Sliver
"Native" to Dominaria and Rath, slivers are insectoid mesomorphs that live in huge hive colonies. Their precise origins are unknown. They were indigenous to Rath, an artificial plane made up of stolen sections of other planes. Slivers may have originally been genetically engineered by one of the rulers ("evincars") of Rath, or have developed naturally there.
Slivers are feral, territorial and vicious. Ruled by the Sliver Queen until the Rathi overlay onto Dominaria, the slivers possess a hive mind, where each individual sliver thinks the thoughts of the entire collective. What makes Slivers particularly unusual is that, as well as thoughts, they also share physical attributes with other members of the hive. Each sliver is born with its own native ability, be it enhanced strength, increased speed, or special natural defenses or weaponry and will automatically pass those abilities on to all other slivers nearby.
On Rath, the slivers had been contained entirely within the Stronghold's vast lower echelons, rarely interacting with other species, most of whom possessed the wits to keep away. A network of Hivestones kept the hive in check. The slivers fascinated Volrath, the plane's penultimate evincar, who worked to exert some influence over the hive. To this end, he created the Metallic Sliver, which could join the hive but remain under his control. When Rath finally overlaid onto Dominaria, the Stronghold was transplanted to the inside of a dormant volcano. Coalition forces later reignited the volcano, destroying most of the lower Stronghold, including the Sliver-infested areas.
The species was made effectively extinct for a century until foolishly revived by the wizard researchers of Riptide Isle, who quickly lost control of their latest pet. Without either the Hivestones or a Queen to control them, the slivers bred and spread at a frantic rate, overrunning the island and spreading out across Dominaria itself. During Rift-Era Dominaria, two centuries later, the Slivers had become a genuine ecological menace, wiping out entire species and threatening many weary established civilizations, including the humans of Benalia and the elves of Skyshroud. By now, the slivers had adapted to existence without a queen-figure, though the planeswalker Freyalise did attempt to fill that role shortly before her death. Now conglomerate independent rulers of themselves, the slivers have become the ultimate manifestation of the hive mind - the Sliver Legion.
The Future Sight expansion hints that slivers may eventually encounter such non-Dominarian races as the Vedalken and the currently unknown Arturans, though these storylines have yet to be revealed.
In the game, the Slivers (Known as "Shyfts" in Tempest design) are one of the most popular and notorious creature types Magic: the Gathering has produced. Each individual sliver card possesses its own ability but also grants that ability to every other sliver-type creature in play. Because this mechanic demands a wide variety of interlocking abilities and therefore a sizable number of slivers per set, slivers tend to be printed in single, large "generations." Three generations have been made to date. The original slivers of Tempest Block are the most enduring, having been popular with all types of players, from the most determined tournament contestants to the more casual custom deck builders. With their reputation as a fun yet challenging creature type to play with firmly established, the slivers were retired for a number of years, before returning in Onslaught Block courtesy of the Riptide biologists. However, these slivers had very little impact on the tournament scene, with Wizards of the Coast perhaps wary of the predictable, relentless forms previous top-tier sliver decks had taken. The slivers returned again in the Time Spiral block, more powerful than the Onslaught generation (with success in Limited/Block formats of tournament play) but were not as prevalent, overall, as the originals.
Many Sliver cards were also reprinted in foil version in Premium Deck Slivers.
(Uncontrolled Infestation, Visual list of Sliver Cards at gatherer.wizards.com)
Read more about this topic: List Of Species In Magic: The Gathering
Famous quotes containing the word sliver:
“Where the citizen uses a mere sliver or board, the pioneer uses the whole trunk of a tree.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“But before the extremity of the Cape had completely sunk, it appeared like a filmy sliver of land lying flat on the ocean, and later still a mere reflection of a sand-bar on the haze above. Its name suggests a homely truth, but it would be more poetic if it described the impression which it makes on the beholder.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)