(Sliver Gravemother | Art by Chris Rahn)

Hello everyone and welcome to another installment of the Scrap Trawlers Precon Upgrade Guides! I’m Bert and I’m here to help you upgrade the Sliver Swarm precon on a budget. Last time we talked about general strategies that were included in the deck, so now we'll go over some cards that we can change to increase the synergies in the deck. Let’s get into the deck list, shall we?

Swarmyard

Before we get into the upgrades let’s go over our face commander. Sliver GravemotherSliver Gravemother is a Sliver typal commander that gives us access to all five colors. This gives us a multitude of support cards that we can use and we need to get some of those to aid in our strategy. Sliver Gravemother gives us the option to give the Slivers in our graveyard Encore X. This makes it so we have a backup strategy later in the game where we can make and copy our strongest buff in the yard for the turn. As I stated in the Primer, this deck has a solid creature suite, but the support cards could use a bit of work. Making the deck more consistent is my goal so that we can have an easier time throughout the game. 

Supporting The Swarm

There are a few cards that I would like to get added to the deck so that we can smooth out the experience. One of the cards that I love for the deck is Elven ChorusElven Chorus. It’s four mana but it gives us both card advantage and mana fixing, which the deck sorely needs in its current iteration. To further help with the mana of the deck, let’s also add a Chromatic LanternChromatic Lantern so that we can have access to all our colors and get a bit of ramp out of the exchange. To get a bit more card advantage, I'm also adding in Horn of the MarkHorn of the Mark so that we get rewarded for being the aggro deck that we want to be.

Next we're going to add some basic draw spells so that we can more consistently hit our land drops and spells. Cards like Chart a CourseChart a Course, Painful TruthsPainful Truths, and Shamanic RevelationShamanic Revelation go a long way to give us some consistent draws and make it so that our deck plays a bit more consistently. Card draw is a vital part of an aggro deck, making it so that we always have gas in the tank to overrun our opponents.

Lastly, there are a couple of cards that I want to add because they're neat. Rhythm of the WildRhythm of the Wild is a haste enabler and gives us a way to pump our creatures so that they can have a stronger presence. Patriarch’s BiddingPatriarch’s Bidding does an impression of Sliver Gravemother and brings back our Slivers from the graveyard, giving it a high ceiling for us. I also wanted extra ramp and removal, and Pir’s WhimPir’s Whim can be both. It gives us any land while getting rid of artifacts or enchantments on our opponents' side of the board.

Swarm Adjacent

Here we’ll go over some of the cards that'll be cut from the deck. First on my list is Crippling FearCrippling Fear. It's a subpar board wipe that won’t remove our opponents' creatures if they get too big, so I would rather have a card that would definitely deal with the problem. The next card is DecimateDecimate, which has the problem of having to have four different targets. It's a dead card if, for example, there are no enchantments on the board. Or an unfortunate card if you control the only enchantment and really don't want to destroy it. Descendants’ FuryDescendants’ Fury is a bit lackluster to me. It seems to reward us for being ahead and incentivizes us to give up our board state for a random creature for our deck. This just isn't how I prefer to play the game, so I would like to avoid it.

WindfallWindfall is a card I'm not exactly happy to see as well. We do have a commander that cares a bit about the graveyard but it isn't the general strategy that we're doing, so I feel this is a wasted slot. I’m also cutting some of the redundant Slivers to make a bit of space for support for the deck. Crypt SliverCrypt Sliver and Bonesplitter SliverBonesplitter Sliver have other cards in the deck that do what they do, but better. 

Next let's go over what I would do with the deck if there was no budget.

Budget Breaking Swarm

Here at Scrap Trawlers we're a budget focused group, but this deck being five colors means the mana base lends itself to being more expensive. In particular one of the first upgrades you can do here is Shock lands, such as Steam VentsSteam Vents, Hallowed FountainHallowed Fountain, etc. Fixing the mana issues in this deck should be your first priority. Even going as far as running the Pain lands that represent our three highest colors.

We need a couple of protection spells that actually got reprints in the main set. Heroic InterventionHeroic Intervention and Flawless ManeuverFlawless Maneuver are some amazing spells that can give our board that staying power that it needs.

Lastly, I am yet again asking for a typal deck that comes with Kindred DiscoveryKindred Discovery. The draw power is just astounding, so it’s an inclusion that needs to be considered in the deck.

Sliver Lineup

Here is our modified list:

This is probably one of the more challenging decks that I've done, so let me know what you think about the upgrades and the deck in general.

Make sure to check back for more precon guides from us Scrap Trawlers. You can also check out our budget content over on Twitch and YouTube, and follow us on Twitter. Don’t forget to upgrade your precon on a budget!

Scrap Trawlers

Scrap Trawlers is a Magic: The Gathering budget EDH streaming and video group, with gameplay, deck techs, chats, and more. Catch our videos at youtube.com/scraptrawlers. Andy, Lenny, and Bert.