deck chart

Budget Pirate Aggro

Standard* JakeHarlow

SCORE: 39 | 24 COMMENTS | 16705 VIEWS | IN 12 FOLDERS

General Update - April 18, 2019 —April 18, 2019

I’ve fallen a bit silent on updates and tournament reports lately because there wasn’t much new to say about this deck’s performance.

The Ravnica Allegiance meta has been stable for quite a few weeks, and though I took a few weeks off from playing Showdowns and FNMs, I did play in several since my last update. I finished in the Top 8 and/or Top 4 of the last four events I played in, with my 75 set up as the list above on April 18, 2019. Here are my general observations on matchups:

  • Mono-Blue Tempo

Positive matchup. Most players aren’t expecting Dire Fleet Poisoner and it does a lot of work. We can usually race damage because we are just faster with Dire Fleet Neckbreaker. On the play, Duress and Kitesail Freebooter find excellent targets in Curious Obsession and their countermagic and/or Dive Down. From the board, we put in 4x Fiery Cannonade and take out 4x Ruin Raider, as we don’t want to lose extra life. Cannonade is remarkably good here even though it doesn’t hit Siren Stormtamer. If we are on the play, we usually also bring out 3x Duress for 3x Drill Bit, since the Bit can grab their creature threats. Most of the time, if we lose, it’s to a Tempest Djinn we failed to answer. Otherwise, our hand disruption, aggro, and sideboard sweepers make this a reasonably winnable matchup. Most Mono-Blue players aren’t prepared for Pirates.

  • Esper, Grixis, and/or Jeskai Control

Positive matchup, provided you play skillfully. Don’t overcommit into sweepers unless you will win next turn and the opponent has to topdeck one (your hand disruption package should give you plenty of opportunities to know what your opponent is holding). Cry of the Carnarium is the worst of these by far, as it stuffs our March of the Drowned sideboard tech, but Kaya's Wrath and Deafening Clarion kill all of our creatures, too. Dire Fleet Neckbreaker survives Ritual of Soot, but it’s still deadly to the rest of our crew. We can play around Settle the Wreckage by casting hand disruptors during our precombat main phase. Failing that, we can bait out countermagic by casting a first-main-phase threat to try and tap the opponent out of the Settle, or by simply attacking with just one or two creatures to force them to cast the Settle for less value (or a combination of these tactics). We can trade with spot removal fairly well, especially post-board. If we lose, it’s to a succession of sweepers that we couldn’t recover from, flooding out, or an unanswered Lyra Dawnbringer or Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. Our sideboard tech is usually: +1x Sorcerous Spyglass, +2x Bedevil, +3x Drill Bit, +2x March of the Drowned; -4x Lava Coil, -4x Rigging Runner. The gist of these matchups is that our hand disruption often just wins us the game. If we can sculpt our opponents’ hands to allow at least one threat plus a Dire Fleet Neckbreaker to stick, it is usually game over. Post board, we have even more hand disruption, some recursion, and a couple of ways to answer Lyra Dawnbringer, planeswalkers, and even permanents like Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin  Flip. This matchup is easy to lose if we play sloppily, but if played properly, Pirates will usually tread all over control decks in this Standard. Don’t underestimate how powerful a late game Dire Fleet Daredevil can be, either. It effectively counts as more spot removal against their late-game threats, or card draw, as we can usually cast whatever we want to from the opponent’s graveyard. This often leads to a big advantage, and the opponent is almost never prepared for it.

  • Boros, Azorius, and/or Mono-White Weenies

Even matchup. Pre-board, it’s a race. If we can Lava Coil their threats and pluck out a piece of removal, we can win fairly easily (provided we lay threats of our own at least every other turn or so). If we draw too much hand disruption, though, we will have issues in Game 1, as there aren’t too many targets for Duress effects (best targets tend to be Conclave Tribunal or History of Benalia). Post-board, things get a bit better, as we can board in the usual anti-aggro package of: +4x Fiery Cannonade, +2x Drill Bit, +2x Cast Down (or Bedevil or Price of Fame, or some combination thereof, depending on the particular threats our opponents are playing; the point is we usually bring in at least two extra pieces of spot removal); -4x Ruin Raider, -4x Duress. Post-board games are still races, but well-timed Fiery Cannonades, especially when cast early, tend to give us a big edge. If we draw poorly, though, we can get run over.

  • Mono-Red Aggro

Positive matchup. I don’t tend to see many of these anymore, but Duress and Kitesail Freebooter do a lot of work against their burn package. Goblin Chainwhirler is still a nightmare for us that we must answer, as it blanks our entire ground offense. Otherwise, we can actually race this deck fairly well, thanks to our aforementioned hand disruption (so much of this deck’s success is attributable to hand disruption, I swear). From the board, we bring in all of our spot removal and bring out the playset of Ruin Raider, as we obviously don’t want to lose more life than we need to. If they’re running small creatures (and usually are in the form of Viashino Pyromancer and Ghitu Lavarunner), we can bring in a few Fiery Cannonade, too (better when we are on the draw, though). If we are on the play, we can also dump a few copies of Duress for a few copies of Drill Bit, since these will help us answer Goblin Chainwhirler and Rekindling Phoenix before they become issues. Yes, this is a race (a fast one), and we will definitely lose if we don’t place down enough threats to present a clock. We don’t want too many Duress effects — just enough to blunt their burn plan.

  • Gruul Aggro

I don’t have much data on this...but it feels like a negative matchup, though not hugely so. Kraul Harpooner makes mincemeat of our Kitesail Freebooters, and Duress just doesn’t have many targets outside of Rhythm of the Wild and the odd removal spell (or maybe Domri, Chaos Bringer, but we don’t care too much about him — Vivien Reid is far more annoying). We have to be able to remove their early ramp, or else we will get run over by big creatures that will outgrow our Lava Coils and outrace our creatures. Our all-star here is Dire Fleet Poisoner. From the board, we bring in all of our non-conditional spot removal spells, and bring out as many Duress effects as we can, including Kitesail Freebooter. Drill Bit can come in, too. It usually looks something like: -4x Duress, -4x Kitesail Freebooter; +3x Drill Bit, +2x Bedevil, +1x Cast Down, +1x Price of Fame, and between one and three Fiery Cannonade for mana dorks. Usually we pull out Dire Fleet Daredevil to make room for those, since there’s not a whole lot for it to cast from the opponent’s graveyard in this matchup.

  • Esper Midrange

Positive matchup. I don’t see many of these anymore, but the Hero of Precinct One builds are still out there and pop up infrequently. Pre-board, this is a race we usually win due to hand disruption and a fast clock. We lose if we stumble and get stuffed by Deputy of Detention and Basilica Bell-Haunts. Post-board, we pull out 4x Rigging Runner and 4x Duress, to bring in 4x Fiery Cannonade for their Hero and Thief of Sanity, 3x Drill Bit to grab their threats, and 1x Bedevil as extra removal. They have enough spot removal in Game 1 for Duress to function decently, but if we are on the play, or even the draw, a Thoughtseize effect is usually better. We still try to race. If we can get rid of their removal, we generally don’t care what they lay on the board. They can’t race us well without removal. I don’t think I’ve ever lost a match to this archetype.

This feels like an even matchup. I lumped these together because they feel so similar. Basically, we are playing a sub-game against these decks called “Did You Draw Enough Hand Disruption?” If we answer yes to this question, we usually win — easily. If the answer is no, we can lose — but not always. Sometimes a fast aggro hand with little hand interaction can net us a win if the opponent is light on interaction or takes a while to assemble their combo. From the board we bring in more hand disruption and take out Lava Coils, since they are relatively dead here.

  • Sultai and/or Golgari Midrange

I have not figured this matchup out yet. I think I am misplaying these and not sideboarding properly. These are traditional grindy midrange decks that pack lots of spot removal and life gain (in the form of Wildgrowth Walker and explore creatures), punctuated by powerful late-game threats. The Sultai versions’ addition of Hostage Taker further complicates matters. Still, we can win this. I bring in 4x Fiery Cannonade to deal with Llanowar Elves, Merfolk Branchwalker, Jadelight Ranger, and/or Ravenous Chupacabra, 3x Drill Bit to stop Carnage Tyrant and other big midrange threats like Hydroid Krasis, and 1 or 2 copies of March of the Drowned in anticipation of their bringing in more spot removal (they usually do). We tend to take out some combination of 4x Rigging Runner and Duress effects (they’re okay in this matchup, but we have better effects on the board). We usually want to pull in some extra spot removal, too, like Bedevil, especially if we are on the draw. It kills almost all of their creatures but also deals with annoying midrange staples like Vivien Reid. I’ll be honest, this is a tough matchup. I’ve 2-0’d them before, but I’ve also been stomped by them. I’ll admit I haven’t fully perfected a plan against these guys. At present, I’d say that we are even to slightly negative against this matchup, at least pre-board. But we certainly aren’t grossly unfavored. If we have enough hand disruption and aggression, we can win convincingly. I’ll note that being on the play seems especially important here.

  • Going Forward

War of the Spark is nearly upon us, and I am interested in Angrath's Rampage for my sideboard. I think it is easily a 2-of, if not a 3-of. It is easier to cast than Bedevil, and gets around indestructible and hexproof. Though it’s a sorcery, I think it will really round out our plan, especially against midrange decks. I’m thinking our sideboard plan will look something like the below:

Anyway, that’ll be my rough draft. Final thoughts. This deck continues to be quite viable at the FNM level. I commonly go 3-0 in five rounds of Swiss and draw into the Top 8, and more often than not, win out from there into Top 4 (where the remaining competitors usually split the prize pool). I’m not saying this to brag; please see the below updates for my tournament reports. I regularly play against top-tier meta builds and beat them. I believe this deck has the legs to perform at a competitive level in a GP or MCQ environment. I, a moderately skilled player, have beaten, with reasonable regularity, all of the tiered deck lists likely to be found in the winners’ brackets of such events. Thus, with a skilled pilot armed with deep meta knowledge, this list has a chance to place at such events — perhaps even make Top 8. Most importantly, though, this deck remains an absolute blast to play. It is, without any doubt, one of the best and funnest Standard decks I’ve brewed, ever. I hope this breakdown will be helpful for anyone wanting to tackle their local FNM with Pirates.