UndeadCow

Yes, you are absolutely correct in both cases. :)

Lol you make this sound so formal. Looks 10x better, just a few more things I would suggest:

1. Swap one of your sentinel slivers for a predatory sliver so that you 2x sentinel and 4x predatory
2. Swap out the 2 silence and add in 2 groundshaker slivers. You are still missing that trampling ingredient.
3. Swap out the 2 shimmering grottos and add in the 2 door of destinies. Those should be in your main deck.
4. Swap out elixir of immortality and 1 chromatic lantern and add 2 path to bravery. You need a better life gain card.

Other than that, this looks really solid. I'd be excited to play test this and see how it does at tournaments. :)

fair enough :)

you're right betefico. I stand corrected. However, if they have a zero cmc, then ratchet bomb would have to be sacrificed with no counters on it, so it would only kill your tokens. I still think that this is too much of a one hit wonder to worry about. like I said, take something in the sideboard to deal with it.

Also to answer your question razoraxis, I would take 2x chromatic lantern, 4x hive stirrings, and 2x growing ranks. I would substitute out 3x darksteel ingot, 3x into the wilds, and 2x fog for now.

planeswalkers are somewhat complex but i'll give you a great link to provide you with all the info you need. Also below that, I have posted a link with the updated m14 rules regarding planeswalkers. if you have any questions about what you read on there, just let me know.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Article.aspx?x=magic/planeswalkers/week4

http://blogs.magicjudges.org/rulestips/2013/07/m14-rules-changes-the-planeswalker-uniqueness-rule/

Thanks for the suggestions! :) Actually rancor was always a thought in my mind, but it's like $3 per card and have a lot of enchant creatures already - maybe I could swap out two predatory hungers for 2 of those... hmmm... Ancestral mask is another great idea I'll definitely have to consider - didn't even think about that and how many enchantments I have lol. Rabid wombat is a good idea, but too expensive cmc-wise. my only creature above 3 is my forgotten ancient and I'd like to keep it that way. Meekstone doesn't work in this deck. My creatures get huge and that would not be good. Crawlspace is an idea, but I'm gaining a lot of life anyway so I'm not too concerned with early counter attacks.

Now as for the creatures:

Mystic penitent - I rarely get threshold but the vigilance is a neat idea. Sideboard material
Skyshroud falcon - this one was already on my radar, I just haven't pulled the trigger. What should I toss?
Albino troll - the echo cost screws with this deck hard. Can't afford the loss of land use.
Tempting wurm - oh so tempting lol. too much of a risk though. I need my early game advantage.
Jungle Lion/Mtenda Lion/Savannah Lions - all good weenies but if you take a look, all of mine have really good secondary abilities. The extra one power on these just doesn't do it for me.
Tethered griffin - great card but can't be played turn 1. at the very earliest a turn 2 card, and I don't like risking to lose a creature because of a disenchant or something stupid like that.

I had some other creatures I was pondering about as well, maybe you could give me your opinion on those (see updated sideboard):

beloved chaplain
chieftain en-dal
chlorophant
diving griffin
elvish archers
femeref archers
kjeldoran skyknight
longbow archer
mirri, cat warrior
noble panther
paladin en-vec
silver knight
tundra wolves
white knight

I am weary of using creatures with multiple same colour casting costs like white knight because I've bad problems with mana fixing in many of my previous games and I was stuck with those cards in hand. What do you think? What would you change?

Also, thank you for actually taking the time to read my note about not using cards past scourge. You are one of the very few people who actually cared enough to do that without criticizing me so I really appreciate it.

No need to apologize. Here's my attempt to answer your questions:

1. Chromatic lantern vs. darksteel ingot - to be completely honest with you, you don't really need either of them with 4 manaweft slivers in the deck (especially if you add the shocklands or some form of dual lands - I completely understand and respect how pricey they are). Although darksteel ingot is indestructible, it only provides you with a one-mana fix but if your hand is all a different colour, you're gonna be in trouble without manawept. I prefer chromatic lantern because for the same amount of mana, it not only gives you a one-mana fix by tapping itself, but it makes all your land "fixable". It's just much more reliable when playing a multicoloured deck. Also you can't always rely on getting land every turn, even with 20 land in the deck. You want to play slivers with speed so that they are harder to control. You don't want to have them stuck in your hand if you have enough overall mana to play then. More land type availability, the better you're able to maneuver around.

2. Ratchet bomb - this card only affects "permanents" with "converted mana costs" - tokens are neither permanents nor have converted mana costs. What ratchet bomb will do though is completely screw over all of your actual slivers which could make your tokens less effective. This is a risk in all creature decks though and it's a one-off that you can try to sideboard against (worst case scenario).

3. Shocklands - expensive as hell but damn useful. If you can afford some great, if not, then you might have to just stick with lay of the land to get your mana fix. Unfortunately standard does not have much in the way of dual or triple lands other than those.

4. Gleam of battle and the mimic can potentially be played by turn 5 at the very, very latest assuming u have 1 manaweft sliver in play. You might want to wait for megantic sliver to play the mimic though to make the most out of it, which could be turn 4 or something with the right lands and a manaweft. Again with the land production, you can pretty much get 3 slivers out by turn 3 with only 2 land. I don't think that either of those 2 cards would affect your mana curve in a negative way. They are pricier cmc-wise but they are well worth it. Plus like I said, by the time you get them out, you should already have at least 3 slivers if not 4 in play.

I will show you how you can get all those high casting cards out quickly. There are many possible variations on this with your deck options - this is just one of the best case scenarios.

turn 1 - play a forest
turn 2 - play 1 more land (doesn't matter what), and play manaweft
turn 3 - play a land (if you have it). if you do, then play blur sliver and galerider sliver. If not, then just play blur sliver
turn 4 - if you got your third land now then if you play it you now have 5 land at your disposal. if you had your third land in play already, then you now have 6 mana available and can play gleam of battle or megantic sliver. You could also attack with megantic sliver on that turn because it has flying, trample, haste and it's a 6/6 (good work for turn 4).
turn 5 - if you draw a land or if you played megantic sliver the turn before, you can pretty much play anything in your deck. even if you chose not to play anything with a high cmc and just play a couple of other slivers like sentinel sliver and predatory sliver, you now have like 6 or 7 huge, massive beast to wreck your opponent (flying, trample, haste, possibly +4/+4, vigilance - even your 1/1 tokens are huge).

See how well this deck does with just the ability to play the right cards at the right time? All of the rest of the cards are just gravy to help you grow your creature count, size and make sure you have the mana to sustain your casting. Garruk becomes insanely useful by turn 5 since your hand should be pretty much empty, if you haven't already won the game lol. Hope this has helped a bit.

Actually I think the cabal ritual is a good choice. Keep in mind that once something like a dark ritual is used, it goes straight to the graveyard, which means that it automatically increases your graveyard for your next spell (ie: stacks for threshold). So lets say its turn 3. You've already used a terminate, lightning bolt and gamble to find dragonstorm. Gamble makes you discard a card too. You have 3 land in play and a hand of 4 cards. You also have 4 cards in the graveyard. Even if you wait til turn 4 and toss something else in the graveyard in turn 3, turn 4 allows you to play dragonstorm through cabal ritual, dark ritual and seething song for 4 dragons. It's a very tight combination, but that's the hard part about playing a dragonstorm deck. Your opening hand is everything. Also keep in mind the chances of you actually casting dragonstorm by turn 4 is slim, which is why you have the direct damage and creature destruction to tide you over until you can play it. Worst comes to worst, you hard cast a dragon with the help of seething song and/or dark ritual to get something out on the board. There are a couple of other mana generation cards you could consider, but we're starting to get to a point where we change a lot in the deck to maneuver everything.

Simian spirit guide - discard to add a red mana to your mana pool (about $1 each on tcg player)
Braid of fire - cumulative upkeep - add one red mana to your mana pool (pricey - about $7 each)
Inner fire - add one red mana to your mana pool for each card in your hand ($0.25 each)
Rite of flame - add 2 red mana to your mana pool + one more for each other rite of flame in each graveyard ($2 each)
Bubbling muck - until end of turn, each swamp produces 2 black mana ($0.50 each)
Burnt offering - sacrifice a creature, add red and or black mana to mana pool equal to cmc of creature ($0.25 each)
Culling the weak - sacrifice a creature, add 4 black mana to mana pool ($0.75 each)
Liturgy of blood - destroy target creature, add 3 black mana to mana pool ($0.25 each)
priest of gix - when it comes into play, add 3 black mana to mana pool ($0.50 each) - amazing with culling the weak

Again these are all just ideas for you. If you really want to rely on dragonstorm, I think this is the way to go, but I think it might be beneficial to add a bit more direct damage as well just in case.

I'm starting to get lost in all these cards lol. Sorry my mind just goes and goes.

I'm an idiot lol. Why didn't I think of terminate! DUH! Also no need to explain your thoughts to me. This is your deck. You have every right to take as much time as you want to test/tweak, and/or throw my ideas out the door completely. I take no offense whatsoever. I'm just here to give you my thoughts :) Good addition with blood crypt as well!

Hi there. I noticed you are running Domri as your planeswalker (very original by the way!). That ultimate ability is fantastic, but if you want to use it for the draw ability, I think that garruk, caller of beasts is much better (his ultimate ability is insane for slivers as well). Or maybe run both? I am also noticing that a lot of people who are running M14 slivers are not taking galerider or groundshaker. For you with Domri, it's not so much of a problem, but you have to actually get him in play, and with no other search ability this could be hard sometimes. Garruk could help with that as well. I understand that galerider is in your sideboard and that it would make this a 5 colour deck instead of 4, but I think that it would be much better with them in the main deck and you have the ability to play it since you have breeding pool and manaweft. You need that flying, trample piercing power, otherwise a deck full of weenies can block you. Thorncaster sliver will help, but you only have 3 and you have to hope the opponent(s) don't keep casting quickly. Also is there a reason why you have both bonescythe and striking sliver? A creature cannot have first strike and double strike; it's one or the other. You should also consider sentinel sliver for vigilance. If you decide not to run galerider and/or groundshaker in your main deck (or regardless for that matter), you should also consider using imposing sovereign. This works wonderfully well with blur sliver and will help to get some attacks through. Also you may want to consider hive stirrings. 3 mana for 2 slivers is not something to take lightly. Anyway, just my opinion. :)

Looks really good but I'm a little worried about damnation, and your relatively small creature pool. Here are some other suggestions you may want to consider:

Dragon Creatures:
Balefire Dragon
Bladewing, the Risen
Darigaaz, the Ignitor
Crosis, the Purger
Furyborn Hellkite
Hellkite Charger
Teneb, the Harvester

Other Creatures/Plainswalkers:
Dragonmaster Outcast
Sarkhan the Mad

Other Cards:
Crucible of Fire
Terror

Based on your current build, here is one option:

Add:
2x Balefire Dragon
2x Terror
1x Dragonmaster Outcast
1x Sarkhan the Mad
1x Hellkite Charger

Remove:
2x Elixir of Immortality
1x Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
3x Damnation
1x Utvara Hellkite

There are many combinations that would work well here, you just need to find a mix that works well for you :)

Unfortunately with 4 sets leaving standard in September of this year, there's a lot of potential that leaves along with them. However within the sets that will still remain in standard, I have come up with the following list that would be beneficial in this deck.

chromatic lantern - artifact for 3 - lands you control have "tap to add one mana of any color to your mana pool" (this could be huge for you)

growing ranks - enchantment for 4 - at the begin of your upkeep, populate (you would need to have played hive stirrings for this to take effect - populate allows you to put a token into play that is a copy of a token you already control - combine this with progenitor mimic below and you have a killer combo)

shock lands - there are a lot and they are fantastic - these lands are dual lands that come into play tapped unless you take 2 damage - they also count as both basic land types so they are searchable with cards like lay of the land - these will help you fix your mana combinations

gleam of battle - enchantment for 6 - when creatures you control attack, each one gets a +1/+1 counter

progenitor mimic - shapeshifter for 6 - when it comes into play, it becomes a copy of a creature you control. if that chosen creature is not a token, then at the beginning of your upkeep, put a token on the battlefield that is a copy of that creature. (hard to explain but basically as long as you make the shapeshifter a copy of something like megantic sliver, thorncaster sliver, predatory sliver, etc. then each upkeep you can put a copy of that chosen sliver on the battlefield as a token - so lets say you have megantic sliver out and you play progenitor mimic. You make the mimic into a copy of megantic sliver. Now you have 2 - so all your creatures get +6/+6 instead. At the beginning of your upkeep, put another token on the battlefield that is a copy of it. So now all your creatures get +9/+9. And so on and so forth.)

Hope this helps :)

no worries, I totally understand. I am the same way. started around ice age, quit around scourge and just recently came back, so I missed about 10 years lol. If you would like me to explain the plainswalkers or any other meta/mechanic, let me know. I will get back to you in the meantime with some other standard cards for you to consider.

no worries. keep it up. i'm excited to see the end result :)

I love the idea behind this deck. My only concern is that you rely so heavily on Dragonstorm to win, but you don't have enough ways to guarantee you get one. The diabolic tutor is a great way but you may want to consider some of the following:

Liliana Vess
Rhystic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Demonic Collusion
Diabolic Revelation
Gamble
Increasing Ambition
Infernal Tutor

I would also suggest you add in some direct damage so that you can fend off early attacks. This deck is extremely vulnerable early game. Maybe add some creature destruction as well. Both of these types of cards fit perfectly into red/black decks. On a side note, be very weary of using mana flare, because this ability may also help your opponent rush you even faster.

Just my opinion :)

I find that one problem with standard slivers is the lack of reliable, cheap piercing mechanisms. In M14 they came out with groundshaker sliver which is pretty expense cmc-wise, however other than galerider, it's the only one that a 2/2 can't stop completely. I would highly recommend you add it in. Considering you have 4 manawept slivers, you could potentially get it out by turn 4. Also I would recommend moving door of destinies into your main deck because this ramps well with the trample ability. I also think adding garruk, caller of beasts would be much, much better than into the wilds for the purpose you're using it for. The +1 ability will keep your hand full of creatures and help you get what you need/want fast and the ultimate ability is just insane. With the haste ability you have, you may also want to consider using imposing sovereign to stop your opponent from being able to block right away. I also like hive stirrings because its cheap and puts 2 extra slivers on the board. Another consideration would be thorncaster sliver, but it's cmc is high for it's ability. It does however provide some extra punch to your attacks. Mutavault is also a great land to add in because its ability makes it count as a sliver. I also like your idea of having path of bravery but you may want to consider main-boarding it as well.

Here is what I would recommend changing:

Swap in:
2x door of destinies
2x groundshaker sliver
1x garruk, caller of beasts
2x imposing sovereign
4x hive stirrings
2x thorncaster sliver
2x mutavault
2x path of bravery

Swap out or sideboard:
3x into the wilds
2x fog
1x bonescythe sliver
1x galerider sliver
3x darksteel ingot
2x sentinel sliver
1x elixir of immortality
2x shimmering grotto
2x silence

Based on these changes, you will also need to switch up your basic land mix in order to get the right combination. Lay of the land might also help you get the right lands you need during the game, if you want to add it in. Verdant haven could work too, but the mechanic is a little bit different.

All of the suggested cards are from M14. If you would like, I could also suggest other cards that would work well in standard. Just let me know what you're thinking :)

in order for that to work properly, you would need enough mana to hard cast a dragon anyway. there's no point.

Well put together. I really like it. Good work :)

Looks a lot better! But I just drew 10 hands, and you weren't able to cast anything because of mana. You need to have the Llanowar Elves. 4 of them. I would swap out the following (again completely your choice):

wurmweaver coil x 2 - out
eladamri x 1 - out
joraga treespeaker x 2 - out
primordial hydra x 2 - out
wellwisher x 2 - in
llanowar elves x 4 - in
ezuri, renegade leader x 1 - in

Rat Insanity lol. Here's some suggestions:

Diseased Vermin
Ichor Rats
Ink Eyes, Servant of Oni
Locust Miser
Pestilence Rats
Scrib Nibblers
Septic Rats

Infect and prosper :)