About this deck
This is a lean aggro deck with elements of control. The early game focuses on removing the opponent's weaker creatures and filtering through your deck for land, then using late game heavy hitter spells to recycle ETB effects. The key cards for recycling ETB are
Siren's Ruse
,
The Scarab God
and
Liliana, Death's Majesty
.
Forerunner of the Coalition
is the primary reason for almost exclusively playing the Pirate tribe. It allows you to consistently dig for answers to the opponent and acts as a win condition with its life loss ability in the right scenario (keep in mind this card does not let you draw the pirate card.)
Ruin Raider
is a good companion card that will allow you to draw any card you tutor on the same turn you searched for it. This also allows you to predict the amount of life you'll pay after you trigger
Ruin Raider
's effect.
Deadeye Tracker
and
Harsh Scrutiny
play the same role, allowing you to predict how much life you will lose to draw your card.
Spells lowest on the mana curve are largely focused on delaying the opponent and digging for land.
Deadeye Tracker
,
Search for Azcanta
and
Ruin Raider
can dig for land;
Fatal Push
,
Essence Scatter
and
Walk the Plank
deal with creatures while
Kitesail Freebooter
,
Negate
,
Siren's Ruse
and
Siren Stormtamer
act as answers to your opponent's spells.
Harsh Scrutiny
plays multiple roles as it can be turn 1 removal, and help you scry for land.
Hostage Taker
,
The Scarab God
and
Liliana, Death's Majesty
serve as your late game threats. You should be able to consistently find one either by tutoring with
Forerunner of the Coalition
or digging through your deck with various spells like
Search for Azcanta
.
Primary win condition
Mid game with 3-4 mana available: Flood the opponent with 2/2 Menace Pirate Tokens generated by
Fathom Fleet Captain
while playing cheap removal spells to ensure the opponent can't keep up with your tempo. In situations where your opponent tries to kill
Fathom Fleet Captain
, cast
Siren's Ruse
to save it from removal spells or remove it from combat and draw another card to help you dig for land. Another turn that
Fathom Fleet Captain
lives is another turn you can generate tokens to build your board state.
Late game with 5+ mana available: Bring down
Hostage Taker
,
The Scarab God
,
Liliana, Death's Majesty
or a combination of the above. Ideally you have already played a
Harsh Scrutiny
,
Kitesail Freebooter
or a sideboard
Sorcerous Spyglass
the previous turn so you know they will not die to removal, along with having enough mana to use
Negate
or
Siren Stormtamer
on the turn you play your threat.
Secondary win condition
Overwhelm the opponent with card advantage generated by
Siren's Ruse
being cast on your pirates such as
Hostage Taker
and
Forerunner of the Coalition
.
Example #1: You have a
Forerunner of the Coalition
on the field that you've used to place a
Hostage Taker
on the top of your library. You have a
Fatal Push
in your hand but it is not capable of dealing with the opponent's
Hazoret the Fervent
. Until you sideboard
Vraska's Contempt
your
Hostage Taker
is the only real answer and you need to buy time to draw it to your hand. You play defensively and use
Forerunner of the Coalition
to block
Hazoret the Fervent
. In response to declaring blockers you play
Siren's Ruse
on
Forerunner of the Coalition
to remove it from combat, draw your Hostage Taker, then search for a
Kitesail Freebooter
to place on top of your library. With two mana
Siren's Ruse
has allowed you to buy time for another turn, draw a card and fix your next draw.
You decide you're going to play it safe and not immediately use your
Hostage Taker
. You're ready to block with
Forerunner of the Coalition
again and let it die to
Hazoret the Fervent
, then play
Kitesail Freebooter
to check your opponent's hand for answers to
Hostage Taker
. If the opponent plays another creature your
Fatal Push
will be stronger thanks to
Forerunner of the Coalition
dying.
Example #2:
Forerunner of the Coalition
has died defending you from
Hazoret the Fervent
and
Kitesail Freebooter
has exiled the only removal spell from the opponent's hand. You successfully use
Hostage Taker
to exile
Hazoret the Fervent
and then summon it for yourself on your following turn. You've tapped out attacking with all your creatures (
Hazoret the Fervent
,
Kitesail Freebooter
and
Hostage Taker
). The opponent plays a Glory Bringer. Since there's no way for the opponent to deal with the
Hazoret the Fervent
that you stole, you suspect the opponent is going to exert Glory Bringer to kill
Kitesail Freebooter
and return a removal spell to their hand.
You know that if you wait for the opponent to attack it will be too late to save
Kitesail Freebooter
. In response to your opponent's creature resolving, you play
Siren's Ruse
to return
Hostage Taker
to the battlefield, exile Glory Bringer and draw a
Negate
.
Later in the game the opponent decides to kill
Hostage Taker
while you are tapped out so you can't protect it with
Negate
. The opponent assumes you can no longer use
Hostage Taker
's Enter the Battlefield Effect now that it's dead. You play
Liliana, Death's Majesty
and use it -3 ability to revive
Hostage Taker
, exiling a
Goblin Chainwhirler
that entered the battlefield last turn.
Example #3: In another game you've attacked with a
Fathom Fleet Captain
and a
Forerunner of the Coalition
. You generate a 2/2 Menace Pirate Token and cause the opponent to lose 1 life with
Forerunner of the Coalition
's ability. The opponent plays
Earthshaker Khenra
and targets your Pirate Token with its ability so it cannot block. In response to your opponent's attack, you play
Siren's Ruse
on
Forerunner of the Coalition
. Forerunner returns to the battlefield untapped. You draw a
Essence Scatter
, then search for a second
Fathom Fleet Captain
to place on top of your deck. You block
Earthshaker Khenra
with
Forerunner of the Coalition
.
Tertiary win condition
Use
The Scarab God
and
Liliana, Death's Majesty
to generate Zombie Tokens that allow
The Scarab God
's ability to cause the opponent to lose life every turn. Alternatively, repeatedly use
Forerunner of the Coalition
to search for itself so that the opponent loses 1-3 life every time a Pirate enters the battlefield. Combine this with a
Fathom Fleet Captain
tutored by the final
Forerunner of the Coalition
in the tutoring chain to generate Pirate tokens every turn.
These two life loss effects can combine to some effect. A Pirate revived by Liliana is both a Pirate and a Zombie at the same time, allowing it to trigger both
The Scarab God
and
Forerunner of the Coalition
's abilities simultaneously. Tokens generated by
The Scarab God
are only Zombies.
