Budget Pirate Aggro
Standard*
SCORE: 39 | 24 COMMENTS | 16706 VIEWS | IN 12 FOLDERS
FNM - 03.08.19; 1st Place, four rounds of Swiss —March 8, 2019
This FNM wasn’t as well-attended as the last one was — there were only enough players to run four rounds of Swiss with a cut to the Top 4. Not much else to say. Played against three tiered deck archetypes, beat them all. Made it to Top 4, played it to Top 2, split a fat prize pool. I was the top-ranked player at the end. Most matchups saw me bring in every copy of Drill Bit I had. I think I’m going to try squeezing them into the mainboard next time somehow. The card fits very well with this deck’s curve and has been extremely effective.
- Round 1 Rakdos Midrange: 2-0 Win
My good buddy was playing this list. It is the Rakdos Midrange build that curves from Rekindling Phoenix into Siege-Gang Commander. He ended up drawing pretty poorly, and was also hit pretty hard with my hand disruption. He was run over by a Neckbreaker. Game 2 was generally the same as Game 1, with me pulling out Rigging Runner and a couple of other cards for some Fiery Cannonade and Drill Bit — since the latter is one of my better answers for Goblin Chainwhirler, who is an absolute nightmare for Pirates. I crushed my opponent again with hand disruption, and he flooded after losing all his relevant cards. I felt sad for him, but I took the win and moved ahead.
- Round 2 Mardu Weenies: 2-0 Win
I’m not going to say much about this. This was a deck built by a brand new player. His inexperience showed, and I’m not trying to say that’s a bad thing. Everyone has to learn. I easily beat him 2-0, as both his play and deck construction were at the beginner level. And that’s okay. Hopefully my opponent learned something from our games and will come back and beat me.
- Round 3 Mono-Blue Tempo: 2-1 Win
Same opponent as the one I faced in the previous week’s final match. I was able to pull out a convincing win against mono-blue again, thanks to drawing a good number of hand disruption spells and seeing my Fiery Cannonades from the sideboard. My tech was: -4x Ruin Raider, -3x Rigging Runner; +4x Fiery Cannonade, +3x Drill Bit. I lost Game 1 because I was unable to answer a Djinn with the Lava Coils I hand in hand — I couldn’t draw a red source to play them (one of the handful of times I’ve really felt penalized for playing Unclaimed Territory). Games 2 and 3 were one-sided affairs dominated by early hand disruption and late Dire Fleet Neckbreakers. I popped off a Cannonade to sew up both games, but I would likely have won them anyway.
- Round 4 Gruul Aggro: 0-0-3 Draw
Being undefeated, I again drew into the Top group with this Gruul player. He always seems to be paired against me near the top of the winners’ bracket. He always chooses to play out the Top group, too. I knew I’d have more Magic to play after this draw, and I’d be first seed. So why risk the loss?
- Top 4 Sultai Midrange: 2-1 Win
Thank God for hand disruption. I was able to beat the format’s (arguably) strongest midrange deck in convincing fashion. Game 1 was a doozy, with my opponent going up to 30 life with a Wildgrowth Walker. A trio of Dire Fleet Poisoners put in hard work for me, stuffing his biggest threats while I tried to stabilize the board and get aggressive. Freebooters and Duress kept his removal in check long enough for me to land a Neckbreaker, which, despite my opponent’s high life total, allowed me to kill him in just two turns. Game 2, I quickly lost when I failed to draw anything other than a land the entire game (I played three nonland cards total — the ones in my opening hand). Game 3, my opponent kept a blisteringly hate-filled hand — Cry of the Carnarium, Ritual of Soot, and other spot removal effects that would have made my life miserable. Miserable, had it not been for my own hand, which had a mother lode of hand disruption. I canned his sweepers and went to town while he struggled for an answer. A Dire Fleet Neckbreaker-powered swing put him near death, and his partial answers did not buy him enough time to engineer a comeback. Solid, clean win.