by Johnny Cycles, September 15th, 2025

Hello and welcome to a special edition of Keeping Modern Janky! This month, I’m highlighting another viewer submitted deck, this time Sliver Tribal! With the newly printed Thrumming Hivepool, can Slivers finally go from the bottom of the tier list to, say, tier 2? Let’s find out!

Before I get started, I want to give a big shoutout to jordanleebc19 for the deck. It’s been a lot of fun to play! It’s also inspired me to try out various versions of Sliver Tribal myself, so stay tuned for those!

Decklist – Slivers

by jordanleebc19
Format: Modern

Creatures (32)

4 Galerider Sliver
2 Sidewinder Sliver
2 Striking Sliver
4 Cloudshredder Sliver
4 Diffusion Sliver
4 Leeching Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
4 Unsettled Mariner
2 Frenetic Sliver
2 Realmwalker

Artifacts (6)

4 Aether Vial
2 Thrumming Hivepool

Instants (4)

2 Flare of Denial
2 Force of Negation

Lands (18)

4 Cavern of Souls
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Island
2 Mutavault
1 Plains
4 Secluded Courtyard
4 Sliver Hive

Sideboard (15)

2 Change the Equation
2 Damping Sphere
2 Torpor Orb
1 Dismember
3 Harmonic Sliver
2 Spiteful Sliver
3 Leyline of the Void

Before I get into the primary game plan of the deck, let me say a few things about the changes I made to jordanlee’s original 75. First, I accidentally included Leeching Sliver instead of Sinew Sliver. Leeching Sliver was a holdover from the Pioneer deck he sent me. Sinew Sliver gives the deck a super important second lord effect, but Leeching Sliver gives us some much-needed reach. I think both should have a home in the deck, but I’m not sure how to make room for them.

Second, I only have one Dismember and no copies of Fiery Islet. In their places I put two Change the Equation (removing one Leyline of the Void) and one Hallowed Fountain.

Do these changes cut down on the consistency and power of the deck? Perhaps, but that’s what I’ve been testing and this version has won its share of match-ups, so…

Deck Tech

Primary Game Plan

We are a synergistic aggro deck looking to play a handful of Slivers that all help each other kill our opponent as early as turn 4. In order to execute this game plan, we will ideally play a turn 1 Sliver or Aether Vial, followed by either one of our lords or one of our 2-drop Slivers that tax our opponent’s targeted removal in an effort to tempo them out. With a lord out and Lightning Bolt costing , we have a chance of getting our opponent low enough on life to finish them off even after they make it to three mana.

Helping us out on this aggressive front is Cloudshredder Sliver. Flying and haste are super important for us to close out games. Our Slivers won’t get much bigger than 4/4s (and more often than not lowly 2/2s), so having evasion is crucial to us chipping in damage or swinging for lethal. Haste, meanwhile, gives us the kind of reach we need to finish an opponent off who has stabilized at a low life total.

Supporting our aggro plan are three 1-drops that all do more than attack for 1. Sidewinder Sliver makes blocking painful for our opponent, while also being a sweet old card from 2006. Striking Sliver is great at letting our Slivers gang-block and live. And Galerider Sliver gives all our Slivers evasion. Thus, we have eight ways to give our Slivers flying and this is crucial to our success.

Rounding out our Sliver package is Frenetic Sliver, a 3-drop that offers our team more protection from spot removal, and our honorary Sliver, Realmwalker. This 3-drop Changeling can help us quickly recover from sweepers with a little luck. Otherwise, as a 2/3, it’s one of the few cards we play that can survive Pyroclasm…

Which Sliver is better, Sinew or Leeching? I’ll let you decide!

As mentioned above, I accidentally kept in Leeching Sliver from jordanlee’s Pioneer list instead of playing Sinew Sliver. And honestly, Leeching Sliver was super powerful, fun, and another way we could win games out of nowhere. Still, I really think having the second lord effect is crucial, so I’ve been testing out a version of the deck that has both in it, cutting Frenetic Sliver and Realmwalker.

It’s easy to look at these cards and say, well, they basically do the same thing at the end of the day. And oftentimes, that is correct. When unblocked, making all of our 1/1s into 2/2s results in the same amount of damage dealt as when all of our 1/1s instead drain our opponent when they attack.

But there will be times when the attack trigger is able to punch through the necessary damage when the board is full of blockers or when our opponent plusses up their Tamiyo, Seasoned Scholar. Then again, there will be times when the lord effect will allow our Slivers to survive a Pyroclasm.

Which is why I think both should have a home in the deck.

This is the true spice of the deck. Coming down as early as turn 3, Thrumming Hivepool is one of those cards that wins us the game the turn it resolves more often than not. In one match, I was able to cast a second Leeching Sliver and Thrumming Hivepool in the same turn thanks to its affinity for Slivers. The haste my Leeching Sliver got from the 6-mana artifact allowed me to get an additional drain trigger, while the double strike gave me exactsies.

Is it win-more? Nah, it’s just win. Two copies seems right, though I won’t blame anyone for trying more.

On that note, let me just say that it may be tempting to cut some of the 1-drops. Sidewinder Sliver‘s flanking, for instance, was rarely relevant, particularly since our Slivers often had flying and our opponents couldn’t block them anyway. However, resist this urge, as having something to do turn 1, two things to do turn 3 and later, and the ability to cast Thrumming Hivepool early all depends on these 1-drops. I could see possibly going all in on Striking Sliver, but I wouldn’t go less than eight 1-drops.

Otherwise, we’re playing two copies of Flare of Denial and Force of Negation. With only 10 Blue creatures in our deck, these cards can be pretty awkward. However, they feel like a necessary evil if we want to have any chance against the unfair decks in game 1 and against sweepers in games 2 and 3.

Sideboard

It’s full of cards that shore up our weaknesses against many of the unfair decks. I won’t say too much about it other than what I’ve noticed from playing the deck. First, Harmonic Sliver is the truth against Domain and Affinity. Sure, it can be too slow against both, but it is our best card against them. In one game I used its enters ability to take out a Leyline Binding that then got me back a Sliver that then destroyed my opponent’s Leyline of the Guildpact. It can also kill a Scion of Draco.

Two copies of Damping Sphere feels bad as our main answer to Eldrazi Tron. That match-up feels really, really bad. Torpor Orb is great against those annoying Ephemerate decks, but I wonder if we can’t just try to race those instead in order to make room for more Eldrazi hate.

Or answers to…

This card hoses our deck like no other. With a total of two basic lands, neither of which can actually cast the majority of our Slivers, if we don’t have multiple copies of Aether Vial down when this resolves, we are basically dead.

Spiteful Sliver is a late addition in place of Chalice of the Void. I love this card. I want to play 4 copies in the main deck alongside Blasphemous Act. Would a Sliver deck looking to combo win with that Commander staple be better than my Boros Blasphemous Act deck? Probably not, but I want to try it!

Now let’s get to the game play!

Match 1 vs. Dimir Riddler Control

Match 2 vs. Rakdos Ripper

Match 3 vs. Lutri Control

Match 4 vs. Domain Zoo

Match 5 vs. Izzet Affinity

Match 6 vs. Izzet Affinity…the Rematch

Match 7 vs. Golos Tron

Overall Record: 3-4

Impressions

Not bad, not bad.

I was impressed with the deck and think jordanlee has something here. The deck felt surprisingly competitive…except when it didn’t.

What I mean by this is that we were either winning close games or getting blown out.

I’ve played against Slivers enough to know the recipe for both victory and defeat. The first step is to sweep the board as early as possible, then rely on bigger threats and some timely spot removal to close out the game and stop our opponent from rebuilding. The reverse order of this is also often successful.

Domain Zoo, in particular, demonstrated how playing a ton of removal cards alongside powerful and cheap threats is enough to make Slivers look bad.

However, the deck has a resiliency that isn’t necessarily readily apparent and I’m sure with more reps, it would be even better in some of these bad match-ups.

But what if we find room for Sinew Sliver and Leeching Sliver?

As mentioned above, I want to try both of these together and made room by cutting Frenetic Sliver and Realmwalker. I’ve only managed a few matches, but here they are for your viewing pleasure!!!

Match 1 vs. Elves

Match 2 vs. Dimir Fairies

Overall Record: 1-0-1

Sinew Sliver made its appearance in both matches, and I’m confident it needs a home in the 60. Of course, I feel the same about Leeching Sliver. For now, I’m happy with cutting back on the 3-drops to make room for these two.

A New Direction

Slivers have no shortage of playable 2- and 3 drops. What happens if we cut out Aether Vial in favor of Collected Company? What if we forego the sweet, sweet jank of Thrumming Hivepool and unimpressive 1-drops in favor of more powerful 3-drops?

Alternatively, would going all in on both the 1-drops and Thrumming Hivepool improve our chances of winning?

Stay tuned!

Conclusion

Slivers proved to be as much fun as they were competitive. If you’re looking for a synergistic aggro deck that is outside of the meta, then give Thrumming Hivepool and its friends a shot!