(Rukarumel, Biologist | Art by Fariba Khamseh)

Slivers to be Murdered By

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Recross the Paths, the series that gives commanders a typal twist. Today's deck is especially dear to my heart, because it's centred around my favorite typal strategy of all times: Slivers. I remember discovering their existence a few months into my MTG journey and falling in love with their core mechanic. Seeing how every piece contributes building a huge hive while also recieving benefits from its fellow Slivers has simply always felt to me as an extremely fun game pattern. But, how to build a Sliver deck that hasn't already been seen?

To answer this question, I immediately thought about playing a newer commander. Everyone has played against a The First Sliver or a Sliver Hivelord list, as they've been around for quite some time. Instead, I opted for Rukarumel, Biologist a fun new general that immediately puts the deck under a new light.

Then, considering Rukarumel, Biologist's textbox, I had to choose another creature type to play alongside my dear Slivers. In this regard, my eye fell on Assassins: the Assassin's Creed mini-set gave us a ton of new creatures of this type and, most importantly, a lot of them actually care about other Assassins.

Nonetheless, I still wanted to go an extra mile. Once I had completed the first draft of the list, I noticed I was already over 100 cards only including creatures and lands. So, for no particular reason other than "I like all the cards I put in and I don't want to cut any", this is also an Umori companion list.

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Stage One: The Deck

Part One: The Slivers

The core structure of the deck is composed of Slivers. Galerider Sliver, Sidewinder Sliver and Striking Sliver are our cheapest options, but this doesn't mean they aren't functional to our plan. The first will grant some very much needed evasion to our creatures, the second will make it much harder to block our attackers, with the last being the nail in the coffing for those who need to defend against our hive.

We can also count on some old favorites between the ranks of our legion. Crystalline Sliver and Diffusion Sliver are our go-to defensive options, granting some shield from target removal. In this regard, Crypt Sliver goes even further, making sure our bord survives mass destruction spells as well.

Still, we also have some newer cards to play around with. Lazotep Sliver breaks the usual 1-ability pattern typical of Slivers, giving them both Afflict and Ammass, thus making sure our creatures always deal some damage when attacking and granting them life after death as well. Regal Sliver is a variation on the same more-than-one-ability theme, starting off as a way to introduce the monarchy (hence, card advantage) in the game, but later becoming a very powerful anthem effect. Lastly, Taunting Sliver might seem a bit lackluster in comparison to the other two, but you should never underestimate how important taking potential blockers out of the equation really is.

The cherry on top of this Sliver cake are the heavy-hitting legendary creatures. Alongside a newcomer like Sliver Gravemother, whose textbox is definitely going to make it a core part of every typal build, we have some older goodies, like Sliver Legion for massive bursts of stats and Sliver Overlord for its tutoring ability.

Part Two: The Commander

Before going more in detail regarding the Assassin half of the decklist, I think it's crucial to take a look at Rukarumel, Biologist and how it impacts our gameplan.

Our general has two abilities, but we are going to focus only on one of them. In fact, while it's true that being able to generate additional bodies might result crucial in some games, the elephant in the room can be found in the longer chunk of its text. Once Rukarumel, Biologist hits the battlefield, we choose a creature type and we add it to every Sliver we control, as well as every nontoken creature we control, creature spells we control and creatures cards we control that aren't on the battlefield.

This might sound as a funny way to simply add a creature type to our Slivers and, actually, this is going to be our gameplan in quite a few instances. We can choose "Assassin" and grant our hive with all the benefits that the cards in the next section of this article can offfer. Yet, Rukarumel, Biologist can also play differently. In fact, there is no restriction on us choosing "Sliver" as an additional creature type; moreover, this change affects every creature we control, which includes non-Sliver ones (as long as they are not tokens). In other words, while this second option wouldn't affect the first half our deck in any way, it can be crucial for the latter one, making sure that all of our Assassins are also benefitting from all the Slivers we are running.

Hence, when casting Rukarumel, Biologist we really need to evaluate all the information we have at our disposal, both on the battlefield and in our hand.

Are we packed with Slivers? Then, we'll probably choose "Assassins", since even just one of them would have a great impact on our creatures.

Are we relying on Assassins to win the game but need an extra push to close it out? Then, adding "Sliver" to their creature type might be just we are looking for, netting them the benefits proper of this typal strategy.

Part Three: The Assassins

Let's see what Assassins have in store for us, now that we've made clear what their role can be in this deck.

Both Arbaaz Mir and Basim Ibn Ishaq care about historic spells/permanents, which can come in very handy, considering 19 out of the 24 Assassins we are playing are legendary. Alongside these newer cards, we can take advantage of some blasts from the past with creatures like Scarblade Elite, which miraculously rejuvinated once this new wave of typal support came.

Altair Ibn-La'Ahad makes sure we get copies of our dead Assassins multiple times, given that every time it attacks we get a token copy of each creature we exiled with it. Etrata, Deadly Fugitive will also give us additional bodies, but they will come (hopefully) in larger groups and we also have the option to cast whatever we exiled from the top of our opponents' libraries. On the same note, Vraska, the Silencer will give us copies of opposing dead creatures in the form of Treasure tokens, which count as mana both may also come with some added benefit from static abilities.

Lastly, at the higher end of the mana curve, we can count on some lord effects, like Achilles Davenport and Arno Dorian, which can both enter the battlefield for cheaper than it looks. Additionally, Layla Hassan and Ezio, Blade of Vengeance reward us if we follow an aggressive game plan as well. Last but definitely not least, Roshan, Hidden Magister can perfectly complement our commander, granting all of our creatures, wherever they are, the additional Assassin type.

Part Four: The Complete Decklist

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Stage Two: The Data Room

We're onto the last part of this deck tech: the data room. Was this deck idea actually unique? Let's compare this list against both the average Rukarumel, Biologist and the average Slivers deck and the average Assassin deck to see what we gained (and lost) in the process.

Part One: The Average Rukarumel, Biologist Deck

Rukarumel, Biologist is a pretty new commander that still hasn't really caught up to the other 5-color ones. It is the 29^th most popular among generals in its color combination, leading 2656 decks according to EDHREC, which also places it 518^th in popularity in the general ranking.

What's interesting to notice is that players haven't really paired Rukarumel, Biologist with any other creature type in particular. Its page results completely full of Slivers, which is pretty understandable since the cards puts this typal strategy at its core. Nonetheless, there isn't any clear path regarding which other creatures to play in order to fully take advantage of Rukarumel, Biologist's abilities. We could also go as far as saying that there isn't really any interest in doing so: rather, it is getting treated as any other Slivers typal commander.

To be completely fair, there are here and there some shades of variation. Some Doctor Who cards like Gallifrey Stands can be seen, alongside other powerful cards like Rooftop Storm or Voja, Jaws of the Conclave. Moreover, its EDHREC page mentions some Ally, Dinosaur and Eldrazi builds, but they are a mere fraction of the number of Slivers decks.

In general, I feel there is a lot of untapped potential within this commander and I think it's a pity that it hasn't been studied and played around with more.

Part Two: The Average Slivers Deck

The most popular Sliver commander is The First Sliver, with 10875 decks registered on EDHREC, which also puts it at number 66 among the most popular commanders in general. Let's see what's up with the popularity of our kindred choices.

While it's pretty difficult to enter into much detail about this graph, one thing stands out: 2/3 of the Slivers included see play in 50% or more of The First Sliver decks, with only Frenzy Sliver being included in a nearly-irrelevant number of decks. All the options between Sliver Gravemother and Leeching Sliver are perfectly viable and played, they're just a step behind the enormous core of creatures present in these typal decks.

Still, there is some room for innovation. Lazotep Sliver, Regal Sliver and Taunting Sliver are three cards we've already mentioned before, and I still think they are extremely powerful, although underplayed. To be fair, they are newer cards coming in a preconstructed deck, while The First Sliver is more like "the classic" Sliver deck. In other words, they've been out not for long time, additionally, they are paired with a preconstructed deck, meaning that those who play them probably do so in said precon.

Part Three: The Average Assassins Deck

Ezio Auditore da Firenze is the most played Assassin commander, being at the helm of 7479 decks according to EDHREC. Let's take a look at how the Assassins we play do in dedicated lists.

I highlighted with orange the cards that were not present in the Assassin's Creed mini-set and I think it's quite interesting to analyze their distribution. In fact, it was pretty easy to predict how present fellow Universes Beyond cards would have been, considering that players interested in this specific IP might very well fill their decks with the cards depicting the characters they love.

Yet, referring to Universe Within cards, there are some that don't see any play althought they are good Assassin creatures, like Iridescent Vinelasher, Thorn of the Black Rose and The Lord of Pain, there are some that are more on the rise.

Scarblade Elite is only played in around 13% of the decks, but it could use some more spotlight in kindred decks, allowing players to recycle dead creatures to kill troublesome ones. Then, Vraska, the Silencer and Etrata, Deadly Fugitive are definitely more interesting for Ezio players. While they're basically as new as other cards mentioned, they are already present in around 30% of the lists.

Lastly, Ramses, Assassin Lord, Mari, the Killing Quill and Queen Marchesa are the true winners in these decks. They see consistent and frequent play thanks to the extremely positive synergies they have with other creatures of the same type. Hence, even though they do not belong to the same universe as the other cards, they are simply too good to be left out.

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Takeaways From Today's Article

• Rukarumel, Biologist is such an underrated commander. While the vast majority of players simply sees it as "yet another Sliver commander" (which is also probably not worth playing, considering how powerful the other options are), there is a lot more to be said about this card. It opens many doors for interesting synergies, inheritantly creating the double play pattern I described before that makes every game different from the others played with it. Sure, my build in particular has taken this concept to the extreme, including only creatures in it, but even more considerate lists can for sure be built around it. I'm happy to see Allies are getting some spotlight with Rukarumel, Biologist too (also because they were my other option when thinking about this general), but I think there is a lot more of exploration and experimentation to be done with this commander in the future;
• Slivers and Assassins are strangely similar as typal strategies: they are extermely dependant on a pretty expanded core of cards. On one hand, Slivers come from a decade-long tradition of play, with dedicated pilots knowing exactly what they want from each creature, thus shaping their deckbuilding decisions. Just like the creatures they like, they've formed a sort of hive mind that has managed to form a very solid group of creatures that basically always sees play.
• On the other hand, Assassins are a much newer apparition on the commander scene. Considering how their popularity has come with a Universes Beyond product, it's easy to imagine how fond of these specific cards Assassin players will be. This means, the growth in popularity for these kindred decks isn't really tied to the creature type per se, rather, it depends on the interest put from certain players into this specific IP. While this is extremely fun and refreshing in the short term, being this much tied to another brand might also allow us to predict how easy it will be for these deck to fossilize and repel future innovation: in other words, I don't really think these deck will end up including more non-Assassin’s Creed creature, thus steering away from more "standard", always-up-to-date kindred strategies.
• Nonetheless, there is still room for innovation for both creature types (and it comes perfectly opposite directions). For what Slivers are concerned, newer products might carve their space in that rock-solid core, becoming more and more popular as time goes by, and perhaps ending up replacing some older cards.
• Talking about Assassins, our hopes for innovation reside within the Assassin Creed-interested players. They are the ones that are more likely to switch out some beloved character for a more powerful card, maybe even allowing back in some older, forgotten cards that work just nicely with Assassin decks in general.

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