end up.
Lemme see how this works, and I’ll get back to you.
Match #1: Yes, I said “Match.” You see, I’ve been playing online long enough to know that if I play Grave Pact plus any sacrifice ability in the Casual Room, the anger will boil over. On the one hand, I understand this. The Casual Room default is only one game. Most people don’t pack maindeck Enchantment kill. So, Debtors’ Knell, Phyrexian Arena, Grave Pact, or any sort of powerful Enchantment is pretty much despised. On the other hand, play the game. However, knowing what I know about Casual Room attitudes, I thought it was best to start in the Tourney Practice Room.
My first match was against a standard version of Boros Deck Wins, and it did. As I suspected, my deck did not get off to any sort of impressive start at all. A second-turn Sinew Sliver died easily while my third-turn Phyrexian Arena was met by his fourth-turn Giant Solifuge. Yuck.
Game 2 wasn’t much better. In fact, it was worse as he won a turn earlier. Grave Pact actually hit in this game, but it was too little too late.
Match #2: Mono-Green Aggro, huh? Shouldn’t be too bad. Bzzzzzt. Wrong. His creatures were bigger and came out faster. Both games. Meanwhile, I really never had the mana that I wanted or needed to do anything impressive.
Then, the weirdest thing happened. Even though it was just me and the cats – Luanne was asleep – I heard a voice in the corner of the room.
“Chriiiiiiiis – plaaaaay moooore laaaaands!”
Richard? Is that you?
“Nooooo. Chriiiiis – you neeeeeed mooooore maaaanaaaa…”
The scary voice in the corner was, of course, correct. You know what else I needed? Something more to play on turn 2. Some control of some sort maybe. Moreover, I didn’t think I’d be seeing enough mana for Skeletal Vampire with additional mana left over to use the Necrotic Sliver ability. Plus, I was hemorrhaging life from those Phyrexian Arenas, and it felt like there were too many Grave Pacts. So, I made some changes, and came up with this:
Creatures (16)
Lands (24)
Spells (20)
Talen Lee has just had a minor conniption fit as Skeletal Vampire got cut from a deck. The good news is that I now have twelve second-turn plays. The bad news is I don’t think there are enough creatures now. Sixteen? Is Basal Sliver the win condition? I don’t have high hopes for this. Heck, I don’t even have low hopes for this.
Match #3: Another MGA deck, huh? Well, Cruel Edict to the rescue. You can point to all of the reasons that Silhana Ledgewalker is awesome, and I will agree one-hundred-sixteen per cent. Still, if it’s the only creature on their side of the board, Cruel Edict kills it.
Whatever. I lost both games anyway. The mana was much better, though. In fact, it was so good, that I thought about adding back in a couple of Skeletal Vampires. The only thing that I could really see being dropped for them was Condemn.
Condemn’s a funny spell. It looks like it should go in any deck with White mana. It’s cheap. It controls a creature (as long as it can be targeted). And it’s cheap. So, why has it felt like dead weight every game so far? Could it be the many creatures I’ve faced that I can’t target, creatures like Giant Solifuge and Silhana Ledgewalker? Or is it that every time I’ve gotten it so far, I wished it was something else? The answer is probably “yes.” I’ll watch that slot more closely in the next match.
Match #4: Yeah, Condemn also pretty much bites sun-ripened fish carcasses against Teferi. The good news is that this was actually a tight match. I got to play three games! Yaaaaaay! The bad news is I only won one of them. Boy, oh, boy, is Grave Pact plus Necrotic Sliver just horrendous for Teferi. Damnation, though, is the monkey wrench in the cogs and gears of Grave Pact. Note to self: keep mana up against mass removal. I can use all of those soon-to-be-dead creatures to knock off lands.
I moved on to this version. Hopefully, Mrs. Lee’s boy will be a bit happier.
Creatures (18)
Lands (24)
Spells (18)
Match #5: This was against a Mono-Black Rack deck. The nice thing about Necrotic Sliver is that it kills The Rack. However, The Rack deck emptied my hand quickly. I was in topdeck mode by turn 4 or 5 in all three games. When I finally drew Skeletal Vampire in game 2, it didn’t really matter. If I held it to prevent damage, I’d have no threat on board. If I played it, I took more damage. The Rack indeed. I did win this match, thanks to timely Necrotic Slivers in game 3 as well as hitting the lone Phyrexian Arena. The Rack rarely hurt me because I was able to kill it as soon as it hit two of the three times that my opponent cast it in game 3. (The third time took a couple of turns.)
What I learned in this match was that the deck wants Slivers. Sure, anyone who can sacrifice creatures is great with Grave Pact, but the Necrotic Sliver (as well as the Mindlash and Basal Sliver) want other Slivers. So, Skeletal Vampire’s going away again. What should I put in its place?
I turned to an e-mail I got from a forum hound known as ed_ification. He likes Essence Sliver. It’s fairly efficient on its own, being a Hill Giant that gains life. With other Slivers, it’s just stupid, with two zeros and an exclamation point.
I also found that those late-game Mindlash Slivers weren’t too great unless (a) there was a Grave Pact on board and (b) there were other Slivers around. So, I decided to drop that down to three copies. Along with the loss of Murray, that left room for three Essence Slivers.
Creatures (18)
Lands (24)
Spells (18)
Match #6: My opponent in this match recognized me. He asked what I was doing, and I told him. He asked how it was going, and I told him. He pointed out that my results “aren’t so bad since you’re not using a sideboard yet.” Hmm… not a bad point. I know that my opponents had probably been sideboarding for games two and three. I didn’t have one. Moreover, these were all tournament-winning decks that I’d faced.
His was a mono-Red weenie and burn deck. Necrotic Sliver never lasted long enough to do many tricks. I’d drop him. He’d get targeted. I’d pop him off if I could. It was about fifty-fifty between “could” and “couldn’t.” However, thanks to Essence Sliver, I did last long enough to make the match fairly drawn out. It took him three games and an hour and fifteen minutes to kill me. In other words, it would have been a draw in a real tournament.
So, here I stood 1-5 (or 1-4-1 depending on how you feel about the sixth match). I wasn’t feeling too good about having sung the praises of Necrotic Sliver so highly. Then again, just because I can’t make a deck with that card that runs the Tournament Practice Room doesn’t mean it’s not an awesome card. It just means that I can’t make a tourney winning deck with it by myself.
It was time to call in some help. Where’s that toll-free number? A ha! One-800-Big-Guns. Excellent.
For the rest of the story, you’ll have to wait until next week.
Until then, well, you’ve been a great audience as usual. Remember, voting doesn’t begin until after the show. Dial carefully.
Chris Romeo
FromRightField-at-Comcast-dot-net