Sliver

Future of Fateseal Mechanic

I know it's unlikely, but will the Fateseal keyword ever come back? I thought it was an interesting mechanic, even if it's limited to one sliver card for now.

We tried it in a set years ago. It is a pretty unfun mechanic.

Fateseal Keywords Limited Mechanics Slivers

Possibility of Slivers Return

Hi Mark, I just wanted to say that I’ve really been enjoying all the recent magic content. After not being someone who thought they’d like UB I’ve really enjoyed the LOTR and Assassin’s Creed sets and Bloomburrow might be my favorite plane now! That all being said, I’ve been trying to get a friend of mine back into magic after he took a hiatus for school and I know he’s a big Sliver fan and would instantly come back to the game if they were to present themselves again. I know you wouldn’t be able to share much, but is there anything about slivers in the pipeline so I can try to re-engage him?

I can’t talk about the future, but we are aware of the popularity of Slivers.

Assassin's Creed Bloomburrow Slivers

Possible Rats in Bloomburrow

So...... I love Rats and I love playing standard. I have a pet deck that I play when I don't care about winning, almost never, that is a standard rat tribal deck!! I was worried it would be competely unviable once Nashi, Nezumi prowler, and okiba reckoner gang left, but with Bloomburrow having Rats in it, I'm hoping I can pick up enough one drop Rat cards that can fill the open slots and some other Rat than can steal games like Nashi. The Rats staying in the format really want to be in an agro deck with some utiilty that can just steal games so any rat made for commander or more midrange doesn't help the deck be viable, unless there is a slew of new Rats that help fill out a different direction to VIABLY take the deck. Are there standard playable Rats in Bloomburrow? (I put on the restirction that all the cards have to be rat themed or removal, deck won't function without removal, so the pool of cards and directions to take the deck where you aren't actively trying to lose is a very small sliver of cards.)

The Rats are in blue/black, so the archetype is going to make sense for blue/black, which traditionally isn’t aggro.

Black Bloomburrow Commander Dimir (U/B) Kindred / Typal Nezumi Prowler Rat Rat Sliver Standard

Insights on Absorb Mechanic Designs

Hello, I heard something interesting about MH3 where you retried EVERY mechanic to see what would work with a new context or be interesting. You (WoTC) revisited many of my favorite mechanics like grandeur but didn't for probably my favorite. That mechanic is absorb, and while it has only been keyworded on one card "Lymph Sliver" it did see a continuation on my favorite card of all "Valkmira, Protector's Shield" alongside what would only a few sets later become ward. I wanted to know if you could share any insights on the designs taken with absorb or any other of your favorite mechanics? Thank you very much for your time.

I designed Lymph Sliver and absorb. If I remember correctly, I was riffing off of a shield mechanic from the Star Wars TCG. (It was a trading card game design lead by Richard Garfield that I was on the initial design team for.)

Absorb Absorb Appreciation Game Design Grandeur Lymph Sliver Mechanics Modern Horizons 3 Richard Garfield Sliver Ward Wizards of the Coast

Slivers' Power Potential

If/When something like "Slivers you control get X, if you control all Slivers, Slivers get X instead"? Or is that simply too much for how out of hand Slivers can get

If. Most games you have all the Slivers, so it’s not much of a hoop.

If/When Sliver Your Hand

Keyword for Slivers

If/when keyword “All slivers have”

If. I don’t think keywording it adds any value for us, dewsignwise. Also, it would be “All Slivers you control have” if we did do it.

If/When Keywords Sliver

Limited Diversity in Sliver Cards

Out of the 115 Sliver cards in print, only 6 of them have another type than Sliver. Why the small deviation?

Slivers are at their core just Slivers.

Card Printing Limited Sliver

Availability of Sliver Cards

For me, who likes Sliver,I've never been happy about the Sliver cards from SL.Why do I have to collect cards that randomly appear from all over the world?Why does everyone else have a set that they can be sure to get, but Sliver doesn't have?I've never complained directly because I liked mtg, but I had to comment on the topic of Hatsune Miku's bonus sheet, where people collecting Sliver were expressed as if they had no complaints.I wish the borderless ‘Sliver Hive’ was more readily available.

I’ll pass that note along.

Bonus Sheets Sliver

Miku Secret Lair Bonus Cards

I just got my Miku secret lair and generally I'm very happy with it; it looks gorgeous. However, I must comment frustration that there's two separate bonus cards, with a difference of rarity it seems, no less. It sucks that 'oh actually there's another Miku card you don't get without going to the secondary market which will absolutely ratchet up the price." This feels different to the more generic bonus cards like the slivers which weren't attached to any one secret lair

Two questions: (for everyone to answer) 1) Do you prefer the bonus to be connected to the Secret Lair theme or separate? 2) Do you like the ability to occasionally get rarer bonus cards, or would you prefer all of them get the same thing?

Colorless Rarity Secondary Secret Lairs Slivers The Secret Lair

Slivers and Omen Paths

Hey Mark, now that we've got Omenpaths, does that at all affect where Slivers are sitting on the beeble scale?

No. The issue with Slivers is a mechanical one (they require a lot of structure) not a flavor one.

Beeble Scale Flavor Omenpaths Sliver

Phyrexians vs Slivers

I know this may be a dumb question but are Phyrexians aware of the existence of Slivers? And would infecting Slivers be a really bad idea?

I assume the Phyrexians are aware of Slivers. I’m not sure why infecting a Sliver would be bad for the Phyrexians.

Phyrexian Sliver

Colorless Frame Query

Maybe I missed it, but is there an explanation for why the colorless old-frame in MH3 is what it is? There is an official colorless frame in the old style—the Sliver token from 2003 Player Rewards used it.

One token frame is not a precedent.

Card Frames Colorless Modern Horizons 3 Sliver Tokens

Sliver Queen's Class Identification

Why isn’t Sliver Queen a Noble? 🧐

The term “Queen” mirrors the phrase “queen bee” to signify that she birthed the Slivers (at least the ones on Rath), not that she’s a noble in charge of politically overseeing them.

Noble Sliver Sliver Queen

Birthday Sliver Trivia

Hey Mark, it’s my birthday! Can I please get a birthday trivia factoid on either Sliver Overlord or Sliver Gravemother!!?

Sliver Queen had been pretty popular. Legions brought back Slivers, so we thought it would be cool to do another five-color legendary Sliver in Scourge. We picked two abilities we thought would be useful. The tutor ability so you could go get the Sliver you needed in the moment, and the steal ability to help in Sliver on Sliver matches.Happy Birthday!

Birthday Legions Scourge Sliver Sliver Gravemother Sliver Overlord Sliver Queen Tutoring

Slivers Migration Query

Since every plane has omenpaths, slivers should be slowly spreading and migrating through the multiverse, right?

Every plane doesn’t necessarily have omenpaths, at least stable ones that stay open.

Omenpaths Sliver

Keyword Granting Creatures

So when looking through creatures that grant keywords in typal abilities, I’ve noticed that most creatures have the keyword and grant it to other creatures, but some just grant it to all that have the type. For example, Drogskol Reinforcements, a Spirit, has “Melee” and “Other Spirits you control have melee.”On the other hand, Lancer Sliver just has “Sliver creatures you control have first strike.”Why is there a difference? Is there a specific formatting or rules reason that all typal keyword-granting abilities don’t just follow the Lancer Sliver version? The latter seems simpler.

For clarity, the template is the creature has the ability and then grants the ability to “all other creatures you control”. Slivers use the old template because when you have a bunch of them, it’s easier to add up all the effects.

Creatures Drogskol Reinforcements First Strike Keywords Kindred / Typal Lancer Sliver Melee Melee Reinforcements Rules Sliver Spirit Templating Your Hand

Unique Creature Types

I would just like to express my lifelong love for some of the unique Magic-ese creatures and creature types we've had through the years. Slivers, Atogs, Llhurgoyfs, Spikes, Beebles, Kavu and so on bring a real charm to Magic that sets it apart from other fantasy settings and can be pointed to as uniquely "ours". I'm sad that many of them don't get printed any more and I hope we don't see a total loss of things like this in favour of more broad/generic terms. Long live the Atogs!

We’re still making unique creatures. It’s not something we’ve stopped.

Atog Beeble Card Printing Colorless Creatures Kavu Sliver Spike

Slivers and Omenpath

Can slivers traverse through an omenpath?

Sure. The hive mind doesn’t work cross planes, or really even that far away on the same plane.

Hive Mind Omenpaths Planes Sliver The Hive

Unfinity Cards Frustration

It is uniquely frustrating when you're sitting across from a player who has decided they don't like Unfinity cards. Or counterspells. Or zombie cards. Or sliver decks. Or aggressive decks. Or tempo decks. Or control decks. And your deck is invalid for it. Like, can we get past the metaphors for one second? I've been an most-format Magic player since Ice Age. And the number of players I've dealt with that decided I wasn't playing 'real' Magic - usually for opposing reasons - boggles the mind.

One of the most important lessons in being a Magic player is learning to accept how others appreciate the game (and that it’s often different from how you appreciate it).

Sliver Zombie

Sliver Legends Colors

Is there a reason all Sliver Legends are WUBRG? Could there be space, favorfully or otherwise, for 2/3/4 color Sliver Legends?

Slivers are a five-color creature type, so we want to give players access to all the Slivers. Plus, there are only 115 Slivers, so we want to give players some ability to customize. I do think as the number goes up, we’ll make some non-five color ones.

Colors Creatures Four Color Legendary Creatures Sliver