Pointed Discussion

Sweet mother of fuck. Never thought I'd see a strictly better Winged Sliver.

Amazing one-drop Sliver now has a huge target for immediate / near-future removal on it from your opponent.

Someone explain to me how this can cost only one mana, but anyone else has to pay four for a group flying effect?

I'm reminded of the flying form of the Graboids in Tremors 3. Do you think they ignite their flatulence for propulsion?

Watch out for Silklash Spider.

Is it me or did Wizards phase out all of the aspects of slivers that balanced them?
Initially they all spread their effects to opponents' creatures with changeling (a relevant ability at the time) and were all slightly overcosted for the more desirable effects.

Now they all seem to be right on the curve even for singular creatures - a 1/1 flying for 1 mana? Seriously? Heck, there's even a 2/2 Vigilance for 2, 1/1 first strike for 1, and a 2/2 and 6/6 for 2 and 6 respectively!

With the removal of the universal effect (especially since they're reprinting mutavault), Slivers just don't feel nearly as fun as before - especially since half the fun of it was going Sliver vs. Sliver or double teaming slivers in 2HG, but now neither is possible! Frankly, I don't like it, it's a minor change with massive implications that just make the darn things so much less FUN.

Now mind-controlling a Sliver has little to no impact, and sliver constructs are utterly pointless for counter-slivers.

Yuck, simply yuck. Not to mention the new humanoid designs defeats the point of them being insectoid-creatures... ya know, since Sliver Overlord was "the end of evolution" and was a multi-headed SLIVER.

Frankly, and perhaps I'm being nitpicky here, I feel like wizards stripped everything away from slivers that made them fun, and perhaps (as we'll soon find out) will ultimately unbalance them in modern.

(not to mention none of them actually have any interesting effects...)

At least Plague Sliver still works, but who will actually use that?

And finally... is the lack of a unifying sliver Legion/Overlord/Queen thematic or not? It's disappointing either way.

Uh, Krysto? Changeling was not a relevant ability at the time. I don't remember (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45840) tearing up the tournament scene when Slivers were first printed.

Also, the Sliver vs. Sliver matchup was terrible. It was no longer about what the creatures actually did, but just about who could get out the most, since your creatures could just leech abilities of your opponent's. It was dumb.

All I have to say is thank every deity ever worshipped this is rare. If this were common like Winged Sliver was, it'd absolutely wreck drafts.

Blue is gonna be flying over everything...

So combining all the rares and the most vanilla Sliver in the set (Sliver Construct), you have a doublestriking, flying, lifelinking, pinging 5/5. At worst, with only commons, you have a 3/3 with first strike, vigilance, haste, and trample. Damn.

Oh god, this set hasn't even been released yet and I can already feel how much this card is gonna hurt. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Damn R&D for making this rare. No sliver deck will be complete without at least 3 of these, and the rarity will ensure arm + leg.

This evolves from Winged Sliver when exposed to a Power Creep Stone.

I don't get what people are freaking out about, a 1/1 flyer for 1 is perfectly OH GOD IT'S A SLIVER.

Flying for my slivers only for one mana, Yes please.

I can only just forgive the new art style, but the 'You control' aspect really bugs the hell out of me. It was very much a Sliver thing.

Didn't make a massive amount of difference casually, but it sure made drafts a lot more terrifying - dare you pick that Sliver and buff your enemies? Or maybe even get their buffs!? WHO KNOWS

Plus, they also released a load of Changelings in Modern Masters. That could've lead to a rather entertaining casual scene. Sigh.

Finally... this sliver kind of screams 'SPEND LOTS OF MONEY ON ME'. Too cheap, too good. Pheh.

Reduced mana cost and restricted to creatures you control, someone must have brainstormed hard during R&D
Flying Man is almost obsolete. Though it may cost more to get playing copies of this

The fact that this is basically strictly better than Winged Sliver is wrong on so many levels.

This is an extraordinary 1 drop for any sliver deck! But even in any other deck, an evasive 1/1 is always nice on your first turn. Thus far, Jace's Phantasm, Judge's Familiar, Lantern Kami, Flying Men, Scryb Sprites, Suntail Hawk, and Zephyr Sprite are the only other creatures with no drawbacks that are unconditional 1/1 flyers for 1 mana. While one could argue that Striking Sliver is just as good first turn, Galerider Sliver will usually skip the opponent's choice of whether or not to block and go straight for the throat. While is does outdo Winged Sliver in pretty much every way, it will still have a place in singleton and EDH decks, as well as purest fans of the original sliver look.

Congratulations, James Zapata, on your second card art for M:tG and M14! The asymmetry of this one is well done and colorfully strays away from the standard blue hues we usually see in a mono-blue creature. The colors and values used to draw out the wings to the foreground immediately brings attention to the fact: this thing is a flyer! The curvatures of the wings coupled with foreshortening of the legs really helps in delivering the visual appearance of movement both forward and upward. Add in a wonderfully shaded and faded mountainscape in the background, and we have a superb introduction from a new artist to Magic: the Gathering.

This is one of the best Slivers in the set. Along with Striking Sliver it is the only one drop sliver in the whole set, and being such a low cmc is very powerful because it allows you to reach the critical mass of Slivers necessary to win sooner, and because each one will have a bunch of buffs each additional Sliver you have dramatically increases your total power.
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Oh, and it is a one mana Levitation. Being able to give every single one of your Slivers evasion will prove to be extremely powerful.

5/5

Winged Sliver is currently rated around 4.5/5. This is strickly better and nearly a full star lower. People really don't like the new "slivers you control" slivers.

Top-rated and strongest sliver in this set, and it's at 3.855 barely making the third page of the set, by ratings. Looks like the public opinion of the sliver reboot is clear.

How can anybody rate less than 4.5? Great 1 CMC drop

Winged Sliver was known for being excellent! This is significantly better.

I'd say strictly better if there wasn't the rarity gap.

That's not a sliver.

I have a friend who claims higher rarity does not equal more powerful cards. This should shut him up.
Strictly better than winged sliver, man, that feels so wrong.

Hehehe. I guess now I know why the new slivers look so humanoid: They now live within an "us" versus "them" paradigm within their own kind ~ a very human quality.

One of the biggest Magic purchases I ever made was sets of Flying Men back when they got timeshifted. 1 drop fliers with no drawback basically didn't exist for blue, and when your rarities are special and Arabian Nights... And then we get this.

As for the Sliver itself...my only question is why? Winged Sliver was rarely an early drop Sliver, usually a finisher. The only reason to play a turn 1 Galerider is to bait a Doom Blade, and there's better Slivers for the task.

This card is not strictly better than Winged Sliver especially in the environment you would have to make a decision between the two. Being a two drop actually makes it so that you don't waste a turn with Aether Vial and you get that beloved 2 counters it wants to have most of the time.
Now in terms of this or a reprint of Winged obviously this is better but why would you really want to splash U and hold this in hand when you have the choice to go with an aggressive GRW aggro in modern or standard. Don't get me wrong this is an amazing card to be added into any collection but it is taking too much attention from other things it seems.

No creativity at all, eh? Just straight-up strictly better than a card that already saw a ton of play in a super-powerful deck?

Hey Wizards. F**K YOU.

You didn't want to, but now you HAVE to splash Blue into your Slivers. No regrets

...Looks kinda like Cthulhu.
I'm not mad at the new art for the slivers, like most people are. I like them and I think most people underestimate their power in Standard.

I don't understand why blue devotion decks aren't playing with 4x this instead of 4x Cloudfin Raptor. The reason I ask is that they're all running 4x Mutavault, and when those decks also sport Master of Waves...well I just think that Cloudfin is looking weak.

Playing M14 slivers gets you automatically disqualified. I think it's in the rules somewhere. Stupid names. Dumb art. Recycled abilities. Slivers are done. You don't have to make any more unless you think they need one of the new keyword abilities, for some reason. (They don't.) Core sets suck. 0.5/5

@Jhyrryl until you realize that when Master of Waves enters the battlefield, making 5+ tokens, Cloudfin Raptor becomes a 6/7 flier, since all of the tokens trigger evolve simultaneously.

Fantastic creature card. Essential for any sliver deck. For one blue mana, “Sliver creatures you control have flying.” How could anybody give this card less than five stars is beyond my understanding.