UR(Izzet) Pirates is a tempo deck focused on early creatures with enough power/evasion to continue to deal damage while being supported by cheap, tempo-oriented spells to keep the pressure on and close out the game before the opponent can stabilize.
VS. Other Colored Pirate Decks
-UB(Dimir):
UB lacks a sufficient number of powerful 1-drops to claim the board early nor does its mana base does not allow for untapped dual lands to come in consistently in the early game. In addition, the burn spells in red allow for great versatility in removing early creatures or dealing the last points of damage. As a downside, however, losing access to the black hurts a lot given their powerful 2-drop pirates, Ruin Raider, Hostage Taker, and Fatal Push. While the overall card power level might be higher in UB, UR has more consistent early game and can close out the game with burn.
-BR(Rakdos):
BR has more aggressive early creatures at the 1 and 2 drop slots, which can lead to very powerful boards in the early game. This, combined with Fatal Push and discard spells make BR's early game potentially much stronger. That being said, the mana base for a BR deck is a lot like UB, in that consistently having all of your colors available on turn 1 and 2 will be difficult. This combined with BR's more aggressive curve will lead to several games which would have turned out differently if Dragonskull Summit was a fastland instead. BR might have a better aggressive curve, but its slightly more inconsistent mana base will hinder it in comparison to UR.
-UBR(Grixis):
UBR plays differently than the 2 color decks in that the color consistency plummets severely, even though you gain access to all the pirates and spells. This is the only combination that has access to Admiral Becket Brass, though she isn't strong enough to warrant playing 3 colors, nor are there enough token pirate generators to fully take advantage of her abilities. The best way to make UBR is probably to play a more midrange style deck, focusing more on the individual power level of each pirate than their synergy with one another, in combination with other good spells in UBR. Overall, UBR is significantly slower than UR, sacrificing speed for power and versatility.
-Overall:
UR has the advantage over the other pirate builds in terms of early game consistency at the cost of late game power. Games will be won based on whether your early creatures and disruption can prevent your opponent from stabilizing against you.
