For Legacy, I play Meathooks (aka: Counter Sliver). If you’ve never seen the deck before, a good basic primer is available at MTGtheSource. It’s a little out of date, so I’ll post my current decklist with my thoughts.
Lands (19):
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Flooded Strand
1x Island
3x Misty Rainforest
4x Mutavault
1x Plains
1x Tropical Island
1x Tundra
Creatures (25):
4x Crystalline Sliver
4x Galerider Sliver
1x Harmonic Sliver
4x Muscle Sliver
4x Phantasmal Image
4x Predatory Sliver
4x Sinew Sliver
Instants (12):
4x Brainstorm
4x Daze
4x Force of Will
Artifacts (4):
4x Aether Vial
The deck isn’t cheap and is in the price range of a lower end legacy deck. The deck contains Force of Will, dual lands, and fetch lands and thus is as expensive. It also has Cavern of Souls, Mutavaults, and Aether Vials which aren’t cheap either and are staples of aggro based strategies. To purchase the deck off TCG player at moderately played, it’s $1300 (which blows my mind)!
The deck wins because it has has several different packages that are very common in legacy and give it enough staying power. Force + Daze allows it to fight unfair decks. Brainstorm + fetch lands allow it to craft it’s topdecks. Aether Vial + 2 CC creatures allow it to vial out stuff mid combat or as tricks. The Slivers all allow them to outclass opposing creatures. Phantasmal Image allows the deck to make more slivers or copy opposing creatures.
The deck has a ton of tricks that allow you to stop opposing decks in their tracks. Crystalline Sliver is a powerhouse and enables all sorts of shenanigans. It defends Mutavault vs opposing wastelands which is vital. Crystalline Sliver also defends Phantasmal Image and prevents it from being targeted. Additionally, Phantasmal Image doesn’t target as it enters and thus you can copy other Phantasmal Images or your shrouded slivers. I’ve tested some against Reanimator/Show and Tell and Phantasmal Image works well against them as well and gives you game.
I’ve been tempted to try to add the Counterbalance + Sensei’s Divining Top package to the deck. It’s an amazing addition but there just isn’t room. Another card I would like is Ponder. It’s just that Ponder is typically best for digging for cards and Brainstorm is for throwing away dead cards.
The final addition I’ve thought about is Hibernation Sliver. It was amazing back in the day before Wizards removed damage from the stack and still allows your team to dodge wrath effects at instant speed (and can be flashed in via Aether Vial for tricks). You would need to remove the basic Plains from the deck and put in an Underground Sea to support the black.
With black mana, the deck would be able to add Syphon Sliver which is a very promising card. The problem with Syphon Sliver is it’s 3 CC and thus normally our Vials aren’t going that high. So not only are we adding a 4th color but working our Vials harder. I’m testing the vanilla 3 color Meathooks and thus havne’t tried stretching for the black and adding in the tricks.
My final thought about stretching for black is having Underground Sea also allows several more sideboard options (Thoughtseize and Duress primarily). Games 2 + 3 would be helpful vs non-aggro decks with Thoughtseize available.