This is the Rivals of Ixalan version of my Grixis Admiral deck tech. It still seeks to activate Admiral Beckett Brass as fast and efficiently as possible as the main win-condition, but with the additions from the Rivals of Ixalan set, things seem to be optimized for certain aspects of this deck tech.
The addition of Forerunner of the Coalition means that i dont have problems finding Admiral Beckett Brass or Hostage Taker when i need them, so i can get away with 2 copies more often.
The addition of Dire Fleet Poisoner helps Fathom Fleet Captain get his hits in, or at the very least it helps him trade really well if needed.
Admiral's Order is in place of the side-boarded Cancel as at worst its the same thing.
Its secondary ability means it competes with Lookout's Dispersal in terms of value.
Now off to the deck explanation:
**Win conditions:**
Admiral Beckett Brass:
On the side-line, this card helps our pirates be just a little bit stronger, which for pirates is huge as their stats are on the weaker side, but our main goal is to get his trigger to activate so we can start stealing our opponents win-conditions and bread and butter cards. With the admiral, if you can trigger him even once, the chances are you will be able to do it again real soon, and at that point the board-state steam-roles in your favor. Be wise with the timing however, as you only have 2 copies for this attempt. Make sure you can play him and activate him safely. We dont want to swarm our opponent with creatures, we only want 3 of our evasive creatures to get through.
Timestream Navigator:
We have 1 copy of this in our sideboard for very specific games. If your opponent is light on kill-spells, you may want to consider getting this one in the fray, but its a very maybe card. I dont have to tell anyone what an extra turn could mean...in any deck.
**High value playmaker cards:**
Hostage Taker:
This card is amazing in the sense that it immediately takes care of a threat, and may be able to turn the threat to our side. There are so many games in which this will be the card that turns the tide.
Forerunner of the Coalition:
This card helps us mainly to find our win-conditions and best pirates like Admiral Beckett Brass, Timestream Navigator and Hostage Taker, but can also be used to find us other pirates in a pickle. This is the one reason we can very effectively run 1-2 copies of our best pirates we don't necessarily want a 4 of in our deck. It is worth noting that along with flickering this with sirens ruse, we have a 7/60-11/60 chance of finding a copy of a pirate we want, depending on how many copies we have in the deck. This means that the 1 copy of Timestream Navigator, once side-boarded in can activate multiple times in the same game, as we can find it real easy.
Siren's Ruse:
This card is arguably our most versatile card in the deck. Firstly, it is a defensive card that can help protect our creatures from all threats. Secondly, it helps our CA by drawing us a card, and thirdly, it opens up a wide variety of combat tricks in this deck. You can re-trigger Hostage Taker to steal another creature; you can find another pirate through re-triggering Forerunner of the Coalition, you can faint an attack while making a pirate with Fathom Fleet Captain, and you can deathtouch another creature by re-triggering Dire Fleet Poisoner. It has a use on each of our creatures, which really helps this card shine in this deck.
**Front-line:**
Our front-line consists of a combo play between Fathom Fleet Captain and Dire Fleet Poisoner.
Fathom Fleet Captain:
This card will help us get our Admiral Beckett Brass to activate, being able to create more pirates with an evasive ability, and having one itself, it is a great asset to the deck. Menace allows it to get its first hit in unblocked more often than not if played on curve. At worst it just replaces itself with a stronger creature. At best, it gets out of control and sets the board up for the win.
Dire Fleet Poisoner:
Having this card in your deck means your opponent will have to be weary of blocking Fathom Fleet Captain whenever you have 2 mana up, as you can trade the captain against a stronger blocker. The poisoner also acts as a great defensive play, having a deathtoucher flash in to block. It really helps our game.
**Defensive line:**
We will focus on a control style defensive line to preserve our creatures, while limiting what our opponents can play. For this reason we have Admiral's Order and Lookout's Dispersal in our deck, with more copies in the sideboard if needed.
We also have some killspells through Walk the Plank and Vraska's Contempt to help shift the boardstate into the perfect conditions to trigger Admiral Beckett Brass.
Siren Stormtamer:
Finally we have another defensive creature. This creature's evasive ability allows it to be able to get through easier than some of our other pirates. It also limits what can be targeted with opposing kill-spells, as they pretty much have to target this one first if you have a up for it. Its a great 1 drop.
**Card advantage(CA):**
To draw what we need, we already have Forerunner of the Coalition and Siren's Ruse to help our CA, but our main CA cards come through Opt and Chart a Course
**Sideboard:**
Fiery Cannonade:
Against token based decks that plan on getting a bunch of 1/1s out really soon, we may struggle getting attackers through enemy lines. for that we will have this card.
Field of Ruin:
This card will accompany Fiery Cannonade and replace Unclaimed Territory as it can be used to find the 1 mountain in our deck, improving our mana. It can also be used against the special Ixalan lands or against deserts.
March of the Drowned:
If we are struggling to keep our creatures on the board, this may be the card for us as we can sneak it in with its low cost. because we dont have that many creatures, preserving what we have is key. This artificially increases our creature count.
Warkite Marauder:
This card is excellent against any creature based decks and is an obvious sideboard option against them. It is however, relatively bad against control decks, and since we do not know what we will face, it will reside in the sideboard.If you play against non-control decks however, this is almost an auto sideboard. It will replace Siren Stormtamer against decks that dont really run killspells(like dinos) , it can replace Walk the Plank against merfolk, or you can just sideboard it in while cutting numbers of other stuff.
Dual Shot:
A card that goes hand in hand with Warkite Marauder, we make our opponents strongest creature a 0/1, and then we shoot him in the face. Shock will do you the same, and honestly i am torn over which one is better for this deck, but i feel like the extra damage to another creature pre-lord arrival could get a 2 for 1, and if it does, you got your value. All depends on the meta i guess.
Timestream Navigator:
We already covered this card, but it is worth noting that running only 1 copy means we will almost never draw into it if we dont want to. If needed however, we can find it with Forerunner of the Coalition at the opportune moment.
