Talas Explorer

Creature — Human Pirate Scout

Flying

When Talas Explorer enters the battlefield, look at target opponent's hand.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (2)

triproberts12 on Ten Piece (Pirate Tribal)

6 years ago

Since pirates are fairly weak as a tribe, you're going to need to limit what others can do and attack their resources in order to chip in for the win. Your commander helps with creatures, so I would attack the hand and mana to slow them down.

I recommend discard like Capital Punishment , Dark Intimations , Discovery / Dispersal , Herald of Anguish (great with treasures!), Syphon Mind , Liliana's Specter , Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip, Scythe Specter , Siren of the Silent Song , Skull Rend , Tasigur's Cruelty , and Torment of Hailfire .

While land destruction is often looked down upon as unfun, if you decide to keep with a lot of small creatures, you can come out at an advantage by keeping the lands on the board low. You'd have to build your deck to accommodate that, though. For that, you have Mana Vortex , Tectonic Break , Desolation , Epicenter , Ember Swallower , Rite of Ruin (again, great with treasures), Boom / Bust , Impending Disaster , and Wake of Destruction . You'll also find that creature stealing effects snowball, since you can remove blockers to get in with your pirates. Insurrection , Expropriate , and Blatant Thievery will all serve you well.

I would also lean more heavily into treasures. Mechanized Production acts as a second copy of Revel in Riches to that end, and Brass's Bounty will help get you there.

Some generic tribal cards will also help. Cards like Vanquisher's Banner , Shared Animosity , Door of Destinies , Konda's Banner , Kindred Dominance , Kindred Discovery , Coat of Arms , Metallic Mimic , Adaptive Automaton , Obelisk of Urd , Path of Ancestry , etc. will help shore up the weakness of the tribe.

As for old pirates, consider Rishadan Brigand , Rishadan Cutpurse , Rishadan Footpad , Talas Explorer , Talas Warrior , and Cloud Pirates .

Finally, I would head to EDHREC just to see the staples that are played in Grixis colors, as well as for your commander and whatever theme you choose to go with. You can also toggle to budget in the top right in order to see what will make it easier to build without sinking a bunch of money into the deck. However, keep in mind that cards like River's Rebuke don't scale up well to multiplayer, so you'll find the choices people make are very different. While cards like Cyclonic Rift , Sol Ring and Vandalblast will hurt the pocketbook a bit, they're good investments for whatever Commander decks you choose to build in the future.

If you don't like what you see, you can also head to Scryfall to search for cards. They'll let you limit the results to cards in your color identity, put price limits, and let your rank the results by how much commander play they see.

GrayAlchemyst on Beckett Brass

7 years ago

Cuts I'd make.

Storm Fleet Arsonist Storm Fleet Aerialist Daring Saboteur Wily Goblin Talas Scout Talas Air Ship Talas Explorer Rishadan Cutpurse Prosperous Pirates Marauding Looter Rishadan Airship Lookout's Dispersal Torrent of Souls Pilfered Plans Crash Through Destructive Tampering Grave Upheaval Beacon of Unrest Magus of the Will Conspiracy Xenograft

With all these cuts you will have enough land for the deck.