Hey, guys! I'm really liking this Standard with Ixalan, but I'm not really liking the primary decks: Energy, Ramunap Red, God-Pharoah's Gift, etc. So, I've decided to build an ultra-budget deck (for MTGO, anyways); I just wanted to share it with you all. This is Izzet Pirates! YAARRGHH!!
Main Deck
Creatures
Siren Stormtamer is a one-drop for a single blue mana. Sure, it's only a 1/1, but it has flying which makes it evasive and it has the handy ability of protecting one of our creatures from a removal spell or protecting us from a one-sided boardwipe, such as Settle the Wreckage or River's Rebuke. Plus, it's an easy way to trigger raid on Rigging Runner or Storm Fleet Aerialist.
Rigging Runner is another one-drop, but unlike Siren Stormtamer, it benefits more from being played on turn 2 after you've attacked. Having a 2/2 with first strike is much better than having a 1/1 with first strike. Though, if it's in your opening hand and you don't have a Siren Stormtamer, just play it.
Storm Fleet Aerialist is a two-drop flier that has the chance of getting slightly bigger with its Raid trigger. A 2/3 flier for two is pretty good, and if you have the opportunity to attack before playing it, do so. We run 8 one-drop creatures. It shouldn't be too hard to trigger the flying pirate.
Skyship Plunderer is another flying pirate for only two mana. While the Aerialist needs its Raid trigger to be activated in order to start dealing two damage, the Plunderer hits for two damage no matter what. Plus, whenever he hits an opponent you get to add a counter to either a creature or yourself assuming you've played an Aether Hub and you have an Energy counter laying around. Big fliers and big first strikers are hard to deal with!
Kari Zev, Skyship Raider is a pretty good pirate with evasion in the form of menace and she even adds an additional creature to combat. She blocks as a 1/3 with first strike, but attacks as a 3/3 in total; and, if we're being honest you should almost always be attacking. This deck is built to be aggressive, but if you must block, then at least she has a bit of toughness to her.
Dire Fleet Captain is the reason we splash black. It's the only card in the deck that uses black mana, but it's such a great creature when playing pirates I just had to add him! He's a 2/2 for two mana which seems not great, but whenever he attacks he gets +1/+1 for each other attacking pirate. I don't know if you noticed, but most of our pirates have some form of evasion. It's easy to get the captain attacking as a 4/4 or bigger! I only have two of him in this deck because of the strict casting cost, but he's well worth the two cards.
Captain Lannery Storm is our last creature in this deck. Our curve stops at three, but our trusted Captain Storm doesn't! She comes down on turn three and is ready to go! Flying? Menace? Pfft. What's evasion? Captain Lannery Storm just likes to charge right in. It helps that she can ramp you into other spells or fix your mana for you, too. A Siren Stormtamer on turn one into Dire Fleet Captain turn two and Captain Lannery Storm turn three means you're attacking with 7 power, potentially 8 if you use the treasure token!
Spells
Shock is a one-mana burn spell that deals two damage to a creature or an opponent. Remember that treasure token from the scenario above? Sac it, play Shock, and now you're dealing 10 damage all on turn three.
Lightning Strike is a two-mana burn spell that deals three damage to a creature or player. It's pretty self-explanatory. Kill a creature or burn your opponent out.
Invigorated Rampage may be a spell you look at and go, '...why?' Well, I'll tell you why! A lot of our creatures have evasion in the form of flying or menace, but for the ones that don't, sometimes we just need to get damage through. Invigorated Rampage allows us to give one of our creatures +4/+0 and trample or two of our creatures +2/+0 and trample. A x/x Dire Fleet Captain and 2/2 Captain Lannery Storm can easily be chump blocked. However, you sac a treasure token and play this combat trick, suddenly your opponent is looking at a x+2/x trampling pirate and a 5/2 trampling pirate plus whatever other creature and/or creatures you have in the air. It costs two mana, but it's worth the cost in this aggressive build.
Lookout's Dispersal is here because why would you not play it? All of our creatures are pirates. It's effectively a two-mana counter anything because if you've made it to the point in the game where your opponent can start paying four mana to dissolve it, you've probably already lost.
Chart a Course is so we can refill our hand when we need to. Like Lightning Strike, it's pretty self-explanatory. Being aggressive we like to empty our hand as fast possible and with Chart A Course, it allows us to slightly refill our hand.
Land
I run four Unclaimed Territory because it ensures that we're able to cast any and all of our pirates, especially the Dire Fleet Captain. Two Aether Hub also make it so we can cast black when we need to or blue or red if we're missing one of our colors. Plus, it gives us something to sink Skyship Plunderer's effect into if we don't have a pumped up Rigging Runner or Storm Fleet Aerialist on the board. I run one Canyon Slough, one Drowned Catacombs, and one Dragonskull Summit because I don't want a whole opening hand of tapped lands on turn one. Also, I'm a bit poor. I only had one copy of all three cards. lol
Sideboard
Abrade is pretty self-explanatory. Kill a creature or destroy an artifact. Great against God-Pharoah's Gift decks and Mardu Vehicles if you happen to run into it.
Essence Scatter helps us control our opponent a bit better. Being able to counter a Whirler Virtuoso, a Bristling Hydra, or a Glorybringer can be huge!
Fiery Cannonade is for those token decks. Burn those damned 1/1 tokens to ash! It's also great against a board of Servant of the Conduit and Rogue Refiner. Oh, and Ramunap Red... Boardwipe them!
Magma Spray is for all the creatures out there that like to return to the battlefield from the graveyard. Don't let them!
Negate is used against control because boardwipes are no fun.
River's Rebuke is also for tokens and those decks that like to set up a lot of enchantments and high-costing creatures. Send it ALL back to their hand!
Unsummon is here to punish those GPG decks that like to make huge tokens. What's this? A 6/6 flying angel with vigilence and lifelink? Not anymore. Unsummon! It also works against Longtusk Cub that are too out of range for your burn spells. Let them use all of their Energy making their cub a 5/5 or bigger, then punish them for it. Sre, they can re-play the creature, but now it's a 2/2 again and easily removeable with a Shock or a Lightning Strike.
If you want to see how I best sideboard against the top decks I've seen running around on MTGO, then look below:
---Ramunap Red---
+3x Fiery Cannonade
+2x Magma Spray
-4x Lookout's Dispersal
-1x Shock
--Control/x/W Approach---
+2x Negate
-2x Invigorated Rampage
---Energy---
+2x Essence Scatter
+1x Fiery Cannonade
+2x Unsummon
-1x Lookout's Dispersal
-1x Chart a Course
-3x Shock
---Tokens---
+3x Fiery Cannonade
+2x Magma Spray
+1x River's Rebuke
-4x Shock
-1x Invigorated Rampage
-1x Lightning Strike
---GPG---
+2x Negate
+3x Abrade
+2x Magma Spray
-4x Shock
-2x Invigorated Rampage
-1x Chart a Course
If you have any questions about the deck, feel free to post them below in the comments. Have a nice day! :)
