Fathom Fleet Captain

Creature — Human Pirate

Menace

Whenever Fathom Fleet Captain attacks, if you control another nontoken Pirate, you may pay 2. If you do, create a 2/2 black Pirate creature token with menace.

Discussion (50)

Marchiali on Help me create a pirate ...

2 months ago

So back when pirates of ixalan were released no one really played them because of the mana base, at least not in Grixis. Right now the mana base is solid enough to technically make them work.

What I am trying to do right now is creating a deck where all cards fit into the pirate theme while still staying somewhat competitive. It doesn't have to win all the time but having a chance against burn and Teferi would be nice.

It... hasn't really worked out so far. Is such a deck even possible?

The most success I had so far was basically Tempo Blue with some splashing for Grixis so your flying pirates benefit from effects like Dire Fleet Neckbreaker and Fell Flagship .

With cards like Siren's Ruse , Lookout's Dispersal and of course Siren Stormtamer you have decent disruption, I have even been experimenting with adding more discard like Duress or Heartless Pillage . The latter is pretty great as far as discard spells go since it is effectively CMC 2. Cancel , Hornswoggle , Admiral's Order and Spell Swindle are pirate themed but not worth including in my opinion.

As for Lifegain your choices in a pirate theme deck are basically limited to Fountain of Renewal and Navigator's Compass . Compass is actually not that bad since it let's you fix your mana base without handing aggro decks a free 2 damage. (I am making an exception to the theme rule for Shocklands)

Admiral Becket Brass is a great flavor card but usually when you can hit your opponent with 3 pirates they are either dead or would be if you had dropped a Dire Fleet Neckbreaker instead of the Admiral.

The real problem with pirates seems to be that they want to go fast since their late game sucks but they have basically no advantage over mono red or blue other than tribal synergies. And their tribal synergies aren't that great, most of them are not even available until turn 4 or 5.

For Removal there are some options: Walk the Plank is great flavor although a bit hard to cast. Hostage Taker and the Admiral are decent for dealing with Teferi but not that amazing. Lightning Strike , Makeshift Munitions (bombarding your opponent with treasures is hilarious) and Fiery Cannonade are your go-to burn spells.

There are some good red combat tricks as well as Dire Fleet Poisoner but I am kinda on the edge concerning those. Buccaneer's Bravado on an unblocked creature with decent power can close out games.

Card Draw can be provided by Curious Obsession (a bit tricky when you are also running Siren's Ruse), Chart a Course and maybe Treasure Map  ^Flip and Dead Man's Chest . March of the Drowned could also be very valuable since it only costs 1 mana.

Like I said the best creatures seem to be the pirates that either have very good tribal synergy or flying. I am considering Fathom Fleet Captain and Forerunner of the Coalition but they both seem to be too slow. When you have a lot of treasures getting the city's blessing for an early extra turn via Timestream Navigator isn't too hard but I haven't really profited from it that much.

Revel in Riches is an interesting wincon but just too slow. Maybe an option for a more control-based approach. But when you have lots of treasures out it seems to be more viable to cast Mnemonic Betrayal , which technically isn't a pirate spell but looks like one. Or use overpriced Cards like Pirate's Prize that create more treasures.

With all that knowledge I still can't figure out a decent pirate deck, am I missing something? I am aware that you got to concentrate on some mechanics to make them work but I am not sure on which ones.

I really want to make pirates work before they rotate out and possibly never return to Standard.

EDIT: Just noticed there is also a token-based approach with Fathom Fleet Captain and Vraska, Relic Seeker

Dete on

2 months ago

then you should have a few more creatures on board like adding 1 more Hostage Taker and a full set of Deadeye Tracker maybe 2 of Fathom Fleet Captain and Wanted Scoundrels or a full set of them as well and having more counters rather than trasmute spells. for that i guess droping 2 Clutch of the Undercity and 2 Perplex and some oter spell...

for the mana base having a land that comes in tapped is really bad and you cant look for it, so if it on budget i suggest you change it for Underground River , Sunken Hollow or Drowned Catacomb .

Languish on the side or main will help with more aggro match ups, hopefully when you dont have creatures on the field.

for now i cant think of anything else so good luck.

Squesel on Pirate Aggro

3 months ago

4x kitesail freebooter i.p.v. storm fleet sprinter

Alle islands eruit 4x dragonskull summit 9x mountain 8x swamp

1 x bane fire 3 x vances blasting vervangen voor 4 x Dire Fleet Daredevil indien mogelijk

Alternatief 4x Dire Fleet Poisoner kan ook beide doen 2om 2 en gaan spelen en checken welke beter past.

Side board kaarten volgende set bedevill

Fathom Fleet Captain

March of the Drowned

Deadeye Tracker

JakeHarlow on Budget Pirate Aggro

3 months ago

@ zangfang:

Both Dire Fleet Captain and Captain Lannery Storm are solid Pirates. Storm is probably the better of the two as she smoothes out the mana curve and is a hasty topdeck (not to mention she can hit harder when you use Treasure). I’m just not sure where she goes in here. Fathom Fleet Captain is far too important a card for us to cut — it is one of our “must answer” threats and it can just run away with the game on its own (not to mention its powerful synergy with Dire Fleet Poisoner — if it gets double blocked we can two-for-one the opponent). Also, extra three-drops are a little awkward for our mana base, since we’re on a 21-land plan. Still, I know this card is strong and I’ve wrestled with including it for the entire time I’ve brewed and played this list.

As for Dire Fleet Captain, it looks great on paper. If we play it on-curve, it’s an attacking 3/3 on Turn 3, which is great (and has the potential to get stronger as the game goes on, assuming we swing out). Post-wipe, though, it’s a weak topdeck, and it doesn’t have any form of evasion. It doesn’t interact at all either. There are also many situations in which it simply doesn’t get big enough to do the job. In practice, it has been really underwhelming, and I find that I’d rather run 3x Dire Fleet Daredevil for the first strike and spell interaction.

If you look at my maybeboard, you’ll see I’ve been considering these cards. I recommend you run this deck. It’s cheap to build and it’s actually pretty good! Just remember to mainboard the Duresses if your meta has a ton of control like mine. Otherwise, use Fiery Cannonade on the mainboard to blow out aggro, weenies, and tokens in Game 1!

Thanks for checking out the deck. If you do end up running your own version, please do reach out to me about your build and its results! I’m sure that my list could be improved upon, and maybe it does need to be running the cards you’ve suggested!

zangfang on Budget Pirate Aggro

3 months ago

This deck looks sweet. I feel like both Dire Fleet Captain and Captain Lannery Storm could probably go in but I'm not sure what to take out except for maybe Fathom Fleet Captain. I'm currently running Mono red Experimental Frenzy but I've been considering switching over to a Rakdos build depending on what shows up in Allegiance and this could be a cool deck to check out in the wait for that.

wryguy87 on U/B - Pirates of Ravnica (GRN Standard)

6 months ago

As for Warkite Marauder, I've definitely been thinking about it!

Warkite is an option but when I was making this deck I decided that Fathom Fleet Captain and Dire Fleet Poisoner was a way more dangerous combination. The Captain's ability to create tokens is my ideal win condition and usually my opponent is really focused on killing it off with dual blockers. Against something like Green Stompy, there's a good chance my Captain will eventually be blocked and not even manage to kill something in the trade.

Dire Fleet Poisoner gives Fathom Fleet Captain the chance to create a 2/2 Menace Token AND kill two creatures at the same time with death touch. It makes the Captain way more intimidating than it already is. Plus, the Poisoner is really versatile since I can surprise flash it in on my opponent's turn as a blocker or just bring it in on their turn to avoid summoning sickness.

As for Becket Brass, she's definitely always in the back of my mind but I'm not ambitious enough to try a 3 color formula quite yet. Thanks for all your thoughts.

I actually may decide to swap out at least one Kitesail Freebooter with a Warkite Marauder. Time will tell.

Red_X on Pirates of the Budget Builds Trading Co.

6 months ago

I don't think you want Vraska in here. It's the only green card, meaning it hurts your mana to have the cemetery's in here for it. Additionally, pirates tend to be more of a tempo based deck, which a 6 drop walker doesn't fit well with. Since everything besides that is 4 mana or below, I'd cut down to 22 lands, and replace all 4 cards with Deadeye Tracker. It's a pirate, it's a 1 drop, it's incidental graveyard hate, it filters your draws or helps make land drops, and it's a mana sink alongside Fathom Fleet Captain and Dire Fleet Daredevil. Like the deck

kukunamuniu on Casual Pirates for lunch break

6 months ago

Orion93 I kind of joined these guys and don't want to impose any other formats on them ;) For now it will have to be exclusively standard, but aggro pirates are lots of fun, so I don't mind. I am putting some Fell Flagships to boost my defensive abilities, the deck in its current form lacks in defense, and I need that sometimes. Fathom Fleet Captain turns out to be really useful in casual play, I can keep creatures on hand and spend mana on tokens, and menace seems to grind my opponent's gears.