Slivers – Pinnacle of Evolution | Magic: The Gathering Lore



Learn about the ingenious and adaptable Slivers, their shared characteristics and differences between Hive Minds that make them one of the most feared creatures in Magic: The Gathering’s Multiverse.

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Time Stamps
0:00 – Intro/Characteristics
7:02 – The First Sliver
8:18 – Rath and Dominaria
14:49 – Shandalar
19:02 – Outro

“This video is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.”

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42 thoughts on “Slivers – Pinnacle of Evolution | Magic: The Gathering Lore”

  1. 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

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  2. 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!!!

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  3. 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!

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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.

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  6. 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 deat 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.

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  7. 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}

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  8. I have a theory that the ancestors of the Sliver were much more mundane creatures with the Trilobite type. Of the scant few Sliver with a second card type, these are Construct, Fungus, Illusion, Mutant, Spirit, and Trilobite. Of these, the only Trilobite Sliver is described in flavor text as a living fossil. Whatever birthed the Sliver, whatever freakish planar effect, long lost Planeswalker or whatever else it is very possible the ancestral form was something akin to some weird segmented trilobite-creature. Why else would they make this weird card, adding a weird extremely limited creature type tacked on to a Sliver? Naw, I think that was some foreshadowing we haven't seen the real payoff to yet.

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  9. 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.

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  10. 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! "

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  11. Slivers. The one tribe that is feared even by the players. The greatest truth of Commander is that he who comes to the table piloting Slivers shall be the first to die if he is unable to get his board online immediately. For all others at the table shall call a truce to wage a campaign of extermination.

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  12. 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.

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  13. 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.

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  14. 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.

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