[EDH] Pirate Tribal

Unlike my other thread which was more of a stealing theme, this one is attempting to be Pirate tribal (or close enough). While I am thorooughly dissapointed in WOTC's complete lack of black pirate support in Commander Legends, they did provide plenty of Izzet pirate support. That being said, here is the current Izzet Pirate tribal EDH deck. Its casual for sure, but I would be up for upgrading it if I can on theme. It will start out pretty vague as I have many cards coming, but we'll see how she goes!

Current Commander: Captain Vargus Wrath

37 Lands

Basic Lands Island Mountain

Dual Colored Lands TBD

Fetch/Utility Lands TBD

29 Scallywags

12 Blue Buccaneers Talas Warrior Siren Stormtamer Dreamcaller Siren Corsair Captain Slippery Scoundrel Hullbreacher Kukemssa Pirates Amphin Mutineer Ghost of Ramirez DePietro Deadeye Quartermaster Merchant Raiders Malcolm, Keen-eyed Navigator

11 Red Raiders Coerceive recruiter Storm Fleet Swashbuckler Port razer Emberwilde Captain Dire Fleet Daredevil Captain Lannery Storm Breeches, Brazen Plunderer Dargo, the Shipwrecker Boarding Party Angrath's Mauraders Fathom Fleet Swordjack

3 Red/Blue Sea-farers Zara, Renegade Recruiter Protean Raider Storm fleet Sprinter

3 Wanna be Pirates (aka Greenhorns) Dack Fayden Deadeye Navigator Thassa, God of the Sea

33 Other Cards

3 Protection/Thievery Treachery Bribery Ever-watching threshold Siren's Ruse

4 On Flavor card draw Treasury Cruise Prosperity Vance's Blasting Cannons Coastal Piracy 13 Removal/Counters Capsize Cyclonic Rift Lookout's Dispersal Supreme Will Desertion Cryptic Command Counterflux Dismiss Misdirection Commit // Memory Force of Will Mana Drain Forceful Denial

6 Mana Rocks Sol Ring Sapphire Medallion Thran Dynamo Jeweled Lotus Thaumatic Compass Treasure Map 7 Equipment and Evasion Sword of Sinew and Steel Sword of Body and Mind Sword of Fire and Ice Sword of Light and Shadow Key to the City Captain's hook Lightning Greaves

This list will be updated whenever changes are made in below posts. The deck is intended to be Pirates first, competitive second, so please keep that in mind for suggestions. Second posting is a breakdown of the original deck, terrible as it may be, for posterity sake.

Initial card choices:

This deck originally was going to be the remake of my other attempted pirate deck, with Admiral Becket Brass at the helm. However, due to the lack of tribal support for black pirates in Commander Legends, the number of black cards I was finding room for was rapidly decreasing. Double unfortunately, these cards were SUPER flavorful and some powerful. Hostage Taker, Walk the Plank, Fathom Fleet Captain, Dire Fleet Poisoner, Deadeye Tracker, the R/B pumpers, and Angrath PWs were all out. Not a lot of cards from a EDH deck perspective, but man it loses some gas and a ton of flavor. Anyway, as mentioned that its a shell of a prior Admiral Becket Brass deck, there is a lot of evasion-centric pirates to take advantage of the theivery before opponents can fully get set up. I have this in for now as Captain Vargas Wrath is the forerunner for the Commander position, which gets REAL good after a few casts with some unbockable dudes. So, many of these are subject to change as I have many new Pirates on the way and that will likely shift the focus from unblockable to just "better" cards. We'll see.
[*]Talas Warrior - unblockable. Fits the theme.
[*]Siren Stormtamer - Evasion, early drop, can offer some counter protection in a pinch.
[*]Dreamcaller Siren - Evasion, offers some protection (maybe not enough in a 4p game), can do some fun tricks with Deadeye Navigator.
[*]Corsair Captain - Evasion, helps limit abilities of opposing creatures, also sets them up for an easy destruction... if you know, I had any.
[*]Slippery Scoundrel - Evasion. Sets up city's blessing, but really no reason for that yet.
[*]Hullbreacher - In the previous build, I had a few more wheel effects. Not sure if I'll keep this or not. But its ability could be used defensively, depending on opponents.
[*]Kukemssa Pirates - Sneaks in to steal artifacts? Hell yeah! Needs evasion, but that is what equipment is for.
[*]Amphin Mutineer - Interesting removal, also works well with Deadeye Navigator. Encore could be interesting, esp when I get my "whenever a pirate ETB" pirates in the mail.

[*]Captivating Crew - Steals creatures. Don't have a way to sacrifice them yet, so we'll see if this sticks.
[*]Dire Fleet Daredevil - Steals spells. Could be useful. Most likely in my playgroup will be ramp spells or card draw.
[*]Captain Lannery Storm - Hastey/surprise attacks, helps ramp.
[*]Breeches, Brazen Plunderer - Evasion, pseudo card draw, but gets to steal opponent's cards. Excellent flavor!
[*]Dargo, the Shipwrecker - Big dude that can get cheated out, especially with treasures. Not sure if he will stick, but trample is good.
[*]Boarding Partyr - Hasty/surprise attack, has pseudo card draw in cascade. Might need more threats to make that consistently good.
[*]Angrath's Mauraders - Double all my creature's power while being a pirate? Sure, seems strong enough.

[*]Captain Vargus Wrath - Probably going to be the commander. May do a partner thing, but we'll see.
[*]Protean Raider - Copies a useful pirate. Downside is there are a lot of legendary creatures, so this might not be as good as I think it will be.
[*]Storm fleet Sprinter - Evasion. 'Nuff said.

[*]Dack Fayden - Not a pirate, but steals artifacts and loots. Savage with Hullbreacher.
[*]Jace, Cunning Castaway - He's a castaway, seems good enough reason to include, even if the abilities aren't very good.
[*]Deadeye Navigator - not a pirate, but in name and art it might as well be. Flicker effect is pretty good with some of the pirates above.
[*]Thassa, God of the Sea - Not a pirate, but sea themed and gives evasion and card draw. Really all I wanted out of it.
[*]Treachery - Steal the best creature for kinda free. Seems excellent.
[*]Bribery - Often backbreaking vs battlecruise opponents.
[*]Ever-watching threshold - encourages other people to get attacked.
[*]War Tax - Art on flavor, not sure it will be good enough in reality to be holding up mana, esp in a 4 player game.
[*]Release to the Wind - I've wanted this card to be real good, but haven't been able to break it yet. More for protection, but can exile a key permanent in a pinch.
[*]Siren's Ruse - Protects pirates from targeted spells, while cantripping. Also works with ETB effects and combat tricks.

[*]Treasure Cruise - Draw cards, mentions treasure, has a ship in the art. It makes the cut.
[*]Prosperity - Have you seen the OG art? Dude looks like a pirate to me.
[*]Vance's Blasting Cannons - Not a great card in EDH, but can generate some extra cards and can flip to pick off smaller creatures.

[*]Capsize - repeatable bounce, has a ship in the art.
[*]Cyclonic Rift - simply a sick card.
[*]Lookout's Dispersal - Pirate themed counter.
[*]Supreme Will - Mana leak or impulse. Seems decent enough.
[*]Desertion - Can be backbreaking vs battlecruiser decks.
[*]Cryptic Command - Counters and draws
[*]Counterflux - from the original deck, might not be necessary to have the extra R.
[*]Dismiss - counters and draws
[*]Misdirection - Nice political card, could double as early protection as well.
[*]Commit // Memory - Origianlly had a more wheel themed deck, so this might get cut. Counters and shuffles away. Only really useful with hullbreacher.
[*]Force of Will - duh.
[*]Mana Drain - duh.

[*]Sol Ring - duh
[*]Sapphire Medallion - seems better than a rock due to the higher number of blue cards and lower mana cost cards.
[*]Ruby Medallion - Will have more red cards eventually... i think.
[*]Thran Dynamo - Just because I had it, might be overkill.
[*]Jeweled Lotus - Same, drew it in the first couple packs of legends so figured I'd try it out.
[*]Thaumatic Compass - There for flavor, provides a second maze of ith, since I don't have many big creatures thought that might provide extra protection.
[*]Treasure Map[/list]- card filter, then card draw with treasures. Not sure if its good enough since I think my deck will (eventually) want to be fast, so we'll see.

[*]Aqueous Form - provides evasion. Euipment is better, but may swap for curiosity/curious obsession. The latter has on point art.
[*]Hot Soup - because its funny and works.
[*]Trailblazer's Boots - Essentially unblockable in EDH.
[*]Key to the City - Discarding a card is annoying, but if it sneaks in to steal something, might be worth it. Still testing.
[*]Captain's hook - Flavor all star. Can give this to a stolen creature, but I have to put it back on another creature I control so might just be a bunch of 1 for 1s.
[*]Whispersilk Cloack - gives evasion/protection.
[*]Lightning Greaves - Gives haste/protection.


There are a few current openings, and a few that will liekly get replaced with better cards. Given that there is a lot of natural evasion, I think the swords of X and Y are good contenders. SOFI for the card draw and extra damage, Sinew and Steel for artifact and PW removal, and Light and Shadow is a raise dead every turn (the lifegain is probably useless in commander but I don't know yet). Just some things to think about there. Removal is definitely lacking, my black cards were carrying that load so that will have to switch to red. Given the number of legendary creatures, Jaya's Immolating Inferno might be a good slot. Can take out multiple targeted creatures/walkers.

Will update sometime next week with the additions. Maybe I'll even fill out the lands too.

Added Sword of Light and Shadow today in one of the open spots. Mainly for the returning cards from the yard to my hand. Secondly for the pro-white (useful in my kitchen table meta, kinda). Managed to get cards delivered today (11/30) that I ordered on 11/27.

Updates. Ttrimmed some mana rocks, added some pirates, and added some swords (seems on point). Deck works a little bit better lower to the ground with more CA generating equipments instead of simply providing evasion. The bonus is the swords also provide protection so that helps a ton.

In:
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Body and Mind
Sword of sinew and Steel
Coastal Piracy
Forceful Denial
Zara, Renegade Recruiter
Emberwilde Captain
Fathom Fleet Swordjack
Storm Fleet Swashbuckler
Coercive Recruiter
Port Razer
Deadeye Quartermaster
Ghost of Ramirez DePietro
Merchant Raiders
Malcom, Keen-eyed Navigator


Out
Jace, Cunning Castaway
Ruby Medallion
Aqueous form
Hot soup
Whispersilk Cloak
Trailblazer's Boots
Ruby Medallion
Captivating Crew
Dismiss
War Tax
Release to the Wind
And then the 4 open positions.

Jace didn't do nearly enough, esp in multiplayer.
Ruby is out as I didn't have enough red spell density to make it worth it.
Aqueous form wasn't providing enough CA or protection, most of the pirates got in on their own anyway.
Hot soup/Cloak/Boots - for one more Mana I'd rather have a sword.
Captivating Crew - Coerceive recruiter is better value.
Dismiss/war tax were too mana intensive.
Release to the wind didn't really work. Still not giving up on it, but it isn't doing anything particularly useful anymore.

Swaps of the above were mainly upgrading the cards removed. Added more creatures for added threat density, and the swords provide protection, evasion, and CA in most cases. Deck is definitely stronger, esp. 1 on 1. Still have a few on the chipping block for potential upgrades, but we'll see what Future sight 2 and MH2 have in store next year.