MTG help

[Solo]

Hi!

I'm new to the game, and I hope this is the right place to ask questions regarding two decks I'm trying to built.

My girlfriend's ex gave me a lot of good commons, and that's basically all I've got right now, aside from three very recently purchased Planar Chaos booster packs.

So far, my friends have made decks for me, but I want to make a white/green deck for myself. (Incidentally, the same color deck my girlfriend uses)

I'm also looking to make a Sliver deck. One of my friends has made one for me, and I'm trying to fine tune it right now, but it's rather rough.

The Sliver deck consists of around 70 cards:

Mountains (8)
Forests (8)
Swamps (5)
Plains (10)
Terramorphic Expanse (3)

Marshaling Cry (2)
Faith's Fetters (2)
Naturalize (3)
Strength in Numbers (1)

Two Headed Sliver (3)
Bonesplitter Sliver (3)
Battering Sliver (2)
Sinew Sliver (3)
Lymph Sliver (3)
Sidewinder Sliver (3)
Mindlash Sliver (3)
Gemhide Sliver (4)
Necrotic Sliver (1)


Aven Windchaser (2)
Essence Warden (2)
Penumbra Spider (2)
Intet the Dreamer (1)

Chromatic Star (3)


The White/Green deck consists of 70 cards:

Forests (11)
Plains (13)
Quicksand (1)

Spirit Link (2)
Faith's Fetters (2)
Temporal Isolation (2)
Retether (2)
Marshalling Cry (2)
Bathe in Light (2)
Momentary Blink (2)
Dawn Charm (2)
Mana Tithe (2)
Seal of Primordium (1)
Quiet Disrepair (2)
Krosan Grip(2)

Angel of Mercy (2)
Master Decoy (2)
Stonecloaker (2)
Calciderm (2)
Soul Warden (2)
Shade of Trokair (2)
Knight of the Holy Nimbus (2)
Hedge Troll (1)
Psychothrope Thallid (1)
Vitaspore Thallid (1)

Clockwork Hydra (2)
Paradise Plume (1)
Icy Manipulator (2)


Any help would be appreciated!

[LordVader]

If you can add in plains to your sliver deck, it'll allow you access to Pulmonic and Poultice Sliver. Both are very good. Pulmonic gives all slivers flying and they go back to the top of the deck when they die, Poultice allows regeneration.

[Solo]

If you can add in plains to your sliver deck, it'll allow you access to Pulmonic and Poultice Sliver. Both are very good. Pulmonic gives all slivers flying and they go back to the top of the deck when they die, Poultice allows regeneration.


I will add your suggested Slivers to my shopping list.

[13_CBS]

Hmmm...I'm much of a newbie myself, but I know a few things about slivers (thematically, I LOVE them).

1) Their early game is somewhat weak. If you get rushed by weenies (large numbers of cheap, 1/1 creatures, often boosted up) early, God help you.

2) Apparently, they're the strongest in the mid game, after you've gotten a good number of slivers out but before other people bring out the big guns.

3) Their late game is weak as well, especially if the enemy happens to have a Wrath of God. In case you don't know what Wrath of God is, well...

Imagine if a level 40 wizard said, "You know what? I feel like ending all life on this plane today."

4) Beware of decks that destroy land! Since slivers are multi-color (one of their greatest weaknesses), one or two islands bombed to pieces by, say, Stone Rain (2 colorless, 1 red, kill any land) can pretty much deny any ability for you to summon blue slivers.

5) Luckily, if you have the right slivers, you can laugh in the face of burn decks and, sometimes, counterdecks (Root Slivers ftw!)

6) This one might not be very good advice, but...an Imagebender (pay stuff, change a creature's type) might go pretty well with a Sliver deck, as with Illusions.

[Solo]

Typo! I forgot to add my 10 Plains to the list.

And I only have 5 Swamps.

[13_CBS]

Ooh, more sliver suggestions:

7) Careful with decks that remove cards from your hand. AFAIK, slivers have trouble replacing losses that aren't the direct result of damage.

8) The above is especially compounded by the fact that a sliver game only works if enough slivers are played for form an impenetrable wall of "lol, my slivers are immune to that" (Circle of Protection cards are great for this, btw). Therefore, sliver survival is important. A sliver deck, AFAIK, wins by turning on God mode, not by killing its enemies, seeing them flee before them, and hearing the lamentations of the women.

9) I also hope that you've got solutions to particularly nasty enchantments.

As for your Green/White deck...what theme are you going for? Big creatures? Weenie swarm? Something else?

[Solo]

Ooh, more sliver suggestions:

7) Careful with decks that remove cards from your hand. AFAIK, slivers have trouble replacing losses that aren't the direct result of damage.

8) The above is especially compounded by the fact that a sliver game only works if enough slivers are played for form an impenetrable wall of "lol, my slivers are immune to that" (Circle of Protection cards are great for this, btw). Therefore, sliver survival is important. A sliver deck, AFAIK, wins by turning on God mode, not by killing its enemies, seeing them flee before them, and hearing the lamentations of the women.

9) I also hope that you've got solutions to particularly nasty enchantments.

As for your Green/White deck...what theme are you going for? Big creatures? Weenie swarm? Something else?

8) Bathe in Light would be great... pity the only two BiL cards I have are in my White/Green deck. I'll need to look into finding functional counterparts. Any suggestions, or should I cannibalize my White/Green deck?

9) Two Naturalize cards is all I've got so far. I'll add in a third.

The Green/White decks has strong spells, but is a little short on creatures. The idea was to cast spells that neutralized my enemies abilities, play some strong monsters, buff up those monsters, and attack.

And gain life in the meantime.

[Ganurath]

When making any deck, I have an overwhelming tendency to follow my Wondercurve:

1 Color Deck:
-7 Two Mana Spells, either 3/4 or 2/2/3
-16 Three Mana Spells, generally 4/4/4/4
-10 Four Mana Spells, either 2/2/3/3 or 3/3/4
-4 Five Mana Spells, either 2/2 or all the same card or all the same
-23 Lands

2 Color Deck:
-7 Two Mana Spells, 3 of multicolor and 2 of each color
-16 Three Mana Spells, 2 by 4 of each color, or 2 by 3 of each and 4 multicolor
-10 Four Mana Spells, 4 of multicolor and 3 of each color
-4 Five Mana Spells, either 2 of each color or 4 of a multicolor card
-10 of each colors basic lands, and three nonbasic that can preferably produce whatever you're short on

[Solo]

When making any deck, I have an overwhelming tendency to follow my Wondercurve:

1 Color Deck:
-7 Two Mana Spells, either 3/4 or 2/2/3
-16 Three Mana Spells, generally 4/4/4/4
-10 Four Mana Spells, either 2/2/3/3 or 3/3/4
-4 Five Mana Spells, either 2/2 or all the same card or all the same
-23 Lands

2 Color Deck:
-7 Two Mana Spells, 3 of multicolor and 2 of each color
-16 Three Mana Spells, 2 by 4 of each color, or 2 by 3 of each and 4 multicolor
-10 Four Mana Spells, 4 of multicolor and 3 of each color
-4 Five Mana Spells, either 2 of each color or 4 of a multicolor card
-10 of each colors basic lands, and three nonbasic that can preferably produce whatever you're short on

What do I do for a 3 color deck?

And let's just pray I don't find any Blue Slivers....


Hmm... let's see. My White/Green deck will surely benefit from this newfound wisdom!

[Ganurath]

What do I do for a 3 color deck?

And let's just pray I don't find any Blue Slivers....


Hmm... let's see. My White/Green deck will surely benefit from this newfound wisdom!For a three color deck? Well, what are you trying to accomplish? Between Lorwyn's Changelings and Planar Chaos, I'm sure you can whittle it down to two colors.

[Solo]

For a three color deck? Well, what are you trying to accomplish? Between Lorwyn's Changelings and Planar Chaos, I'm sure you can whittle it down to two colors.

I have three colors of Slivers.

Might cut out the Mindlash Slivers though. That'd free up 8 cards from the game, that can be replaced by various spells.

[Ominous]

I recommend Crystalline Sliver (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=5134).

[Solo]

I recommend Crystalline Sliver (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=5134).

Yummyness.

[RTGoodman]

Those Gemhide Slivers are a very good. You might want to try to get a fourth if you can. In fact, there's a preconstructed deck from Time Spiral called Sliver Evolution that's actually very good, and has several good Slivers.

If you're looking for a Sliver beatdown deck, you might want to look into Sliver Legion (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=Sliver%20Legion), since having Gemhides out will let you pay for it no matter what, assuming you have enough slivers.

(My current Sliver deck uses various searching cards, Sliver Legion, and, if things work out, Coalition Victory (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=Sliver%20Legion).)


Also, if you didn't know it, you can check out the Gatherer (http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name=Sliver%20Legion) to search for any Magic cards.

[Solo]

Those Gemhide Slivers are a very good. You might want to try to get a fourth if you can.

Done.

I think I'll keep the Sliver deck in reserve, until I can gather enough Slivers to make my opponents weep.

I will definitely make a list of all your suggested additions, though, and keep it with me.

[Ganurath]

Yummyness.Well, you've already got blue for your single copy of Intet the Dreamer. Which you should get rid of for money to buy proper Slivers, FYI.

From what I see, you've got a mess of rainbow aimed toward hurting the other guy. Most of this rainbow is filler to make it fit, which makes little sense with those non-Slivers in the mix. For this, I humbly submit the following:

10 Mountains
10 Swamps
3 Terramorphic Expanse for mana fixing
3 Ghostly Slivers for bypassing Protection
2 Two-Headed Slivers for bypassing blockers
2 Crypt Slivers for when you fail to bypass the blockers
4 Homing Slivers to get what you want
4 Spectral Slivers to keep it
4 Footbottom Feast to get back what you couldn't keep
4 Galvanic Arc to deal with Magus of the Moat and enemy First Strikers
3 Bonesplitter Slivers because of waste not want not
2 Magma Slivers to deliver the killing blow
3 Vampiric Slivers to deal with the low toughness better than Galvanic Arc
2 Toxin Slivers because, unlike with the vampires, the stacking kill ability is superfluous
2 Cleansing Beams because red has no five mana slivers and it goes with Ghostly Sliver
2 Spitting Slivers to deal with the power/toughness gap better than Galvanic Arc on a Vampiric Sliver

Edit: A fair option would be to remove the Galvanic Arcs and Spectral Slivers in favor of Blade Slivers and some black 3 mana spell that helps card advantage or reviving dead Slivers, like Recover.

[Solo]

Well, you've already got blue for your single copy of Intet the Dreamer. Which you should get rid of for money to buy proper Slivers, FYI.

From what I see, you've got a mess of rainbow aimed toward hurting the other guy. Most of this rainbow is filler to make it fit, which makes little sense with those non-Slivers in the mix. For this, I humbly submit the following:

10 Mountains
10 Swamps
3 Terramorphic Expanse for mana fixing
3 Ghostly Slivers for bypassing Protection
2 Two-Headed Slivers for bypassing blockers
2 Crypt Slivers for when you fail to bypass the blockers
4 Homing Slivers to get what you want
4 Spectral Slivers to keep it
4 Footbottom Feast to get back what you couldn't keep
4 Galvanic Arc to deal with Magus of the Moat and enemy First Strikers
3 Bonesplitter Slivers because of waste not want not
2 Magma Slivers to deliver the killing blow
3 Vampiric Slivers to deal with the low toughness better than Galvanic Arc
2 Toxin Slivers because, unlike with the vampires, the stacking kill ability is superfluous
2 Cleansing Beams because red has no five mana slivers and it goes with Ghostly Sliver
2 Spitting Slivers to deal with the power/toughness gap better than Galvanic Arc on a Vampiric Sliver

Hmm... sounds like a good build. Pity it's going to take me a while to gather up most of those...

I'll definitely try to sell off what I don't need though.

Wonder how much Intet the Dreamer would fetch.

er.. any idea on what do do about the W/G deck? I think it's pretty clear the Sliver deck will take quite a while to build.

[Twin2]

Intet won't get you much since he's strictly a limited bomb/casual rare, and as for the white deck what are you hoping to accomplish with it? Will it be beatdown, have any sort of combo it hopes to use to win the game, or will it attempt to control the board? Knowing that allows you to better tune the deck since for example if you want it to be beatdown it has far to few creatures to reliably kill your opponent before they stabalize.

If it's for casual then I can give you the following suggestions.

1. Get four calciderms they are big beaters, have synergy with things like whitemain lion, and stone cloaker, and while you're at it try and find a few blastoderms as well since they can fill out your four drops with recurring 5/5 untargetable beaters.

2. I suggest 4 lanowar elves/boreal druids since they can accelerate you into your higher cost guys quickly, and they're cheap/easy to find commons that if you have any store with common bins shouldn't be too hard to find.

3. Spell wise you've got a good variety, but that won't help you draw them at the right time when you need them. I suggest cutting ones that won't help like the artifact/enchantment removal besides krosan grip and filling out the others with 4 ofs if you can. Consistency is a key to a good deck, and without it you'll find yourself with dead cards instead of what you need.

4. Apply the same to your creatures, it's good to have variety, but you want to have a good curve (i.e. the ability to do something turn one, two, three, ect) and ones that have good effects (cloakers, lions, and so forth).

If you'd like I could suggest a build for the w/g deck that shouldn't be too costly/hard to find, but other then that just remember to have fun with the stuff.

[Solo]

Well, I'm mostly a casual player, but I do like being able to control the game, which is why I took spells and enchantments that could control enemy creatures.



. Get four calciderms they are big beaters, have synergy with things like whitemain lion, and stone cloaker, and while you're at it try and find a few blastoderms as well since they can fill out your four drops with recurring 5/5 untargetable beaters.

Done. I now have 4 Calciderms.

I've also added two Stonecloakers (total of 4) and one Whitemane Lion.


I suggest 4 lanowar elves/boreal druids since they can accelerate you into your higher cost guys quickly, and they're cheap/easy to find commons that if you have any store with common bins shouldn't be too hard to find.

I have 4 Lanowar elves and 4 Elvish Pioneers. Should I take two of each and put them in, or just sue the 4 Lanowar elves?




3. Spell wise you've got a good variety, but that won't help you draw them at the right time when you need them. I suggest cutting ones that won't help like the artifact/enchantment removal besides krosan grip and filling out the others with 4 ofs if you can. Consistency is a key to a good deck, and without it you'll find yourself with dead cards instead of what you need.

I'll keep Krosan Grip and get rid of Seal of Primordium, but I think Quiet Disrepair might be useful for gaining life. Is that true, or am I better off with my other lifegain cards like Faith's Fetters and the Soul Wardens?

Also, I have a few Naturalizes that I could use in place of/ in conjunction with Krosan Grip. Should I have both in the deck?


Apply the same to your creatures, it's good to have variety, but you want to have a good curve (i.e. the ability to do something turn one, two, three, ect) and ones that have good effects (cloakers, lions, and so forth).

Would you suggest I use the Clockwork Hydras at all?



If you'd like I could suggest a build for the w/g deck that shouldn't be too costly/hard to find, but other then that just remember to have fun with the stuff.

By all means, do so.

Would it help if I posted all the White and Green cards I have?

[Twin2]

Well, I'm mostly a casual player, but I do like being able to control the game, which is why I took spells and enchantments that could control enemy creatures.

Well then white gives you some good things to use.


I have 4 Lanowar elves and 4 Elvish Pioneers. Should I take two of each and put them in, or just sue the 4 Lanowar elves?

To be honest the pioneers don't really do much compared to the other elves since they just drop a land into play which is good accel, but does nothing after that. Also you'll want 4 of both llanowar elves/boreal druid since only running 4 in a 60 card deck means you'll get them less likely then you'd like.


I'll keep Krosan Grip and get rid of Seal of Primordium, but I think Quiet Disrepair might be useful for gaining life. Is that true, or am I better off with my other lifegain cards like Faith's Fetters and the Soul Wardens?

Also, I have a few Naturalizes that I could use in place of/ in conjunction with Krosan Grip. Should I have both in the deck?

I don't really rate life gain that highly in casual unless it's part of a good card already (see faiths fetters), or capable of going to the point where your opponent doesn't have a reliable way to kill you (i.e. starlight sanctum/daru spiritualist/anything that can target it over and over for free). As for the naturalizes they're okay, but if you really can stick with 4 grips for split second. The inability for an opponent to respond to it makes it clutch in comparison to the naturalize.


By all means, do so.

Would it help if I posted all the White and Green cards I have?

Posting the cards seems like it'd take too long, and be a waste if you can't use some of them in the deck so don't worry. As for my build it goes as such

Lands
8 Forests
8 Plains
2 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Quicksand

Creatures
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Boreal Druid
4 Whitemane Lion
4 Imperious Perfect (uncommon from lorwyn that acts as anthem/token maker for elves)
4 Stonecloaker
4 Calciderm
4 Blastoderm

Spells
4 Temporal Isolation
4 Faith's Fetters
2 Overrun
2 Krosan Grip

If anything the hardest things to find should be the blastoderms due to age, and perfects due to how good they are, but aside from that the deck shouldn't cost much. The early accel allows you to get out a quick perfect/derms and either beat in via 5/5 untargetables or make a small army then use overrun for the win. Isolation/fetters can deal with any threats your opponents play, while cloaker/lion protects guys from removal. The only real problem the deck may have is against a counter heavy deck, but if you can rush out a perfect early enough they'll have problems keeping up.

[Solo]

I see. Thanks for the advice.

What do you suggest I do about the Icy Manipulators and Master Decoys?

[Twin2]

I see. Thanks for the advice.

What do you suggest I do about the Icy Manipulators and Master Decoys?

Well to be honest they don't really fit into an aggro strategy. They're okay for a control one (though decoy less then icy due to it's creature status) but as an archtype g/w doesn't really lend itself to that in my opinion. If it were blue/white then they'd probably be worth it due to their abilities.