Watcher Sliver MTG Card
2006-10-06 - Number 45
2021-03-19 - Number 49
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 4 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Creature — Sliver |
| Power | 2 |
| Toughness | 2 |
Key Takeaways
- Watcher Sliver provides card advantage, augmenting every Sliver drawn for stronger board presence.
- Through mana acceleration, Watcher Sliver enables faster plays, crucial in aggressive MTG strategies.
- Supporting instant-speed decks, it boosts the potency of your Sliver army during full turn cycles.
Text of card
All Slivers get +0/+2.
"I have spied them, wandering and watching—but for what? I fear they watch for us." —Yonat of Amrou
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Watcher Sliver offers a significant boost to Sliver fans, potentially turning every Sliver draw into a more threatening board presence. Assisting in building a robust hand, this creature ensures you always have a response or a further play, fortifying your strategic position.
Resource Acceleration: In concert with mana-generating Slivers, Watcher Sliver accelerates your resource pool, allowing you to deploy more threats or answers faster than your adversary can handle. This heightened speed is key in outracing opponents in aggressive strategies.
Instant Speed: While Watcher Sliver itself isn’t an instant, it complements decks built around instant speed interactions. By bolstering your Sliver army, it ensures that the Slivers you flash in during your opponent’s turn are even more potent, tipping combat encounters in your favor and maintaining pressure during the full turn cycle.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Watcher Sliver has a casting condition that can be a downside in situations where your hand is dwindling. Being compelled to toss another valuable card can set you back in the game.
Specific Mana Cost: This Sliver creature demands a particular combination of mana types to play. If your mana base isn’t diverse or you’re running a tight two-color deck, fitting Watcher Sliver into your strategy might be challenging.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost that might be considered steep for its abilities, there are alternatives in the Sliver family that could prove more cost-effective. This can be particularly important in decks where speed and efficiency are key.
Reasons to Include Watcher Sliver in Your Collection
Versatility: Watcher Sliver is a solid addition to any sliver deck, enhancing your sliver creatures’ survivability with an extra point of toughness. It’s able to adapt to various board states and can be a game-changer in both offensive and defensive strategies.
Combo Potential: As with many slivers, Watcher Sliver shines when combined with other slivers that offer complementary abilities. The boost to toughness can be critical for enabling synergies and protecting key slivers that allow your combos to go off uninterrupted.
Meta-Relevance: In environments where board wipes and combat tricks are prevalent, the increased toughness provided by Watcher Sliver could mean the difference between keeping a dominant board presence or being wiped out. It helps to keep your slivers on the battlefield where they can continue to press the advantage.
How to beat
Watcher Sliver presents a challenge on the battlefield, fortifying your opponent’s slivers by making them harder to target. To outmaneuver this, a strategic move is to shift focus from targeting individual slivers to deploying board wipes. Sweep the board clean with cards like Wrath of God or Damnation, which bypass the targeting restriction. If direct removal is necessary, consider spells like Echoing Decay or Plague Sliver, which target all creatures sharing a name or penalize the sliver collective’s growth.
Moreover, it’s prudent to use counter spells like Counterspell or Mana Leak to prevent Watcher Sliver from ever entering the battlefield. In the event the sliver horde gets overwhelming, utilize non-targeted exile effects like Merciless Eviction to ensure permanents are removed regardless of any protective measures. In your arsenal keep a mix of removal, countermeasures, and mass destruction, which can tilt the scales back in your favor against the resilient synergy of any sliver presence enhanced by Watcher Sliver.
Ultimately, combatting Watcher Sliver and its kin is about disrupting synergies and denying the opponent the slivers’ collective enhancements. By broadening your approach beyond single-target spells, you maintain the upper hand against sliver strategies in Magic: The Gathering, ensuring your deck isn’t hampered by their hard-to-target nature.
Cards like Watcher Sliver
Watcher Sliver slips smoothly into the line-up of creature-enhancing slivers in Magic: The Gathering. Its ability to offer vigilance is mirrored by the classic Sentinel Sliver. Both of these cards infuse your sliver horde with the capability to attack without tapping, a strategic boon ensuring units remain defensively poised. Yet, Watcher Sliver stands apart with its 4 toughness, providing a more robust barrier against opposition compared to Sentinel’s 2.
Considering other vigilant providers, Synchronous Sliver cannot be overlooked. This sliver offers a comparable vigilance boost, but with an added twist—it synchronizes untapping with your untap step. Despite the appealing sync ability, the mana cost is notably higher. Then, there’s the ever-popular Bonescythe Sliver, which, although it lacks the vigilance trait, compels attention by granting double strike—a tangibly aggressive edge over the mere defensive posture provided by Watcher Sliver.
Evaluating such options within the sliver archetype highlights how Watcher Sliver finds its niche. It unites solid defense with the typical synergetic sliver quality, positioning itself as a steadfast choice among MTG sliver strategists aiming for balanced aggression and board control.
Cards similar to Watcher Sliver by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Watcher Sliver MTG card by a specific set like Time Spiral and Time Spiral Remastered, 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 Watcher Sliver and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Printings
The Watcher Sliver Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2006-10-06 and 2021-03-19. Illustrated by Liz Danforth.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2006-10-06 | Time Spiral | TSP | 45 | 2003 | Normal | Black | Liz Danforth | |
| 2 | 2021-03-19 | Time Spiral Remastered | TSR | 49 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Liz Danforth |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Watcher Sliver has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Watcher Sliver card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 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 | Because damage remains marked on a creature until the damage is removed as the turn ends, nonlethal damage dealt to another Sliver may become lethal if Watcher Sliver leaves the battlefield during that turn. |
