After a month of evolution which is still continuing there’s a lot to be said about Pirates in general and R/B pirates in specific. Though technically I’ve got a single (currently two-of), blue manna cost at this point I still think of this deck as a R/B affair and while I’m not particularly committed to this ratio there probably won’t be much blue in this deck in the future but I’ll touch on that more in bit.
While constant changes to the deck makes these numbers a bit blurry since no week has been played with the same exact look. Out of four weeks, I have gone 10-6 in total rounds and 21-14 in individual games, reduced I’m at 5-3 (60%) rounds won vs. loss and just a little better 3-2 (about 67%) in individual games . None of these numbers are terribly amazing but three out of four weeks I’ve gone 3-1 and that’s at least pretty good.
Getting to the meat and potatoes, there are a lot of really great Pirates, support cards for Pirates and a lot of different ways to play pirates (and I’m thinking I’m not even seeing all of them at this point). I’m not even going to attempt to cover them all. I would say that at their core, Pirates in general are a pretty aggressive group with highly cost efficient creatures. If you want to play a straight forward aggro with Pirates I would probably suggest mono red. It’s been said before, there are enough good red pirates to go that route. But then again… the same can probably be said in general (that one can make pretty fierce mono blue or black) pirates as well. While Raid is super common trigger amongst pirate-y things suggesting, a level of aggression across the board. Pirates also come equipped with a wide range of really useful abilities at great value. Ok, so maybe that came off as a bit vague and hype-y but there’s a bit of a warning here too. There are so many (mostly cheap,) useful pirates that it creates a bit of a dilemma at first (especially at 3 colors), figuring out what to do with such a swiss-army tribe as pirates. Since we’re brewing standard we can only reasonably fit so many pirates into our decks.
I’m having a bit of a hard time identifying this build with an archtype (other than “tribal”) which isn’t a big deal but presents a bit of an issue here when describing the hows and whys of playing it.
The heart of this deck is an aggro philosphy; the curve is pretty low to the ground for the most part, while the highest cmc card in here comes in pretty high at six, most of the cards can come out at two. While deck works under a fundamentally aggressive creature concept (use cheap, efficient creatures to smash your opponent’s life down to 0) there’s a number of rogue elements in this deck (that’s a joke… since pirates are rogueish… which really begs the question if there was a human pirate wizard why not a goblin pirate rogue… oh, the Breeches, card that should have been, I lament thee, in my heart of hearts you’ll always be a legendary goblin pirate rogue that works like legion loyalist but only affects pirates or something along those lines… I digress...) and it’s constructed with an eye a bit more towards responsiveness and some other stuff slightly less straight forward than just straight ahead face bashing. That said, there’s still a good bit of face-bashing to be had.
Without anymore preambling, here’s the card breakdown for my current build.
Creatures:
1 Mana
4 Daring Buccaneers might be a little vanilla but a 2/2 for 1 is pretty good value. This might be the worst creature in the deck but it’s the best thing to put down on turn one. There are tons of Pirates in this deck so revealing the next one you’re about to put out is not too hard to make happen.
4 Rigging Runners can pass for a round one drop down (especially if you’re pretty certain you’re going to get a Neckbreaker or you’ve got a Poisoner up your sleeve), a 1/1 first striker for 1 isn’t bad (it beats Bomat Currier and most creatures with */1) , but generally speaking you want it to come out with its raid trigger activated because a 2/2 first striker for 1 is great (once again, especially if you’re pretty certain you’re going to get a Neckbreaker or you’ve got a Poisoner up your sleeve... the good Admiral doesn’t hurt either).
2 Mana
4 Dire Fleet Captain , this card is an all star here for a pretty uncomplicated reason; all your creatures are pirates so it’s going to get +1/1 for every other body swinging with it. Most of the time, when you swing the DFC will be your biggest guy and he only costs 2 mana.
3 Dire Fleet Poisoner , a deathtouch grizzly bear with flash that if you flash in during an attack you can also use as a combat trick is hard to beat. If I could sneak in four of these I would, and I might at some point. Obviously, you get the most mileage off of this card if you flash (especially if someone tries to block one of your first strikers with a big body) it in but it’s not bad on its own.
3 Kitesail Freebooter , this card isn’t quite as aggressive as the rest of the deck but there are lots of great reasons to play it on turn two or whenever. A 1 /2 flier isn’t bad, especially if your opponent has no fliers but being able to see what they have in their hand and possibly keeping them from holding something that can be very useful against this deck.
3 Fathom Fleet Captain , this is another card I would run more of if I had the room. This card is pretty straight forward 2/1 menace will either eat up some of their removal or allow you to start pumping out pirates. If they decide to double block, that’s a great time to flash out a Poisoner if you’ve got one. This guy might not be the one who does the big hits but he and the crew he helps summon will help those big hits get through. It’s also great to have on the board later as a place to spend mana if you’re low on cards or holding back because you know your opponent has board-wipes.
3 Mana
3 Captain Lannery Storm, I’ve sometimes questioned if 3 is the right number for a legendary creature in this deck but in this case, I think it is. She’s a very useful lady. Obviously, haste is nice, there’s not a lot of haste in this deck. If she comes out on turn 3 you could feasibly (Daring Buccaneer, Dire Fleet Capitan, Captain Lannery Storm) be swinging for 8 and getting a treasure which can be applied well in a number of ways (only 3 land and a neckbreaker? Neckbreaker comes out next turn, you can maybe swing for 15. Got another land and a Vanquisher’s Banner? You’re swinging for 12 next turn and setting yourself up for a lot of card draw. Got a Rigging Runner? Pop it in post-combat and next turn you’re swinging for 11… the point is, treasure is handy). Sure, at 3 you’re likely to get more than one of her sometimes so if you do, just keep swinging with her as is reasonable because only one can be out at a time and if you have a second, she becomes a body you don’t need to bring back with March of the Drowned or a problem for your opponent. Her +1 for spending treasure can also be important at times.
2 Forerunner of the Coalition, this lady is a new addition so I’m not sure how she’s gonna work with the rest of my crew. She’s not an amazing body for attacking or blocking but she’s got a few features which help you leap from the bulk of your crew to some of your more fancy tricks. While there are reasons to tutor for most pirates in this deck. depending on what your hand looks like your best bet is either Capitan Lannery Storm, Dire Fleet Neckbreaker or Admiral Becket Brass. This is her primary reason for being here, (like Lannery) she’s a 3 drop that helps you bring out your guys that’ll make your little guys a bit bigger. Her point of damage for each pirate cast is undoubtedly useful on some level at any point but this gets super crazy with your artifacts in play.
4 Mana
2 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker, this guy is a force of nature, generally speaking you don’t even have to attack with him. That he gives +2/0 to all of your attacking creatures is pretty great but this is doubly true for all of your first strikers. While it can be a pretty nasty attacker too it’s probably best not to use him as such unless you are pretty sure that there is no way your opponent can kill him (blockers, combat tricks, Settle The Wreckage) when you do so because his bonus to all other attackers will do you a lot more good in the long run. As is also the case with Brass, the reason there’s only two of these guys in the deck is trying to keep the curve low but with two Forerunners they’re both effectively four ofs if you want them to be, which take up half the number of slots.
2 Admiral Beckett Brass, Brass was a bit of an experiment that went well. By the time you can cast her, chances are you’ll have come across an unclaimed territory or Capitan Lannery Storm, so that blue mana should be no problem. Generally speaking, the Neckbreaker will help you win faster but in some situations you may find yourself better served stealing their stuff or making your other bodies a little tougher.
Instants
1 Mana
2 Fatal Push, it’s pretty good at killing things. There’s only 2, if you get one use it wisely.
2 Mana
2 Lightning Strike, is decent at killing things and a swell way to dish out a final blow to an opponent. Once again, there’s only 2, use them wisely.
Sorcery
3 March of the Drowned , this card has the potential to be a real back breaker in this deck. Clearly, it’s always good to be able to bring back guys from the dead but all of these creatures can come back from the dead at a rate of 2 creatures for 1 mana with this card. That’s a better value than many, if not most removal out there. Most of your pirates are pretty cheap so it’s not unreasonable to have them back on the battlefield pretty soon after getting them out of your graveyard.
I have these two gems together on this list for a reason. They weren’t in my earliest drafts and when I show off my deck these two cards cause the most head scratching. While earlier versions seemed to work pretty well, there seemed to come a point pretty early (in test games) where, if I didn’t win by my Pirates would be getting outclassed (they might be really efficient one and two drops but most of my creatures are still one and two drops). Obviously, they’re a bit heavy on the casting cost. While I love what it looks like when they can get out there I’m not feeling brave enough to put more than one of either one in more than once (not only because you don’t want to get stuck with two cards like this early game but because there’s not much room in the deck but still, getting these two out together feels good enough to make me want to run them both as two-ofs) but I do tend to think of them as a two of rather than two one ofs.
The idea is this, the deck is pretty efficient. There’s very little haste but it’s pretty easy to fill up the board and your “worst” Pirate is a 2/2. Unfortunately, by the time you could play a card with 5-6 cmc you’ll probably find yourself with a mostly (if not entirely) empty hand and that your creatures are starting to get outclassed by midrange decks or getting the clampdown put on you by control. Both of these cards help out by making your guys a bit bigger and helping out with card advantage and they both do so in slightly different ways which in combination (which, admittedly involves a great deal of luck but I’ve had it happen more than a few times) makes this deck into a machine that’s probably going to win you the game provided you can live long enough to reap the benefits. In both cases, +1/1 is useful to all but exceptionally useful to all your first strikers.
The Immortal Sun is situationally very useful against all walkers which factors differently game to game but it’s never a bad thing for you.
If you get both of these cards out your “worst” Pirate is 4/4 (and if you have a neck breaker too your worst is a 6/4, add a Brass and you’re at 7/5…. which costs 1 mana and gives you a draw). Your creature curve becomes even lower, and you can cast most of your deck for 1 manna. You draw twice on your draw step and once per pirate you drop down (and most of the deck is pirates). If you have a Forerunner of the Coalition on board, each pirate entering the battlefield does a point of damage to your opponent. Even without trample (though early versions of this deck utilized Crash Through (and Fell Flagship) , I sacrificed the slots to more creatures, which it needed but they were both situationally very useful and may be good sideboard options). These cards work great here because they help the deck do what it does (being cheap and efficient) better (cheaper and more efficient) with more draws and so more chances to play cards that are super cheap and crazy efficient but they’re only both one ofs. They’re not something useful to have in an opening hand but in an ideal world, by the time you can cast either one you’ll have drawn one of the two and either one can help you get to the other a bit faster (but you probably won’t need it).
….
That was more than I thought it would be… This report will come in installments. That’s part I…. Next I’ll delve into my sideboard.
Went 3-1 at FNM again. I’m pretty happy with the results in general and I really dig how this deck plays. I still think of it as a work in progress but it’s functioning pretty well along the way. Through every iteration of the deck so far I’ve found this much to be true, this crew can win against pretty much anything thrown against it but also has the potential to loose to pretty much any legitimate deck.
Round 1: (2-0) Vs. W/U Auras
It was a solid deck and a good pilot but killing off his creatures with Fatal Push & Dire Fleet Poisoner made all his fancy enchantment work go away. This played out the same both games.
Round 2: (2-0) Vs. R/B Pirates
My opponent had a slightly more straight forward aggro R/B Pirates list than I was running. They went on to go 3-1 for the night as well but this just wasn’t their game round.
Game one started out pretty close, with them on the offensive with some small fast pirates but my pirates got big and I wound up catching up on his numbers with the help of some tokens so that was game.
Game two, my opponentfelt they needed to keep a bad hand after mulligans. It was like goldfishing a win.
Round 3: (0-2) Vs. W/U Approach
Same player and deck I played a few weeks ago. This time results were a bit different. Round 1 wound up the same. I came out fast, he neutralized my guys and then proceeded to Approach his way to a win.
Game two I boarded in the right cards against approach and wound up with a two land hand which looked pretty good but I proceeded to draw nothing but lands… (in a game against a control deck) … this is not hyperbole... A Fumigate came and was my turn to get goldfished by a Gideon of the Trials. It was not the golden age of piracy.
Round 4:(2-0) Vs. R/G Aggro
In short, I won. My guys came out fast, got big and ran him over. While I think this deck has the tools to deal with me it wasn’t able to come up with them this night.
These games were both pretty short and straight forward.
The Admiral worked out better than I thought she would. Captian Lannery Storm and Fathom Fleet Capitan both work well with her helping get out more cheap Pirates on the fly and menace tokens help your pirates get through to do damage. Between Unclaimed Territory and Captian Lannery Storm that blue mana isn’t hard to come by though I’m pondering running a single island just in case of a situation where the good Capitan is unavailable and your opponent is making you trade your Unclaimed Territories for basic lands and you’re stuck with an Admiral Becket Brass (or two…) in your hand, three may be the wrong number for this card, I’ll likely bring back the Immortal Sun but it depends on how my play-testing night goes this week but it can be very handy with the other pirates in this deck.
Anyway, I’ll be working on my month one report on this deck soon.
Maybe it’s a little cutesy but I’m pondering putting in some unclaimed territories in my land-base, go slightly Grixis by slipping in a little Admiral Beckett Brass. My thought is here that so far it seems as if this deck can win against most decks but can also loose against any vaguely legit deck and my biggest problems have come from running hot and cold with my lands (at a pretty even rate… and just dealing with quantity… fixing isn’t an issue so much). Those things are pretty much true about any deck though. Currently, I feel like I’m doing slightly better against control decks, aggro decks are a mixed bag and I tend to do my worst against solid midrange. Besides being another thing that makes my guys bigger and that being a generally good thing, I think her ability would help a good deal with most midrange decks at the point where I still have more guys and they begin to bring out their big guns. I playtested this idea out a bit last night and it seemed to work better than I thought it would. I’m gonna give it a shot on Friday. Has anyone else experiment with Brass splashed in a (mostly) Rakdos build? Does it seem like a particularly good or bad idea to anyone?
This Friday night went a bit different with my pirates. Whereas the last two weeks I went 3-1, this week I went 1-3. While I did tinker a little (replaced a mountain with a Canyon and a Daredevil with a Fathom Fleet Capitan) but this didn’t really factor in negatively at all.
Game 1: loss 1-2
Mono red aggro
This game could have went either way (and has). Played against my friend / Magic “teammate” (no, we’re not on an actual team but we’ve been playing with each other throughout most of Magic’s history, we playtest against each other once a week and go to events / fnm together). He won but it was close, both of the decks we were playing tend to go 50-50 against each other.
Game 2: loss 1-2
GW Cats
A rematch against the Cats I played last week. Even though I crushed it the week before I knew the Cats had it going on. Partially bad draws, I can blame a big part of my game 1 loss to keeping a hand I shouldn’t have (this was probably the only teachable moment I took away from the night) when I kept a one land hand (1 Daring Buccaneer, 2 Rigging Runner, 1 Kitesail Freebooter, 2 Dire Fleet Captains and a Canyon Slough… I was on the draw and the potential for that hand is obvious but I didn’t get that second land until it was too late). Game two, I won pretty straight forward and game 3 went down to the line but his life-gains turned it around for him.
Game 3: Loss 1-2
G/W Dinosaurs
Game one I got flooded. Game two my deck did what it was supposed to and I won. Game three was more of a game and his Kinjalli’s Sunwings disrupted my usage of post-combat Rigging Runners and Poisoners as flashed in blockers and he took the win.
Game 4: Won 2-0
Grixis Pirates
I won these games pretty handedly. My pirates came in fast and mean both games while his came out looking like he had no game plain at all. I attribute this just as much to good / bad draws as anything.
After this Friday's results I will be working on an extended report of my first month with Pirates.
Round two I went up against a pretty solid G/W Cats deck. I would feel pretty bad about saying I went 3-1 again if this match up didn’t follow up my bye. The the player and his were both pretty solid, my pirates just did exactly what they were made to do.
Game one: I curved beautifully, (Daring Buccaneer, Dire Fleet Capitan, Captain Lannery Storm & Rigging Runner, (a minor setback, my captains die from blockers but come back post-combat via March of the drowned), Neck Breaker – win).
Game two: This game was a little more of a grind. Both of our decks were going off pretty good but the Magic gods were on my side and I was able to pull and cast both Vanquisher’s Banner and Immortal Sun. Either of these cards are pretty darn good to get out but if you’ve got both out things get real crazy, most of your pirates cast for 1 at this point, you’re drawing for 2 and 1 for each pirate you play and the “worst” Pirate that could even be cast at this comes out as a 4/4 vanilla. I’m pretty amazed I was able to pull this off two weeks in a row since they’re both one-offs in the deck but I did and it’s pretty sweet when it happens. The turn after I got these out I started with an empty hand but after my double draw, quickly started transforming the board state, as I did so he did his math and coincided before I swung.
Round three: Loss
Round three I went up against a pretty solid B/W Vampire deck. I have kinda mixed feelings about this loss. As a note, I’m transitioning from using dice to keep score to an electronic device. The guy seemed nice enough and I’ve seen him around a couple times but I don’t know him as well as many of the regulars.
Game one was really close (got him down to 1 life), several times throughout the game he would call out his life total and it wasn’t quite as low as I had it. None of these times were the very dramatically different and I attributed it to me missing one of his various methods of lifegain and / or not being used to my new Mojo. It really was a pretty solid (not the very best I’ve seen but pretty darn good) Vampire deck.
Game two wasn’t very close, I wound up getting flooded hard. I noticed a few times during this game that the guy had made some illegal / wrong plays (attacking with creatures that had summoning sickness, trying to play multiple copies of legendary creatures, giving himself multiple vampire tokens when attacking via M.F.-Dusk.) that he gladly corrected after I pointed them out. Regardless, I had a good chunk of mana in my opening hand and drew nothing but lands. It makes it hard to win when you don’t have anything to play.
I’m not really sure how to take this loss. Game one was close, game two was a bit of bad luck that’s bound to happen. The guy seemed nice enough and I don’t have any reason to say he was cheating but I would have certainly won game one if my life totals were accurate even just one of the few times they diverged and I wasn’t really off during any of my other rounds. I wouldn’t really question that at all if he didn’t screw up several times in game two (which I didn’t have a shot in due to all those lands). As of now I’m going with innocent until proven guilty but this is a guy who I’m going to be paying close attention to if I play him again.
Round four: Win
A pretty solid Esper Approach deck. Pretty straight forward wins. Game one, I just curved in for the win before he could do much.
Game two was a lot more grindy, Kitesail grabbed a Push but told me he also had two Settle the Wreckage which he would soon have enough mana to play so I had to hold back my attacks a bit. Eventually, he’d settle to Settle two creatures at a time while I built up my boardstate. Scarab God came out to play, and brought back a Rigging Runner to help his cause but I got him down to 2. He played approach but couldn’t compete with my board state and I swung in for lethal.
Swapped out Varaska’s Contempt for a Mountian. Went 3-1 at my local fnm.
Brief rundown of rounds:
Round 1: Win
Round one saw me sweep against an ok w/b Vampire deck. I had everything going for me during this round. The player was (is) a very nice guy, a player of moderate skill who typically goes 1-2 or 2-2 (I’ve seen him go 3-1 once). His deck was solid enough to be competitive but probably not the most premium list. I was also helped here by very good draws (game two ended with three Dire Fleet Captains, two Rigging Runners and a Neck Breaker on deck).
Round 2: Win
Round two I found myself matched up with a w/u Approach deck.
Game one I came out swinging, did a bit of damage but then my deck got turned off by all kindsa control. Approach, Approach, I loose.
For game two I swapped out my Fatal Push’s and Lightning Strikes for 3 Wanted Scoundrels and a Vraska’s Contempt. Game two went pretty much how I wanted, I was able to dish out enough damage to win before I got locked down.
Game three, I went in with the same look and he swapped in some Regal Caracal’s. I came in, did a bit of damage but the lock started to come down with two Settle the Wreckage’s (I knew he had them so I never swung all in but still wound up getting four lands against the two of them), a Caracal came out and they had blockers. I was able to play an Immortal sun but was getting locked solidly in place, the Vanquisher’s Banner came out and a March of the Drowned turned my empty hand into a scary chain-reaction of “draw two cards, cast cheap pirate, draw a card, cast cheap pirate, draw a card..”.
Round 3: Loss
A good player with what I can best describe as a slightly unconventional but amazingly effective Sultai Midrange / Constrictor hybrid deck. I came out swinging game one and it looked good for me until he did a chunk’ o life gain and made my board look really sad next to his. Game two I side-boarded in some stuff that never saw the light of day, it was a fast forward version of game one.
Round 4: Win
Faced off against some pretty fierce R/G Dinosaurs. Pretty straight forward. Lost game one after a long, drawn out game (I was ahead, he got some life and was able to fill the board with big Dinos and eat up my dead Pirates). Won game two in four rounds with little resistance, curved out really nice with a turn one Daring Buccaneer, turn two Dire Fleet Capitan, turn three Dire Fleet Capitan and a Rigging Runner with +1/1, turn 4 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker (which didn’t need to attack but helped give +2/0's). Game three was much closer but Dire Fleet poisoner helped save the day from a Carnage Tyrant and I swept in for the win.
Bienvenu! Per Standard Deck Creation Forum Rules, "If you want to post a new thread in this forum, please check and make sure there isn't already a thread on the same topic." Hence I am merging this with the existing Rakdos Aggro Pirates thread. - hoser2
I am inclined to say that all police activity should occur under intense scrutiny. When we, as a society, grant power to an individual through an office (be it police officer, member of the military, elected official or any other job which, in theory, they are to be serving and are empowered by the public), we need to keep a close watch on all of their actions for potential abuses of power if for no other reason than that potential exists.
First off, (obviously) Sorin looks a great deal like Erlic. I dunno where to even start other than that except probably not green. I see where you're coming from with red but I don't really see frail sorcerer Elric being just red. I could imagine a R/B deck being ok for him but even more so something with esper (or mardu) colors (with more of a focus on B/W) and some good artifacts. It should probably be largely be a control deck with most of the creatures in it being legendary. There should probably be parasitic elements to the deck (pay life, sacrifice creatures (or redirecting damage from you to your own creatures) both seem like shoe-ins here) and since Erlic is kind of a sneaky guy sometimes, at least one alternate win condition seems like a good fit too. Given the fact that he's an aspect of the eternal warrior, putting your grave yard back into your library seems like it's kinda thematic as well.
I would probably go with some kinda esper control deck with a handful of legendary creatures and powerful equipment (probably some good mana rocks as well) but the focus of the deck would probably be massive lifegain (with things like boon reflection and other big lifegain cards) and some kinda win condition tied to life with just a dash of mill and putting your own graveyard back into your library.
I've ran Crested Sunmare with this before. It's ok (had it in Oketra's slot) but it's a bit slow and a lightning rod. If you can manage to get two out before one gets removed then that's pretty much game. The one card that winds up in this list or my sideboard on any given night more than most is settle the wreckage . It works great maindeck (I'll generally swap out a sacred cat , combat celebrant and one Gideon's resolve to make room for 3. Settle is a generally good card but can be really exceptionally helpful if / when your opponent swings at your mostly exerted / tapped board. The "problem" being once you play this trick once your opponent will not likely repeat their mistake.
As for my success at FNM with this deck I'd call it moderate but consistently competitive. A lot of your success will be based on a combination of what deck your opponent is playing and the draw. If there's a "trick" to making the deck work it's doing as much damage to your opponent as soon as you can (generally speaking, long games won't be as kind to you as short ones) while extending yourself as safely as possible (attacking / exerting prudently, trying to keep some back up in your hand, etc...).
I dunno. I dig Unstable and I guess the lands are important too. I think the whole thing is a winning formula. The factions are pretty great, honestly (with very few changes and mostly having to do with names) I could imagine them living on various MTG worlds pretty seamlessly and I already like several of the groups more than many of the established game world elements (… all I'm sayin' is the Gobbos in unStable are way cooler than the whole of the Gatewatch in my book). There are some neat mechanics (heck, I'd kinda like to see augment / host type cards in standard) It's fun for drafting and it's even pretty fun to turn those draft take home into sixty-card silver bordered decks to pull out every once in a while and change things up a bit.
The problem being, everyone has some kinda budget and the limits to silver-bordered cards are obvious. For me the tokens and land (and I think this is the intent) add value-motivation (I just made that word up) for me. If it's a token I can use, I'm gonna use it. My lands I'm setting aside, if after some time they increase in value dramatically as some speculate I'll sell em' and use the proceeds to get more magic cards that'll see more play than the silver borders, if they don't I'll have a handful of really sweet lands I can put in decks I wanna bling-up.
Would I buy Unhinged with its limited playability without the lands / tokens? Maybe, but only if they were much cheaper, so much it'd probably be inhibitive for WotC to sell packs for (under $2). Do I expect this to be some kinda major money-making investment? Not really… but honestly the potential card value is less important than the fact that they're really super sweet lands.
I can kinda see that but I guess it's noteworthy to mention I'm one o' them folks. I've been playing magic casually since unlimited. As with the case with most folks in this boat after long durations of not playing I've assumed that I wouldn't be playing Magic again so I unloaded cards that at this point I guess I kinda regret... But the point is a friend and I have started going to shops playing standard FNM (I generally don't do more events than that because I have a job and a girlfriend but summer time might change this a bit since I don't work much that season except for half day summer school for a month) and pre-release stuff. Fatal Push month was when I started going. I didn't really notice the match ups getting easier after the change. I dunno... I'm not suggesting that this makes my opinion be all end all... and as mentioned it's not really a strongly held opinion of mine but as one of those casual folks crawling out of the wood work, the shift to tokens was much more of a let down than a relief.
Well, from that it sounds like you just didn't lucksack. That's to be expected, sometimes the universe just isn't with us... There are any number of reasons we loose games and we all loose sometimes.
This may sound exceptionally reductionist but there are essentially three major factors to who wins and looses any given game of magic; the players, their decks and chance. I'm going to assume you know how to play magic based on what you've said, you've done well but you're not currently doing well. That's a fairly important bit, you know the game and you most likely understand whatever given deck you're playing a good bit.
Those three elements (player, deck & chance) really turn into six in any given game. Were you playing against the same player base? Did you win / loose against equally skilled players? It can be discouraging to loose more consistently than win but if you're loosing against someone because they're better than what you're used to playing against that can be a great learning experience. Even if another player isn't across the board “better” it's also possible that while traveling a bit outside your comfort zone (modern) that the folks you were playing against just play that format (standard) more and have a more innate understanding of how standard meta decks work. Decks obviously play a huge factor, some decks just perform much better against others. Chance (largely) determines what sort of deck you'll be facing and what cards you draw.
While that is all very simplistic, there's a point hidden in that haystack. The “rut” you're in (and I think happens to most players at all skill levels) is mostly in your head. Sometimes we loose for any number of reasons but when we expect to loose it tends to reflect in our play. We make mistakes both in deck creation / selection and during play which we might not otherwise because we don't expect to win. That said, it's not all just about confidence. A lack of confidence can loose you a game but so can hubris.
My advice remains essentially the same, dust off your pants and get back in the saddle. It's not a big deal, you've lost some games. Go back to basics, choose or brew up a deck you can get excited about in whatever format you feel the most comfortable in and focus on it for a bit. Take all your losses as lessons and strive on. The advice might seem simplistic, because it is. A “rut” isn't so much a streak of luck or losses, but our reaction to them.
To be clear, I'm more perplexed than upset over the matter of FNM promo tokens (with the second set having been shown for a bit now) but it seems to make the much more sense for fnm promos to be modern viable (or any other format but modern just seems the most reasonable to me as the norm) standard legal uncommons (maybe throw two rares and a mythic in a year if they feel real nice) which rotate every four weeks or so.
* If they're standard legal uncommons as a general rule, this shouldn't “crash the market” because standard legal uncommons shouldn't be that expensive (they're uncommon… in rotation… and since we're talking “modern viable” there's a reasonable chance it's not the first time they've been printed).
* This system would attract Modern players to FNM (most of which seem to be standard events) offering them shots at alternate art versions of cards they use.
* This system would encourage Standard FNM players to venture into other formats, this pull only increases over time as their personal card pool with modern viable cards increases.
* While it may bring down the prices of a hand full of cards a year (but if they're focusing on uncommons it probably shouldn't matter too much) if they succeed in bringing in folks to a format they wouldn't typically play so much it would increase the demand (and thus value) of the cards they play well with.
If they were feeling particularly benevolent they could continue to offer tokens at essentially the same rate giving players who might have play sets or are otherwise entirely uninterested in the “card of the month” or really want a kind of token. Tokens don't suck but they are just as useless if you don't use them as any other thing you don't use and they certainly don't encourage play across formats as this program potentially could.
Anyways, there goes my unsolicited, loosely held opinion on the matter.
While constant changes to the deck makes these numbers a bit blurry since no week has been played with the same exact look. Out of four weeks, I have gone 10-6 in total rounds and 21-14 in individual games, reduced I’m at 5-3 (60%) rounds won vs. loss and just a little better 3-2 (about 67%) in individual games . None of these numbers are terribly amazing but three out of four weeks I’ve gone 3-1 and that’s at least pretty good.
Getting to the meat and potatoes, there are a lot of really great Pirates, support cards for Pirates and a lot of different ways to play pirates (and I’m thinking I’m not even seeing all of them at this point). I’m not even going to attempt to cover them all. I would say that at their core, Pirates in general are a pretty aggressive group with highly cost efficient creatures. If you want to play a straight forward aggro with Pirates I would probably suggest mono red. It’s been said before, there are enough good red pirates to go that route. But then again… the same can probably be said in general (that one can make pretty fierce mono blue or black) pirates as well. While Raid is super common trigger amongst pirate-y things suggesting, a level of aggression across the board. Pirates also come equipped with a wide range of really useful abilities at great value. Ok, so maybe that came off as a bit vague and hype-y but there’s a bit of a warning here too. There are so many (mostly cheap,) useful pirates that it creates a bit of a dilemma at first (especially at 3 colors), figuring out what to do with such a swiss-army tribe as pirates. Since we’re brewing standard we can only reasonably fit so many pirates into our decks.
I’m having a bit of a hard time identifying this build with an archtype (other than “tribal”) which isn’t a big deal but presents a bit of an issue here when describing the hows and whys of playing it.
The heart of this deck is an aggro philosphy; the curve is pretty low to the ground for the most part, while the highest cmc card in here comes in pretty high at six, most of the cards can come out at two. While deck works under a fundamentally aggressive creature concept (use cheap, efficient creatures to smash your opponent’s life down to 0) there’s a number of rogue elements in this deck (that’s a joke… since pirates are rogueish… which really begs the question if there was a human pirate wizard why not a goblin pirate rogue… oh, the Breeches, card that should have been, I lament thee, in my heart of hearts you’ll always be a legendary goblin pirate rogue that works like legion loyalist but only affects pirates or something along those lines… I digress...) and it’s constructed with an eye a bit more towards responsiveness and some other stuff slightly less straight forward than just straight ahead face bashing. That said, there’s still a good bit of face-bashing to be had.
Without anymore preambling, here’s the card breakdown for my current build.
Creatures:
1 Mana
4 Daring Buccaneers might be a little vanilla but a 2/2 for 1 is pretty good value. This might be the worst creature in the deck but it’s the best thing to put down on turn one. There are tons of Pirates in this deck so revealing the next one you’re about to put out is not too hard to make happen.
4 Rigging Runners can pass for a round one drop down (especially if you’re pretty certain you’re going to get a Neckbreaker or you’ve got a Poisoner up your sleeve), a 1/1 first striker for 1 isn’t bad (it beats Bomat Currier and most creatures with */1) , but generally speaking you want it to come out with its raid trigger activated because a 2/2 first striker for 1 is great (once again, especially if you’re pretty certain you’re going to get a Neckbreaker or you’ve got a Poisoner up your sleeve... the good Admiral doesn’t hurt either).
2 Mana
4 Dire Fleet Captain , this card is an all star here for a pretty uncomplicated reason; all your creatures are pirates so it’s going to get +1/1 for every other body swinging with it. Most of the time, when you swing the DFC will be your biggest guy and he only costs 2 mana.
3 Dire Fleet Poisoner , a deathtouch grizzly bear with flash that if you flash in during an attack you can also use as a combat trick is hard to beat. If I could sneak in four of these I would, and I might at some point. Obviously, you get the most mileage off of this card if you flash (especially if someone tries to block one of your first strikers with a big body) it in but it’s not bad on its own.
3 Kitesail Freebooter , this card isn’t quite as aggressive as the rest of the deck but there are lots of great reasons to play it on turn two or whenever. A 1 /2 flier isn’t bad, especially if your opponent has no fliers but being able to see what they have in their hand and possibly keeping them from holding something that can be very useful against this deck.
3 Fathom Fleet Captain , this is another card I would run more of if I had the room. This card is pretty straight forward 2/1 menace will either eat up some of their removal or allow you to start pumping out pirates. If they decide to double block, that’s a great time to flash out a Poisoner if you’ve got one. This guy might not be the one who does the big hits but he and the crew he helps summon will help those big hits get through. It’s also great to have on the board later as a place to spend mana if you’re low on cards or holding back because you know your opponent has board-wipes.
3 Mana
3 Captain Lannery Storm, I’ve sometimes questioned if 3 is the right number for a legendary creature in this deck but in this case, I think it is. She’s a very useful lady. Obviously, haste is nice, there’s not a lot of haste in this deck. If she comes out on turn 3 you could feasibly (Daring Buccaneer, Dire Fleet Capitan, Captain Lannery Storm) be swinging for 8 and getting a treasure which can be applied well in a number of ways (only 3 land and a neckbreaker? Neckbreaker comes out next turn, you can maybe swing for 15. Got another land and a Vanquisher’s Banner? You’re swinging for 12 next turn and setting yourself up for a lot of card draw. Got a Rigging Runner? Pop it in post-combat and next turn you’re swinging for 11… the point is, treasure is handy). Sure, at 3 you’re likely to get more than one of her sometimes so if you do, just keep swinging with her as is reasonable because only one can be out at a time and if you have a second, she becomes a body you don’t need to bring back with March of the Drowned or a problem for your opponent. Her +1 for spending treasure can also be important at times.
2 Forerunner of the Coalition, this lady is a new addition so I’m not sure how she’s gonna work with the rest of my crew. She’s not an amazing body for attacking or blocking but she’s got a few features which help you leap from the bulk of your crew to some of your more fancy tricks. While there are reasons to tutor for most pirates in this deck. depending on what your hand looks like your best bet is either Capitan Lannery Storm, Dire Fleet Neckbreaker or Admiral Becket Brass. This is her primary reason for being here, (like Lannery) she’s a 3 drop that helps you bring out your guys that’ll make your little guys a bit bigger. Her point of damage for each pirate cast is undoubtedly useful on some level at any point but this gets super crazy with your artifacts in play.
4 Mana
2 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker, this guy is a force of nature, generally speaking you don’t even have to attack with him. That he gives +2/0 to all of your attacking creatures is pretty great but this is doubly true for all of your first strikers. While it can be a pretty nasty attacker too it’s probably best not to use him as such unless you are pretty sure that there is no way your opponent can kill him (blockers, combat tricks, Settle The Wreckage) when you do so because his bonus to all other attackers will do you a lot more good in the long run. As is also the case with Brass, the reason there’s only two of these guys in the deck is trying to keep the curve low but with two Forerunners they’re both effectively four ofs if you want them to be, which take up half the number of slots.
2 Admiral Beckett Brass, Brass was a bit of an experiment that went well. By the time you can cast her, chances are you’ll have come across an unclaimed territory or Capitan Lannery Storm, so that blue mana should be no problem. Generally speaking, the Neckbreaker will help you win faster but in some situations you may find yourself better served stealing their stuff or making your other bodies a little tougher.
Instants
1 Mana
2 Fatal Push, it’s pretty good at killing things. There’s only 2, if you get one use it wisely.
2 Mana
2 Lightning Strike, is decent at killing things and a swell way to dish out a final blow to an opponent. Once again, there’s only 2, use them wisely.
Sorcery
3 March of the Drowned , this card has the potential to be a real back breaker in this deck. Clearly, it’s always good to be able to bring back guys from the dead but all of these creatures can come back from the dead at a rate of 2 creatures for 1 mana with this card. That’s a better value than many, if not most removal out there. Most of your pirates are pretty cheap so it’s not unreasonable to have them back on the battlefield pretty soon after getting them out of your graveyard.
Artifacts
5 Mana & 6 Mana
1 Vanquisher's Banner / 1 the Immortal Sun.
I have these two gems together on this list for a reason. They weren’t in my earliest drafts and when I show off my deck these two cards cause the most head scratching. While earlier versions seemed to work pretty well, there seemed to come a point pretty early (in test games) where, if I didn’t win by my Pirates would be getting outclassed (they might be really efficient one and two drops but most of my creatures are still one and two drops). Obviously, they’re a bit heavy on the casting cost. While I love what it looks like when they can get out there I’m not feeling brave enough to put more than one of either one in more than once (not only because you don’t want to get stuck with two cards like this early game but because there’s not much room in the deck but still, getting these two out together feels good enough to make me want to run them both as two-ofs) but I do tend to think of them as a two of rather than two one ofs.
The idea is this, the deck is pretty efficient. There’s very little haste but it’s pretty easy to fill up the board and your “worst” Pirate is a 2/2. Unfortunately, by the time you could play a card with 5-6 cmc you’ll probably find yourself with a mostly (if not entirely) empty hand and that your creatures are starting to get outclassed by midrange decks or getting the clampdown put on you by control. Both of these cards help out by making your guys a bit bigger and helping out with card advantage and they both do so in slightly different ways which in combination (which, admittedly involves a great deal of luck but I’ve had it happen more than a few times) makes this deck into a machine that’s probably going to win you the game provided you can live long enough to reap the benefits. In both cases, +1/1 is useful to all but exceptionally useful to all your first strikers.
The Immortal Sun is situationally very useful against all walkers which factors differently game to game but it’s never a bad thing for you.
If you get both of these cards out your “worst” Pirate is 4/4 (and if you have a neck breaker too your worst is a 6/4, add a Brass and you’re at 7/5…. which costs 1 mana and gives you a draw). Your creature curve becomes even lower, and you can cast most of your deck for 1 manna. You draw twice on your draw step and once per pirate you drop down (and most of the deck is pirates). If you have a Forerunner of the Coalition on board, each pirate entering the battlefield does a point of damage to your opponent. Even without trample (though early versions of this deck utilized Crash Through (and Fell Flagship) , I sacrificed the slots to more creatures, which it needed but they were both situationally very useful and may be good sideboard options). These cards work great here because they help the deck do what it does (being cheap and efficient) better (cheaper and more efficient) with more draws and so more chances to play cards that are super cheap and crazy efficient but they’re only both one ofs. They’re not something useful to have in an opening hand but in an ideal world, by the time you can cast either one you’ll have drawn one of the two and either one can help you get to the other a bit faster (but you probably won’t need it).
….
That was more than I thought it would be… This report will come in installments. That’s part I…. Next I’ll delve into my sideboard.
Round 1: (2-0) Vs. W/U Auras
It was a solid deck and a good pilot but killing off his creatures with Fatal Push & Dire Fleet Poisoner made all his fancy enchantment work go away. This played out the same both games.
Round 2: (2-0) Vs. R/B Pirates
My opponent had a slightly more straight forward aggro R/B Pirates list than I was running. They went on to go 3-1 for the night as well but this just wasn’t their game round.
Game one started out pretty close, with them on the offensive with some small fast pirates but my pirates got big and I wound up catching up on his numbers with the help of some tokens so that was game.
Game two, my opponentfelt they needed to keep a bad hand after mulligans. It was like goldfishing a win.
Round 3: (0-2) Vs. W/U Approach
Same player and deck I played a few weeks ago. This time results were a bit different. Round 1 wound up the same. I came out fast, he neutralized my guys and then proceeded to Approach his way to a win.
Game two I boarded in the right cards against approach and wound up with a two land hand which looked pretty good but I proceeded to draw nothing but lands… (in a game against a control deck) … this is not hyperbole... A Fumigate came and was my turn to get goldfished by a Gideon of the Trials. It was not the golden age of piracy.
Round 4:(2-0) Vs. R/G Aggro
In short, I won. My guys came out fast, got big and ran him over. While I think this deck has the tools to deal with me it wasn’t able to come up with them this night.
These games were both pretty short and straight forward.
The Admiral worked out better than I thought she would. Captian Lannery Storm and Fathom Fleet Capitan both work well with her helping get out more cheap Pirates on the fly and menace tokens help your pirates get through to do damage. Between Unclaimed Territory and Captian Lannery Storm that blue mana isn’t hard to come by though I’m pondering running a single island just in case of a situation where the good Capitan is unavailable and your opponent is making you trade your Unclaimed Territories for basic lands and you’re stuck with an Admiral Becket Brass (or two…) in your hand, three may be the wrong number for this card, I’ll likely bring back the Immortal Sun but it depends on how my play-testing night goes this week but it can be very handy with the other pirates in this deck.
Anyway, I’ll be working on my month one report on this deck soon.
Game 1: loss 1-2
Mono red aggro
This game could have went either way (and has). Played against my friend / Magic “teammate” (no, we’re not on an actual team but we’ve been playing with each other throughout most of Magic’s history, we playtest against each other once a week and go to events / fnm together). He won but it was close, both of the decks we were playing tend to go 50-50 against each other.
Game 2: loss 1-2
GW Cats
A rematch against the Cats I played last week. Even though I crushed it the week before I knew the Cats had it going on. Partially bad draws, I can blame a big part of my game 1 loss to keeping a hand I shouldn’t have (this was probably the only teachable moment I took away from the night) when I kept a one land hand (1 Daring Buccaneer, 2 Rigging Runner, 1 Kitesail Freebooter, 2 Dire Fleet Captains and a Canyon Slough… I was on the draw and the potential for that hand is obvious but I didn’t get that second land until it was too late). Game two, I won pretty straight forward and game 3 went down to the line but his life-gains turned it around for him.
Game 3: Loss 1-2
G/W Dinosaurs
Game one I got flooded. Game two my deck did what it was supposed to and I won. Game three was more of a game and his Kinjalli’s Sunwings disrupted my usage of post-combat Rigging Runners and Poisoners as flashed in blockers and he took the win.
Game 4: Won 2-0
Grixis Pirates
I won these games pretty handedly. My pirates came in fast and mean both games while his came out looking like he had no game plain at all. I attribute this just as much to good / bad draws as anything.
After this Friday's results I will be working on an extended report of my first month with Pirates.
Round one: (win-ish) Bye.
It’s hard to loose when you just win.
Round two: Win
Round two I went up against a pretty solid G/W Cats deck. I would feel pretty bad about saying I went 3-1 again if this match up didn’t follow up my bye. The the player and his were both pretty solid, my pirates just did exactly what they were made to do.
Game one: I curved beautifully, (Daring Buccaneer, Dire Fleet Capitan, Captain Lannery Storm & Rigging Runner, (a minor setback, my captains die from blockers but come back post-combat via March of the drowned), Neck Breaker – win).
Game two: This game was a little more of a grind. Both of our decks were going off pretty good but the Magic gods were on my side and I was able to pull and cast both Vanquisher’s Banner and Immortal Sun. Either of these cards are pretty darn good to get out but if you’ve got both out things get real crazy, most of your pirates cast for 1 at this point, you’re drawing for 2 and 1 for each pirate you play and the “worst” Pirate that could even be cast at this comes out as a 4/4 vanilla. I’m pretty amazed I was able to pull this off two weeks in a row since they’re both one-offs in the deck but I did and it’s pretty sweet when it happens. The turn after I got these out I started with an empty hand but after my double draw, quickly started transforming the board state, as I did so he did his math and coincided before I swung.
Round three: Loss
Round three I went up against a pretty solid B/W Vampire deck. I have kinda mixed feelings about this loss. As a note, I’m transitioning from using dice to keep score to an electronic device. The guy seemed nice enough and I’ve seen him around a couple times but I don’t know him as well as many of the regulars.
Game one was really close (got him down to 1 life), several times throughout the game he would call out his life total and it wasn’t quite as low as I had it. None of these times were the very dramatically different and I attributed it to me missing one of his various methods of lifegain and / or not being used to my new Mojo. It really was a pretty solid (not the very best I’ve seen but pretty darn good) Vampire deck.
Game two wasn’t very close, I wound up getting flooded hard. I noticed a few times during this game that the guy had made some illegal / wrong plays (attacking with creatures that had summoning sickness, trying to play multiple copies of legendary creatures, giving himself multiple vampire tokens when attacking via M.F.-Dusk.) that he gladly corrected after I pointed them out. Regardless, I had a good chunk of mana in my opening hand and drew nothing but lands. It makes it hard to win when you don’t have anything to play.
I’m not really sure how to take this loss. Game one was close, game two was a bit of bad luck that’s bound to happen. The guy seemed nice enough and I don’t have any reason to say he was cheating but I would have certainly won game one if my life totals were accurate even just one of the few times they diverged and I wasn’t really off during any of my other rounds. I wouldn’t really question that at all if he didn’t screw up several times in game two (which I didn’t have a shot in due to all those lands). As of now I’m going with innocent until proven guilty but this is a guy who I’m going to be paying close attention to if I play him again.
Round four: Win
A pretty solid Esper Approach deck. Pretty straight forward wins. Game one, I just curved in for the win before he could do much.
Game two was a lot more grindy, Kitesail grabbed a Push but told me he also had two Settle the Wreckage which he would soon have enough mana to play so I had to hold back my attacks a bit. Eventually, he’d settle to Settle two creatures at a time while I built up my boardstate. Scarab God came out to play, and brought back a Rigging Runner to help his cause but I got him down to 2. He played approach but couldn’t compete with my board state and I swung in for lethal.
Brief rundown of rounds:
Round 1: Win
Round one saw me sweep against an ok w/b Vampire deck. I had everything going for me during this round. The player was (is) a very nice guy, a player of moderate skill who typically goes 1-2 or 2-2 (I’ve seen him go 3-1 once). His deck was solid enough to be competitive but probably not the most premium list. I was also helped here by very good draws (game two ended with three Dire Fleet Captains, two Rigging Runners and a Neck Breaker on deck).
Round 2: Win
Round two I found myself matched up with a w/u Approach deck.
Game one I came out swinging, did a bit of damage but then my deck got turned off by all kindsa control. Approach, Approach, I loose.
For game two I swapped out my Fatal Push’s and Lightning Strikes for 3 Wanted Scoundrels and a Vraska’s Contempt. Game two went pretty much how I wanted, I was able to dish out enough damage to win before I got locked down.
Game three, I went in with the same look and he swapped in some Regal Caracal’s. I came in, did a bit of damage but the lock started to come down with two Settle the Wreckage’s (I knew he had them so I never swung all in but still wound up getting four lands against the two of them), a Caracal came out and they had blockers. I was able to play an Immortal sun but was getting locked solidly in place, the Vanquisher’s Banner came out and a March of the Drowned turned my empty hand into a scary chain-reaction of “draw two cards, cast cheap pirate, draw a card, cast cheap pirate, draw a card..”.
Round 3: Loss
A good player with what I can best describe as a slightly unconventional but amazingly effective Sultai Midrange / Constrictor hybrid deck. I came out swinging game one and it looked good for me until he did a chunk’ o life gain and made my board look really sad next to his. Game two I side-boarded in some stuff that never saw the light of day, it was a fast forward version of game one.
Round 4: Win
Faced off against some pretty fierce R/G Dinosaurs. Pretty straight forward. Lost game one after a long, drawn out game (I was ahead, he got some life and was able to fill the board with big Dinos and eat up my dead Pirates). Won game two in four rounds with little resistance, curved out really nice with a turn one Daring Buccaneer, turn two Dire Fleet Capitan, turn three Dire Fleet Capitan and a Rigging Runner with +1/1, turn 4 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker (which didn’t need to attack but helped give +2/0's). Game three was much closer but Dire Fleet poisoner helped save the day from a Carnage Tyrant and I swept in for the win.
4 Rigging Runner
4 Dire Fleet Captain
3 Dire Fleet Daredevil
3 Dire Fleet Poisoner
2 Fathom Fleet Captain
3 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Captain Lannery Storm
3 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker
3 Canyon Slough
4 Dragonskull Summit
7 Mountain
7 Swamp
1 Vanquisher's Banner
1 The Immortal Sun
2 Fatal Push
2 Lightning Strike
1 Vraska's Contempt
3 March of the Drowned
An early draft, any feedback is appreciated.
Bienvenu! Per Standard Deck Creation Forum Rules, "If you want to post a new thread in this forum, please check and make sure there isn't already a thread on the same topic." Hence I am merging this with the existing Rakdos Aggro Pirates thread. - hoser2
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/decks/1530-mr-zs-mono-red-gobbos
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Legion Loyalist
3 Mogg War Marshal
4 Foundry Street Denizen
3 Goblin Piledriver
3 Goblin Chieftain
2 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Guide
2 Krenko, Mob Boss
19 Mountain
Instant
4 Lightning Bolt
Sorcery
4 Goblin Grenade
1 Goblin Piledriver
1 Blood Moon
4 Dragon's Claw
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Smash to Smithereens
3 Kari Zev's Expertise
I would probably go with some kinda esper control deck with a handful of legendary creatures and powerful equipment (probably some good mana rocks as well) but the focus of the deck would probably be massive lifegain (with things like boon reflection and other big lifegain cards) and some kinda win condition tied to life with just a dash of mill and putting your own graveyard back into your library.
... that's about all I've got on the subject...
I've ran Crested Sunmare with this before. It's ok (had it in Oketra's slot) but it's a bit slow and a lightning rod. If you can manage to get two out before one gets removed then that's pretty much game. The one card that winds up in this list or my sideboard on any given night more than most is settle the wreckage . It works great maindeck (I'll generally swap out a sacred cat , combat celebrant and one Gideon's resolve to make room for 3. Settle is a generally good card but can be really exceptionally helpful if / when your opponent swings at your mostly exerted / tapped board. The "problem" being once you play this trick once your opponent will not likely repeat their mistake.
As for my success at FNM with this deck I'd call it moderate but consistently competitive. A lot of your success will be based on a combination of what deck your opponent is playing and the draw. If there's a "trick" to making the deck work it's doing as much damage to your opponent as soon as you can (generally speaking, long games won't be as kind to you as short ones) while extending yourself as safely as possible (attacking / exerting prudently, trying to keep some back up in your hand, etc...).
The problem being, everyone has some kinda budget and the limits to silver-bordered cards are obvious. For me the tokens and land (and I think this is the intent) add value-motivation (I just made that word up) for me. If it's a token I can use, I'm gonna use it. My lands I'm setting aside, if after some time they increase in value dramatically as some speculate I'll sell em' and use the proceeds to get more magic cards that'll see more play than the silver borders, if they don't I'll have a handful of really sweet lands I can put in decks I wanna bling-up.
Would I buy Unhinged with its limited playability without the lands / tokens? Maybe, but only if they were much cheaper, so much it'd probably be inhibitive for WotC to sell packs for (under $2). Do I expect this to be some kinda major money-making investment? Not really… but honestly the potential card value is less important than the fact that they're really super sweet lands.
At any rate, I'm pretty happy with the set...
This may sound exceptionally reductionist but there are essentially three major factors to who wins and looses any given game of magic; the players, their decks and chance. I'm going to assume you know how to play magic based on what you've said, you've done well but you're not currently doing well. That's a fairly important bit, you know the game and you most likely understand whatever given deck you're playing a good bit.
Those three elements (player, deck & chance) really turn into six in any given game. Were you playing against the same player base? Did you win / loose against equally skilled players? It can be discouraging to loose more consistently than win but if you're loosing against someone because they're better than what you're used to playing against that can be a great learning experience. Even if another player isn't across the board “better” it's also possible that while traveling a bit outside your comfort zone (modern) that the folks you were playing against just play that format (standard) more and have a more innate understanding of how standard meta decks work. Decks obviously play a huge factor, some decks just perform much better against others. Chance (largely) determines what sort of deck you'll be facing and what cards you draw.
While that is all very simplistic, there's a point hidden in that haystack. The “rut” you're in (and I think happens to most players at all skill levels) is mostly in your head. Sometimes we loose for any number of reasons but when we expect to loose it tends to reflect in our play. We make mistakes both in deck creation / selection and during play which we might not otherwise because we don't expect to win. That said, it's not all just about confidence. A lack of confidence can loose you a game but so can hubris.
My advice remains essentially the same, dust off your pants and get back in the saddle. It's not a big deal, you've lost some games. Go back to basics, choose or brew up a deck you can get excited about in whatever format you feel the most comfortable in and focus on it for a bit. Take all your losses as lessons and strive on. The advice might seem simplistic, because it is. A “rut” isn't so much a streak of luck or losses, but our reaction to them.
* If they're standard legal uncommons as a general rule, this shouldn't “crash the market” because standard legal uncommons shouldn't be that expensive (they're uncommon… in rotation… and since we're talking “modern viable” there's a reasonable chance it's not the first time they've been printed).
* This system would attract Modern players to FNM (most of which seem to be standard events) offering them shots at alternate art versions of cards they use.
* This system would encourage Standard FNM players to venture into other formats, this pull only increases over time as their personal card pool with modern viable cards increases.
* While it may bring down the prices of a hand full of cards a year (but if they're focusing on uncommons it probably shouldn't matter too much) if they succeed in bringing in folks to a format they wouldn't typically play so much it would increase the demand (and thus value) of the cards they play well with.
If they were feeling particularly benevolent they could continue to offer tokens at essentially the same rate giving players who might have play sets or are otherwise entirely uninterested in the “card of the month” or really want a kind of token. Tokens don't suck but they are just as useless if you don't use them as any other thing you don't use and they certainly don't encourage play across formats as this program potentially could.
Anyways, there goes my unsolicited, loosely held opinion on the matter.