I always thought Slivers vs Phyrexia was a neat idea. My money is on slivers adapting immunity to the oil. Also when you think about it, Slivers are kind of the antithesis of Phyrexian ideology, flesh that perfects itself, and would become hindered by mechanical parts. Lastly, imagine the horror of slivers that adapt to consume metal as easily as flesh and bone.
In the original Sliver storyline, these adorable critters were bred and experimented on by the Phyrexians. I remember thinking Slivers were actually Phyrexian themselves back in the days, until I learned they were *technically* not. But you're right, they might have been impossible to compleat, because we never saw any. I would love Slivers to become a next big bad boss in the game's story. Imagine a Sliver queen with a planeswalker spark, laying eggs on every plane loll
That is an amazing idea. Rather than the over-done "good-guys" vs. "bad guys" trope, I'd love to see a bad-guys vs. Bad guys thing. Eldrazi vs. Phyrexia would be awesome.
MTG's Multiverse is lucky that Slivers haven't adapted into becoming planeswalkers or true sapience yet, because once they do, they will be unstoppable.
The wonderful thing about Slivers.... is slivers are wonderful things their bodies are made out of sinew they've got muscles on top of their wings they're hasted, trample, shroud, and shadow plus one plus one plus one but the most wonderful, wonderful thing about slivers: There's always more than one.
when i first played magic, way way back. a friend of mine had a sliver deck. i was so stunned how he beat me every single time (i didn´t had any deckbuilding experience, ideas how to combo anything) it burned into my brain, that slivers are OP as hell xD
@@Shek1nah As a Sliver main back in the day who didn't have a lot of money, I just want to add that Slivers can suck tempo whise without the right kind of support. I put a ton of ramp in and still got my ass beat by tempo 8 times out of 10.
Sliver overlord is my favorite sliver card. I love the lire behind it’s creation. Since a small handful of slivers with nothing left of there species decided what did they have to loose and merged as one.
I’m actually that guy that runs a sliver commander deck. Have for years, the story of the slivers have always intrigued me. Sliver overlord is my commander and I have all sliver generations in there.
In regards to the shandalar story, wouldn't a shapeshifter be outed immediately to a hivemind of all things? Like Grunt Sliver: "there's this one """sliver""" who doesn't act like us, can't talk to us, and is approaching the overlord. What do?" Sliver Overlord: "What ? just kill it, don't let that thing near me! "
Except for the queen, slivers are really stupid loll. They're like ants, you just have to know which pheromone to spread when and where lolll (Volrath used a Phyrexian broadcasting device to create a fake hivemind and control the slivers. Also, Venser had made a cute fake sliver toy to infiltrate a hive, and it worked very well!)
@@askani21 The Shandalari slivers seems to have more agency and demonstrates higher levels of understanding and intelligence. We also know from Overlord that they are able to reform the hive mind without the Sliver Queen.
@@havyn88 Hey, thinking about it, is Shandalar the only plane where we know Slivers live naturally? Because it might be their plane of origin! All we know from the Phyrexians is that "Volrath found Slivers on some plane" and brought them to Rath. Maybe they're all from Shandalar. Maybe Volrath just picked the stupid ones, easier to control...
I started playing MTG back on Legions (2003) because of the slivers and I've been waiting for this video since the 'A Study in' series began. Thank you Lorebrarian for keeping your promise to make one of this videos on awesome slivers!
I hope they bring slivers back into the story as a plague. A single royal slivelet gets accidentally taken to another plane and ends up starting a new sliver hive. Cue hilarity and interesting lore tidbits as the natives try to figure out what they are, how to beat them, how to use them, and how to replicate the effects.
I’ve been wanting to make a custom Sliver set exploring the idea of their home plane and how meddling with the Queen impacted the natural evolution of the rest of the Sliver species losing their Hive connection but their versatile biology leading them to rapidly evolve into many different yet closely related new life forms. Basically it want to make a Speculative Evolution “Alien Planet”/“The Future is Wild” Magic set using Slivers.
With elements of what you’re thinking as well. Domminaria Sliver hive returning home, infecting these “Sliver Beasts” and intelligent “Sliver Race” and exploring what happens and others trying to understand/exploit them etc.
watching now that Rukarumel has a card is super cool, her art and ability really shows her fascination with them and it's interesting that she can make herself a sliver, likely creating her own brood of type-changing slivers with her at the helm. Would be cool to see slivers return in a main story. Love videos like this!
I hope that at some point the Sliver lord is a 5 color planeswalker, I mean a sliver lord walker would probably be the main villain of an entire story arc because holy hell that's dangerous.
None of the sentient slivers have been depicted as evil, though, which I find even more interesting. The Queen and Overlord were both willing to negotiate, and help others even with no personal gain. A Sliverwalker that was sentient, rapidly spreading, and -not- evil would be much more original imo.
I weirdly love the Shandalar Slivers They are very unique, they look so like natural and unnatural at the same time, like the [Megantic Sliver] look like an elemental or a giant but it is actually a sliver and knowing that makes it oddly terrifying. Whenever I see art of those guys I think they look like a mix between Eldrazis, phyrexians and especially the mutations of Emrakul. I really hope the slivers could become a big bad, imagine a multiversal hivemind, that would be fantastic.
What if, come with me on this journey, a Sliver planeswalker came from the events of the Rathi Overlay? Disregard swarm tactics in favor of specialization, acquire distributed spark and a singular equally distributed intelligence.
@@LexYeen more likely is the emergence of an interplanar manifestation of the CONCEPT of "Sliver", an Ur-Sliver if you will. Kind of like how the Ur-Dragon is to Dragonkind. Given how the Ur-Dragon has spawned the original Elder Dragons of Dominaria, and could have on other planes, the Ur-Sliver might already be a reality. That, or Slivers were originally an experiment of Emrakul that was forgotten while imprisoned on Zendikar.
There's a wide-spread understanding that MTG has 3 main big baddies: Eldrazi, Nicol Bolas, and Phyrexians. Some people speculate that after Phyrexians are dealt with, the only remaining big baddies are the remaining Eldrazi (Marit Lage is suspected to have a connection to Eldrazi), and possibly Tezzeret. Not as many people seem to think that Slivers are as big a threat as far as I've seen, but I think they're a wildcard faction that can very much compete with all the other big evil factions. Although, going back in time for Brothers' War may stir up some crap and change things. We could see a completely unexpected big bad.
My theory? The slivers originated on Shandalar, explaining why they seem more “evolved” than their decidedly “primitive” counterparts on other planes. Due to its existence as a metaphysical wanderer, perhaps Shandalar “seeds” these other worlds with traces of genetic material as it passes through their aetheric boundaries; if the quantity and/or conditions are sufficient, those seeds “take root,” coalescing into a creature that fits the taxonomical criteria of “sliver” on some level. From there, anything could happen: - The sliver expires after a relatively brief period, due to inherent inability to “propagate” more of its kind as a solitary and sterile singularity - The sliver thrives, adapting to its environment and regarded by natives as a cryptid, depicted in folklore yet rarely seen by sapient individuals - The sliver flourishes, becoming the centre of a now-growing collective of its kind, with the conditions just right for them to be a nuisance at best, or a scourge at worst This would explain why slivers exist in large numbers on some planes, yet are few or nonexistent on others; as a new goldfish doesn’t last long if the water’s pH balance isn’t just right, so too might an origin sliver’s existence depend on a certain mana balance. Perhaps it depends on quantity: Eos is too devoid of mana, making sliver colonisation impossible; conversely, Zendikar has too much raw mana, making conditions too volatile for a new brood of “native” slivers to form Perhaps it depends on quality: Some planes, like Wildfire, flow with a clear predominant colour of mana, with only traces of others at best; conversely, there are planes like Innistrad where all colours are present, yet “bend the rules” of how they usually function - Perhaps it depends on both: Alara may have once been an ideal breeding ground, with the Sundering making their survival improbable at best, and the slivers of Esper, Jund, and Naya became extinct as their brethren on Bant and Vithia fell into rapid decline; similarly, Ikoria’s mana is stretched too thinly for a consistently ideal breeding ground, as it coalesces into distinctive triomes rich in only three colours, with the expanses between insufficient in ensuring a stable talonhold of slivers (or perhaps the nature of the plane prevents their coalescence due to the existence of its monster lineages, thus resulting in a similar scenario to the dinosaur-mammal dynamic of our own plane, with slivers basically outclassed by the native apex species, who share a similarly mutative biology with them)
I've been a "Silver" wait, sorry, 11 year old me came out, I've been a Sliver player since the OG Tempest days and its hands down my favorite tribe to play. Their versatility and compatibility with different deck styles just makes them too much fun, hell, I made a Sliver Poison and Sliver Mill for funsies and they were viable. As for Phyrexians getting their hands on them, unless theres a way for them to grab one and cut it off from its Hive, they are gonna be in trouble with the fast adapting Sliver evolution. Slivers evolve in response to environment and threats, just looking at their history and abilities (Also the Glistening oil retcon, I will forever hate but accept thats now PART of everything) so even if Glistening Oil comes into contact with them I'm fairly certain we'll most likely see a Praetor 5 color Sliver Rise and make its own Hive Borg style on top of its natural way to evolve. Ultimately I'm fairly certain the two would clash and slivers WOULD eventually wreak phyrexian face.
Slivers are my favorite creature type of the entire multiverse, something about their fierce determination to live and their interesting hive mind set up intrigues me. i've always been curious what would happen if Slivers were ever to meet the eldrazi broodlings (or even a titan) and what effects it would grant them< The thought of new phyrexia getting ahold of slivers is a chilling thought to be quite honest, i would assume they would be force bonded to someone like Atraxa. With the advent of Halo and the sect of phyrexians that had attacked Old Cappena i wonder what introducing halo into a slivers body would cause to occur for the species at large? {this is why i would have been killed during the riptide project lmao, im too curious for my own goods sometimes}
I was surprised, relieved, and disappointed that Zendikar didn't include any Slivers. Relieved, because I doubt ANY plane could deal with Slivers and Eldrazi simultaneously. Disappointed, because the match-up would have been interesting.
Slivers have always been my favorite, I love the concept and mechanics. Thank you for this video. Seeing the art and hearing the story all together sparked some theories, specifically not with how the slivers relate to Phyrexians, but how do they relate to the Eldrazi? Look, it was the tenticles, okay? They could either be the antithesis of those eldritch horrors, or perhaps they could be the progenitors? If I recall correctly, we have never seen the slivers in play with the eldrazi, otherwise we might get some weird "slivers get annihilate 1" mechanic. But what if those infinitely adaptable creatures were exposed to the madness between and beyond the planes. How would they adapt to such madness, chaos, cold isolation? There's this trend of them becoming ever so slowly more independent. I could see the pinnacle of the evolution being something akin to an Eldrazi. Alternatively, what if, in the desperate search for a hivemind, they find a most willing patron in Emrakul? On the other hand, what species might be best suited to adapt / resist the corrupting influence? Perhaps the battle would be hivemind vs elder god? Drone vs sliver? Or, as the humanoid races reach true desperation against the Phyrexians AND Eldrazi, what would an alliance, co-mingling produce? As the Slivers become more humanoid, what if they take the adaptive trait of being more sympathetic to what must be some of their greatest predators? Great cats and wolves found a way to embrace us, to their great benefit. Basically, what acts of dire desperation and egomaniacal lack of foresight will Urza commit in the next couple sets, that could have truly horrifying consequences for the future of the magic mulriverse?
With how adaptive slivers are, they might be able to adapt and grow faster than phyrexia could. And with how strong the hivemind is, could weed out any corruption before it sets in.
@@TheLorebrarians if pushed then yes. Even the phyrexians didnt go for shiv when they returned so if they were to invade again and stumble onto a hive then...bad day.
Amazing as always Lorebrarians. The slivers are one of my favorite tribes, so seeing this was great. I would say the first sliver and sliver hive lord are my two favorite lineages, but I do love them all. As for suggestions, a video of alara and it's legendary creatures would be cool. Breya, sen triplets, progenitus and the five shards. Alara is a rich plane, a shame we haven't returned to it.
@@TheLorebrarians I remember you said alara was a favorite of yours in the question and answers video you did. Very cool plane, definitely a top plane for me too. Anyways thanks for the videos man, great as always keep rockin 🤘
It’s hereeeee 🎉. Slivers was in my list of things that I have wondered but after eldrazi were done and now this my desires are slowly getting complete. Edit: My fav got to be legion both the card and it’s lore
I actually had a fun story for the slivers in MTG-verse. Sadly Dominaria United screwed most of it. A Sliver Mind, who is a Planeswalker. It's spark was awakened when it realized most sliver generations are discovery, experimentation, weaponization, destruction. Considering the lab it is in, it is somewhere between steps 2 and 3. It planeswalks the first time as its spark awakens. Vraska could be an interesting Mentor to this Slivermind. Now some other fun question come up. Who was experimenting on these slivers? Was Karn looking for some weapon to use against Phyrexia? What does the research lab do now that their prime subject has seemingly vanished into thin air? What happens when the Slivermind returns to the plane where it was created? What happens if a second Slivermind is created?
@@TheLorebrarians I enjoy all of your videos. These are extremely well done and you’ve got a great delivery. I usually download these on my phone and listen to these on plane rides. Thanks for all the work you do on research for these videos. Great stuff
14:39 The Time Spiral novels implied that Freyalise lured all of the slivers (through the non-sliver sentience that controlled them at the time, I think it was a ghost of some kind) into one place, and when she had them there, reverted back to the red magic of her youth to incinerate the slivers into extinction.
The zerg, slivers, and tyranid are all almost the same creature as each other in many ways. They have nearly identical attributes in that they all have a swarm tendency, all have psychic abilities including but not limited to a shared hive mind. They also have a tendency to adapt to their environment based on their environment or what they eat. Their overlords are able to alter their attributes at will. There is another creature from D&D known as the hive of scales that is basically a queen that controls all of her brood and she is able to pass all of the adaptations and abilities of her mates down to her brood. Her mates are all dragons. All of these creatures show that the power of a swarm can easily find under the correct circumstances.
Slivers are my favorite , I forgot that before Dimir and other guilds or planeswalker or anything was my favorite thing it was slivers. I was crazy over physical cards of slivers , I romantice the battlefield with army full of keywords and +1/+1 's and abilities. I'm not much of a Green/white mana fan , but Slivers made me like it ,sometimes when I'm not playing the game , I just liked putting various slivers in table and it was dream battlefield. So many keywords and so much variety ! not to mention how cool they look and sound. I still remember when I first played magic , Slivers were the only card I wanted to buy , for collecting . Even then when I didn't knew how to play the game. They looked cool , aside from pokemons. and speaking of slivers.. I did thought who are they vs phyrexians. Like slivers are different but theyre also steel like , ( not machines with flesh but still like some relative breed.)
You said that the Sliver Hivelord maybe came from another world? This made me think of Planeswalkers in the first second? And they share more human features too?
Thankyou for giving an excelent and honestly validating explination as to why my 2015 sliver cards dont look like slivers and thankyou wizzards of the coast for remaking them so they dont look so stupid.
I've been playing slivers since Tempest; my favorite creature alongside hydras. My daughter's boyfriend convinced me to build a sliver commander deck and now wishes he hadn't.
So I haven't played in a looooong time, and my first deck I put together last month was a penny sliver deck. Still haven't ran it on mtgo but it seems ok?
With the invasion of new phyrexia they have the opportunity to explain away slivers showing up in many places as them quietly slipping through the portals to go to new planes
Over the years ive felt slivers and eldrazi are one and the same, there has always been a strong connection with their biology and purposes and need to consume that led me to believe that Emrakul is either their true hive mind or at most a hive mind that evolved and adapted to survive the vast space inbetween to sizes indescribeable to those who witness them before their end.
I'm still kinda hoping wizard would send us to the plane that slivers come from. Even if it's a side product, I want a "set" for slivers only.....or mainly
I'm still waiting for a sliver planeswalker. And it's minus 10 could be along the lines of "exile sliver planeswalker, search your deck for a legendary sliver and sliver hive and put them both into play." To me it would make sense that the hive mind on the slivers home plane would create a sliver that starts a hive wherever it ends up.
I’m just going to say this… imagine if a human was somehow integrated into the hive, if their biology was somehow mutated to allow them to communicate with the Slivers and control them through the hive mind, weather that mutation was on purpose or by accident… now imagine if the subject in question was a Planeswalker. The hive shares all abilities they have with each other, if they were controlled by a human-sliver hybrid that possessed a spark, then all the Slivers could theoretically jump through the Blind Eternities. The potential is through the roof and WotC AREN’T USING ANY OF IT!!!
YOOOOOO You are the ONLY other person that I have heard question the interaction between phyrexian oil and the sliver biology. Will the oil affect the hive mind? Or will the slivers hive mind be able to reach beyond the sliver and into the phyrexians themselves? I’m so ready for this.
Its definitely a fun thought experiment. I think seeing how slivers and eldrazi react to Phyrexian oil is very interesting. Perhaps we'll see Emrakul released to fight against New Phyrexia?
So. With the recent commander precons, the sliver ones excerpt mentions theres no telling how many planes the slivers have gotten into at the point. So all those slivers at the end are deeeefinitely from other planes i think. Maybe not mirroden. That plane....uh...anyway.
I think if a sliver ever got phytexianized, it would probably make it weaker. Slivers already have the benefits of incredibly rapid adaptation without requiring thought, and they already have a hivemind. If a sliver were added to the phyrexians it would be the same thing except thought now goes into the adaptation abilities, which I think slows it down. And the new hivemind would only link it to inferior, less compatible, phyrexians as opposed to just, more slivers.
I think the slivers are going to be used to fight the Phyrexians. They’re capable of adapting to the battlefield on any plane, and are already dispersed across the multiverse
The core set slivers are my favorite from a thought invoking point of view. That they would adapt to potentially blend in with humans is unsettling and I love it, however their art is terribly jarring and I still somewhat despise it lol
Slivers are the best, my current favorite hivemind sliver is The First Silver just due to how quickly you can flood the field with them, while my favorite silver of all time would have to be Spiteful Silver, it's a great counter to decks running Voice of the Blessed just due to how it allows other silvers to reflect the damage back at the opponent
I always thought Slivers vs Phyrexia was a neat idea. My money is on slivers adapting immunity to the oil. Also when you think about it, Slivers are kind of the antithesis of Phyrexian ideology, flesh that perfects itself, and would become hindered by mechanical parts. Lastly, imagine the horror of slivers that adapt to consume metal as easily as flesh and bone.
In the original Sliver storyline, these adorable critters were bred and experimented on by the Phyrexians. I remember thinking Slivers were actually Phyrexian themselves back in the days, until I learned they were *technically* not. But you're right, they might have been impossible to compleat, because we never saw any. I would love Slivers to become a next big bad boss in the game's story. Imagine a Sliver queen with a planeswalker spark, laying eggs on every plane loll
Borg vs Species 8472 haha
* Phyrexians make an artificial Sliver Queen *
If ya can't beat, have 'em join you!
Alternative theory, what if phyrexia actually manages to compleat a sliver, the ramifications for the species is horrifying
That is an amazing idea. Rather than the over-done "good-guys" vs. "bad guys" trope, I'd love to see a bad-guys vs. Bad guys thing. Eldrazi vs. Phyrexia would be awesome.
MTG's Multiverse is lucky that Slivers haven't adapted into becoming planeswalkers or true sapience yet, because once they do, they will be unstoppable.
I imagine if they ever somehow end up on Zendikar, it would be the end.
The wonderful thing about Slivers....
is slivers are wonderful things
their bodies are made out of sinew
they've got muscles on top of their wings
they're hasted, trample, shroud, and shadow
plus one
plus one
plus one
but the most wonderful, wonderful thing about slivers:
There's always more than one.
That was really well done!
@@danacoleman4007 damn, I wish RUclips let me copy text on my phone. I need to save this
I hope Slivers return in some newer sets, they are just so fun to play.
when i first played magic, way way back. a friend of mine had a sliver deck. i was so stunned how he beat me every single time (i didn´t had any deckbuilding experience, ideas how to combo anything) it burned into my brain, that slivers are OP as hell xD
@@Shek1nah As a Sliver main back in the day who didn't have a lot of money, I just want to add that Slivers can suck tempo whise without the right kind of support. I put a ton of ramp in and still got my ass beat by tempo 8 times out of 10.
Commander masters 2023 Slivers return.
Sliver Gravemother bids you welcome
As my favorite ‘tribe’ this is an absolute treat to watch. Thanks for making this !!
Happy to hear you enjoyed
As my absolute favorite game of all time, you win internet points for having a player pin as you pfp 😉
It's a wonderful world, my friend.
@@jeffbrownstain Always good to see a fellow TWEWY enjoyer 🤙🏼
Remember to keep that sense of Deja Vu at bay
New Commander sliver precon incomming
@@voidmaster6353 Any spoilers or a release date yet?
Sliver overlord is my favorite sliver card. I love the lire behind it’s creation. Since a small handful of slivers with nothing left of there species decided what did they have to loose and merged as one.
I’m actually that guy that runs a sliver commander deck. Have for years, the story of the slivers have always intrigued me. Sliver overlord is my commander and I have all sliver generations in there.
"Hmmmm. More of that strange clicking... It's probably nothing."
In regards to the shandalar story, wouldn't a shapeshifter be outed immediately to a hivemind of all things? Like
Grunt Sliver: "there's this one """sliver""" who doesn't act like us, can't talk to us, and is approaching the overlord. What do?"
Sliver Overlord: "What ? just kill it, don't let that thing near me! "
Except for the queen, slivers are really stupid loll. They're like ants, you just have to know which pheromone to spread when and where lolll
(Volrath used a Phyrexian broadcasting device to create a fake hivemind and control the slivers. Also, Venser had made a cute fake sliver toy to infiltrate a hive, and it worked very well!)
@@askani21 The Shandalari slivers seems to have more agency and demonstrates higher levels of understanding and intelligence. We also know from Overlord that they are able to reform the hive mind without the Sliver Queen.
@@havyn88 Hey, thinking about it, is Shandalar the only plane where we know Slivers live naturally? Because it might be their plane of origin! All we know from the Phyrexians is that "Volrath found Slivers on some plane" and brought them to Rath. Maybe they're all from Shandalar. Maybe Volrath just picked the stupid ones, easier to control...
I started playing MTG back on Legions (2003) because of the slivers and I've been waiting for this video since the 'A Study in' series began. Thank you Lorebrarian for keeping your promise to make one of this videos on awesome slivers!
Same, one of my first legends was Sliver Overlord.
I remember your request all those months ago, glad you stuck with me and happy you enjoyed the video!
Dear god I was waiting for this! Slivers were my favourites back in the day, thank you very much Erek!
That is great to hear, so glad you enjoyed! A very powerful and dangerous species
You should try the new tyrannids deck then kinda similiar but different enough to not get old
@@alanmiles1935 i must admit - I am a Chaos enjoyer, so I won't buy a Tyranid deck 😅
Slivers is still one of mt favorites NOW, just because of the nostalgia. My older brother has a crazy sliver deck.
I hope they bring slivers back into the story as a plague. A single royal slivelet gets accidentally taken to another plane and ends up starting a new sliver hive. Cue hilarity and interesting lore tidbits as the natives try to figure out what they are, how to beat them, how to use them, and how to replicate the effects.
I’ve been wanting to make a custom Sliver set exploring the idea of their home plane and how meddling with the Queen impacted the natural evolution of the rest of the Sliver species losing their Hive connection but their versatile biology leading them to rapidly evolve into many different yet closely related new life forms.
Basically it want to make a Speculative Evolution “Alien Planet”/“The Future is Wild” Magic set using Slivers.
With elements of what you’re thinking as well. Domminaria Sliver hive returning home, infecting these “Sliver Beasts” and intelligent “Sliver Race” and exploring what happens and others trying to understand/exploit them etc.
watching now that Rukarumel has a card is super cool, her art and ability really shows her fascination with them and it's interesting that she can make herself a sliver, likely creating her own brood of type-changing slivers with her at the helm. Would be cool to see slivers return in a main story. Love videos like this!
I hope that at some point the Sliver lord is a 5 color planeswalker, I mean a sliver lord walker would probably be the main villain of an entire story arc because holy hell that's dangerous.
None of the sentient slivers have been depicted as evil, though, which I find even more interesting. The Queen and Overlord were both willing to negotiate, and help others even with no personal gain. A Sliverwalker that was sentient, rapidly spreading, and -not- evil would be much more original imo.
Phyrexian Slivers, just the thought gives me chills.
A dozen slivers get infected, the rest of the hive becomes immune. Because slivers.
I just want an eldrazi sliver
Infect Sliver (not poison)
@@baconsir1159 god the -1/-1 counters alone would be insane.
I weirdly love the Shandalar Slivers
They are very unique, they look so like natural and unnatural at the same time, like the [Megantic Sliver] look like an elemental or a giant but it is actually a sliver and knowing that makes it oddly terrifying.
Whenever I see art of those guys I think they look like a mix between Eldrazis, phyrexians and especially the mutations of Emrakul.
I really hope the slivers could become a big bad, imagine a multiversal hivemind, that would be fantastic.
What if, come with me on this journey, a Sliver planeswalker came from the events of the Rathi Overlay? Disregard swarm tactics in favor of specialization, acquire distributed spark and a singular equally distributed intelligence.
@@LexYeen more likely is the emergence of an interplanar manifestation of the CONCEPT of "Sliver", an Ur-Sliver if you will.
Kind of like how the Ur-Dragon is to Dragonkind.
Given how the Ur-Dragon has spawned the original Elder Dragons of Dominaria, and could have on other planes, the Ur-Sliver might already be a reality.
That, or Slivers were originally an experiment of Emrakul that was forgotten while imprisoned on Zendikar.
@@LexYeen All slivers you contol are planeswalkers
Honestly rewatching this nowadays after the new Sliver precon came out. Makes me super hyped.
There's a wide-spread understanding that MTG has 3 main big baddies: Eldrazi, Nicol Bolas, and Phyrexians. Some people speculate that after Phyrexians are dealt with, the only remaining big baddies are the remaining Eldrazi (Marit Lage is suspected to have a connection to Eldrazi), and possibly Tezzeret. Not as many people seem to think that Slivers are as big a threat as far as I've seen, but I think they're a wildcard faction that can very much compete with all the other big evil factions. Although, going back in time for Brothers' War may stir up some crap and change things. We could see a completely unexpected big bad.
This video is beautiful as well are the rest of your lore videos. I really wish more people would watch this stuff.
Thank you so much, glad you enjoyed! Hopefully the channel can continue to get more eyes
My theory? The slivers originated on Shandalar, explaining why they seem more “evolved” than their decidedly “primitive” counterparts on other planes.
Due to its existence as a metaphysical wanderer, perhaps Shandalar “seeds” these other worlds with traces of genetic material as it passes through their aetheric boundaries; if the quantity and/or conditions are sufficient, those seeds “take root,” coalescing into a creature that fits the taxonomical criteria of “sliver” on some level.
From there, anything could happen:
- The sliver expires after a relatively brief period, due to inherent inability to “propagate” more of its kind as a solitary and sterile singularity
- The sliver thrives, adapting to its environment and regarded by natives as a cryptid, depicted in folklore yet rarely seen by sapient individuals
- The sliver flourishes, becoming the centre of a now-growing collective of its kind, with the conditions just right for them to be a nuisance at best, or a scourge at worst
This would explain why slivers exist in large numbers on some planes, yet are few or nonexistent on others; as a new goldfish doesn’t last long if the water’s pH balance isn’t just right, so too might an origin sliver’s existence depend on a certain mana balance.
Perhaps it depends on quantity: Eos is too devoid of mana, making sliver colonisation impossible; conversely, Zendikar has too much raw mana, making conditions too volatile for a new brood of “native” slivers to form
Perhaps it depends on quality: Some planes, like Wildfire, flow with a clear predominant colour of mana, with only traces of others at best; conversely, there are planes like Innistrad where all colours are present, yet “bend the rules” of how they usually function
- Perhaps it depends on both: Alara may have once been an ideal breeding ground, with the Sundering making their survival improbable at best, and the slivers of Esper, Jund, and Naya became extinct as their brethren on Bant and Vithia fell into rapid decline; similarly, Ikoria’s mana is stretched too thinly for a consistently ideal breeding ground, as it coalesces into distinctive triomes rich in only three colours, with the expanses between insufficient in ensuring a stable talonhold of slivers (or perhaps the nature of the plane prevents their coalescence due to the existence of its monster lineages, thus resulting in a similar scenario to the dinosaur-mammal dynamic of our own plane, with slivers basically outclassed by the native apex species, who share a similarly mutative biology with them)
I've been a "Silver" wait, sorry, 11 year old me came out, I've been a Sliver player since the OG Tempest days and its hands down my favorite tribe to play. Their versatility and compatibility with different deck styles just makes them too much fun, hell, I made a Sliver Poison and Sliver Mill for funsies and they were viable.
As for Phyrexians getting their hands on them, unless theres a way for them to grab one and cut it off from its Hive, they are gonna be in trouble with the fast adapting Sliver evolution. Slivers evolve in response to environment and threats, just looking at their history and abilities (Also the Glistening oil retcon, I will forever hate but accept thats now PART of everything) so even if Glistening Oil comes into contact with them I'm fairly certain we'll most likely see a Praetor 5 color Sliver Rise and make its own Hive Borg style on top of its natural way to evolve. Ultimately I'm fairly certain the two would clash and slivers WOULD eventually wreak phyrexian face.
Was the “do whatever you want, I still win” deck
Slivers are my favorite creature type of the entire multiverse, something about their fierce determination to live and their interesting hive mind set up intrigues me.
i've always been curious what would happen if Slivers were ever to meet the eldrazi broodlings (or even a titan) and what effects it would grant them<
The thought of new phyrexia getting ahold of slivers is a chilling thought to be quite honest, i would assume they would be force bonded to someone like Atraxa.
With the advent of Halo and the sect of phyrexians that had attacked Old Cappena i wonder what introducing halo into a slivers body would cause to occur for the species at large?
{this is why i would have been killed during the riptide project lmao, im too curious for my own goods sometimes}
We actually do know what would happen if they met the eldrazi!
The beta card ‘Slivdrazi Monstrosity’ is a good example.
All slivers gain ' annihilator 6'.
I was surprised, relieved, and disappointed that Zendikar didn't include any Slivers.
Relieved, because I doubt ANY plane could deal with Slivers and Eldrazi simultaneously.
Disappointed, because the match-up would have been interesting.
This was great. Excellent theorum all around. I was glued from the moment I heard the entry story blurb.
Slivers are the coolest tribe for sure
Love the lore dive, as always
Slivers have always been my favorite, I love the concept and mechanics. Thank you for this video.
Seeing the art and hearing the story all together sparked some theories, specifically not with how the slivers relate to Phyrexians, but how do they relate to the Eldrazi? Look, it was the tenticles, okay?
They could either be the antithesis of those eldritch horrors, or perhaps they could be the progenitors? If I recall correctly, we have never seen the slivers in play with the eldrazi, otherwise we might get some weird "slivers get annihilate 1" mechanic.
But what if those infinitely adaptable creatures were exposed to the madness between and beyond the planes. How would they adapt to such madness, chaos, cold isolation? There's this trend of them becoming ever so slowly more independent. I could see the pinnacle of the evolution being something akin to an Eldrazi.
Alternatively, what if, in the desperate search for a hivemind, they find a most willing patron in Emrakul?
On the other hand, what species might be best suited to adapt / resist the corrupting influence? Perhaps the battle would be hivemind vs elder god? Drone vs sliver?
Or, as the humanoid races reach true desperation against the Phyrexians AND Eldrazi, what would an alliance, co-mingling produce? As the Slivers become more humanoid, what if they take the adaptive trait of being more sympathetic to what must be some of their greatest predators? Great cats and wolves found a way to embrace us, to their great benefit.
Basically, what acts of dire desperation and egomaniacal lack of foresight will Urza commit in the next couple sets, that could have truly horrifying consequences for the future of the magic mulriverse?
Some very interesting theories, glad to hear you enjoyed the video!
This was a very good breakdown on one of my favorite pieces of Magic's lore, well done!
Appreciate it!
remember that time they tried to make slivers look like uninspired generic humanoids. thank God that ended
Slivers are love, slivers are life
With how adaptive slivers are, they might be able to adapt and grow faster than phyrexia could. And with how strong the hivemind is, could weed out any corruption before it sets in.
A great point! Do you think they may be used as a weapon against Phyrexia?
@@TheLorebrarians if pushed then yes. Even the phyrexians didnt go for shiv when they returned so if they were to invade again and stumble onto a hive then...bad day.
@@kerosoldier I think you mean Sarpadia, which is full of Thrulls and Thallids.
Nice! This is awesome! I never knew slivers had a deeper story behind them!
Glad you enjoyed it and learned about the slivers!
Amazing as always Lorebrarians. The slivers are one of my favorite tribes, so seeing this was great.
I would say the first sliver and sliver hive lord are my two favorite lineages, but I do love them all.
As for suggestions, a video of alara and it's legendary creatures would be cool. Breya, sen triplets, progenitus and the five shards. Alara is a rich plane, a shame we haven't returned to it.
First Sliver has to be my favorite as well. And alara is a great suggestions, hope to cover it one day soon! Top 3 fav planes
@@TheLorebrarians I remember you said alara was a favorite of yours in the question and answers video you did. Very cool plane, definitely a top plane for me too. Anyways thanks for the videos man, great as always keep rockin 🤘
It’s hereeeee 🎉. Slivers was in my list of things that I have wondered but after eldrazi were done and now this my desires are slowly getting complete. Edit: My fav got to be legion both the card and it’s lore
Nice! I hope to continue to cover topics you're interested in
I actually had a fun story for the slivers in MTG-verse. Sadly Dominaria United screwed most of it.
A Sliver Mind, who is a Planeswalker. It's spark was awakened when it realized most sliver generations are discovery, experimentation, weaponization, destruction. Considering the lab it is in, it is somewhere between steps 2 and 3. It planeswalks the first time as its spark awakens. Vraska could be an interesting Mentor to this Slivermind. Now some other fun question come up. Who was experimenting on these slivers? Was Karn looking for some weapon to use against Phyrexia? What does the research lab do now that their prime subject has seemingly vanished into thin air? What happens when the Slivermind returns to the plane where it was created? What happens if a second Slivermind is created?
Another great video as always
Slivers and kavu were always my favorite creatures in MTG
YESSSSSSSSS!!!!
I wish we could see Kavu return as a fully enabled Tribe, their adaptability is second to Slivers but Yavimaya Evolved them amazingly.
Slivers Vs Phyrexia this is what I've been waiting and theorizing for years!
As with every new catalog of a study, I must commend your asute record keeping, oh ye Librarian of Lore.
Favorite tribe. I love MTG created creatures. Thanks for doing this video
You bet, glad you enjoyed
@@TheLorebrarians I enjoy all of your videos. These are extremely well done and you’ve got a great delivery. I usually download these on my phone and listen to these on plane rides. Thanks for all the work you do on research for these videos. Great stuff
Are you any relation to Butch?
I love Toxin Sliver and Dormant Sliver because if you wanted to you could introduce a lethal mutation and kill the whole swarm.
14:39 The Time Spiral novels implied that Freyalise lured all of the slivers (through the non-sliver sentience that controlled them at the time, I think it was a ghost of some kind) into one place, and when she had them there, reverted back to the red magic of her youth to incinerate the slivers into extinction.
I need a updated Sliver lorevideo because of the deck Commander masters gave us!
The zerg, slivers, and tyranid are all almost the same creature as each other in many ways. They have nearly identical attributes in that they all have a swarm tendency, all have psychic abilities including but not limited to a shared hive mind. They also have a tendency to adapt to their environment based on their environment or what they eat. Their overlords are able to alter their attributes at will. There is another creature from D&D known as the hive of scales that is basically a queen that controls all of her brood and she is able to pass all of the adaptations and abilities of her mates down to her brood. Her mates are all dragons. All of these creatures show that the power of a swarm can easily find under the correct circumstances.
Love Slivers so much i run two Commander decks of them lol combo and Aggro
How cool would it be to see a sliver planswalker? Imagine the potential lore.
Effect: "All slivers you control are planeswalker"
Slivers are my favorite , I forgot that before Dimir and other guilds or planeswalker or anything was my favorite thing it was slivers. I was crazy over physical cards of slivers , I romantice the battlefield with army full of keywords and +1/+1 's and abilities. I'm not much of a Green/white mana fan , but Slivers made me like it ,sometimes when I'm not playing the game , I just liked putting various slivers in table and it was dream battlefield. So many keywords and so much variety ! not to mention how cool they look and sound.
I still remember when I first played magic , Slivers were the only card I wanted to buy , for collecting . Even then when I didn't knew how to play the game. They looked cool , aside from pokemons.
and speaking of slivers.. I did thought who are they vs phyrexians. Like slivers are different but theyre also steel like , ( not machines with flesh but still like some relative breed.)
After Goblins the Slivers are my go to tribe.
You said that the Sliver Hivelord maybe came from another world? This made me think of Planeswalkers in the first second? And they share more human features too?
Simply Love this video. Also can we get a myr video sometime?
Beautiful video. Good job.
Coming back around a second listen while I craft my SLIVER CUBE
I love the Shandalari cycle of Slivers, I personally think they look the best out of all of them.
My friends love it when i play slivers
Thankyou for giving an excelent and honestly validating explination as to why my 2015 sliver cards dont look like slivers and thankyou wizzards of the coast for remaking them so they dont look so stupid.
All I want is an Infect Sliver😢 I’m ok with Poisonous, but to round out All abilities with the nightmare fuel of Infect would be so choice🤌🏻
Yes! Yes! Yes! Been waiting for the Slivers!
Hope you enjoyed!
I've been playing slivers since Tempest; my favorite creature alongside hydras. My daughter's boyfriend convinced me to build a sliver commander deck and now wishes he hadn't.
So I haven't played in a looooong time, and my first deck I put together last month was a penny sliver deck.
Still haven't ran it on mtgo but it seems ok?
I think a sliver hive mind that becomes a Planeswalker could be super interesting
it would but it would also present issues as to WHAT it can do.
its tricky balancing it to work in a way with Slivers that doesn't unbalance things.
With the invasion of new phyrexia they have the opportunity to explain away slivers showing up in many places as them quietly slipping through the portals to go to new planes
Over the years ive felt slivers and eldrazi are one and the same, there has always been a strong connection with their biology and purposes and need to consume that led me to believe that Emrakul is either their true hive mind or at most a hive mind that evolved and adapted to survive the vast space inbetween to sizes indescribeable to those who witness them before their end.
commander masters is going to have a 5 color sliver deck
I'm still kinda hoping wizard would send us to the plane that slivers come from. Even if it's a side product, I want a "set" for slivers only.....or mainly
Yup!
I always kind of liked Slivers. They were such a neat idea and execution.
Ah, the kings and Queen of mtg Tribes. Most excellent.
I'm still waiting for a sliver planeswalker. And it's minus 10 could be along the lines of "exile sliver planeswalker, search your deck for a legendary sliver and sliver hive and put them both into play." To me it would make sense that the hive mind on the slivers home plane would create a sliver that starts a hive wherever it ends up.
Hi mates! Glory to the Slivers!
Which art or card is behind the Sliver Overlord at 11:32?
Thx! ^^
the word sliver is in the word versatility… clever
It would be interesting if the hivemind was negotiated with to go against or with the phyrexians.
I’m just going to say this… imagine if a human was somehow integrated into the hive, if their biology was somehow mutated to allow them to communicate with the Slivers and control them through the hive mind, weather that mutation was on purpose or by accident… now imagine if the subject in question was a Planeswalker. The hive shares all abilities they have with each other, if they were controlled by a human-sliver hybrid that possessed a spark, then all the Slivers could theoretically jump through the Blind Eternities.
The potential is through the roof and WotC AREN’T USING ANY OF IT!!!
It would be great for future slivers end up rallying to the heroes cause, making for extremely powerful and temperamental allies.
YOOOOOO
You are the ONLY other person that I have heard question the interaction between phyrexian oil and the sliver biology. Will the oil affect the hive mind? Or will the slivers hive mind be able to reach beyond the sliver and into the phyrexians themselves? I’m so ready for this.
Its definitely a fun thought experiment. I think seeing how slivers and eldrazi react to Phyrexian oil is very interesting. Perhaps we'll see Emrakul released to fight against New Phyrexia?
Needs more slivers
I feel these Lil guys will do alot of of insane damage during the March of the machines lore if we get a new card. Which hope comes to be
I’m still holding hope that the Kavu & Viashino will get a revamp and be just as awesome as the Slivers
So. With the recent commander precons, the sliver ones excerpt mentions theres no telling how many planes the slivers have gotten into at the point. So all those slivers at the end are deeeefinitely from other planes i think. Maybe not mirroden. That plane....uh...anyway.
The concept of phyrexian slivers has done me a spook.
My second favorite creature type, Slivers. So much so i made a Slivdrazi deck
I like to think the humanoid slivers are a larger mass of them working together to hold shape to adapt to a new shape one can’t do alone
Loved this! I can't wait to see what's next. I hope it's goblins.
A great suggestion that I hope to cover soon
I read somewhere that Slivers were all a shattered remnant of an all powerful god
I think if a sliver ever got phytexianized, it would probably make it weaker. Slivers already have the benefits of incredibly rapid adaptation without requiring thought, and they already have a hivemind. If a sliver were added to the phyrexians it would be the same thing except thought now goes into the adaptation abilities, which I think slows it down. And the new hivemind would only link it to inferior, less compatible, phyrexians as opposed to just, more slivers.
Hit like before the video. Already know because this was my first beater deck
where's Gravemother and that series gonna have to make a part 2
Always wanted a Sliver deck in real life.
I hope so much that my beloved sliver will oppose the pherexians and their manipulative nature
I think the slivers are going to be used to fight the Phyrexians. They’re capable of adapting to the battlefield on any plane, and are already dispersed across the multiverse
the most sane simic scientist looking at a sliver thinking "meh, i could do better"
The core set slivers are my favorite from a thought invoking point of view. That they would adapt to potentially blend in with humans is unsettling and I love it, however their art is terribly jarring and I still somewhat despise it lol
I have always seen the Slivers as the MTG equivalent of the Warhammer 40k Tyranids.
This was badass
0:23 imma need to cake myself in mud to hide my body heat
I would not be surprised if Slivers evolved into Eldrazi ;p
What if a Sliver Hivemaster developed with a Spark, resulting in the ultimate Hive made of Slivers from all across the Multiverse?
Sliver's might be the only chance the multiverse has against the new Phyrexians
Slivers are the best, my current favorite hivemind sliver is The First Silver just due to how quickly you can flood the field with them, while my favorite silver of all time would have to be Spiteful Silver, it's a great counter to decks running Voice of the Blessed just due to how it allows other silvers to reflect the damage back at the opponent
First Sliver also has to be my favorite, a very powerful leader
just waiting for a sliver to catch the spark
Who would win, the Eldrazi or the Slivers?
The fact that you don't mention the purpose of the split tail is such a shame.