I have to say this is an evil card! I personally used a sliver deck as my main deck and i will curse the day someone plays this card out on me. If your not using slivers I would keep two in your side board because this will destroy any sliver decks you may have to face.
BrutalJim
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(4 votes)
Pretty good card by himself, a 5/5 for 4 CMC for only 1 life a turn. Also has the possibility to destroy Sliver decks and/ or cause a minor inconvenience to cards with changeling.
Mode
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(7 votes)
The low use of this card pretty much shows the powercreep in Magic over the past decade when remembering the days back then when Juzám Djinn ruled the boards. On the other hand, there were simply not that many alternatives out there, and it was Dark RItual which made this card that powerful, quite similar to the infamous Dark Ritual/Hypnotic Scepter combination on turn one.
DragonLord132
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(4 votes)
The Anti-Sliver Sliver. *snort* Bwahahahaha! Include this guy if one of your friend has a Sliver deck.
AlphaNumerical
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(4 votes)
A maindeck for almost any black deck, in quantities of at least one or two. Works against all sorts of things - totally hoses a Sliver deck and gives you the speed to out-race it. It also happens to be quite useful - those changelings sitting around in your local circle could be used to bring some real pain...
sliverlord5000
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(5 votes)
deals one damage to you, not you lose one life insanely awesome lifegain combo with essence
Etregan
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Essence Sliver would let you regain any life lost because of this, but you have to survive the initial hit from the "plague".
Arachibutyrophobia
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
Ya know, this is better than Juzam Djinn. Oh well, cards are slowly getting better. And mythic rarity is starting to be an excuse for that...
Lege
★☆☆☆☆ (1.8/5.0)(5 votes)
This and Unnatural Selection pretty much translates into ": Deal 1 damage to target player. Use this ability only once per creature per turn target player controls."
shondeaphid
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(8 votes)
Excellent black win condition. As Mode said it's a strictly better Djinn, plus it just happens to hose a sliver deck something fierce. Very underrated card.
bakofried
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
You know, I wouldn't necessarily say that power creep is something that affects Magic all the time. After all, Vindicate is still better than Maelstrom Pulse. And besides, we've seen nothing like the moxes, no cheap tutors, no highly effective card draw, or anything like that in quite a while.
Neutralion
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Only against Sliver deck, never with.... :) use it with crystalline sliver and your opponent will not only receive damage from its army, he wont be even able to destroy it. May fits into Esper deck for ocasionaly matches or into deck with some mana boost. Of course, also may be put into decks of people that have sliver friends and black decks with lifelink and life gain (like me).
Etregan: Of course, can be played in sliver deck with Essence Sliver, but it seems as much of risk for just 5/5. I know it may have more nice abilities but more Slivers to make him effectie you have, more life you lose.
JohnJSal
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(4 votes)
If Plague Sliver and Essence Sliver both are on the battlefield, do their abilities trigger simultaneously, such that no damage is actually dealt? Or is the damage dealt first and then the life is gained (so that you could die first)?
megakiller555
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
definetly not a good card to use in a sliver deck but would be good to use against a sliver deck
WhiteyMcFly
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(4 votes)
This card is a 5/5 for 4 CMC. That alone gives it a 5/5 for me. And all too often this drawback becomes an advantage.
Gilder_Bairn
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
@sliverlord5000
You're a genius! Since the text says "deals one damage to you," you can combo this with one essence sliver to nuetralize the effect; any more and you start gaining life rapidly.
Also, this card cannot be compared to Juzam Djinn because it causes all slivers to damage you, not just it. So it sucks.
If you have 2 juzam djinn in play you take 2 per turn. If you have 2 of these in play don't you take 4 per turn? So in that sense it's worse.
beefrocks
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
@JohnJsal That is academic, as dying due to loss of life is a state-based action, which is only checked after both effects would take place.
This is a very useful card against a sliver deck, and not too shabby in a sliver deck as long as you have an Essence Sliver handy.
If this were a legend, that would make for some interesting game-play.
Johnald
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Use this with paradox haze and Hive Stone make sure your field is mostly empty when you drop this.
Atali
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(9 votes)
People, "strictly better" means that a card is better than another card regardless of what else is going on. This is in no way strictly better than Juzám Djinn. If you have two Djinns, you get two damage per turn, if you have two P. Slivers, you get four damage per turn since the abilities stack. Slivers are also susceptible to theft by Sliver Overlord and bounce from Vedalken Æthermage, which do not affect Djinni. Thus, it's SITUATIONALLY better than Juzam, against a non sliver deck, they're basically indistinguishable, except for the additive downside of multiple slivers.
Andromeiylochk
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
How is this strictly better than Juzám Djinn?
In a sliver deck, it's worse because you take ALOT more damage.
In a black deck without any other slivers, it's equal to a deck with one Juzám Djinn.
In a black deck with only these guys, it's worse because the effects stack.
I don't know what kind of crack you guys are smoking, but it must be some good crack.
Sliver_Master5829
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
not only does it skrew a sliver deck with direct damage, But it also doesnt zctivate wild pair. because it is the only sliver that is a 5/5. so that is another way it skrews slivers
ROBRAM89
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
If you have a friend who likes Rath, you could plop this and Spike Cannibal into your deck. But you shouldn't, because he likes Rath, and is thus a cool dude.
Pretty good black beatstick period. Hosing slivers is a plus.
reapersaurus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
What a pathetic homage to Juzam Djinn. As an old-school player I'm insulted by this sliver.
Kryplixx
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@ Andromeiylochk
Because it completely hoses any sliver deck you would play AGAINST. Use your brain next time.
leomistico
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Andromeiylochk: yeah, you forgot the "silver hoser" part, that occasionally makes Plague Sliver quite desiderable. I like very much this guy, and I don't think that is "strictly better" or "strictly worse" than Juzám Djinn. I like them both!
I think that they should do a little more 5/5 for {2}{B}{B}, and 4/4 flying for {2}{U}{U}, with some drawback, as I think they are very iconic creature size for their color, at uncommon/rare range. In green there are already a lot of 4/4 for {2}{G}{G} with some huge benefit, and I perfectly agree with that! I dont' know which are the red and white 4CC iconic creature size yet...
However, this card is a solid 4/5 for me...
Necrokeryx
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(3 votes)
@ Kryplixx
Hosing a sliver deck doesn't make it STRICTLY better than anything! A card is only strictly better than another when it is better than that card in all circumstances. (Example: Warpath Ghoul is strictly better than Mindless Null because there is no way Mindless Null can help you more than Warpath Ghoul.) If you actually listened to your own advice and used YOUR brain, you would realize that is what STRICTLY implies!
luca_barelli
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Great in sliver decks!
tenkaze
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Test-Subject 217601: Shields of Velis Vel doesn't work. The earliest you can cast it is during the upkeep, by which time the beginning-of-upkeep abilities would already have triggered, and the now-Sliver creatures would not have had the ability early enough to damage their controller. Slap a Paradox Haze on your opponent, however...
I think it's fair to say that this is better than Juzam. Sure, you take more damage running two of them, but you also get the added benefit of absolutely destroying Sliver decks.
Having the option of running two Juzam Djinns without much risk < Running one Plague Sliver and decimating any Sliver deck you come across, plus getting any added benefits of your opponents Slivers, AND destorying Changelings.
Juzam is a fantastic card, but it doesn't exactly destroy any strategies.
Etregan: A clearer response: Yes these two work well together. They all put their abilities on the stack, one at a time, and each pops off teh stack, one at a time. You will take 1 damage, and then essence sliver's ability hits the stack, and you heal 1. Rinse, repeat....
As long as you enter you rupkeep with more than 1 life, you survive.
Now if you slivers all had lifelink, then it would be different, there would be no stack play involved, and you would actually take and heal damage at teh exact same time, as a result of the exact same trigger resolving.
atemu1234
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Opponent uses elf tribal deck. Drops hivestone. I play this. He flips me off.
Gameguy602
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This plus dormant sliver plus crystalline sliver = getting flipped off by my brother who got used to destroying anything I came up with using his sliver deck.
Sliverman13
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Ladon---
It does and doesn't work that way. Essence sliver's ruling states that the damage is dealt first, then the life gain. So if you are at one life and take one damage you will die. But If you are say, at 2 life and they have 3 slivers on the field, one being Plague, one being Essence, and just for argument sake one being muscle silver. You take one damage from Plague sliver's ability putting you at 1 life from your starting of 2, now essence slivers ability kicks in and you are now back at 2 life, then you take damage from essence sliver because of plague slivers ability dropping you again to 1 live, then back to 2 life because of essence slivers ability, then again for the might sliver. As long as you have 2 more life you wont die.
Mazerin-the-Mage
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
JUZAM SLIVER!! :D
Missile_Penguin
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Each Time Spiral card was an homage to at least one previously printed card. Specifically, each Sliver in Time Spiral and Planar Chaos derive their ability and mana cost from a previously printed card. In addition to this, three rare Slivers from Time Spiral reference creatures which cannot be reprinted due to the Reserved list. The other two are Pulmonic Sliver and Sedge Sliver.
This Sliver is referencing Juzam Djinn.
Tynansdtm
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card in no way combos with Artificial Evolution or Shield of Velis Vel as you can't cast spells or activate abilities before the beginning of the upkeep step.
Cyberium
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Is Snapcaster Mage played only in wizard decks?
Then why do people insist on playing this one in a Sliver deck or against one? You can play this creature in ANY deck using black. It's a 5/5 for four mana, an effective beating machine on its own.
omni8000
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Am I missing something here? I dont really get how this is better than djinn aside from going against a sliver deck. I mean, if you're not playing a sliver deck and say you play a second, you're taking 4 a turn where djinn would be dealing you only 2 a turn in the same situation. I mean, if you wanna run alot of them, you may as well run grinning demon since it will still deal you alot of damage and but its stronger. That being said, even if I could afford djinn, I'd probably save the money and get these anyway since they are pretty close in power and it DOES hose sliver decks so its not like its way worse or anything. 4/5
CogMonocle
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@ JohnJSal and others:
Essence sliver does not use lifelink, it uses a trigger which uses the stack. This has two implications:
It stacks multiple times If the damage would kill you, the healing WILL NOT SAVE YOU. With plague sliver this usually won't matter as the damage is in increments of 1, but still.
OstravaBoletaria
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
its basically a budget djinn. only problem is having multiple out at the same time.
Pongdok
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Doesn't harm the slivers, just whatever walker is controlling them. I have a feeling the queen might have approved. I think I would prefer Kezzerdrix in the 4-slot instead of this, but I see room for both. It is a sliver for non-sliver decks. What's not to like? The Djinn is officially overpriced jank now, I guess. Take that, reserved list. 5/5
SteelLotus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This sliver with 2 essence slivers = at the beginning of your upkeep, gain one life for each sliver you control.
ox411
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is a nice card. The casting cost is low, the power and toughness are high, the drawback isnt really much.... Obviously people compare this to the Juzam Djinn. To me it's a pretty standard example of the way WOTC kind of reprints very powerful old cards. Lotus Petal is a less powerful version of Black Lotus, Time Warp is a less powerful version of Time walk, and this card is a less powerful version of the Djinn. Simply put, I play with 4 Juzams in my deck and I play them as fast as I can. If i can put 2 or 3 down on the table at once, it's great and Im happy to do it. Ive made decks with 4 Juzams and 4 Plague Slivers, Id never put 3 Slivers down on the table at once, and I dont even like to have 2 out unless I know for sure my opponent is really locked down and they can both get through to deal damage. The 'advantage' of this card screwing over your opponent if they play a Sliver deck is not really worth mentioning when you're comparing it to the Juzam. Anyone considering playing a Juzam is obviously playing a Vintage deck. How many Vintage decks rely on Slivers? In the 20 years Ive been playing Magic, MAYBE half of 1% of the games Ive played have been against Sliver decks. You can't build an 'eternal' deck focused on whatever creature or card type is popular at one moment in time. To me the best part of this card is that it answers every magic players biggest wish: "I wish I could have more then 4 of my favorite card in my deck" I play with 1 in my deck and I consider him my 5th Juzam. Ive tried the deck with 2 Slivers and 4 Juzams, but Im always surprised at how often I wind up with both Slivers in my hand, so I wind up taking the second one back out of the deck.
Comments (49)
On the other hand, there were simply not that many alternatives out there, and it was Dark RItual which made this card that powerful, quite similar to the infamous Dark Ritual/Hypnotic Scepter combination on turn one.
Include this guy if one of your friend has a Sliver deck.
insanely awesome lifegain combo with essence
Etregan: Of course, can be played in
You're a genius! Since the text says "deals one damage to you," you can combo this with one essence sliver to nuetralize the effect; any more and you start gaining life rapidly.
Also, this card cannot be compared to Juzam Djinn because it causes all slivers to damage you, not just it. So it sucks.
This is a very useful card against a sliver deck, and not too shabby in a sliver deck as long as you have an Essence Sliver handy.
If this were a legend, that would make for some interesting game-play.
In a sliver deck, it's worse because you take ALOT more damage.
In a black deck without any other slivers, it's equal to a deck with one Juzám Djinn.
In a black deck with only these guys, it's worse because the effects stack.
I don't know what kind of crack you guys are smoking, but it must be some good crack.
As an old-school player I'm insulted by this sliver.
Because it completely hoses any sliver deck you would play AGAINST. Use your brain next time.
I think that they should do a little more 5/5 for {2}{B}{B}, and 4/4 flying for {2}{U}{U}, with some drawback, as I think they are very iconic creature size for their color, at uncommon/rare range. In green there are already a lot of 4/4 for {2}{G}{G} with some huge benefit, and I perfectly agree with that! I dont' know which are the red and white 4CC iconic creature size yet...
However, this card is a solid 4/5 for me...
Hosing a sliver deck doesn't make it STRICTLY better than anything! A card is only strictly better than another when it is better than that card in all circumstances. (Example: Warpath Ghoul is strictly better than Mindless Null because there is no way Mindless Null can help you more than Warpath Ghoul.) If you actually listened to your own advice and used YOUR brain, you would realize that is what STRICTLY implies!
Having the option of running two Juzam Djinns without much risk < Running one Plague Sliver and decimating any Sliver deck you come across, plus getting any added benefits of your opponents Slivers, AND destorying Changelings.
Juzam is a fantastic card, but it doesn't exactly destroy any strategies.
As long as you enter you rupkeep with more than 1 life, you survive.
Now if you slivers all had lifelink, then it would be different, there would be no stack play involved, and you would actually take and heal damage at teh exact same time, as a result of the exact same trigger resolving.
It does and doesn't work that way. Essence sliver's ruling states that the damage is dealt first, then the life gain. So if you are at one life and take one damage you will die. But If you are say, at 2 life and they have 3 slivers on the field, one being Plague, one being Essence, and just for argument sake one being muscle silver. You take one damage from Plague sliver's ability putting you at 1 life from your starting of 2, now essence slivers ability kicks in and you are now back at 2 life, then you take damage from essence sliver because of plague slivers ability dropping you again to 1 live, then back to 2 life because of essence slivers ability, then again for the might sliver. As long as you have 2 more life you wont die.
Specifically, each Sliver in Time Spiral and Planar Chaos derive their ability and mana cost from a previously printed card. In addition to this, three rare Slivers from Time Spiral reference creatures which cannot be reprinted due to the Reserved list. The other two are Pulmonic Sliver and Sedge Sliver.
This Sliver is referencing Juzam Djinn.
Then why do people insist on playing this one in a Sliver deck or against one? You can play this creature in ANY deck using black. It's a 5/5 for four mana, an effective beating machine on its own.
Essence sliver does not use lifelink, it uses a trigger which uses the stack. This has two implications:
It stacks multiple times
If the damage would kill you, the healing WILL NOT SAVE YOU. With plague sliver this usually won't matter as the damage is in increments of 1, but still.
Obviously people compare this to the Juzam Djinn. To me it's a pretty standard example of the way WOTC kind of reprints very powerful old cards. Lotus Petal is a less powerful version of Black Lotus, Time Warp is a less powerful version of Time walk, and this card is a less powerful version of the Djinn.
Simply put, I play with 4 Juzams in my deck and I play them as fast as I can. If i can put 2 or 3 down on the table at once, it's great and Im happy to do it.
Ive made decks with 4 Juzams and 4 Plague Slivers, Id never put 3 Slivers down on the table at once, and I dont even like to have 2 out unless I know for sure my opponent is really locked down and they can both get through to deal damage.
The 'advantage' of this card screwing over your opponent if they play a Sliver deck is not really worth mentioning when you're comparing it to the Juzam. Anyone considering playing a Juzam is obviously playing a Vintage deck. How many Vintage decks rely on Slivers? In the 20 years Ive been playing Magic, MAYBE half of 1% of the games Ive played have been against Sliver decks. You can't build an 'eternal' deck focused on whatever creature or card type is popular at one moment in time.
To me the best part of this card is that it answers every magic players biggest wish: "I wish I could have more then 4 of my favorite card in my deck"
I play with 1 in my deck and I consider him my 5th Juzam. Ive tried the deck with 2 Slivers and 4 Juzams, but Im always surprised at how often I wind up with both Slivers in my hand, so I wind up taking the second one back out of the deck.