Pattern Recognition #46 - Pirates!

Features Opinion

berryjon

28 September 2017

2021 views

Good day everyone! My name is berryjon, TappedOut.net's resident Old Fogey, and part-time Smart Ass. I write this series, Pattern Recognition in order to entertain, educate and perhaps even improve your appreciation for the past, present and future of Magic. I'll even shoehorn in a reference to the Time Spiral block if I can. Because I can!

So, today's article comes from a comment I may have received.

Hey, berryjon! How do you make all those awesome decks you put with your articles?

...

Alright, no one has ever said that to me. Ever. But I did do deck doctoring while working for my LGS, and I've built decks to show people how things work. So, today, I'm going to start building a deck for you guys in order to show you all how I handle things.

Now, before I even begin to look at the cards, I want to talk about a couple of things.

Building a deck is not a science. It is not an art. It is both. Even the most optimized decks have minor variations to account for the player's style, as well as the general meta-game they can expect to play in. There is no right way to build a deck, and there is no wrong way to do so. I'm going to be dealing with a Constructed deck here, and not a Limited one, which involves a different set of priorities and construction techniques.

So, when you read about what I'm doing here, please know that what I am saying is just my way of doing things, and if you do it different, I would like to hear about it in the comments section at the end of the article.

Now, normally, when I start building a deck, I either start with a card or theme to work with, or I have a concept I want to work toward. My deck, The Lumbermill, worked out as both a teaching deck and a way to work mill into a non- deck. This is an example of a 'concept' deck. On the other hand, To Infinity and Beyond is a deck that is built around the card Enduring Renewal as a central piece. The deck doesn't work without that card.

Coming into this article, I had to do a lot of thinking about what is, and what was, and I finally inspired by zandl's Standard Streaming (Hey! Watch that!) and his rotation proof decks.

So, why don't I design a rotation-proof standard deck? I'm a fan of standard regardless as it's a nice mid-level format that doesn't have the same degree of overpowered cards that Modern has. And with Ixalan on the horizon, my first thought was to design a Pirate or Dinosaur deck. Ixalan hasn't been fully spoiled yet, so I can't really design something there.

I think I'm going to wait for Ixalan to come out, or at least the full spoilers, then come back to this article.

See you later!

Well, I'm back. Today is 16 September 2017, and this article is due to be published on the 28th. Let's build a deck now that Ixalan has been spoiled!

Now, because I'm designing a Rotation Proof deck, I need to start by looking at what sets are available to me. While I could include the Kaladesh and Shadows over Innistrad blocks, I think I will decline to use them at this time in order to better focus the cards that I have available to me.

So, that leaves me with Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation and Ixalan to work with. Not a lot, but hey, I think I can try. Now, I also realize that I am not building this deck for myself, but for zandl and his stream. I have observed a preference for Grixis colours ( for those not in the know), and a relative disdain for Aggro decks. So while the thought of building a control deck came to mind, I decided to meet him halfway between my style and his.

Long debate short, let's see what I can do with a (also known as Izzet) Aggro Control deck!

Why this? Well, Red and Blue both have excellent control options, with Red focusing on creatures and Blue on everything else. Also, while Red's capacity for Aggro is well known, Blue has some reliable tricks up its sleeve as well. I debated going , and while the mana base for that combination is a lot more reliable thanks to Fetid Pools and Drowned Catacomb, in the end, I decided against that as I saw in that option too much 'Control' and not enough 'Aggro'.

So, with my decision made for , my next thought goes to the multi-coloured cards in that selection, to see what Wizards thinks I should do with it. Let's see here ... we have Bloodwater Entity, Enigma Drake, Marauding Looter, Reduce / Rubble, Refuse / Cooperate and The Locust God. I'm seeing a lot of "Play non-creature spells" involved, along with the traditional Looting. Which doesn't give me much in the way of focus to work with, though it does give me utility.

With that a wash, let's do some paper design. As a Control/Aggro deck, I need a couple things from my cards. I need to be able to cast creatures on my turn, as well as being able to cast control spells on my opponents turn. Which means that I want to be able to keep my creature costs down, and get good efficiency from them, and have my control spells not be too expensive either, lest they stall out the aggro side of the board. I also want card draw, because this is a deck that will burn through its hand very quickly.

At this point, I would have started with a list of all the cards that fall into the theme of "Control", "Draw" and "Aggro". Except I started writing the list, and my eyes got blurry just trying to look at it. And if I have to suffer for that, then you shouldn't!

So I'm going to start with my top picks for each, rather than include all the ones that didn't make the cut. Now, be aware that just because they are here and now, does not mean that they are going into the deck. These are the ones I want to put in the deck, and will have to make decisions about them to see if they get cut or not.

Starting with Control, I have Censor, Commit / Memory, Entrancing Melody, Essence Scatter, Kefnet's Last Word, Lookout's Dispersal, Negate, Perilous Voyage, Reduce / Rubble, River's Rebuke, Siren Stormtamer, Spell Pierce, Supreme Will and Unsummon.

Now, these choices are all in Blue, as Red's options tend to be more in the way of Damage, and I want to file those under aggro - especially those that can target a player. I also looked not only into counter spells, but also into bounce effects in order to clear the board for the creatures that this deck will be running.

I'm not actually going to trim cards at this point. I prefer to have more options, and cut down after having a better idea of how the deck is going to come together.

Card draw is something that's actually going to be a longer list. Though I'm going to be discarding as an option a lot of the Looting cards ahead of time.

Let's see here .... Chart a Course, Crash Through, Daring Saboteur, Hieroglyphic Illumination, Kefnet the Mindful, Open Into Wonder, Opt, Overflowing Insight, Pirate's Prize, Pull from Tomorrow, Siren's Ruse, Storm Fleet Spy, Supreme Will, Tormenting Voice and Vanquisher's Banner

I think I'm going to save on creatures for now, and work with what I have here.

Off the top of my head, I want to keep Opt and Spell Pierce. Opt is a very nice card for the utility and I'm glad to see it back in rotation, as the last time it was printed was back in Invasion. With Spell Pierce in, I should include Essence Scatter to target creatures. Overflowing Insight is a mid to late game hand replenisher, so a couple of those should go in. Supreme Will does double-duty to help go through the deck and as a counterspell, so it's in.

Open Into Wonder is a nice utility card that will go with the planned Aggro, so I'll put a couple of those in as well. Kefnet the Mindful is both a draw engine and a beater, so let's include him.

And as we're running a Pirate deck, Vanquisher's Banner goes in.

So, the current deck looks like:

• 4x Opt
• 4x Spell Pierce
• 4x Essence Scatter
• 2x Open Into Wonder
• 2x Kefnet the Mindful
• 4x Supreme Will
• 2x Vanquisher's Banner

Yes, that's 22 cards already, but I'm still planning on trimming down as we go along.

At this point, I'm going to move on to creatures. Once again, I'm going to save you the problem of reading through the fill list, so I'm going to show off my 'best picks', and explain why.

Angrath's Marauders: A one-sided Furnace of Rath is good in my book. Except it's so expensive, I'm afraid it will just be a 'win harder' button.

Combat Celebrant: Being able to toss out an extra combat step and having four power is a good thing. Not a full four-of, but definitely has a place in the deck as a finisher.

Daring Saboteur: Yes, it costs to make it unblockable, but I will tolerate that for the Loot effect.

Dreamcaller Siren: Not my best choice, but it's good for the control aspect of the deck.

Enigma Drake: Fits in as this deck is running plenty of Instants and Sorceries already, and while I hate playing to the theme of "Blue and Red don't care about creatures", I won't argue with a flyer that gets bigger.

Fathom Fleet Firebrand: While more of a limited card, it's a Pirate for the theme, and has the inefficient Firebreathing for late-game damage.

Fell Flagship: Pirate tribal!

Headstrong Brute: Who cares about blocking? A 3/3 Menace for is good.

Lightning-Rig Crew: Reusable direct damage is a good thing when it combines with our tribal theme.

Rigging Runner: Even as a 1/1 with First Strike, the possibility of later on having him come in as a 2/2 is too good to pass up.

Soul-Scar Mage: Included as a 1-drop Red card with Prowess, I expect to include a few non-creature based damage dealers in the future.

Slither Blade: 1/2 Unblockable for ? Heck yes!

Storm Fleet Spy: Attacking creatures and card draw? Sign me up!

Alright, looking at these cards, a gameplan is emerging. I want to focus on early control and disruption with my non-creature cards, then focus on mid-game beats. That means that Daring Saboteur, Enigma Drake, Lightning-Rig Crew, Slither Blade, Rigging Runner, Fell Flagship, Headstrong Brute and Soul-Scar Mage all make the cut.

I'm not including Angrath's Marauders, as it's too expensive for my taste, and this deck doesn't want to play around waiting for a seven-drop. Combat Celebrant isn't going in the maindeck, but I will keep it in mind for the Sideboard. Storm Fleet Spy, while nice, falls into the 'close, but not quite' category. Dreamcaller Siren is still iffy, and if I trim out room, I might put some in.

With that, we are at:

• 4x Opt
• 4x Spell Pierce
• 4x Essence Scatter
• 2x Open Into Wonder
• 2x Kefnet the Mindful
• 4x Supreme Will
• 2x Vanquisher's Banner
• 4x Fell Flagship
• 4x Headstrong Brute
• 2x Slither Blade
• 2x Rigging Runner
• 4x Daring Saboteur
• 4x Enigma Drake
• 2x Lightning-Rig Crew
• 2x Soul-Scar Mage

48 cards. And this before utility and lands. Yeah. Time to cut things out.

Enigma Drake gets tossed. It's not a Pirate, and given that a lot of my cards are reactionary, I don't think it's power will get that high. 44 cards. Let's try to get that down to 30-36, and I can build up from there.

Soul-Scar Mage also gets the boot, thanks to me not planning on having much non-creature damage at this point. I mean, I might, but it's not a certainty. That leaves me with 42.

Let's also take out 1 each of Essence Scatter, Supreme Will, Fell Flagship and Daring Saboteur.I want to keep the one-drops as much as I can, so they stay intact for now. 38. In theory, I could go straight to having 22 lands, but that's not the point.

Does Vanquisher's Banner really help? It's a five-drop, and at that point, I think it's more a 'nice thing' than a certainty. You go. 36.

Slither Blade, as much as I admire the constant reprinting of the card with different creature types, doesn't synergize with the Tribe, and Open Into Wonder is better for the killing blow. 34 cards.

And the more I look at it, the Lightning-Rig Crew isn't helping. Yes, it's an awesome blocker, but I can't depend on the damage being all that great. Perhaps in the Sideboard. And that brings us down to 32.

So, what to add for utility? Fiery Cannonade works wonders now that the only non-Pirate creature I have is the Flagship and Kefnet. Lightning Strike is a classic. Hijack perhaps? Oh! That's right! I also wanted Crash Through. Insult / Injury is also a great choice. With 6 cards to add, let's look at putting in the Cannonade, the Hijack and adding some Insult to Injury for effect. I chose these ones partly to clear the board, something to deal with a particularly pesky creature by turning it against its owner, and the damage doubling from Insult is cheaper than the Marauders.

So, right now, the deck looks like this:

• 4x Opt
• 4x Spell Pierce
• 3x Essence Scatter
• 2x Open Into Wonder
• 2x Kefnet the Mindful
• 3x Supreme Will
• 3x Fell Flagship
• 4x Headstrong Brute
• 2x Rigging Runner
• 3x Daring Saboteur
• 2x Fiery Cannonade
• 2x Hijack
• 2x Insult / Injury

Wait a minute ...

I'm at 36 cards! I miscounted somewhere! Oh well, what to add... what to add..?

Let's toss in a Rigging Runner and a Fell Flagship. This helps out our lower end of the curve, and makes for more synergy.

Now, let's do some metrics. I have 16 creatures, 12 if you discount the Flagships. 16 Instants, and 6 Sorceries.

11 1-drops, 8 2 drops, and 19 3 drops. Nothing higher. Wait. Really? Wow, for a deck so low to the ground, I could probably go to 20 lands! And punch up the 2 drops. I'm also looking at a 15/23 split on Red and Blue mana, meaning I should focus a bit heavier on the mana sources. If I do go down to 20 lands, that looks like a 8/12 split. I also think we have too many instants, and not enough creatures.

Opt... Opt...

You know what, let's cut that out, opening up six more cards for the deck. I mean, it's nice and utilitarian, but it's probably going to be dead weight. I'll toss in one more Open Into Wonder to make it appear more consistently, 2 more Fiery Cannonades to deal with creatures, and 3 Crash Throughs. This gives me the card draw that Opt was providing, as well as adding Trample, which is always a good thing.

And the Hijacks? Eh, there's only two of them. Let's put back in those two Slithering Blades to up our creature count, as well as bring our mana curve back down. 18 Creatures, 14 Instants, 8 Sorceries. Plenty of control, draw and aggro here.

That puts the deck at:

• 3x Daring Saboteur
• 4x Headstrong Brute
• 2x Kefnet the Mindful
• 3x Rigging Runner
• 2x Slither Blade
• 4x Fell Flagship
• 3x Essence Scatter
• 4x Fiery Cannonade
• 4x Spell Pierce
• 3x Supreme Will
• 3x Crash Through
• 2x Insult / Injury
• 3x Open Into Wonder
• 12xIsland
• 8x Mountain

Now, for the Sideboard. What didn't we put in? Well, there is room for the Combat Celebrant in there. Siren Stormtamer is oddly a good choice as it's low cost, evades, and can blow itself up for some more control. Perilous Voyage is also a good choice for control, with Unsummon only affecting creatures. Let's also toss those Hijack's back in, as I suspect that the Gods may be a problem for this deck. And then Demolish, because Land Destruction is always a good idea.

So let's put in 3 Combat Celebrant, 3 Siren Stormtamer, 4 Perilous Voyage, 4 Demolish, and one more Supreme Will, just in case.

Ladies and Gentleman of TappedOut.net, I present to you, my immaculate masterpiece! The results of seconds of hard choices and deliberation! A completely non-top tier deck! The end result of my process, no matter h

Not Sid Meier's Pirates

Standard* berryjon

SCORE: 10 | 2 COMMENTS | 568 VIEWS | IN 4 FOLDERS

Join me next week when I talk about something else. Heck if I know. What I want to know is how you guys build your own decks!

Until then, I'm selling out! Or is that tapping out? Visit my Patreon page, and see if you want to help me out. Basic donors get a preview copy of the final article, while advanced donors get that as well as the opportunity to join me in a podcast version of the series where I talk and you respond.

Oh man, this deck is really gonna suck, isn't it? I'm sorry, zandl, for inflicting this upon you. (Ugh. - zandl) ((Hey, you asked for Standard decks! This way, you get one, and I get an article! We both win! - berryjon))