About a year ago I was running pirates (rakdos and then grixis). The other day a friend suggested revisiting the tribe, I had put a little thought into it already so I decided to throw something together and give it a go this Friday (tonight! and I haven’t even played it yet… this fits in with the deck’s theme, however).
The plan is pretty simple. Blast out a bunch of super cost efficient pirates. Use Light up the Stage, March of the Drowned, and (maybe) Risk Factor to keep the fire burning. I plan on smashing face until I leave my opponents wondering if they should brew up some pirates or possibly just repeatedly loose in a blaze of glory.
So, as mentioned, I took this out to fnm without play-testing it. I went 2-2, went home and immediately made a few changes to the list mentioned. I’m going to be doing my play-testing tonight and will probably wind up with a slightly different sideboard. More on all this in a bit, first the run down on how things went Friday. This deck is very fast and very aggressive, at least as fast, if not faster, than anything else I've seen in the meta thus far (in my experience at least) it has some glaring weaknesses but I think it can be pretty competitive against most decks.
Round one: Naya (mostly Gruul with a splash of white) aggro brew, 1-2.
This was a pretty solid aggro brew and the games were pretty much races. For me, this meant trying to put a lot of small, very aggressive creatures down, for my opponent it meant ramping into big trample-y creatures. The games were all really close and could have went either way.
After loosing game one, I sideboarded in my kitesail freebooters to help both as fliers to get over their big guys and to help pull some cards from my opponents hand. This worked for game two. Game three was neck and neck but my opponent came out on top.
Rounds 2&3: Gates 2-0, 2-0
I wound up playing against gates decks in rounds 2 & 3 and cleaned house against them both times. This just seems like a very favorable match up in favor of this flavor of pirates. I’m not suggesting that Gates couldn’t win against this brew, it would just be very hard.
Round 4: Boros Aggro, 0-2
This was a combination of a bad (but not un-winable) match up, bad draws and not having the right sideboard cards. Game one involved me getting 10 out of 20 lands and game two saw me mulligan down to five and then have to face a perfect curve with Lyra out on top and him pulling like 11 points of life from lifelink per round. Still, the games were closer than 0-2 might suggest and I’ve got some sideboard plans.
After I got home I changed a few things immediately. I replaced the two risk factors and carnival // carnage with a rigging runner, dire fleet poisoner and light up the stage, making all three four ofs.
The rundown:
Honestly, I was thinking this would be a one week deck for me, a nostalgic look back on pirate tribal but I’m feeling pretty good about the crew after taking them out. I’m working on a more detailed deck primer after I’ve solidified my build a bit more but if you’re at all interested at all in smashing in your opponent’s face with fast and furious creature based aggro this is a deck that you should think about.
Until then here’s a very basic primer. I’ll most likely edit it and make it more presentable in the future, nothing on the sideboard because I’m reworking it.
The cornerstone of this deck is value. The main idea is fairly simple, to pump out more pirates than your opponent can dream of dealing with and pillage away. Generally speaking this deck wants to be using as much manna as possible each turn (unless holding a poisoner ready to flash) making more threats than the opponent can deal with and using aggressive synergy to do massive amounts of damage on the swing and getting maximum value with the spectacle mechanic. Lean on Fathom Fleet Capitan to help fill the board and March of the Drowned and Light up the Stage to help keep the threats coming.
One drop pirates:
Daring Buccaneer: Is the best turn one play (provided you have another pirate in your hand… and you should) it may not have haste but as a 2/2 it’ll catch up on damage the first time you swing with it, it has a better chance to survive as a 2/2 and it frees up your other one drop creatures that can do more for you later.
Fanatical Firebrand: While Daring Buccaneer is a better turn one play, Fanatical Firebrand is not a bad one at all, swinging for 1 on turn one always feels like a small victory. This card can mean a lot more when you’ve got a Dire Fleet Capitan ready to swing, or have either a Judith, Scourge Diva or Dire Fleet Neckbreaker on board. This card can also serve as a one drop spectacle trigger in a pinch.
Rigging Runner: To the point, a 1/1 first striker for 1 is good value but a 2/2 first striker for 1 is amazing value and most turns this deck wants to attack so getting the raid trigger is no hard task.
Two drop pirates: Dire Fleet Poisoner: This will often function as this deck’s primary source of removal, either flash it in to block your target or to pump up one of your attackers that’s being blocked by something you want to kill.
Dire Fleet Captain: This creature is a real powerhouse in this deck, at it’s worst it’s just a grizzly bear but in most cases it’ll be much larger on the attack with each other pirate giving it +1.
Fathom Fleet Captain: This card should, in most cases be your first option if it’s reasonable to cast and activate the trigger. It dies to everything but until it does it can help you fill up your hand with a back up crew by dedicating your first two manna to making a token every turn. The obvious exceptions would be if playing some other card would win you the game that turn or that you would have to discard things that might be more useful than a 2/2 with menace.
Three drop pirates(?):
Judith, the Scourge Diva: Sure, Judy isn’t a pirate but she might as well be. In most cases, unless there’s no risk to her at all, or if doing so would win you the game you won’t be attacking with her. She doesn’t get to be revealed to make Daring Buccaneer cheaper, she doesn’t get a bonus from Dire Fleet Neck Breaker or help Dire Fleet Captain by attacking… But she does give all the attacking pirates +1/0 (and there will likely be a few of them) and when / if the (likely) inevitable happens and the glass cannon that is this deck blows up it’ll do a bit more damage to your opponent in doing so. Does this make Judy and honorary pirate? I think so.
Four drop pirates:
Dire Fleet Neckbreaker: +2/0 for all attacking pirates is a thing that can make for a lot of damage.
The not pirates:
March of the Drowned: One black to bring two dead pirates back to your hand beats one for one removal for value in my book and helps deal with the problem of an empty hand.
Light up the stage: This will most often be cast for 1 and helps this deck have things to play, which is what this deck wants to do.
Skewer the Critics: Most of the time this will be cast for 1, most of the time the best target will be the opponent’s face but it can also, at times, if needed aid as removal…
I playtested this deck last night against a friend running Temur Reclamation. I thought I was going to have a chance to fine tune the sideboard, unfortunately (kinda) this didn't really get to happens. Turns out that Pirates do pretty good against Reclamation. I won almost all of the pre board games and well over half of post board (I didn't really need to board anything), the games I lost were either due to very bad draws or to Murmuring Mystic.
I'm pondering the merits of dropping a land and replacing it with a spell, a fourth March of the Drowned could be nice, so could a single Maximize Velocity or Risk Factor, a single Carnival // Carnage could also be a helpful way to activate spectacle in the worst of situations or more... Still, there's a lot to be said for 20 lands.
Shiver me timbers! It's a pure delight to see someone putting pirates and Judith together.
A year ago, I put Rakdos Aggro Pirates together for fun and was pleasantly surprised by some 3-1 finishes. The rise of Chainwhirler put an end to that particular guilty pleasure of unplayable uncommon synergy.
Seeing Judith and a reduction in 'whirlers got me thinking of a reunion tour. As I worked with the old list, I realized that I could make the mana worse and support an unplayable mythic. This list is untested and has too many one-ofs for evaluation, but it's a starting point for testing.
Given the lack of refinement, asking for feedback seems inappropriate, although it would delight me. Here it is :
Hey, I remember you from the old thread. Here’s a few thoughts.
The biggest issues I ran into running pirates before (besides a general meta shift) involved (most of the time) running running out of gas. Sometimes, however, what I was running before was a (bit more or less at various times) bit of a tool box deck and the problem involved not getting the right cards at the right time. So, going into it this time I wanted to stay as focused as I could on a battle plan (that said, there are a surprisingly large number of really good Pirates that do a really wide range of often times very impressive things and my angle is in no way the definitive one, there are a diverse range of battle plains that could produce great results) and I wanted to ensure that the threats keep coming.
Regardless of the why, you’ll probably want some more card advantage kinda stuff. Ruin Raider could be your best route depending on what build you go with but I always kinda wished the card was a “you may” rather than simply “if you attacked”. Since you’re bound to be pretty aggressive regardless of what plan you choose, this can put you in a situation where if you don’t win with your attack you will likely loose and since your opponent will know this, they can be ready for this moment. If you are doing Grixis and running Ruin Raider as a core bit to your deck I’d also put in some kinda counter magic to help keep your opponents from turning this into too much of an advantage. Keep in mind that in running 3 colors it’s likely you’ll need to shock yourself more than once. Experimental Frenzy is a good card but I think there are a lot of better options when it comes to pirates since you probably want to decide when the best time to play certain cards (Darring Buccaneer, Rigging Runner, Dire Fleet Poisoner, Dire Fleet Neckbreaker… etc) rather than get bound to the whim of the deck. Depending on the goals you set for your deck there are a lot of great options. Treasure Map is pretty great because Captain Lannery Storm is a pirate, on that note, Karn, Scion of Urza is a good way to go through your deck a bit and if you have a pile of treasure can help you pump out big ol’ fatties (and he’s in your colors no matter what they are!). If you want to go the cheap route, light of the stage can be triggered most turns and open up a ton of options. If you don’t mind paying the cost, Risk Factor could be a really good idea, even if you don’t get the cards your opponent takes 4 to the face and it’s got jump-start. On that note, it’s probably a worse idea for Risk Factor but there’s something to be said for it in some potential builds but Sword Point Diplomacy offers the same 3 cards but the potential to do more damage than double, jump-start Risk Factor (but is bound to give you the worst of all worlds). Going grixis you probably shouldn’t overlook curious obsession, this might not be mono blue but there’s probably going to be some really good target for it. Theater of Horrors as a one or two of might not be bad depending on your build. No matter what build you go with you’ll probably throw in as many March of the Drowned in your deck as is reasonable. Regardless to how they got there, pirates tend to die pretty easy. March of the Drowned can help recycle your creatures and that can mean any range of things from another counter or two via stormtamer to a point or two (or 4 if you’ve got Judy on board) of damage to close out the game with Firebrand.
One play that feels great with this deck is… (It’s probably not even the best play… it’s still feels really great and it can happen pretty frequently but…) If you have a Judy on board and sac a Firebrand to trigger spectacle for Skewer the Critics, you just cast Goblin Grenade! Wooo!
Anyway, I'm interested in seeing what direction you go. Keep us updated.
Post script:
Brass never let me down, you probably won't regret her. Warlord's Fury and Crash Through are both cheap combat tricks that do things pirates want to do and replace themselves.
The meta is bound to be different, but last year I was surprised to find that my pirates weren't always dying and March could be clunky. This is a new meta, but some Nexus and Mono-U seem like they might not be putting the pirates in the bin. Given Grixis's historic difficulty with enchantments, Reclamation might be a lost cause.
Looking at the spoilers, Theatre of Horrors looked abusable. But I think it's not worth running Spear Spewer.
Three colors will kill me for sure sometimes. But I bam hoping the U flyers make triggering Ruin Raider easier.
My core concept last year was the Fleet Captains. Pirates are such perfect trade-off cards. None of them are unconditionally good. I still think they need to attack, so Ruin Raider is free or I am probably losing anyway.
I definitely want to surprise some people with March of the Drowned and Siren's Ruse. The extra mana compared to dive down is hard, but hey, drawing cards. It could promote rigging runner and make Settle a little worse.
Curious Obsession deserves some thought. I want to be more creature dense than Mono-U. What matchups can I run it in without working as hard as Mono-U does to protect it?
The meta is bound to be different, but last year I was surprised to find that my pirates weren't always dying and March could be clunky. This is a new meta, but some Nexus and Mono-U seem like they might not be putting the pirates in the bin. Given Grixis's historic difficulty with enchantments, Reclamation might be a lost cause.
Looking at the spoilers, Theatre of Horrors looked abusable. But I think it's not worth running Spear Spewer.
Three colors will kill me for sure sometimes. But I bam hoping the U flyers make triggering Ruin Raider easier.
My core concept last year was the Fleet Captains. Pirates are such perfect trade-off cards. None of them are unconditionally good. I still think they need to attack, so Ruin Raider is free or I am probably losing anyway.
I definitely want to surprise some people with March of the Drowned and Siren's Ruse. The extra mana compared to dive down is hard, but hey, drawing cards. It could promote rigging runner and make Settle a little worse.
Curious Obsession deserves some thought. I want to be more creature dense than Mono-U. What matchups can I run it in without working as hard as Mono-U does to protect it?
Ruin raider could as you both said, leave you in ruin. Also I know he isn't a pirate, but I think that's fine here as he won't be here for that purpose, you could always toss in Midnight Reaper just a thought!
You don't really need spear spewer.Sure, that's a great card to go with it but we've got other great pirate options to trigger spectacle. That's one of the bigger reasons I'm running Fanatical Firebrand as a 4 of, with 3 March of the Drowned. While it's pretty unlikely to pan out that way I can trigger spectacle with firebrand up to ten times per game. In the exceptionally unlikely event that Judy is out for each of those sacs, that's 20 damage! If that were my only wincon that'd be a bad plan but it's enough (on top of any turns that the deck otherwise can get damage through, which is pretty common) for me to justify leaning on the spectacle mechanic to get more value out of my cards.
As an other note, from what I've seen so far with my current (short) run of pirates, March of the Drowned is just as useful in bringing back pirates that have been countered as it is bringing back those that got to hang out on the battlefield a bit before going to the graveyard.
At least with my build and my experience so far, Reclamation is not much of a problem at all. I ground out several hours of games against this match up on Monday. Most of the time, pre-boards unless they get an ideal hand or I got a notably sub par hand I won. I didn't really feel like I needed to sideboard (but if I did again I would put in some Fiery Cannonade and / or Crash Through) but post boards were more or less the same with the exception of games where Murmering Mystic was able to stall me with blockers long enough to get exploded to davey jones' locker.
To my experience so far...
this deck is strongly favored against Gates and Reclamation, about even, if not very slightly match-ups against mono blue and mono red (these matches seem to come down to who has the better hand / draw), green based aggro with big trample creatures can be a real problem if we can't kill them fast, as can boros with lifegain (and especially strike... and vigilance...) or if opponents are able to make enough dinky blockers to deal with our threats. I've tinkered with my sideboard a bit to maybe help deal with these problems. I'll most likely have some kinda little write up on how it went next week. I've also gone down to 19 lands, I've goldfished this a lot and it seems to work pretty well, in the open slot I put a Theater of Horrors as a one of, it's a bit pricey manna wise for what I'm going for but it offers repeatable card advantage and a way that might not be great value but repeatable way to ping the opponent if it comes down to that.
I like it! Particularly the headings. Although technically, lands are not pirates either. Maybe Secret Bases, Haunts or Hideouts. Or do pirates have nests, like scorpions?
But seriously, I have only been on the other side of the Light/Skewer combo, but it seems powerful.
My feedback is all theorycrafting, so please feel free to stop reading. To my delight, I will be going to the Game DayStore Championship Allegiance Weekend with my son. But he will be running Esper Midrange which depletes the UB lands from our shared collection and puts me off testing my Pirate Judy deck.
My favorite 1 drop was always Daring Buccaneer, as I never wanted to play Rigging Runner on turn 1. I love Fathom Fleet Captain, but I often found myself wanting to do different things with my mana, so I decided that 4 was more than I wanted. So I would cut one to add a Buccaneer.
It looks like you are heavily depending on Spectacling. A badly timed Ghitu Lavarunner seems like it might be unfortunate, but if you can reliably Spectacle, you should be off to the races.
Without a better understanding of Spectacle, I don't know what to say about the number of lands. Running 3 Neckbreakers and 19 lands does seem dangerous. One thing I have done when I was stuck on the right number of lands (which may draw objections) is to run the extra land and 61 cards. This should split the difference on mana ratios.
A sideboard strategy that I had some good results with was to lean more into discard with Mind Rot type effects.
I wound up with my same first round opponent as I did the previous week. We both tweeked our decks a bit, he took out his splash of white and I made mine a bit sleeker. This week I came out on top.
Round 2: Gruul Aggro 1-2
My second round opponent was also playing Gruul Aggro. He won.
Round 3: Simic Aggro with Wildgrowth Walker explore package 0-2
With consistent life-gain enough for my opponent to hang on and a stream of bodies to batter me, this was a sad loss.
Round 4: Gates 2-0
This deck is really good against gates...
A bit about matchups.
Instead of breaking down how these pirates rate against individual decks, I’m going to comment on some trends I’ve noticed.
This deck tends to shred through the slower decks being played. While there’s no such thing as a sure victory, unless they pull off some kinda god-draw if they’re taking a few turns to set up, these pirates are likely to swab the deck with any opponent too scurvy to keep up with our threats.
Aggressive match ups tend to be in our favor but none of them are really in the bag. If we’re able to execute our plan this deck tends to be faster than most other aggressive decks. That said, sometimes our opponent is able to get their deck to do exactly what they want and sometimes this deck doesn’t do what you want it to. This can mean any number of things in the context of various aggressive decks but the bottom line is, this deck is very fast but not bulletproof.
The games that give this deck the hardest time involve decks (or individual games) which opponents are able to somehow match it in value. This can play out in a bunch of ways that we don’t want but most likely it’ll mean that your opponent has some kinda consistent life gain going on while filling up the battlefield while somehow battering the buccaneers down to 0.
The landbase works out pretty good for me. I know 3 four-drops seems a bit much for 19 lands but It’s entirely possible to win with this deck by turn four with just two lands and the right pirates for the job. Obviously, Light Up the Stage can help us get to lands but Fathom Fleet Captain is also a great stall card until the deck draws some more lands. While hitting the curve isn’t bad at all, regardless of how many lands are on the battlefield if they’re all tapped each turn you’re probably doing ok (to be fair, unless your opponent is really slow, more than only a couple turns on one manna, and that manna must be somehow red, will likely set this deck behind). Judith, the Scourge Diva and Dire Fleet Neckbreaker might be key pieces to this deck but it’s also not too hard to win without them.
Tonight, I finally brought out my Grixis Aggro Pirates for a 1-2 finish. I didn't think I was lucky, nor were the matchups generally favorable. But I definitely made some bad mulligan decisions. Still, I wonder whether the deck I brought, which relies on small flyers, is going to be good against a meta prepared for Mono-U.
I lost to Izzet Drakes and Phoenixes (1-2, 0-1), beat Bant Control (2-0, 1-1) and lost to Gb Stompy (0-2, 1-2). But hey, I pulled a Rekindling Phoenix from my showdown pack, so worth?
List is below, I want to diversify the removal, and suggestions are appreciated.
Recently, minor events have kept the Pirates land locked (I took a week off to play something else, had to get more important house stuff done on a Friday so I missed FNM, played last week... and I am missing next weekend for my girlfriend's birthday).
Last Friday was kinda notable for a few reasons.. I hadn't played my pirates for a while, I didn't entirely make up my mind to play them until right before hand and I had gotten a few bedevils right before hand. This isn't quite the list I played but rather what, after a little thought, the list should look like with Bedevil in it.
I only wound up going 2-2 again but it still seemed pretty promising.
Round one was lost to Gates (1-2), which this deck had previously done quite well against. Each of the two games I lost, my opponent was able to pull two (all that they were running) Deafening Clarions and play them at opportune times. Round two was lost to Boros aggro again. Early and multiple Knight of Grace(s) is what hung me up in those games. While this deck certainly has the tools to deal with those Knights, those just weren't the cards I drew. Rounds 3 & 4 were both swiftly won (by me) against mono-blue artifacts and Esper midrange.
The plan is pretty simple. Blast out a bunch of super cost efficient pirates. Use Light up the Stage, March of the Drowned, and (maybe) Risk Factor to keep the fire burning. I plan on smashing face until I leave my opponents wondering if they should brew up some pirates or possibly just repeatedly loose in a blaze of glory.
3 Rigging Runner
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Fathom Fleet Captain
4 Dire Fleet Captain
3 Daring Buccaneer
3 Dire Fleet Poisoner
3 Judith, the Scourge Diva
3 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker
4 Dragonskull Summit
8 Mountain
4 Swamp
4 Blood Crypt
Instant
2 Risk Factor
Sorcery
3 March of the Drowned
3 Light Up the Stage
1 Carnival // Carnage
4 Skewer the Critics
3 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Dire Fleet Daredevil
1 Risk Factor
3 Banefire
2 Carnival // Carnage
3 Drill Bit
I’ll most likely have some kinda write up on how it went next week.
Modern: Goblins,Storm
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Simic Merfolk
So updating it with the newer burn/removal spells and replacing some creatures (to include Judith) should be a good starting point imho.
Round one: Naya (mostly Gruul with a splash of white) aggro brew, 1-2.
This was a pretty solid aggro brew and the games were pretty much races. For me, this meant trying to put a lot of small, very aggressive creatures down, for my opponent it meant ramping into big trample-y creatures. The games were all really close and could have went either way.
After loosing game one, I sideboarded in my kitesail freebooters to help both as fliers to get over their big guys and to help pull some cards from my opponents hand. This worked for game two. Game three was neck and neck but my opponent came out on top.
Rounds 2&3: Gates 2-0, 2-0
I wound up playing against gates decks in rounds 2 & 3 and cleaned house against them both times. This just seems like a very favorable match up in favor of this flavor of pirates. I’m not suggesting that Gates couldn’t win against this brew, it would just be very hard.
Round 4: Boros Aggro, 0-2
This was a combination of a bad (but not un-winable) match up, bad draws and not having the right sideboard cards. Game one involved me getting 10 out of 20 lands and game two saw me mulligan down to five and then have to face a perfect curve with Lyra out on top and him pulling like 11 points of life from lifelink per round. Still, the games were closer than 0-2 might suggest and I’ve got some sideboard plans.
After I got home I changed a few things immediately. I replaced the two risk factors and carnival // carnage with a rigging runner, dire fleet poisoner and light up the stage, making all three four ofs.
The rundown:
Honestly, I was thinking this would be a one week deck for me, a nostalgic look back on pirate tribal but I’m feeling pretty good about the crew after taking them out. I’m working on a more detailed deck primer after I’ve solidified my build a bit more but if you’re at all interested at all in smashing in your opponent’s face with fast and furious creature based aggro this is a deck that you should think about.
Until then here’s a very basic primer. I’ll most likely edit it and make it more presentable in the future, nothing on the sideboard because I’m reworking it.
Current build
4 Rigging Runner
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Fathom Fleet Captain
4 Dire Fleet Captain
3 Daring Buccaneer
4 Dire Fleet Poisoner
3 Judith, the Scourge Diva
3 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker
4 Dragonskull Summit
9 Mountain
3 Swamp
4 Blood Crypt
Sorcery
3 March of the Drowned
4 Light Up the Stage
4 Skewer the Critics
3 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Dire Fleet Daredevil
1 Risk Factor
3 Banefire
2 Carnival // Carnage
3 Drill Bit
The cornerstone of this deck is value. The main idea is fairly simple, to pump out more pirates than your opponent can dream of dealing with and pillage away. Generally speaking this deck wants to be using as much manna as possible each turn (unless holding a poisoner ready to flash) making more threats than the opponent can deal with and using aggressive synergy to do massive amounts of damage on the swing and getting maximum value with the spectacle mechanic. Lean on Fathom Fleet Capitan to help fill the board and March of the Drowned and Light up the Stage to help keep the threats coming.
One drop pirates:
Daring Buccaneer: Is the best turn one play (provided you have another pirate in your hand… and you should) it may not have haste but as a 2/2 it’ll catch up on damage the first time you swing with it, it has a better chance to survive as a 2/2 and it frees up your other one drop creatures that can do more for you later.
Fanatical Firebrand: While Daring Buccaneer is a better turn one play, Fanatical Firebrand is not a bad one at all, swinging for 1 on turn one always feels like a small victory. This card can mean a lot more when you’ve got a Dire Fleet Capitan ready to swing, or have either a Judith, Scourge Diva or Dire Fleet Neckbreaker on board. This card can also serve as a one drop spectacle trigger in a pinch.
Rigging Runner: To the point, a 1/1 first striker for 1 is good value but a 2/2 first striker for 1 is amazing value and most turns this deck wants to attack so getting the raid trigger is no hard task.
Two drop pirates:
Dire Fleet Poisoner: This will often function as this deck’s primary source of removal, either flash it in to block your target or to pump up one of your attackers that’s being blocked by something you want to kill.
Dire Fleet Captain: This creature is a real powerhouse in this deck, at it’s worst it’s just a grizzly bear but in most cases it’ll be much larger on the attack with each other pirate giving it +1.
Fathom Fleet Captain: This card should, in most cases be your first option if it’s reasonable to cast and activate the trigger. It dies to everything but until it does it can help you fill up your hand with a back up crew by dedicating your first two manna to making a token every turn. The obvious exceptions would be if playing some other card would win you the game that turn or that you would have to discard things that might be more useful than a 2/2 with menace.
Three drop pirates(?):
Judith, the Scourge Diva: Sure, Judy isn’t a pirate but she might as well be. In most cases, unless there’s no risk to her at all, or if doing so would win you the game you won’t be attacking with her. She doesn’t get to be revealed to make Daring Buccaneer cheaper, she doesn’t get a bonus from Dire Fleet Neck Breaker or help Dire Fleet Captain by attacking… But she does give all the attacking pirates +1/0 (and there will likely be a few of them) and when / if the (likely) inevitable happens and the glass cannon that is this deck blows up it’ll do a bit more damage to your opponent in doing so. Does this make Judy and honorary pirate? I think so.
Four drop pirates:
Dire Fleet Neckbreaker: +2/0 for all attacking pirates is a thing that can make for a lot of damage.
The not pirates:
March of the Drowned: One black to bring two dead pirates back to your hand beats one for one removal for value in my book and helps deal with the problem of an empty hand.
Light up the stage: This will most often be cast for 1 and helps this deck have things to play, which is what this deck wants to do.
Skewer the Critics: Most of the time this will be cast for 1, most of the time the best target will be the opponent’s face but it can also, at times, if needed aid as removal…
Modern: Goblins,Storm
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Simic Merfolk
I'm pondering the merits of dropping a land and replacing it with a spell, a fourth March of the Drowned could be nice, so could a single Maximize Velocity or Risk Factor, a single Carnival // Carnage could also be a helpful way to activate spectacle in the worst of situations or more... Still, there's a lot to be said for 20 lands.
Those cards plus Crash Through, Banefire, Warlord's Fury, Fiery Cannonade, Drill Bit, Dire Fleet Daredevil and Kitesail Freebooter are all in the running for sideboard slots.
Modern: Goblins,Storm
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Simic Merfolk
A year ago, I put Rakdos Aggro Pirates together for fun and was pleasantly surprised by some 3-1 finishes. The rise of Chainwhirler put an end to that particular guilty pleasure of unplayable uncommon synergy.
Seeing Judith and a reduction in 'whirlers got me thinking of a reunion tour. As I worked with the old list, I realized that I could make the mana worse and support an unplayable mythic. This list is untested and has too many one-ofs for evaluation, but it's a starting point for testing.
Given the lack of refinement, asking for feedback seems inappropriate, although it would delight me.
Here it is :
1 Siren Stormtamer
1 Rigging Runner
1 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Grasping Scoundrel
2 Fathom Fleet Captain
4 Dire Fleet Captain
4 Daring Buccaneer
1 Dire Fleet Poisoner
2 Judith, the Scourge Diva
4 Ruin Raider
2 Admiral Beckett Brass
3 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker
Land
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Drowned Catacomb
4 Unclaimed Territory
1 Sulfur Falls
4 Watery Grave
4 Steam Vents
4 Blood Crypt
1 Skulduggery
1 Fungal Infection
Sorcery
1 March of the Drowned
4 Lava Coil
4 Kitesail Freebooter
1 Hostage Taker
2 Experimental Frenzy
1 Dragonskull Summit
3 Fiery Cannonade
2 March of the Drowned
2 Angrath, the Flame-Chained
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
The biggest issues I ran into running pirates before (besides a general meta shift) involved (most of the time) running running out of gas. Sometimes, however, what I was running before was a (bit more or less at various times) bit of a tool box deck and the problem involved not getting the right cards at the right time. So, going into it this time I wanted to stay as focused as I could on a battle plan (that said, there are a surprisingly large number of really good Pirates that do a really wide range of often times very impressive things and my angle is in no way the definitive one, there are a diverse range of battle plains that could produce great results) and I wanted to ensure that the threats keep coming.
Regardless of the why, you’ll probably want some more card advantage kinda stuff. Ruin Raider could be your best route depending on what build you go with but I always kinda wished the card was a “you may” rather than simply “if you attacked”. Since you’re bound to be pretty aggressive regardless of what plan you choose, this can put you in a situation where if you don’t win with your attack you will likely loose and since your opponent will know this, they can be ready for this moment. If you are doing Grixis and running Ruin Raider as a core bit to your deck I’d also put in some kinda counter magic to help keep your opponents from turning this into too much of an advantage. Keep in mind that in running 3 colors it’s likely you’ll need to shock yourself more than once. Experimental Frenzy is a good card but I think there are a lot of better options when it comes to pirates since you probably want to decide when the best time to play certain cards (Darring Buccaneer, Rigging Runner, Dire Fleet Poisoner, Dire Fleet Neckbreaker… etc) rather than get bound to the whim of the deck. Depending on the goals you set for your deck there are a lot of great options. Treasure Map is pretty great because Captain Lannery Storm is a pirate, on that note, Karn, Scion of Urza is a good way to go through your deck a bit and if you have a pile of treasure can help you pump out big ol’ fatties (and he’s in your colors no matter what they are!). If you want to go the cheap route, light of the stage can be triggered most turns and open up a ton of options. If you don’t mind paying the cost, Risk Factor could be a really good idea, even if you don’t get the cards your opponent takes 4 to the face and it’s got jump-start. On that note, it’s probably a worse idea for Risk Factor but there’s something to be said for it in some potential builds but Sword Point Diplomacy offers the same 3 cards but the potential to do more damage than double, jump-start Risk Factor (but is bound to give you the worst of all worlds). Going grixis you probably shouldn’t overlook curious obsession, this might not be mono blue but there’s probably going to be some really good target for it. Theater of Horrors as a one or two of might not be bad depending on your build. No matter what build you go with you’ll probably throw in as many March of the Drowned in your deck as is reasonable. Regardless to how they got there, pirates tend to die pretty easy. March of the Drowned can help recycle your creatures and that can mean any range of things from another counter or two via stormtamer to a point or two (or 4 if you’ve got Judy on board) of damage to close out the game with Firebrand.
One play that feels great with this deck is… (It’s probably not even the best play… it’s still feels really great and it can happen pretty frequently but…) If you have a Judy on board and sac a Firebrand to trigger spectacle for Skewer the Critics, you just cast Goblin Grenade! Wooo!
Anyway, I'm interested in seeing what direction you go. Keep us updated.
Post script:
Brass never let me down, you probably won't regret her. Warlord's Fury and Crash Through are both cheap combat tricks that do things pirates want to do and replace themselves.
Modern: Goblins,Storm
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Simic Merfolk
The meta is bound to be different, but last year I was surprised to find that my pirates weren't always dying and March could be clunky. This is a new meta, but some Nexus and Mono-U seem like they might not be putting the pirates in the bin. Given Grixis's historic difficulty with enchantments, Reclamation might be a lost cause.
Looking at the spoilers, Theatre of Horrors looked abusable. But I think it's not worth running Spear Spewer.
Three colors will kill me for sure sometimes. But I bam hoping the U flyers make triggering Ruin Raider easier.
My core concept last year was the Fleet Captains. Pirates are such perfect trade-off cards. None of them are unconditionally good. I still think they need to attack, so Ruin Raider is free or I am probably losing anyway.
I definitely want to surprise some people with March of the Drowned and Siren's Ruse. The extra mana compared to dive down is hard, but hey, drawing cards. It could promote rigging runner and make Settle a little worse.
Curious Obsession deserves some thought. I want to be more creature dense than Mono-U. What matchups can I run it in without working as hard as Mono-U does to protect it?
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Ruin raider could as you both said, leave you in ruin. Also I know he isn't a pirate, but I think that's fine here as he won't be here for that purpose, you could always toss in Midnight Reaper just a thought!
As an other note, from what I've seen so far with my current (short) run of pirates, March of the Drowned is just as useful in bringing back pirates that have been countered as it is bringing back those that got to hang out on the battlefield a bit before going to the graveyard.
At least with my build and my experience so far, Reclamation is not much of a problem at all. I ground out several hours of games against this match up on Monday. Most of the time, pre-boards unless they get an ideal hand or I got a notably sub par hand I won. I didn't really feel like I needed to sideboard (but if I did again I would put in some Fiery Cannonade and / or Crash Through) but post boards were more or less the same with the exception of games where Murmering Mystic was able to stall me with blockers long enough to get exploded to davey jones' locker.
Modern: Goblins,Storm
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Simic Merfolk
4 Rigging Runner
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Fathom Fleet Captain
4 Dire Fleet Captain
3 Daring Buccaneer
4 Dire Fleet Poisoner
3 Judith, the Scourge Diva (honorary pirate)
3 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker
4 Light Up the Stage
4 Skewer the Critics
3 March of the Drowned
1 Theater of Horrors
Lands pillaged
4 Dragonskull Summit
8 Mountain
3 Swamp
4 Blood Crypt
3 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Fiery Cannonade
3 Warlord's Fury
3 Crash Through
3 Drill Bit
To my experience so far...
this deck is strongly favored against Gates and Reclamation, about even, if not very slightly match-ups against mono blue and mono red (these matches seem to come down to who has the better hand / draw), green based aggro with big trample creatures can be a real problem if we can't kill them fast, as can boros with lifegain (and especially strike... and vigilance...) or if opponents are able to make enough dinky blockers to deal with our threats. I've tinkered with my sideboard a bit to maybe help deal with these problems. I'll most likely have some kinda little write up on how it went next week. I've also gone down to 19 lands, I've goldfished this a lot and it seems to work pretty well, in the open slot I put a Theater of Horrors as a one of, it's a bit pricey manna wise for what I'm going for but it offers repeatable card advantage and a way that might not be great value but repeatable way to ping the opponent if it comes down to that.
Modern: Goblins,Storm
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Simic Merfolk
But seriously, I have only been on the other side of the Light/Skewer combo, but it seems powerful.
My feedback is all theorycrafting, so please feel free to stop reading. To my delight, I will be going to the
Game DayStore ChampionshipAllegiance Weekend with my son. But he will be running Esper Midrange which depletes the UB lands from our shared collection and puts me off testing my Pirate Judy deck.My favorite 1 drop was always Daring Buccaneer, as I never wanted to play Rigging Runner on turn 1. I love Fathom Fleet Captain, but I often found myself wanting to do different things with my mana, so I decided that 4 was more than I wanted. So I would cut one to add a Buccaneer.
It looks like you are heavily depending on Spectacling. A badly timed Ghitu Lavarunner seems like it might be unfortunate, but if you can reliably Spectacle, you should be off to the races.
Without a better understanding of Spectacle, I don't know what to say about the number of lands. Running 3 Neckbreakers and 19 lands does seem dangerous. One thing I have done when I was stuck on the right number of lands (which may draw objections) is to run the extra land and 61 cards. This should split the difference on mana ratios.
A sideboard strategy that I had some good results with was to lean more into discard with Mind Rot type effects.
Good luck!
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Round 1: Gruul Aggro 2-1
I wound up with my same first round opponent as I did the previous week. We both tweeked our decks a bit, he took out his splash of white and I made mine a bit sleeker. This week I came out on top.
Round 2: Gruul Aggro 1-2
My second round opponent was also playing Gruul Aggro. He won.
Round 3: Simic Aggro with Wildgrowth Walker explore package 0-2
With consistent life-gain enough for my opponent to hang on and a stream of bodies to batter me, this was a sad loss.
Round 4: Gates 2-0
This deck is really good against gates...
A bit about matchups.
Instead of breaking down how these pirates rate against individual decks, I’m going to comment on some trends I’ve noticed.
This deck tends to shred through the slower decks being played. While there’s no such thing as a sure victory, unless they pull off some kinda god-draw if they’re taking a few turns to set up, these pirates are likely to swab the deck with any opponent too scurvy to keep up with our threats.
Aggressive match ups tend to be in our favor but none of them are really in the bag. If we’re able to execute our plan this deck tends to be faster than most other aggressive decks. That said, sometimes our opponent is able to get their deck to do exactly what they want and sometimes this deck doesn’t do what you want it to. This can mean any number of things in the context of various aggressive decks but the bottom line is, this deck is very fast but not bulletproof.
The games that give this deck the hardest time involve decks (or individual games) which opponents are able to somehow match it in value. This can play out in a bunch of ways that we don’t want but most likely it’ll mean that your opponent has some kinda consistent life gain going on while filling up the battlefield while somehow battering the buccaneers down to 0.
The landbase works out pretty good for me. I know 3 four-drops seems a bit much for 19 lands but It’s entirely possible to win with this deck by turn four with just two lands and the right pirates for the job. Obviously, Light Up the Stage can help us get to lands but Fathom Fleet Captain is also a great stall card until the deck draws some more lands. While hitting the curve isn’t bad at all, regardless of how many lands are on the battlefield if they’re all tapped each turn you’re probably doing ok (to be fair, unless your opponent is really slow, more than only a couple turns on one manna, and that manna must be somehow red, will likely set this deck behind). Judith, the Scourge Diva and Dire Fleet Neckbreaker might be key pieces to this deck but it’s also not too hard to win without them.
Modern: Goblins,Storm
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Simic Merfolk
I lost to Izzet Drakes and Phoenixes (1-2, 0-1), beat Bant Control (2-0, 1-1) and lost to Gb Stompy (0-2, 1-2). But hey, I pulled a Rekindling Phoenix from my showdown pack, so worth?
List is below, I want to diversify the removal, and suggestions are appreciated.
4 Siren Stormtamer
3 Kitesail Freebooter
1 Fanatical Firebrand
1 Grasping Scoundrel
3 Fathom Fleet Captain
4 Dire Fleet Captain
4 Daring Buccaneer
3 Warkite Marauder
3 Judith, the Scourge Diva
4 Ruin Raider
2 Admiral Beckett Brass
2 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Drowned Catacomb
4 Unclaimed Territory
1 Sulfur Falls
4 Watery Grave
4 Steam Vents
4 Blood Crypt
Instant
1 Siren's Ruse
Sorcery
1 March of the Drowned
2 Lava Coil
1 Kitesail Freebooter
1 Hostage Taker
1 Warkite Marauder
1 Dire Fleet Daredevil
1 Theater of Horrors
1 Dragonskull Summit
3 Fiery Cannonade
1 Siren's Ruse
1 March of the Drowned
2 Lava Coil
2 Angrath, the Flame-Chained
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Last Friday was kinda notable for a few reasons.. I hadn't played my pirates for a while, I didn't entirely make up my mind to play them until right before hand and I had gotten a few bedevils right before hand. This isn't quite the list I played but rather what, after a little thought, the list should look like with Bedevil in it.
4 Rigging Runner
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Fathom Fleet Captain
4 Dire Fleet Captain
3 Daring Buccaneer
4 Dire Fleet Poisoner
3 Judith, the Scourge Diva
3 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker
1 Theater of Horrors
3 March of the Drowned
4 Light Up the Stage
4 Skewer the Critics
Pillaged & Plundered:
4 Dragonskull Summit
7 Mountain
4 Swamp
4 Blood Crypt
3 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Fiery Cannonade
3 Bedevil
3 Warlord's Fury
3 Drill Bit
I only wound up going 2-2 again but it still seemed pretty promising.
Round one was lost to Gates (1-2), which this deck had previously done quite well against. Each of the two games I lost, my opponent was able to pull two (all that they were running) Deafening Clarions and play them at opportune times. Round two was lost to Boros aggro again. Early and multiple Knight of Grace(s) is what hung me up in those games. While this deck certainly has the tools to deal with those Knights, those just weren't the cards I drew. Rounds 3 & 4 were both swiftly won (by me) against mono-blue artifacts and Esper midrange.
Modern: Goblins,Storm
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Simic Merfolk