MTG Salvation

Hello everybody,

With the new collection Ixalan the pirates are among us and I think they could have a home in modern also.

First I'll post my current list and after that explanations and more things



Let's go for the gold roger treasure!!

As you can see the deck is an aggro deck with enough hand disruption (Kitesail Freebooter, thoughtseize) to compete against combo decks, with very hard to block creatures (almost every one have is own type of evasion) and with some removal and recurrence (2 Claim // Fame, 1 March of the Drowned ).

There is also some reach (besides our finisher Dire Fleet Ravager) and nice combat tricks in form of Touch of moonglove, so if one of our menacing creatures is going to die in combat, we can cast this and the opponent will lose 2 creatures and 4 life as additional gift ;).

Also we have mutavaults so we can keep creating pirates with this land and Fathom Fleet Captain after a sweeper or such things.

Beside of that the deck has card advantage in form of 4 ruin Raider and 3 reanimation spells that can bring to the table more pressure.

I think the deck is resilient and hard to deal with because all the evasive creatures it plays and tricks to exploit them.

Also the deck has some MD graveyard hate in form of deadeye tracker

There are some things I'm not sure about because in example Virulent Swipe could replace Touch of moonglove but I'm unsure about which one is better.

Also I'm not sure about Fatal Push against Dismember as main removal of choice.

Finally, should the deck play aether vial so we save the mana to pay for the abilities of deadeye tracker and Fathom Fleet Captain. The problem here is that additional vials drawn later are useless and I don't know if the vial is needed here also.

Anyways what do you think?? Any ideas or advices are welcome and welcome to the Monkey D. Luffy pirate boat!!!

This deck looks more like a standard deck with modern lands, nothing more. It feels underpowered, since you do not have any 1-drop (the red one is actually a 2 drop if you want to give him the raid).
You could either go with raid mechanic, and in this case go with recursive cards like Bloodsoaked Champion and raid creatures from KTK, or go the trasure tokens ways, and then do a ramp deck based on artifacts that could improvise or get ton of big dudes soon.

Your captain lannery for example tries to get gold, while your other creatures care about attacking. That gold will be unused since you do not have any heavy drops to cheat in, nothing to draw neither. If you want to go aggro pirates , you could go UB (the red dudes you chose are irrelevant) and play small creatures with some CA.

Anyway, I do not think Pirate tribal is gonna make it with this kind of list, which is too much of a standard deck.

First of all thanks for your answer, but although you can play this list in standard I think the tribe has enough power to compete in modern also.

Every creature is in the deck for aa reason. I.e. you say that the 1 CMC red pirate Rigging Runner is not good but what do you think if this little guy is the target of the moonglove killing anything and surviving thanks to first strike. Also it's easy to put the counter on it and playing 2/2 Fs creature for R seems good to me because with the rest of the deck they become even better.

About Captain Lannery Storm, they are here because they let me ramp from 3 mana to 5 mana to cast my finishers Dire Fleet Ravager and because the mana she provides can be used to create another pirate with Fathom Fleet Captain or to explore and hatre the oppoenent graveyard with deadeye tracker.

If you look at the deck and think that is only a standard deck without no power you are not doing well ;).

This deck is an aggro deck with very evasive creatures that also have lot of tricks to finish the game off. I'm testing it (with proxies) right now and I'm very pleased with it atm.

If we want to keep on the raid part of the game, I would go with WB for cards like Rally the ancestors and Timely Hordemate for more recursion and some midgame, and Wingmate Roc for a finisher.
As such, I would put more t1 attackers as such as Bloodsoaked Champion and Scrapheap Scrounger.

A sample list would be :


Even though, we are competing with burn and affinity in the aggro category, and unless we get some serious clock, we won't make it.

Not a single card listed in the CA section is CA. Pretty sure that land base can be greatly improved. I like the wingmates for sure. Such great value there.

Yup sorry, I was thinking about removals there. For lands, I didn't really care about it to go into details, since it's the calssic mix of WB lands I guess

I thinks this is not the direction Pcrusader wants for the deck, isn't it? I thinks he is trying to focus the deck into a pirate subtheme and honestly, the list doesn't seem bad to me (although it almost can be played also in standard). THe list reminds me to monoblack vehicles but without vbehicles and very evasive creatures also.

In that list I would try ton find slots for 4 smuggler's copter, remove the March of the Drowned for another claim // fame and posibly use Virulent Swipe because is also a 2x1 and because you grant your creature is not going to be blocked in the second turn while dealing almost the same damage moonglove does.

Finally I'll try to add some blood moon over there and voila!!!

Yes, my idea is making a pirate deck, hence the name ;).

I've been testing with proxies the full deck and I'm very surprised and pleased about how it works

I'm still in doubt about the cards I asked for, but I have to test all of them.

Any idea or suggestion is welcome

Hey, thanks for your answers and thanks for Fiery Cannonade which is like a bonfire of the damned but better in this deck ;). This card probably can get rid of affinity, taxes, mana dorks and lot of small critters that people play while don't hurt this deck at all.

On the other side, I'm not sure about metallic mimic at all. It need to be in the board all the time and this is going to be very difficult.


I like the suggestion of the ships and also I was thinking on including a couple of hostage taker to get rid of problematic cards in the lategame (an playing four cavern of souls and perhaps including any blue source more it can be doable.

So then my list is the following:




With this list you can cover lot of angles of the game and have outs for almost everything. What do you think???

No love with this deck anybody??

I hate to break it to you but even Tribal humans struggles to make an impact in modern, be it the prowess version with Mantis Rider or the Wx versions featuring 4 Champion of the parish and 4 Thalia's Lieutenant, and a variety of in-tribe hatebears like Thalia herself, Grand Abolisher...

With support like that and still failing, what chance do pirates have? Successful tribal decks all have one thing in common; something that Humans and your Pirates list do not have: cheats.

I'm not talking about performing a sleight of hand at the table. I'm talking about tapping a land for 2 mana. I'm talking about using an artifact that can put your creatures into play at instant speed so you don't have to obey your land curve, which means having a critical mass of tribals at a fixed cmc. I'm talking about instant speed tutors that land your best threats, wincons or silver bullets on the table. I'm talking about explosiveness via mana produced from your initial creatures that enable you to empty your hand.

I'm talking about these:
Eldrazi Temple - Eldrazi
Aether Vial - Spirits, Merfolk
Chord of Calling - Elves
Dorks - Elves, Eldrazi

If you think you can play decent creatures on a curve and have a hope in modern, you're being overly optimistic. I'm not saying Pirates are bad. I'm saying you're going about this the wrong way. Look at successful creature decks. They ramp out insanely powerful creatures with ETB value or removal protection with Sol Lands and dorks. They vial in lords for free and at instant speed. They vial in creatures with ETB effects that disrupt the opponent. They empty their hand turn 2. They watch your plays and if you tap out, they chord for their wincon at your endstep and swing for 67 trample damage on their turn.

If you're designing a Modern tribal deck, look to the ones that are established and try to define what will set your deck at their level. Your pirates have no lords. They do not provide significant disruption apart from Kitesail. They could potentially be a Coco deck, but I don't know of green pirates. You have no lord effects, which this deck sorely needs because of the average size. (Try metallic mimic). You dont have ramp nor vials, meaning every turn you will experience tension in your decision tree (disrupt with thoughtseize? cast this pirate? hold up push?).

Sorry to pour cold water like this, but I've been here before, and I just hope my sharing with you will help you take your brew to a better height.

First of all , lot of thanks for your advices ;).

I know in modern decks need to do obscene things to win and pirates right now have not such weapons (yet). But because of that I've build the deck in a way that can react to the things that opponent throw to me. I mean, if you put all your elves in the table I'll Fiery Cannonade them and still beating. If you put in fron t of me a reality smasher, then I Virulent Swipe any of my dudes and kill yours while being able to kill the next one too.

You are right that sometimes the options are very wide and probably we are not going to choose the best option, and you are also right in that there is nor real pirate lords (mimic is not going to be alive for much time). So this deck should try to push damage trough any kind on blockers and gain advantage of if.

I also thought on aether vial, but althought the curve is nice we don't have any way to discard other vials and the so. This tribe is built thinking on synergy with other cards (menace + deathtouch, First strike + deathtouch, pyroclasm only for the opponent creatures, ...).

You are right that tribal decks in modern need to be able to do some obscene things but I'm trying to build a attrition deck that can compete. Surely this deck is not going to be able to win a PTQ never but at leats being able to compete and cause troubles to your opponent could be enough

AS you said the problem is that good pirates have a small body and this is the main problem I can't find an answer for.

I hope next collection should print more awesome pirates but right now I'm working with the ones I have so, could you help me to improve the deck as much as it can be done to at least being a decent competitor??

Lot of thanks

A decent competitor is not impossible, because there are plenty of nontribal creature support available. From what I see on your list, there is a good concentration of 2 cmc, especially if u include metallic mimic. This means you can probably play vials, even if your 2 cmcs are not as powerful as merfolks'.

Saying, "this creature will not live long" is NOT a good reason to exclude it. The fact u think it will draw removal is just proof that it is good; the opponent must remove it or they are in trouble.

third point: you are playing pirate tribal but there are so little "pirates matter" cards. Which cards in this deck cares about pirates? I see mainly 2, the captain that produces tokens and march of the drowned. you'll want more of these.

fourth point: those deathtouch combat tricks are cute, but a no-no. The best these things will ever do is offer you a 2-for-1. Oh, now the goyf will die together with your pirate. But you're down a card. Worst case scenario? They bolt your target with your buff spell on the stack, and you don't even get what you want. You're better off just removing whatever blocker they have so your pirates can have a clear gangway.

last but not least, if you want to play an attrition game you lack a lot of recursion. March of the drowned is pure value in this deck and should be increased. Where is Kolaghan's command?? It definitely belongs in an attrition deck with creatures. And a couple terminates are vital since you aren't closing games as quickly as elves and merfolk.

Without further ado; this is my proposal for you:




OK, a brief explanation. The deck above tries to exploit the pirate's concentration of 2 cmc threats to the extreme. Any vial you play should tick to, and stop at 2. The hand disruption is out because there is already plenty to do in turn 1, namely cast a vial, or the only 1 cmc in the deck; Deadeye tracker. Rigging runner just doesn't cut it as a worse goblin guide with a condition.

Further, the Freebooter already provides in-tribe flying threat with stapled hand disruption. Consider this: if the opponent bolts/pushes/terminates the freebooter to get back their spell, you can Kolaghan's command at instant speed, put the freebooter into your hand, and vial it in again and take the card back again! Another advantage of vial+freebooter is vialing it in during their drawstep and taking whatever they just drew. Nasty pirate.

To up the consistency for vial, the 3 and 5 cmc pirates were dropped in favor of 2 drops that clock, namely Wanted Scoundrels and Dire Fleet Captain. Scoundrels is an easy add, providing a big body for 2 mana. If you vial this in AFTER a metallic mimic, thats a 5/4. The downside is a big scary, but I think we can live with it since we have the disruption to deal with whatever they are going to cast with that mana, using our freebooters or terminates. Dire Fleet Captain is a pirates matters card at 2 CMC, which is cool and can clock quickly if we make sure his path is clear.

Finally, the spells: 4 lightning bolts provide reach while also supplmenting the fatal pushes, which means we can have slightly less of the pushes. I also made room for some terminates just in case something bigger hits the board. Kolaghan's and March are pure value in this deck, and will provide 2-for-1 for you most of the time. When you're vialling things in, having a B spell that takes back 2 pirates is just ridiculous.

Let's talk about the sideboard. 3 blood moons is a no brainer in an aggressive RB shell. You want these against Tron and Valakut, against whom you otherwise don't have a strong plan. Thoughtseizes and Surgical extraction up supplement your freebooters against combo decks. Lost Legacy is a filler for when you have a clearer picture of your meta. Basically you can board it in against decks with very specific wincons, like ad naus, UR storm. Smash to Smithereens is for Affinity, which is the de facto best creature deck in modern. You will need to disrupt AND race them at the same time, and smash is very good at this. Tormod's Crypt is a clutch card for Storm and Dredge decks.

Feel free to ask me any questions regarding the deck's construction and logic. Have fun brewing!

The main problem with Pirates is that the creatures are juat very weak and there is very little synergy to make up for it.
Basically only Fathom Fleet Captain which is decent but slow costing 2-mana per activation.

I'm not impressed by March of the Drowned, Zombies had Ghoulcaller's Chant for a while and it has never made the cut.
With a low curve Claim // Fame is a much better option.

The lack of actual lords seals it imho, the tribe is way too weak in Modern (and isn't that great in Standard either yet).
Admiral Beckett Brass is a bad/overcosted lord leaving the tribe with Metallic Mimic and Fell Flagship which barely cut it for Standard.

You can easily pair the quality removal/disruption with any random mix of higher-quality creatures and you"ll do much better with the deck as a grixis aggro/tempo deck.

First of all, lot of thanks for your answers

@D90Dennis14 : I like pirates so I think I'm still brewing with them instead of a traditional grixis aggro deck so I would like to continue developing this deck

@MarcWizard : I understand your points and your list seems solid. It was funny to trick or threat some games with the strange cards I was using, but your list seems solid anyway.

Taking that into account there are some point in your list that I don't like at all and there are some other options I was considering.

I don't like:

• 4 Dire Fleet Captain
  
• 2 Wanted Scoundrels

The first one is a bear that is only good if you have lot of pirates and doesn't have any kind of evasion so for me is a no thanks man.

The Scoundrels are even worse because opponent can gain lot advantage from them adn combo you with that fast mana. Definitely a no in my list also.

In that place I would play 4 ruin raider that although I have to pay for them they are going to give me cards and are much better as card advantage.

Also I miss the lack of claim // fame in that list that usually were good in some games although the March of the Drowned can be used for something similar but I'm not sure which one is better here.

So I thinking something like:


What do you think??

Well, a couple more things then. If you want to insist on the Ruin raider, u may as well have more creatures on the 3 cmc curve since u will be ticking vials up to 3. Try Adaptive Automaton for the lords your deck sorely needs. If you're dropping the Wanted Scoundrels that provided much needed power, you're going to need to get that lost power from somewhere else. 23 creatures is a little low for a vial deck.

Also, I forgot about it before but definitely try to squeeze a couple mutavaults in the list.

Also, cannonade, if you insist on running it, does NOT belong in your mainboard. Does affinity run whipflare in their main? They don't, and for good reason.

Just a some thoughts

1: If you're going BR and have March of the Drowned to do some recursion, why not add Faithless Looting or something like that? Turf two pirates from your hand, get two fresh cards and pull those two pirates back with March of the Drowned.

2: If you stick with BR and ever get to the point of main decking Blood Moon (which I think you should give the lack of pirate support so far. This deck needs a trump card) maybe consider something like Fathon Fleet Firebrand to take advantage of extra red mana.

3: Given the lack of lords for Pirates so far, have you looked at the blue pirates with some black? Between Kitesail Freebooter, Storm Fleet Aerialist, Skyship Plunderer, Siren Stormtamer you've got a large flying arsenal. Then you could use something like Favorable Winds as one of your lord like conditions.

Hey, I made an account just to comment my deck list for the pirates I came up with.

I really like the idea of the favorable wins though

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/769803#paper

I think the list needs more ways to combo (because there are some pirates that are really nice on their own) and of course some
Forerunner of the Coalition which gives you lot of reach and a tutor for the more beasty pirates that you can play as a singleton : Dire Fleet Ravager, ruin rider and mirror entity.

Because pirates are not really big you need to have a lot to try to win or use flicker effects to abuse their ETB abilities. THe best way I can think of is Cloudstone curio. With this on the battlefield and Forerunner of the Coalition you can cast and recast all your cheap pirates to kill the opponent on the spot. I even would include one Bontu's monument for more pinging and make our black pirates even cheaper

My list probably would be more like:



This list has plenty o tricks to do although I'm not sure how it will work

I think an important question here is what makes us want to play pirates over Zoo or Merfolk? Zoo is a superior aggressive deck, and Merfolk is a superior tribal deck, so we need to be something more if we hope to compete.

For me, the main draw to pirates over Zoo or Merfolk would be the interactive options like Kitesail Freebooter, Lookout's Dispersal, Warkite Marauder (the synergy with Liliana, the Last Hope is worth noting), Siren Stormtamer, and Hostage Taker. In addition, value cards like Direfleet Daredevil, Fathom Fleet Captain, and March of the Drowned have the potential to set the deck apart from its competition. With aggressive beaters like Daring Buccaneer, Grasping Scoundrel, and Rigging Runner on the front end, our interactive and evasive threats can actually hope to close out the game. Vehicles like Smuggler's Copter and Aethersphere Harvester could give us some reach after the ground gets clogged up.

We are a tribal deck, but I think we need to evaluate our tribal cards very differently due to our lack of lords. Creatures like Mogg Fanatic and Cursecatcher wouldn't be powerful enough on their own, but a critical mass of Goblin/Merfolk lords help them get there. We don't have that luxury, so our cards need to be more powerful on their own.

Cards I don't think are quite powerful enough:

Forerunner of the Coalition (I feel like this is far too slow for not putting the card into our hand)
Fanatical Firebrand (Mogg Fanatic is playable in Goblins/8-whack, but I think it really needs lords to get there. If we're looking for ways to enable our Rigging Runners, I feel like Goblin Guide would be better here even though it isn't a pirate).
Ruin Raider (great upside, but I don't love 3-drops that don't pass the bolt test)
Dire Fleet Ravager (5 mana is VERY expensive in this format, and we're an aggressive deck. By the time we can cast this, we'll be lucky if it hits them for 3)
Dire Fleet Poisoner (if we had more 3-toughness guys, or if we had lords, I think this would get there. But I would rather play more removal or blue for fliers than try to trade on the ground. It's also worth noting that it can only target an attacking pirate).

There are a lot of playable cards here, but I think the main things drawing me into pirate tribal over a non-tribal deck that plays some pirate cards would be Lookout's Dispersal and Fathom Fleet Captain (and Fiery Cannonade out of the sideboard), so I'd look to build around those. I don't think this list is quite there yet, but the printing of a pirate lord could push it much closer.



For something different, here's a UB list that tries to take advantage of the interaction between Skyship Plunderer and planeswalkers (bonus synergy between Liliana, the Last Hope and Warkite Marauder)

maybe some phantasmal images for combat tricks? copying key piratess? i think this deck has over others is its ability to have unique combat tricks. so i feel like vial is a must. since im at work i cant really suggest cards, but thematically and viably this deck needs to play tempoish. i.e. the 2cmc black pirate that has deathtouch, the red snapcaster, kitesail freelooter. i feel like these are the cards we should be playing, since this is the way wotc was trying to develop the tribe.

just my 2 cents. sorry if the grammar is a mess. wanted to type this up in between patients lol

Guys okay I dont like being that guy. But I feel the need to say something. A new tribe almost never makes it to modern unless it dominates a standard format. They just pushed energy and its not even doing that well in modern. So why would you guys believe pirates have much hope?
In order for it to work, right now, there would have to be some great cards that are just missing a special tribe or set of cards. That doesnt exist. Or would be better with fish, vampires, goblins, etc in those open slots.
Am I missing something?

The only pirate creature powerful enough for modern is the freebooter. You have no support elsewhere outside of generic tribal aggro enablers like Vial and Cavern. You're literally trying to play a standard deck in modern, just with better removal and lands.

If you want an aggro deck with good disruption... Why not just play a BW or Eldrazi variant of taxes? If you want a fast synergistic tribal deck, why not play Merfolk, Goblins, Elves, or even Vampires or Allies? If you want an interactive, disruptive tribal aggro deck, why not play 5c Humans?

Pirates arent as fast as other tribal decks, arent as disruptive, arent as reliable, and have generally lower creature quality/synergy. Why bother?

I don't think that the OP aims to build a competitive deck but rather play with some new tribe/cards for the fun of it.
Personally I don't find anything uniquely appealing about pirates and the power level also isn't there.