Sliver QueenSliver Queen | Art by Ron Spencer

Each color in Magic has its own strengths and weaknesses. This is one of the first things-

Wait a minute, I already covered playing all the five colors of Magic off-meta. There’s no more Commander Unoptimized to write about!

Unless… We change course to deck archetypes.

Slivers

Do you hate Slivers? I hate Slivers. Not because I think they’re unfair, but simply because a player getting a good combination of Slivers in the early game makes their entire deck oppressive. Once more than a handful of Slivers slither onto the board, they're a nightmare to deal with.

But that’s also where the fun comes in with them. Both to play and to play against!

Which Sliver is the largest threat?

“Constricting SliverConstricting Sliver is wiping my board state but Brood SliverBrood Sliver is swarming me. Do I counter Gemhide SliverGemhide Sliver to cripple their economy or save it for in case they have Crystalline SliverCrystalline Sliver?”

Very few Slivers are “bad choices” to deal with, since almost every single Sliver buffs every other one. This means that, while you can easily remove most of them, you need to make decisions as to which individual buff is the largest threat.

Exiling? Double strike? Tutoring?

What is the biggest threat you’re currently facing? And which is core to their strategy?

What Is Playing “Out Of Type?”

Different deck archetypes have different expectations as to how they’ll be utilized. Goblins want to spam your board with many small creatures. Eldrazi aim to get a few heavy-hitters on the board. Spellslingers use utility creatures to enhance their instants and sorceries.

To play Out Of Type is to choose one of those archetypes and purposely go against the grain of what makes it good. Voltron Goblin decks. Creature-spam Spellslingers. An Eldrazi deck where nothing costs more than six mana.

This means looking at new combos, changing which cards you run, and staying as far from the intended playstyle as possible, which, as you might have guessed, is something of a voluntary handicap.

A Quick Disclaimer

This isn’t intended to be tournament competitive, nor is it meant to win you games. The goal of playing Out Of Type is entirely to explore the facets of the game that would normally go ignored, which, depending on your gaming group, might just end up with you getting thrashed and laughed at. Adapt your playstyle to your pod, and don’t try to fit a casual deck into a competitive game.

But if you’re in a casual game or even playing a “best of the worst,” it’s some great fun to have.

What Slivers Do Well

Literally Everything

The entire point of Slivers is that they can do anything. Need trample? Groundshaker SliverGroundshaker Sliver. Flying? Galerider SliverGalerider Sliver. Lifegain? Essence SliverEssence Sliver.

There’s even hyper-niche utility Slivers, such as Dormant SliverDormant Sliver, or seemingly busted ones, like Crystalline SliverCrystalline Sliver. So long as you have a diverse array of abilities, you can solve nearly any problem, up to and including protecting your creatures or returning them from the graveyard.

That’s also where Slivers’ greatest weakness is. They’re effectively a series of individual LEGO pieces, each of which slots together perfectly with every other piece. If you take a bunch of pieces, you can build something wonderful.

But a single LEGO piece is good for little more than stabbing your foot when you’re walking.

Therefore, early game denial is one of the biggest threats to a Sliver deck: if you can’t get out Slivers to get the ball rolling early, you’re screwed.

But What if……You Play a Sliver Deck Where You’re Trying To Eradicate the Hive?

The core of the Sliver strategy is to assemble a series of Slivers that can not only do whatever cool thing you’re trying to do, but also protect your permanents. It’s a LEGO set, where taking just a few pieces out might make the entire build collapse.

Suddenly, we have a very simple answer as to how to play Slivers off-type.

Sacrifice

To avoid playing too closely into the Sliver archetype, you need to minimize the number of true Slivers you have on the board. Luckily, more than a few Slivers confer the ability to sacrifice your Slivers for other benefits, which allows you the option of culling your board while still “playing Slivers".

The key is to avoid the various forms of protection, graveyard retrieval, or permanence that Slivers can impart. Otherwise, you’d just be playing a normal Sliver deck that happens to play fast and lose with your board state.

Focus on having a rotating door of Slivers, where no true Sliver stays on the board for too long.

“Sliver” Kindred

I keep mentioning “true” Slivers, because there are other ways of getting non-native Sliver creatures on your board!

Shapeshifters

Shapeshifters who have changeling are considered every creature type, including Slivers. While they don’t provide Sliver-wide buffs, they still benefit from the buffs of other Slivers.

This means they’re perfect for playing “Off-Sliver.”

Changeling OutcastChangeling Outcast can’t block or be blocked, which, when combined with something like Brood SliverBrood Sliver, allows you to vastly increase creature production. Or Capricious SliverCapricious Sliver to get impulse draw.

However, remember the goal is to minimize the number of true Slivers you have on the board.

Which is why Amoeboid ChangelingAmoeboid Changeling is perfect for its ability to make any creature into a Sliver. Take something like Bane of Bala GedBane of Bala Ged, make it a Sliver, and suddenly your 7/5 becomes a 9/5 with flying, trample, and double strike. Make your Sliver Balefire DragonBalefire Dragon have even more effects when damaging a player.

Alternatively, you can copy your true Slivers with creatures such as Altered EgoAltered Ego. It retains the text of the original Sliver, but if you have enough of them then you could easily have a full board of buffed, non-native Slivers.

Or you could even make your Slivers into more than just Slivers.

More Than Slivers

You could even build a non-Sliver kindred deck where you use Mistform SliverMistform Sliver to have your Slivers fit the mold of whatever archetype you’re running.

From something fitting like Tyranids to something wild like Elves, your Slivers will still benefit one another but on top of that gain further buffs. If you make them Phyrexians, something like Grafted ButcherGrafted Butcher can bounce in and out of the graveyard.

Certainly, it’s expensive. But that’s the price you pay to play Off-Sliver.

Voltron

An alternative strategy is to lean into the Slivers’ nature, but only focus on using one of them. Then enhance this by bringing other spells in as single-target support.

You buff a big Sliver, like Groundshaker SliverGroundshaker Sliver with all the normal strategies of a Sliver deck: flying, unearth, haste. The works!

But then you focus on artifacts and enchantments. Instants and sorceries targeting only a single creature. Things that go against the intended collectivism of the Sliver strategy and allow you to have a single champion.

Your other Slivers are still quite useful, buffing your main creature and providing blockers to occupy your board. Similarly, that one creature you modified can easily be replaced. Buff a different Sliver with different spells and you’re back to where you were.

It’s up to your opponents to decide if that present threat is worth dealing with, or if the supporting Slivers are worse, and if they go after your other Slivers, you still have a modified attacker primed to lead the charge.

Slivers Are Flexible

If nothing else, Slivers can adapt to what the situation calls for. Assuming you have the right combination of cards, which is true for most strategies; if you need to fly, they can. Or have lifegain. Or draw you cards.

But even outside of Sliver-specific combos, you can bring in Shapeshifters or even more generalized modifiers to really accomplish whatever you want.

You could even run Slivers to get a Coalition VictoryCoalition Victory if you were so inclined, though maybe you shouldn’t play Off-Sliver at a higher Bracket just to get that Game Changer. But if you can make it work, more power to you!

It would certainly be a story to tell.