Spectral Sailor

Creature — Spirit Pirate

Flash (You may cast this spell at any time you could cast an instant.)

Flying

{3}{U}: Draw a card.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

king-saproling on

4 months ago

Thoughts on these? Changeling Outcast, Mothdust Changeling, Cloud Pirates, Siren Stormtamer, Spectral Sailor, Lightning-Rig Crew, Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator, Spark Double, Sakashima the Impostor, Sakashima of a Thousand Faces, Prosper, Tome-Bound, Shared Fate, Rod of Absorption, Admiral Beckett Brass, Berserkers' Onslaught

Virlym on Yuriko, Shadow of Fate EDH

4 months ago

Just to not clutter up azja's feed, I'll give my input to the questions you asked. I'm no azja, so I can't answer for them, this is just my educated guessing.

Capture of Jingzhou is rather expensive, and it's easier to just run something like Time Warp over it. But for Karn's Temporal Sundering, it domes for 1 more when it's a trigger off Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, and it has a Void Snare attached to it, which could clear out some other problem like Platinum Angel (niche example, but gets the point across), or put a ninja back into your hand so you can ninjutsu it out on the extra turn.

Tormented Soul being just black is a huge drawback for what azja was going for in competitiveness, it also can't be pitched to Commandeer, Force of Will, nor Force of Negation.

Kaito Shizuki requires further testing. in most cases, it's 3 mana for a single unblockable ninja token and a filter the following turn. You'll hardly ever even want to get the emblem due to trying to win through Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow triggers utilizing small ninjas and not cheating out something big. It's more beneficial to have ninjutsu creatures in your hand so you can get them to hit an opponent utilizing an enabler rather than trying to find some way to deal combat damage with a rather lackluster attacking ninja.

Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow enablers want to b as cheap as possible. There's a HUGE fall-off from having a 1 CMC enabler to having a 2 CMC enabler to where that extra mana, and delaying Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow from hitting someone turn 2 better be a big payoff. Faerie Seer and Spectral Sailor are both 1 CMC enablers, and flying is generally scarce enough early game to where it effectively says "unblockable". Wingcrafter is a way to grant Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow flying so she can activate her own ability fairly reliably, it also let's you cycle ninjas out by giving one flying, and using ninjutsu shenanigans to keep more expendable ninjas on the board. Example, you could have it paired with a Skullsnatcher, swing it in, ninjutsu it out for a Fallen Shinobi, then after damage (after the triggers and before combat is over) ninjutsu the Skullsnatcher back in so that the Fallen Shinobi can stay a little safer in your hand. Augury Owl Sage Owl being able to see 3/4 cards into your library helps set up a big Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow play, or can at least give u information to see if you'll get answers to threats or if you need to crack a fetch as you nothing coming up and need to refuel, etc. That extra digging and set-up is basically a Sensei's Divining Top activation, but on an enabler body.

There's no instant-win combo in the deck because azja doesnt like them. "But I don't really enjoy playing combo decks, so I've opted to not include the aforementioned Demonic Consultation & Thassa's Oracle combo.". Having said that, Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow is typically a really fast agro deck. It will have the general agro problems of puttering out if faced with a deck that has enough lifegain and board wipes. But that deck was also designed more in the cEDH realm, so if a game is going longer than 6 turns, the super control deck is probably going to win anyways. As for trying to throw in more alternate win-cons, you usually want to avoid that. If you need multiple cards for an alternate win-con and they cards otherwise could either be dead, or put you behind in your initial game plan, they are just a hinderance in cEDH. Every individual card needs to be doing something to push you further. You can't have dead combo pieces in hand when you have 5-turn games. Thassa's Oracle is more often than not a dead card in decklists like this. You need a deck build around what it wants you to do, otherwise it's just a 1/3 for 2 mana, and Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow really doesn't need that baggage.

Scheming Symmetry isn't really a "play and win" card, it's just another 1 CMC top deck manipulation card. It also works REALLY well if you have something like Fallen Shinobi in hand, waiting to hit the person you just let search their library.

"Also, would avoiding the enters tapped lands be better? E.G. Drowned Catacomb, Mystic Sanctuary, Sunken Hollow be far better as say City of Brass, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, River of Tears, Etc.?" River of Tears is a bad card to try and deal with when you're running on a really low curve. If you play it turn 1, it adds B, so you can't play your 1 CMC enablers aside from Gingerbrute. If you play an island turn 1, and River of Tears turn 2, you now have double blue on turn 3 with no black, and if you play a black mana land, you now have double black and only one blue. If you need the double blue and a black, you would need to tap it before playing a land, but doing something like that makes it so you can't use it for ninjutsu. It's just a hassle of a land and adds too much to keep track up when there's already a lot that's going on in an EDH game. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is basically just a swamp. City of Brass would generally be a good include though, assuming you're ok with the price tag and games aren't typically decided by 4 life. Drowned Catacomb will generally always come in untapped if you play right due to the amount of fetches. Mystic Sanctuary will generally come in untapped in a deck this heavily blue, and the upside of being able to recur an answer or even a big spell that Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow can trigger with makes the chance of it coming in tapped irrelevant. Sunken Hollow is the worst offender of the 3, but it still has the basic land typing, so it can be fetched. And that upside is generally enough to warrant including it.

Spirits on Yuriko (Optimized) Primer

5 months ago

azja,

Couple early questions if you don't mind. Let me know if I'm a bother :) My Yuri Deck

Karn's Temporal Sundering hitting an opponent for 6 is good, but wouldn't Capture of Jingzhou be more efficient for CMC1 less? Perhaps its a budgetary/availability consideration?

You have 15 enablers, I read the notes on them, couple questions. What's the critical mass on this, like would 10 be deterimental. When I did a rough pull in had the following questions:

Why is Tormented Soul excluded, is it just as simple as the Force of Will? He still not better than the 2CMC options like Augury Owl?

Kaito Shizuki thoughts? I'm worried that the CMC3 for the -2 is the wrong tempo/timing, but, he does come in, make a unblockable, then phase out to also get the draw next turn. If you don't need the unblockable, it's draw 2 for CMC3, tough to see hitting his ultimate at 7. 3CMC planeswalker are usually good, some I'm tempted to think this one will be too? But I have no play experience on this deck.

I just can't get my head around the flying evasion guys though, Faerie Seer, Spectral Sailor, Wingcrafter, Augury Owl, Sage Owl. They feel "sub-optimal" to me and difficult to include, but as I said what's the critical mass here? I was considering Baleful Strix in the 2CMC drop, just because he replaces himself in hand (which may just be discarded anyway, but looting never that bad anyway), with deathtouch less likely to be blocked by flying/reach, and he can be an effective (deathtouch) defender.

I've roughed in "12" for the timebeing.

Honestly my first thought was this is a turbo-draw to tutor, fish-pact/fish-consul strategy. I was looking at Tatsunari, Toad Rider instead, but I think I like "big splashy spells" more than the aristocrats method. So that got me thinking, what the heck do I win with, is this viable or am I off-base here:

Primary: Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact ASAP / Draw for tutors

Tertiary Maverick 'Turn and Burn': Temporal Trespass, Temporal Mastery, Temporal Manipulation, Capture of Jingzhou with perhaps something like Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip or Dig Through Time as possible damage enablers in addition to the 'turn'.

I skipped Secondary intentionally, is there no room here for a Doomsday? I can think of multiple stacks with varied CMC, E.G. if devotion to blue 3 + Doomsday + Thassa's Oracle (BBBUU) is a win, if you don't have Thassa's Oracle, somethig like Doomsday + Gitaxian Probe/Street Wraith into a Night's Whisper or something could be around CMC7, Gush kinda useless here for a CMC3 (BBB) stack.

Thoughts on that? I see you intentionally don't run the fish, but this seems viable for this deck?

For Scheming Symmetry doesn't the player just pull a counterspell to stop your win, does it really "win on the spot", if you have to pass it feels useless, but with Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion or Opposition Agent it does work. Reliability? I "should"? run it?

Has Mutavault been enough value for a possible swing vs. the downside of the colorless mana? It dodges board wipe and is a ninja, so kinda-of makes sense to me, but I'm on the fence?

Also, would avoiding the enters tapped lands be better? E.G. Drowned Catacomb, Mystic Sanctuary, Sunken Hollow be far better as say City of Brass, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, River of Tears, Etc.?

I do have TOO MANY potential colorless mana Ancient Tomb, Gemstone Caverns, Reliquary Tower, Strip Mine. I feel like Reliquary Tower is a trap and I should remove, where I feel like, what's my strategy vs. a Glacial Chasm or Maze of Ith.

It's still a work in progress, I think I need more Ninjas then I have, still evaluating them one by one, and trying to figure out what each tutor gets me, but first I need to know what my win-con plans are to know what i'm looking for!

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

mrweaselman on Booty Raiders

6 months ago

You're going to want to set your format to I believe Pioneer, with the cards you're running at the moment.

Take out Brineborn Cutthroat and Protean Raider. They're not all that good in pirate tribal. Take out Wily Goblin for more card draw like Chart a Course, it's going to be better late game and you're not really trying to ramp into a big finisher a turn early anyways.

If you go 4 Forerunner of the Coalition you can basically go toolbox with a similar list to what you have. Otherwise I would down to 6-8 separate pirate cards.

Imo the best pirates are Spectral Sailor, Dire Fleet Daredevil, Kitesail Freebooter, Ruin Raider, and Admiral Beckett Brass. Probably 3-4 of each of those + 4 Forerunner of the Coalition for toolbox, and 1 of each other pirate you want to include.

Fiery Cannonade is better in the sideboard. Swap in against tokens or small creature aggro.

While not explicitly pirates, Angrath, the Flame-Chained is better than Angrath, Minotaur Pirate. I try to stay away from the planeswalker deck planeswalkers. Although you could run Angrath's Fury and keep the deck like the precon I suppose.

king-saproling on Brass Balls WIP

6 months ago

Spark Double, Sakashima of a Thousand Faces, or Sakashima the Impostor copying Brass lets you steal multiple things per turn. Strionic Resonator can do the same by copying Brass's EOT triggered ability.

Captain's Hook would allow you to turn a stolen creature into a pirate. The menace is nice too. Overall the card is pretty useful for a Brass deck.

Spectral Sailor is a cheap pirate with flying. Good for getting Brass's effect to happen sooner. Kari Zev, Skyship Raider is similar as she is hard to block and provides another attacking pirate.

To be honest with you, I don't think Brass is a good vehicle for a chaos deck. A lot of setup is needed for Brass to do her thing efficiently, and the more chaos stuff you include the less likely you are to use Brass effectively. But if combining the themes of pirates and chaos means a lot to you then it makes sense. I'd suggest more changes (such as more low-cmc evasive pirates and more 2-cmc mana rocks) to maximize Brass's strengths but you'd probably have to forgo the chaos cards to include those.

multimedia on Pirates a'hoyyyyyyy

6 months ago

Hey, nice version, but where's Glint-Horn Buccaneer? I saw your deck in the featured decks ad.

You can improve on balancing card quality since you have some amazing cards here, but also quite a few lackluster ones that are much lower on power level compared to the others. An example is Scalding Tarn which is excellent, but not playing a dual land that Tarn can search for... Steam Vents could replace Izzet Guildgate and Volatile Fjord could replace Highland Lake. Other Izzet dual lands to add in place of some basic lands to improve color fixing from lands: Training Center, Cascade Bluffs, Sulfur Falls, Stormcarved Coast and Frostboil Snarl.

I don't think I've even seen Armillary Sphere in the same deck before that also has Mana Drain, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Jeweled Lotus, Dockside Extortionist, Goldspan Dragon, Jeska's Will and Urza's Saga. Sphere is really out of place power wise. Consider cutting Sphere for Arcane Signet? The Diamonds are also subpar, considering cutting both of them for Talisman of Creativity and Izzet Signet? These are not expensive changes, but can make a big improvements on ramp.

Another example of card quality balance are the counterspells. Mana Drain, Counterspell, Pact of Negation, Negate are great thus you don't also need to play Hornswoggle, Admiral's Order and even Lookout's Dispersal because these are not as good.

---

Some more one drop/two drop flying Pirates and unblockable Pirates can more easily trigger Malcolm and Breeches. Spectral Sailor, Warkite Marauder, Departed Deckhand could replace some higher mana cost Pirates such as Captain Ripley Vance, Deadeye Quartermaster, Prosperous Pirates and Sailor of Means. You have Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Dockside Extortionist, Goldspan Dragon and Corsair Captain which are all excellent thus you don't really need to play other Pirates that create treasures when they ETB because those cards are not as good.

Wonder and Anger are powerful with Pirates, but they need help to get them into your graveyard because you don't want to ever cast them. Expanding with more loot can help to draw/discard them that also adds more draw to your deck. Faithless Looting, Windfall, Mask of Memory and Frantic Search could replace Mutiny, Hornswoggle, Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip and Admiral's Order. These changes are also not expensive and improve card quality.

Good luck with your deck.

Corrosive_Cat on Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde

6 months ago

Metallic Mimic’s always a solid shout for tribal decks, and Usher of the Fallen is a fantastic aggro card, though this deck feels a little too controlling and slow for them perhaps.

I quite like Spectral Sailor here, but you likely don’t need it to be honest. Looks good!

multimedia on

9 months ago

Hey, nice version so far on a budget.

If you're playing the Pirate themed instants or sorceries that create a treasure for flavor then that's cool, but if not then for some there's much better budget cards to choose from such as Counterspell, Brainstorm, Chaos Warp. Both of these Pirate Commanders can benefit from some more low CMC Pirates who have evasion so they can more easily do combat damage to an opponent: Spectral Sailor, Departed Deckhand, Storm Fleet Sprinter.

Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar is very good with these Pirate Commanders because they only have to do damage to an opponent to trigger. Even though Kediss isn't a Pirate he can replace Pirates with his ability since when just Malcolm or Breeches does combat damage to an opponent you do that same amount of damage to each opponent. This means with Kediss that you only have to attack with Malcolm and do combat damage with him to create a number of treasures equal to the number of opponents you have.

Tandem Lookout can be lots of repeatable draw, it can change the creature it's paired with for soulbond and that creature only has to do any kind of damage to an opponent to draw. With Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar, Lookout soulbond to Malcolm and Malcolm does combat damage to an opponent you get amazing/potentially repeatable value. You create a number of treasures and draw the same number of cards equal to the number of opponents you have. Soulbond Lookout to Lightning-Rig Crew or Glint-Horn Buccaneer can draw a lot of cards since the damage they do is done to each opponent.

Mask of Memory is nice repeatable draw when your Commander has flying or other evasion that makes it easier to do combat damage to a player. Shivan Reef is a budget Izzet dual land that ETB untapped. Path of Ancestry can be repeatable scry when you cast a Pirate with it. Because you have a lot of Islands then Mystic Sanctuary can be a way to recur a instant or sorcery to the top of your library to cast again. Volatile Fjord is a budget Island Izzet dual land.

If interested in any of these suggestions then I offer more advice of cuts to consider. Good luck with your deck.