MTG Head Designer Mark Rosewater Confirms Slivers Will Return

Last updated on September 18, 2025

The First Sliver (Modern Horizons) – art by Svetlin Velinov

Not if, but when: Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater confirmed yesterday that Slivers are coming back to Magic.

“Slivers returning are a when,” Rosewater wrote yesterday in his personal blog, “but I won’t predict how soon.”

For those among you who don't follow Rosewater's blog, there's two things that should be highlighted. On the one hand, of course he knows what the future MTG sets will bring. But, on the other, he's not free to say too much about upcoming sets; so when he says “when,” it's as pretty close as confirmed as you can get outside of official reveals.

MTG sets are developed three or four years in advance, though, meaning Mark could be talking about a set that won't come out until 2028 or 2029… but it also could happen as soon as next year!

Which MTG Set Could Bring Back Slivers?

Sliver Weftwinder – Illustration by Slawomir Maniak

We know Slivers are coming; we don't know exactly when, but we know they are in Magic's foreseeable future.

Where could we see them, though? In which plane, and in which set?

Rosewater wasn't as forthcoming with that information, but he hinted we could visit the Sliver homeworld (of which we know pretty much nothing right now).

“I think the Sliver Homeworld is more when than if,” he said back in April (although he shared no other hints about it).

How Scary Were Slivers in Their Prime?

Sliver Overlord – art by Tony Szczudlo

Slivers remain one of Magic's most popular creature types, but truth be told, they were not that when it comes to competitive results. More fun than fangs, if you will!

They are hugely popular in Commander, though. The First Sliver, the most popular Sliver commander, is among the Top 100 most popular commanders in the the whole game. And the runner-up, Sliver Overlord, makes it into the top 200.

And Commander ended up being the home of the only Standard-legal sliver we have right now, Edge of Eternities Thrumming Hivepool: It's unplayable in Standard, but extremely popular in the 99 of both The First Sliver and Sliver Overlord.

Would Slivers Be Balanced in Standard?

Gemhide Sliver (Commander Masters) – art by Alayna Danner

Slivers were never too oppressive – but they did have to be changed to make them easier to parse. Originally, Slivers affected any other sliver on the field, be it friend or foe. That was pretty much their flavor: Part of a hivemind that affected them all, so my Slivers would buff your slivers, and vice-versa.

That proved counter-intuitive for a lot of players, and even those that clearly understood how slivers worked didn't like that part too much.

That's why in their fourth visit to Magic, back in 2014, they went from Gemhide Sliver…

… to Manaweft Sliver: A strictly better version that only affects your slivers.

“Yes, this is an updated Gemhide Sliver from Time Spiral,” wrote Rosewater back then in his Sliver Pâté article from 2013. ” While Magic 2014 introduces a bunch of new Slivers, we also felt it was important to make new versions of some popular Slivers from the past.

Both in the official article and in his blog, Rosewater explains why they changed slivers in a similar way to how tribal lords work (lords like Lord of Atlantis used to affect all creatures of a certain type, now only affect your creatures of that type) to make things more intuitive and, since then, most new slivers just buff your side of the field.

He also explains why they revisited slivers in that set.

“The reason they have been used so much is that they've always been a hit with players,” Mark wrote. “The more people like something, the higher chance we are to do it again. Why have we done Slivers four different times? Because players really like them.”

Now we know that the fifth sliver wave is not too far!