Tuesday, May 7, 2013

From Intimidating Alien to MTG 2.0 Digimon: The New Slivers


Wizards has just this week announced the return of Slivers in M14, and they’re a bit different than the Slivers we’ve come to know and [love/hate]. The two big changes are that they only buff your own Slivers instead of all Slivers now, and their style guide got a pretty significant update. We’ll be talking about the second change.



The first point, the mechanical change, was hashed out publicly between @conley81 and @meddlingmage for the most part. I won’t revisit it entirely here, but the general idea is that the mechanical complexity of having buffs apply to all Slivers instead of just your own is not worth the nostalgia factor, especially when you consider that the core set is aimed at new players. Plus drafting old-style slivers would likely be miserable.

The change to the art, however, is something I think that warrants a bit of discussion. Or more accurately, complaining.

Doug Beyer touched on exactly this topic in his tumblr . I take issue with his description of their reasons for the change. I understand where they come from when considering the adaptability of the style guide moving forward. The original design of “big angry worm” does not lend itself to a multitude of visual changes as well as some other designs could. This is a legitimate concern to address, but ultimately I feel that there are ways to expand on the original Sliver visual concept without such a distinct departure from their known form.


Its Doug’s (and the creative team’s) feeling that Slivers need to be more relatable that I find distressing. I was particularly irked by his statement that Slivers should be able “to generate facial expressions.” Part of what makes Slivers so distinct and visually powerful in the multiverse setting is how completely alien they feel, both to the universe they exist in, as well as to our human sensibilities. The faceless, insectoid body structure is one that we as humans have trouble understanding. It is very difficult to empathize with a creature that shares no physical similarities with you. As creatures of a hive mind, we already are constrained to an incredibly dim understanding of how Slivers function and process information. The concept of the hive mind is one which we can only make wild, uninformed guesses about, but none of us can ever truly begin to understand or even grasp. The featureless visage and unique body structure help convey that gap between our concept of our own consciousness and whatever form of awareness they possess. With no face, there is no emotion to read or anticipate. There is no window into the soul in which to gaze. There is only the sheen of the plating that hides the creature’s intentions from your inquisitive and fearful glare.

It is this complete lack of ability to connect with Slivers on a physical level that makes them such an emotionally evocative creature. By giving them eyes and faces and human morphology, we are better able to grasp the reality perceived by the creature – something that Slivers, as a hive mind, should deny at every turn. Slivers are one of very few species in the multiverse that deviate from the normal fantasy-grade material, and it’s unfortunate to see their visual identity being stripped away from them and reduced to angrier-looking pokemon.

1 comment:

  1. 100 times this.
    The domed beak heads were Iconic and losing them just makes them not feel like slivers anymore. No eyes especially made them feel completely and was the reason I collected them.

    The worst part to me is that some of the humanoid stances etc make them look like known characters already. The white one they leaked looks like the witch from L4D, same stance as when you stand to close but before she startles. And most of them look like Predator too

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