Homing Sliver MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 4 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityCommon
TypeCreature — Sliver
Abilities Cycling,Slivercycling
Power 2
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. Homing Sliver provides deck consistency by tutoring for any Sliver card, crucial for assembling key combinations.
  2. Its instant speed slivercycling ability adds a layer of unpredictability and tactical flexibility to play.
  3. Despite its mana cost and restrictions, it’s an asset in Sliver decks for its combo and versatility potential.

Text of card

Each Sliver card in each player's hand has slivercycling . Slivercycling (, Discard this card: Search your library for a Sliver card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Homing Sliver offers a strategic edge by letting you sift through your deck for any Sliver card, a vital tactic for assembling powerful combinations or retrieving key pieces when most needed.

Resource Acceleration: This creature may initially seem mana-intensive, but the ability to tutor any Sliver effectively thins your deck, making it more likely to draw into non-Sliver resources and advancing your board state more quickly.

Instant Speed: The Slivercycling ability of Homing Sliver can be activated at instant speed, giving you the flexibility to adapt during your opponent’s turn or in response to their actions, keeping them guessing about your next move.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Homing Sliver commands you to discard a Sliver card to activate its search ability. In a game where each card in hand is a valuable asset, this requirement can set you back, particularly if your hand is already stretched thin on resources.

Specific Mana Cost: With a casting cost that includes one red mana, Homing Sliver may not fit seamlessly into every Sliver deck, especially those that run on a multicolor mana base leaning away from red.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The three total mana needed to cast Homing Sliver is a significant investment, especially considering that many other tribal support cards offer impactful abilities or buffs for a lower mana cost. In the fast-paced environment of modern gameplay, this may hinder its efficiency.


Reasons to Include Homing Sliver in Your Collection

Versatility: Homing Sliver provides a flexible advantage for Sliver decks, granting all Slivers in your hand the ability to be cycled. This enhances deck consistency and ensures you can adapt to various in-game scenarios by fetching the right Sliver for the situation.

Combo Potential: This card is a linchpin in combos within Sliver decks, allowing you to cycle through your library to assemble powerful Sliver combinations. By discarding and drawing Slivers, you can orchestrate game-winning board states that capitalize on synergies between Slivers.

Meta-Relevance: With the versatility Slivers bring to the table, Homing Sliver is relevant in metas where adaptability and resilience against control decks are crucial. Its cycling ability can dodge common removal, ensuring your Sliver strategy maintains momentum.


How to beat Homing Sliver

Homing Sliver presents an interesting layer of strategy to Magic: The Gathering play. This particular Sliver allows a player to pay three mana to search their library for another Sliver card, revealing it and putting it in their hand. This tutor-like ability can be a game-changer, potentially assembling a powerful Sliver combination that could overwhelm opponents.

To effectively counter Homing Sliver, the key is disruption and removal. Cards like Path to Exile or Fatal Push allow players to respond quickly, exiling or destroying the Sliver before the search ability can be activated. Another sound strategy is to use counter spells such as Counterspell or Mana Leak to thwart the Sliver’s casting, or restrict the player’s mana with land destruction or taxing effects that make the ability cost-prohibitive to use.

It’s essential for players to understand that while Homing Sliver can be a linchpin in a Sliver deck, it’s not unbeatable. With prompt and decisive answers to disrupt the Sliver synergy, players can effectively nullify the Homing Sliver’s advantage and maintain control of the game.


BurnMana Recommendations

The world of MTG presents a fascinating avenue to test strategies and card synergies, and Homing Sliver exemplifies this dynamic perfectly. With its potential to reshape the battlefield and pivot your game plan, this card can be a valuable asset for any player looking to harness the power of Slivers. Our dive into Homing Sliver’s attributes should entice you to explore not just its mechanics but the vast possibilities it opens up. Are you eager to refine your deck-building skills and master the Sliver strategy? Expand your MTG horizons and elevate your play—learn more with us and witness your deck transform from a simple collection to a formidable arsenal.


Cards like Homing Sliver

Homing Sliver presents a unique mechanic to Magic: The Gathering players, granting all Slivers in hand the “slivercycling” ability. In the realm of cycling cards, it stands out by being quite specialized, akin to the broader utility of generic cycling cards like Twisted Abomination or Monstrous Carabid. These allow players to discard them to draw a card, providing flexibility, but they do not offer the targeted tutor-like effect that comes with Homing Sliver’s slivercycling.

Looking at another tribal-centric card with a similar cycling theme, we have Draconic Roar which implicitly supports dragon tribal decks. It offers the ability to deal damage while filtering through the deck if a dragon is revealed or in hand. However, Homing Sliver’s ability to fetch any Sliver card directly is a powerful advantage for Sliver decks. It ensures that the essential combo pieces or desired Slivers are drawn when most needed.

Thus, while several cards sport the cycling feature, Homing Sliver’s specificity in bolstering Sliver tribal strategies places it in a strategic niche, enabling a level of deck consistency and flexibility that is highly valued among MTG players who favor Sliver builds.

Twisted Abomination - MTG Card versions
Monstrous Carabid - MTG Card versions
Draconic Roar - MTG Card versions
Twisted Abomination - Scourge (SCG)
Monstrous Carabid - Alara Reborn (ARB)
Draconic Roar - Dragons of Tarkir (DTK)

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Homing Sliver MTG card by a specific set like Future Sight and Premium Deck Series: Slivers, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Homing Sliver and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Homing Sliver Magic the Gathering card was released in 4 different sets between 2007-05-04 and 2021-03-19. Illustrated by Trevor Hairsine.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12007-05-04Future SightFUT 118futurenormalblackTrevor Hairsine
22009-11-20Premium Deck Series: SliversH09 192003normalblackTrevor Hairsine
32019-12-02Secret Lair DropSLD 6402015normalblackTrevor Hairsine
42021-03-19Time Spiral RemasteredTSR 1712015normalblackTrevor Hairsine

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Homing Sliver has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Homing Sliver card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2013-07-01 Abilities that Slivers grant, as well as power/toughness boosts, are cumulative. However, for some abilities, like flying, having more than one instance of the ability doesn’t provide any additional benefit.
2013-07-01 If the creature type of a Sliver changes so it’s no longer a Sliver, it will no longer be affected by its own ability. Its ability will continue to affect other Sliver creatures.
2021-03-19 Slivercycling is a form of cycling. Any ability that triggers on a card being cycled also triggers on Slivercycling a card. Any ability that stops a cycling ability from being activated also stops Slivercycling from being activated.
2021-03-19 Unlike a normal cycling ability, Slivercycling doesn’t have you draw a card. Instead, it lets you search your library for a Sliver card.

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