Published on the now defunct Grimmoire.com, January 18, 2003
Slivers Redux: Building a Standard Slivers Deck That Wins (Sometimes)!
by Ron Vitale
Okay, I want a chance to redeem myself. Right before Legions was released, I wrote my "When Slivers Attack!" article for the now defunct www.grimmoire.com and one reader slammed me for my lack of originality in my Sliver deck design. Considering Legions hadn't been released yet and we were still days away from the full spoiler list, I did the best I could with the information I had. But now I want to revisit my original deck idea and come up with a better deck (heck, anything would be better than what I had before).
If you've read the title and frowned at seeing Slivers, then bare with me. This deck concept isn't going to be a Top 8 deck. I've played the deck against top tier decks and have won, but it's a difficult, uphill battle. So, here's my point: If you want only to win (no matter what), then this isn't your deck. But if you enjoy trying to win with a different type of deck, let me tell you that the Slivers deck can drive people nuts. When it works, it's annoying and punishing. You can swarm your opponent with a large number of Slivers--it's pure fun through beatdown!
With that all said, I'd like to request your help. I'm going to post the original deck idea, a version 2.0 of the deck, and then show you my latest Standard Slivers deck. I'll say this again: It's unfinished. The deck needs help. This is your opportunity to help. I'd appreciate constructive criticism. A lot of people hate Slivers, but this deck can be fun. Maliciously fun! And there's nothing better than beating a tourney worthy deck with Slivers. Your opponent will hide her head in shame after your victory.
Before I begin, let's recap a bit. My original theory behind a Slivers deck is to drop as many of the critters as you can, get a Steely Resolve out, and then attack. This might not be the most exciting deck theory on the market, but I had to start somewhere. Here's my original deck (remember, Legions wasn't out yet so we didn't have the full card list):
Slivers Redux: Building a Standard Slivers Deck That Wins (Sometimes)!
by Ron Vitale
Okay, I want a chance to redeem myself. Right before Legions was released, I wrote my "When Slivers Attack!" article for the now defunct www.grimmoire.com and one reader slammed me for my lack of originality in my Sliver deck design. Considering Legions hadn't been released yet and we were still days away from the full spoiler list, I did the best I could with the information I had. But now I want to revisit my original deck idea and come up with a better deck (heck, anything would be better than what I had before).
If you've read the title and frowned at seeing Slivers, then bare with me. This deck concept isn't going to be a Top 8 deck. I've played the deck against top tier decks and have won, but it's a difficult, uphill battle. So, here's my point: If you want only to win (no matter what), then this isn't your deck. But if you enjoy trying to win with a different type of deck, let me tell you that the Slivers deck can drive people nuts. When it works, it's annoying and punishing. You can swarm your opponent with a large number of Slivers--it's pure fun through beatdown!
With that all said, I'd like to request your help. I'm going to post the original deck idea, a version 2.0 of the deck, and then show you my latest Standard Slivers deck. I'll say this again: It's unfinished. The deck needs help. This is your opportunity to help. I'd appreciate constructive criticism. A lot of people hate Slivers, but this deck can be fun. Maliciously fun! And there's nothing better than beating a tourney worthy deck with Slivers. Your opponent will hide her head in shame after your victory.
Before I begin, let's recap a bit. My original theory behind a Slivers deck is to drop as many of the critters as you can, get a Steely Resolve out, and then attack. This might not be the most exciting deck theory on the market, but I had to start somewhere. Here's my original deck (remember, Legions wasn't out yet so we didn't have the full card list):
Original Slivers Deck:
Green:
Steely Resolve x 4
Root Sliver x 4
Brood Sliver x 1
Black:
Diabolic Tutor x 2
Crypt Sliver x 2
Artifact:
Riptide Replicator x 2
Red:
Blade Sliver x 4
Hunter Sliver x 2
Blue:
Shifting Sliver x 4
Mistform Ultimus x 2
Time Sliver x 1
White:
Worship x 2
Essence Sliver x 4
Plated Sliver x 1
Land:
25 (Pain lands, basic, Onslaught Fetch)
As you can see, I didn't get far with a Slivers deck. Riptide Replicator, Mistform Ultimus, Diabolic Tutor, and four Root Slivers? What was I thinking? Not much, apparently. I have way too many colors in the deck and too much going on at once. I've scaled the deck back and put together a better deck. I am still not convinced that the colors that I have chosen are the best options and I will leave this up for discussion in the forums.
Slivers deck 2.0:
White:
Pacifism x 4
Worship x 2
Glorious Anthem x 2
Akroma's Blessing x 2
Essence Sliver x 2
Plated Sliver x 4
Ward Sliver x 2
Green:
Living Wish x 3
Steely Resolve x 2
Quick Sliver x 4
Brood Sliver x 1
Blue:
Mistform Dreamer x 4
Shifting Sliver x 3
Land:
Adarkar Wastes x 4
Islands x 5
Forest x 5
Plains x 5
Lonely Sandbar x 2
Secluded Steppe x 4
Sideboard:
Disenchant x 4
Warth of God x 2
Worship x 2
Essence Sliver x 2
Shifting Sliver x 1
Brood Sliver x 1
Ward Sliver x 2
Root Sliver x 1
The deck above isn't great. I know that. That's the point of this exercise. Can a Slivers deck be built that will win against the top Standard decks? This deck won't do it, but it's a start. (If you're not familiar with these decks, take a look at them and get back to me):
Opposition
Mono Black Control
Astroglide
Sligh/Goblins
White Weenie
My original deck idea focused on getting the Steely Resolve out and smacking an opponent down with the Shifting Slivers' ability. But this revised deck tries to focus on a few ideas. Getting Slivers into play, put down a Worship, and then win through attacking with either Essence or Shifting Slivers. I kept two Steely Resolve in the deck--they've saved me in several games, but should they be main deck? That's the question I wasn't too sure. Let's go through some Standard deck matchups and discuss their strengths:
Opposition
These decks are fast and once an Opposition is dropped out, you better watch out. The Opposition deck will tap your creatures or lands and crush you with token creatures. Without the Steely Resolve, you're probably toast. You might be able to draw the game out by having a Worship out, but it's going to be a tough game. In match two, you'll be putting in the Disenchants to destroy the Oppositions. But the game is going to come down to speed: The Slivers deck is slow, slow, and slow. The good Slivers are either four or five mana. An opposition deck has many 1 drops that produce mana. Before you know it, she'll have a good amount of mana and then you're screwed.
Mono Black Control
Another tough matchup. With Engineered Plague and creature removal, you're crispy critters. The Slivers deck wins through creatures. If you don't have any creatures on the board, there's no way to win. Might sound pretty simplistic, but if you think about it, having only a 1/2 Plated Sliver on the board isn't going to help you. And Steely Resolve is pointless. Most of Black's spells don't target. The MBC deck has a lot of answers to rip through my current version of Slivers. Question is: Can ANY Standard Slivers deck win against MBC?
Astroglide
Sigh. Most of the time you'll be seeing "Game over" flash before your eyes. Unless you get lucky and have a Worship out and somehow have protected from both White and Red Ward Slivers, you're not going to win. Of course, the Astroglide deck could always get mana screwed, but your Slivers are going to be slided from the game and you're going to take a lot of damage from the Lightning Rift. Winning is possible with the Ward Sliver and Worship in play, but Astroglide has Wrath, too. But all is not lost. I recently played a duel against Astroglide and was able to drop out an early Steely Resolve, use Living wishes to go for both my Essence Sliver and Shifting Sliver, and then drop out a Brood Sliver. At the end of the games I won, I had a whole army that could attack. With spirit linked, unblockable Slivers, and 12 baby Slivers (1/1, colorless from the Brood Sliver), my opponent didn't pull a Wrath in time. Luck was on my side! Without the Steely Resolve, this would not have been a pretty matchup.
Sligh/Goblins
Finally, a deck that this Slivers deck can beat. Get a Ward Sliver out with protection from Red and a Worship out. You'll be golden. Of course, if the Slivers deck plays slow, you'll be toast.
White Weenie
Another deck you should be able to beat. Get an Essence Sliver out with a Shifting Sliver and just keep attacking. If you're patient, you'll be able to pull back and win the game. Without Disenchant in the main deck, you'll win if you put out a Worship and a Sliver. Losing is possible if you play unwisely and if you have a bad mana game. The game that I have won against this deck took time, but I kept going for White Weenie's throat. You will have to take some damage though in the early part of the game, but after you've built your defenses up and get an Essence Sliver out, you should be fine.
Analysis:
Glorious Anthem and cycling cards have been added to the Slivers deck. The Anthem pumps up your Slivers, the cycle cards you use to draw a card and get to that Essence or Shifting Sliver you need to win the game. In the early game, play your Plated Slivers and then use your Living Wishes to go for Essence or Shifting Slivers. Once you start attacking and gaining life, you'll be in a better position to win. But in playing this deck, being mana screwed could hurt you. And the slowness of this deck doesn't help. My question is: Should mana acceleration spells be put into the main deck to help you get more land out? What about Explosive Vegetation, would that work? I find the four mana cost to be extremely expensive. By the time you have four mana out, you'll be able to play most of the cards in the deck. If you compare the Slivers of today with ones from the past, the mana curve difference is extremely apparent. Having to pay 3-5 mana for some of the better Slivers, isn't going to make this deck shine. It's slow going. Counter decks (I didn't even mention them above) will know exactly what cards to stop from coming into play. A few choice counters and this deck falls apart. Which leads me back to my original question from my first article: Can a winning Slivers Standard deck be built? Probably not, but there is another version of this deck which wins more consistently. Before I built Version. 3.0, I thought about taking a color out and putting in Black or Red, but White has such powerful Slivers and great cards (Pacifism, Essence Sliver, Anthem) that I wouldn't want to take it out of the deck. Blue has the Shifting Slives and the Mistforms so I wanted to keep them, and Green did appear weak in this deck. In the end, my main reason for sticking with Green is Living Wish.
So with that all said, let's take a look at Version 3.0:
Slivers deck 3.0:
White:
Pacifism x 4
Worship x 3
Essence Sliver x 3
Plated Sliver x 4
Ward Sliver x 3
Green:
Living Wish x 3
Brood Sliver x 1
Black:
Crypt Sliver x 4
Spectral Sliver x 4
Toxin Sliver x 1
Engineered Plague x 2
Diabolic Tutor x 2
Artifact:
Ensnaring Bridge x 1
Land:
Brushlands x 4
Grand Coliseum x 4
Forest x 1
Plains x 8
Swamps x 8
Sideboard:
Disenchant x 4
Warth of God x 2
Worship x 1
Essence Sliver x 1
Shifting Sliver x 1
Engineered Plague x 1
Toxin Sliver x 1
Shifting Sliver x 1
Brood Sliver x 1
Ward Sliver x 1
Root Sliver x 1
Analysis:
Pulling out Blue was a difficult call, but, in the end, I found that the lower casting cost of the Crypt and Spectral Slivers made this deck shine. If you drop an early Crypt Sliver, you're well on your way to winning. Granted, this isn't a top tier deck, but it's fun to play. If you're only into winning at all costs, then simply go dig a net deck up and win. But if you're up for an exciting game, try this deck out. I've had games in which I was at 258 life and my opponent was at 76 until I finally beat him down (he had a Scion of Darkness out and had taken an Essence Sliver and Brood Sliver from my graveyard. Wacky game!) This deck can win, but it doesn't win consistently.
Opposition:
With the Steely Resolve from the deck, you'll need to get a Ward Sliver out that's protected from Blue. Winning won't be easy with all the token creatures your opponent will be playing, but if you pull a Worship and two Ward Slivers (for protection from Green and Blue) you'll have a good shot of winning. Take your time in playing against Opposition and think your moves through. It is possible to win.
Mono Black Control:
The Steely Resolves never really helped you before when playing this deck so you'll have to think carefully. Getting a protected from Black Ward Sliver is going to help. But remember not to overextend your resources! This black deck loves to clear the board and if you play all your Slivers, your toast. Try to bait the mono black deck out and put out chump material so that you can keep in play the Slivers you really want. And if you're lucky enough to get that Diabolic Tutor, then go for the Worship.
Astroglide:
If you pull a Worship, and two Ward Slivers you're golden. Again, just watch out for a Wrath of God. Don't overextend your resources. Playing this Slivers deck is a little like playing Chess. You need to think about your future moves. The Slivers Version 3.0 deck isn't as easy to play as the first version or a Sligh deck. There's thought involved. Understand that your opponent is going to try to use Disenchant to rid you of your Worship at a critical time--be ready for it. You can't have all your eggs in one basket when playing this deck. But I've found that the Ensnaring Bridge can be a wonderful game winner. Most of the Slivers are 1 or 2 power. Simply keep one or two cards in your hand and keep attacking each turn with protected from White or Red Slivers (if you're lucky enough to have two Ward Slivers out). Or if you have a Crypt Sliver out, then regenerate away. Just remember that if you hold back an Essence Sliver to regenerate one of your other Slivers, you could be shooting yourself in the foot. If your Slivers have protection from White, you won't be able to use the Essence Sliver to regenerate one of your team (the protection from White prevents it). If playing online and you've a ton of Slivers out, it can easily become confusing. Again, take your time and focus.
Sligh/Goblins and White Weenie:
These decks can both be beat. White Weenie will give you the harder time with having Disenchant in the sideboard. Get a Worship in play and a Ward Sliver and you'll be mostly fine.
The problem with this deck is that it's three colors. I wouldn't want to pull it down any further. The Living Wishes are critical to the deck. This is your "ace up your sleeve" card. The Living Wish allows you to go for any Sliver you need to win the game. If you're playing Sligh, you'll go for the Ward Sliver. But if you're playing a different deck, maybe you need the Essence Sliver. The options that you have are numerous.
I also thought long and hard about the Engineered Plagues. In choosing black and going up against so many tribal themes, the Plagues are a metagame choice for me. I love playing a Plague against my opponent's Wizard or Elf deck. It rues the day for them! You just have to love it.
Tying It All Up:
You're not going to win a major tournament with this deck, but you will probably anger a few good players who won't be happy when they lose to a Slivers deck. It's fun, interesting, and definitely stays close to the Legions "all creature" theme. So if you're looking for a fun deck that can win, give this one a try!
Green:
Steely Resolve x 4
Root Sliver x 4
Brood Sliver x 1
Black:
Diabolic Tutor x 2
Crypt Sliver x 2
Artifact:
Riptide Replicator x 2
Red:
Blade Sliver x 4
Hunter Sliver x 2
Blue:
Shifting Sliver x 4
Mistform Ultimus x 2
Time Sliver x 1
White:
Worship x 2
Essence Sliver x 4
Plated Sliver x 1
Land:
25 (Pain lands, basic, Onslaught Fetch)
As you can see, I didn't get far with a Slivers deck. Riptide Replicator, Mistform Ultimus, Diabolic Tutor, and four Root Slivers? What was I thinking? Not much, apparently. I have way too many colors in the deck and too much going on at once. I've scaled the deck back and put together a better deck. I am still not convinced that the colors that I have chosen are the best options and I will leave this up for discussion in the forums.
Slivers deck 2.0:
White:
Pacifism x 4
Worship x 2
Glorious Anthem x 2
Akroma's Blessing x 2
Essence Sliver x 2
Plated Sliver x 4
Ward Sliver x 2
Green:
Living Wish x 3
Steely Resolve x 2
Quick Sliver x 4
Brood Sliver x 1
Blue:
Mistform Dreamer x 4
Shifting Sliver x 3
Land:
Adarkar Wastes x 4
Islands x 5
Forest x 5
Plains x 5
Lonely Sandbar x 2
Secluded Steppe x 4
Sideboard:
Disenchant x 4
Warth of God x 2
Worship x 2
Essence Sliver x 2
Shifting Sliver x 1
Brood Sliver x 1
Ward Sliver x 2
Root Sliver x 1
The deck above isn't great. I know that. That's the point of this exercise. Can a Slivers deck be built that will win against the top Standard decks? This deck won't do it, but it's a start. (If you're not familiar with these decks, take a look at them and get back to me):
Opposition
Mono Black Control
Astroglide
Sligh/Goblins
White Weenie
My original deck idea focused on getting the Steely Resolve out and smacking an opponent down with the Shifting Slivers' ability. But this revised deck tries to focus on a few ideas. Getting Slivers into play, put down a Worship, and then win through attacking with either Essence or Shifting Slivers. I kept two Steely Resolve in the deck--they've saved me in several games, but should they be main deck? That's the question I wasn't too sure. Let's go through some Standard deck matchups and discuss their strengths:
Opposition
These decks are fast and once an Opposition is dropped out, you better watch out. The Opposition deck will tap your creatures or lands and crush you with token creatures. Without the Steely Resolve, you're probably toast. You might be able to draw the game out by having a Worship out, but it's going to be a tough game. In match two, you'll be putting in the Disenchants to destroy the Oppositions. But the game is going to come down to speed: The Slivers deck is slow, slow, and slow. The good Slivers are either four or five mana. An opposition deck has many 1 drops that produce mana. Before you know it, she'll have a good amount of mana and then you're screwed.
Mono Black Control
Another tough matchup. With Engineered Plague and creature removal, you're crispy critters. The Slivers deck wins through creatures. If you don't have any creatures on the board, there's no way to win. Might sound pretty simplistic, but if you think about it, having only a 1/2 Plated Sliver on the board isn't going to help you. And Steely Resolve is pointless. Most of Black's spells don't target. The MBC deck has a lot of answers to rip through my current version of Slivers. Question is: Can ANY Standard Slivers deck win against MBC?
Astroglide
Sigh. Most of the time you'll be seeing "Game over" flash before your eyes. Unless you get lucky and have a Worship out and somehow have protected from both White and Red Ward Slivers, you're not going to win. Of course, the Astroglide deck could always get mana screwed, but your Slivers are going to be slided from the game and you're going to take a lot of damage from the Lightning Rift. Winning is possible with the Ward Sliver and Worship in play, but Astroglide has Wrath, too. But all is not lost. I recently played a duel against Astroglide and was able to drop out an early Steely Resolve, use Living wishes to go for both my Essence Sliver and Shifting Sliver, and then drop out a Brood Sliver. At the end of the games I won, I had a whole army that could attack. With spirit linked, unblockable Slivers, and 12 baby Slivers (1/1, colorless from the Brood Sliver), my opponent didn't pull a Wrath in time. Luck was on my side! Without the Steely Resolve, this would not have been a pretty matchup.
Sligh/Goblins
Finally, a deck that this Slivers deck can beat. Get a Ward Sliver out with protection from Red and a Worship out. You'll be golden. Of course, if the Slivers deck plays slow, you'll be toast.
White Weenie
Another deck you should be able to beat. Get an Essence Sliver out with a Shifting Sliver and just keep attacking. If you're patient, you'll be able to pull back and win the game. Without Disenchant in the main deck, you'll win if you put out a Worship and a Sliver. Losing is possible if you play unwisely and if you have a bad mana game. The game that I have won against this deck took time, but I kept going for White Weenie's throat. You will have to take some damage though in the early part of the game, but after you've built your defenses up and get an Essence Sliver out, you should be fine.
Analysis:
Glorious Anthem and cycling cards have been added to the Slivers deck. The Anthem pumps up your Slivers, the cycle cards you use to draw a card and get to that Essence or Shifting Sliver you need to win the game. In the early game, play your Plated Slivers and then use your Living Wishes to go for Essence or Shifting Slivers. Once you start attacking and gaining life, you'll be in a better position to win. But in playing this deck, being mana screwed could hurt you. And the slowness of this deck doesn't help. My question is: Should mana acceleration spells be put into the main deck to help you get more land out? What about Explosive Vegetation, would that work? I find the four mana cost to be extremely expensive. By the time you have four mana out, you'll be able to play most of the cards in the deck. If you compare the Slivers of today with ones from the past, the mana curve difference is extremely apparent. Having to pay 3-5 mana for some of the better Slivers, isn't going to make this deck shine. It's slow going. Counter decks (I didn't even mention them above) will know exactly what cards to stop from coming into play. A few choice counters and this deck falls apart. Which leads me back to my original question from my first article: Can a winning Slivers Standard deck be built? Probably not, but there is another version of this deck which wins more consistently. Before I built Version. 3.0, I thought about taking a color out and putting in Black or Red, but White has such powerful Slivers and great cards (Pacifism, Essence Sliver, Anthem) that I wouldn't want to take it out of the deck. Blue has the Shifting Slives and the Mistforms so I wanted to keep them, and Green did appear weak in this deck. In the end, my main reason for sticking with Green is Living Wish.
So with that all said, let's take a look at Version 3.0:
Slivers deck 3.0:
White:
Pacifism x 4
Worship x 3
Essence Sliver x 3
Plated Sliver x 4
Ward Sliver x 3
Green:
Living Wish x 3
Brood Sliver x 1
Black:
Crypt Sliver x 4
Spectral Sliver x 4
Toxin Sliver x 1
Engineered Plague x 2
Diabolic Tutor x 2
Artifact:
Ensnaring Bridge x 1
Land:
Brushlands x 4
Grand Coliseum x 4
Forest x 1
Plains x 8
Swamps x 8
Sideboard:
Disenchant x 4
Warth of God x 2
Worship x 1
Essence Sliver x 1
Shifting Sliver x 1
Engineered Plague x 1
Toxin Sliver x 1
Shifting Sliver x 1
Brood Sliver x 1
Ward Sliver x 1
Root Sliver x 1
Analysis:
Pulling out Blue was a difficult call, but, in the end, I found that the lower casting cost of the Crypt and Spectral Slivers made this deck shine. If you drop an early Crypt Sliver, you're well on your way to winning. Granted, this isn't a top tier deck, but it's fun to play. If you're only into winning at all costs, then simply go dig a net deck up and win. But if you're up for an exciting game, try this deck out. I've had games in which I was at 258 life and my opponent was at 76 until I finally beat him down (he had a Scion of Darkness out and had taken an Essence Sliver and Brood Sliver from my graveyard. Wacky game!) This deck can win, but it doesn't win consistently.
Opposition:
With the Steely Resolve from the deck, you'll need to get a Ward Sliver out that's protected from Blue. Winning won't be easy with all the token creatures your opponent will be playing, but if you pull a Worship and two Ward Slivers (for protection from Green and Blue) you'll have a good shot of winning. Take your time in playing against Opposition and think your moves through. It is possible to win.
Mono Black Control:
The Steely Resolves never really helped you before when playing this deck so you'll have to think carefully. Getting a protected from Black Ward Sliver is going to help. But remember not to overextend your resources! This black deck loves to clear the board and if you play all your Slivers, your toast. Try to bait the mono black deck out and put out chump material so that you can keep in play the Slivers you really want. And if you're lucky enough to get that Diabolic Tutor, then go for the Worship.
Astroglide:
If you pull a Worship, and two Ward Slivers you're golden. Again, just watch out for a Wrath of God. Don't overextend your resources. Playing this Slivers deck is a little like playing Chess. You need to think about your future moves. The Slivers Version 3.0 deck isn't as easy to play as the first version or a Sligh deck. There's thought involved. Understand that your opponent is going to try to use Disenchant to rid you of your Worship at a critical time--be ready for it. You can't have all your eggs in one basket when playing this deck. But I've found that the Ensnaring Bridge can be a wonderful game winner. Most of the Slivers are 1 or 2 power. Simply keep one or two cards in your hand and keep attacking each turn with protected from White or Red Slivers (if you're lucky enough to have two Ward Slivers out). Or if you have a Crypt Sliver out, then regenerate away. Just remember that if you hold back an Essence Sliver to regenerate one of your other Slivers, you could be shooting yourself in the foot. If your Slivers have protection from White, you won't be able to use the Essence Sliver to regenerate one of your team (the protection from White prevents it). If playing online and you've a ton of Slivers out, it can easily become confusing. Again, take your time and focus.
Sligh/Goblins and White Weenie:
These decks can both be beat. White Weenie will give you the harder time with having Disenchant in the sideboard. Get a Worship in play and a Ward Sliver and you'll be mostly fine.
The problem with this deck is that it's three colors. I wouldn't want to pull it down any further. The Living Wishes are critical to the deck. This is your "ace up your sleeve" card. The Living Wish allows you to go for any Sliver you need to win the game. If you're playing Sligh, you'll go for the Ward Sliver. But if you're playing a different deck, maybe you need the Essence Sliver. The options that you have are numerous.
I also thought long and hard about the Engineered Plagues. In choosing black and going up against so many tribal themes, the Plagues are a metagame choice for me. I love playing a Plague against my opponent's Wizard or Elf deck. It rues the day for them! You just have to love it.
Tying It All Up:
You're not going to win a major tournament with this deck, but you will probably anger a few good players who won't be happy when they lose to a Slivers deck. It's fun, interesting, and definitely stays close to the Legions "all creature" theme. So if you're looking for a fun deck that can win, give this one a try!
hi i love slivers, as just a suggestion you might want to throw a gemhide sliver in that, they have done wonders for my deck
Posted by: viper | December 25, 2007 at 10:23 AM