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Budget Pirate Aggro

Standard* JakeHarlow

SCORE: 39 | 24 COMMENTS | 16770 VIEWS | IN 12 FOLDERS

FNM - 01.11.19; 1st Place, four rounds of Swiss —Jan. 11, 2019

Finally posted a top finish with this list — and even better, we finally beat that net-decked, try-hard, foiled-out Jeskai control list that has been terrorizing the store. We did this not only in Swiss, but also when we met him again in the Top 4 — and it was in convincing fashion. No flukes. Revenge is sweet. Otherwise, this was a fairly typical Standard FNM for the store. Lots of heavy midrange and control decks, some Phoenix and Golgari midrange lists too. Competition was stiff, but I didn’t drop a game until the Top 4 (and I still won that match overall). Again, I opted to run my mainboard spell package as 4x Duress and 4x Lava Coil, leaving the playset of Fiery Cannonade on the side. This proved once again to be the correct decision, as I played two control decks and a Naya tokens list in Swiss — all of which had numerous targets for Duress effects (the tokens deck relied heavily on March of the Multitudes and History of Benalia, both of which were excellent targets for Duress and Kitesail Freebooter). There were a few matches where Fiery Cannonade did amazing work, but in general, I was almost always happy to see Duress in my hand. I was undefeated all night, and the Top 4 chose to play it out to Top 2. I ended up in 1st place overall when I split the remaining prize pool with the 2nd place player. A great night for Pirates overall.

  • Round 1 Jeskai Control: 2-0 Win

This felt amazing. I wanted revenge against this player and his deck for so long (see two updates ago for my mini-rant about this). The player is a decent guy, if a bit try-hard, and we had some good games. I was really motivated to beat him. He was both salty and a little bit suspicious about my mainboard Duress, and tried to convince me that my choices were wrong. Well, I think mainboard Duress is correct in my metagame, and I’m sticking to it. Anyway, Game 1 saw me come out of the gate swinging hard, with 6 power on board at the end of Turn 2. Duress and Kitesail Freebooter plucked his hand free of sweepers like Deafening Clarion, and I played around Settle the Wreckage fairly deftly. Before attacking, I’d main phase Dire Fleet Neckbreaker. My opponent could either counter him, and therefore be off of Settle the Wreckage mana, or let him resolve — in which case I’d only attack with one creature. Either way, I was guaranteed around 4 damage if he didn’t cast Settle the Wreckage. He crumbled under the Pirate assault. Game 2 was even better. My sideboard was the following: -4x Lava Coil, -4x Rigging Runner, -1x Dire Fleet Poisoner; +4x March of the Drowned, +3x Price of Fame, +2x Sorcerous Spyglass. My hate curve came out in rare form. Turn 1 Duress, Turn 2 Sorcerous Spyglass, Turn 3 Daring Buccaneer into Kitesail Freebooter, Turn 4 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker. The sequence of plays broke his back. I didn’t even need Price of Fame for Lyra Dawnbringerfoil because he couldn’t even get to five mana. Oh, this 2-0 felt so good.

  • Round 2 Naya Tokens: 2-0 Win

I’m not sure what this guy’s red splash was for, but he was basically playing the usual Selesnya Tokens list. Duress and Kitesail Freebooter were good as usual here, snatching History of Benalia and removal spells. Game 1 was an aggressive affair in which I disrupted his curve with Duress effects while chipping in with Pirates. He fell quickly. Game 2, I brought in my set of Fiery Cannonade, which made short work of every threat he played out. I drew two of them along with a highly aggressive, well-curved hand. This, coupled with the fact that he mulliganed to five, meant he hardly had a chance. My Pirates had him swinging from the yardarm before long.

  • Round 3 Grixis Control/Midrange: 2-0 Win

This was the same Grixis control player we faced before, though the list seemed different. Ravenous Chupacabras and Rekindling Phoenixes were in the mainboard, giving his deck less of a hard control feel and more of a midrange one. Either way, he was still very vulnerable to Duress effects, and stumbled hard to a couple of these in Game 1. This left him unable to answer my aggro, and we went to Game 2. His early Golden Demise was made less painful by a timely March of the Drowned on my end, allowing me to recover enough tempo to put him on the ropes. He was able to sweep the board again, but two Dire Fleet Poisoners flashed in post-sweep to put in the last bits of damage. A pretty easy battle, considering how much trouble we normally have with control.

  • Round 4 Golgari Midrange: 0-0-3 Intentional Draw

I have a very solid matchup against this deck. This might sound fatheaded, but I’d go so far as to say I’m favored against it, most especially after boarding. Fiery Cannonade is amazing against this deck, since it kills almost everything they have — Doom Whisperer / Carnage Tyrant (most lists play one of these but not both) and Golgari Findbroker being the main exceptions. I feel very good against this deck and tested extensively against it when I initially built this list. However, the argument on whether or not I could beat Golgari midrange was moot anyway on this particular evening, since both of us were locked into 1st and 2nd place if we intentionally drew. So, though I was confident I could beat him, I assented to the draw because I knew I’d be the #1 seed going into Top 4 anyway. Sadly, this player isn’t the most friendly sort (he is jovial enough within his own social clique at the store, but won’t socialize much outside it), and he didn’t even want to play any casual games with me while we waited for the round to end, despite my offer. So I don’t have any gameplay to report for this one, unfortunately. I really wish I did.

  • Top 4 Jeskai Control: 2-1 Win

Well, that Golgari player didn’t feel like splitting the prize pool amongst the Top 4, so everybody was forced to play. As fate would have it, I was to have another showdown with that very same try-hard Jeskai control player, with his very same foiled-out, Mythic Edition Teferi, Hero of Dominarias. Nothing to it but to grit my teeth and try to catch lightning in a bottle again. Game 1 was an extremely aggressive affair. I got him to 1 life, but I lacked any Duress effects. He topped into a Deafening Clarion and killed my board. He then proceeded to counter every single play I made, cast a Teferi, ultimate the Teferi, and ultimately win. But I had almost gotten him, though! I screwed my head back on a bit straighter and implemented the same sideboard plan I used when I thrashed him in Swiss. Game 2 did not start out well, seeing me mulligan to six. I kept a decent six and proceeded to top into lots of Duress effects. I chipped away at him with Kitesail Freebooters, never really able to commit much to the board in the way of actual damage. I instead opted for heavy hand disruption. He finally managed to top into a Lyra Dawnbringerfoil, which I promptly Price of Famed. He wasn’t expecting to see this card — he was cocky and very accustomed to essentially winning the game on the spot against aggro the moment he resolved a Lyra. I was able to put a couple more threats on the board the next couple of turns, covering myself from a Deafening Clarion with a Freebooter and playing around Settle the Wreckage. I was eventually able to swing in enough to be presenting lethal. Reacting to this situation, he cast a second Lyra Dawnbringerfoil — for whom I had a second Price of Fame. He still had a piece of removal, so to bolster my damage for my last attack, I also flashed in a Dire Fleet Poisoner during his end step. As expected, he did remove one Pirate, but with the extra 2/2 deathtouch on board, I still had lethal. With Lyra gone, his shields were down and I cracked in to finish him. I thought that this was a very impressive performance by my deck, and was quite pleased with my own play, too. Of note is that Teferi had been shut off since Turn 2 by a Sorcerous Spyglass. We proceeded to Game 3, which on my end was a mixture of hard aggro, hand disruption, and recursion (in other words, precisely the effects I need to beat control). A Turn 2 Sorcerous Spyglass gave Teferi, Hero of Dominaria his walking papers, and a combination of Kitesail Freebooter and March of the Drowned gave my opponent fits as he tried to protect his hand and provide consistent answers to my threats. He resolved a big Crackling Drake and cracked me for 10, but I’d used Dire Fleet Daredevil to cast one of his used Revitalizes. This put me out of range of being double-tapped by the Drake. I continued to threaten damage with a deathtouch Pirate, attacking alone into the Drake (I was presenting enough damage that the Drake was quickly relegated to blocking duty). I was also trying to get him to cast the Settle the Wreckage I knew he had, which he ultimately chose not to do. I was able to Price of Fame the Drake before it could go back on offense, which probably won me the game in hindsight. My opponent continued to sit on his Settle, so I kept poking in for 2 damage every combat. Because of a Ruin Raider I’d resolved (and had actually gotten to cast twice thanks to a March of the Drowned), I was profiting heavily from this strategy. I was baiting his Settle the Wreckage by attacking alone with my Dire Fleet Poisoner. This also had the upside of allowing me to draw cards off of Ruin Raider’s ability without risking the Ruin Raider itself. I continued to do this for a few turns while my opponent looked for a less conditional answer, like Deafening Clarion (mercifully, he never found one in time, and I’d long since taken his other copy with Duress). He seemed unwilling to cast his Settle the Wreckage just to deal with my 2/2. Instead, he spent his mana during end steps to dig for cards and bolster his life total with Chemister's Insight and Revitalize. Meanwhile, my own hand of cards thickened as well, and I eventually sat on a lot of gas — including two Price of Fames for the Lyra Dawnbringerfoils I knew would eventually come. I didn’t have to worry about Teferi unless my opponent cast a Cleansing Nova to get rid of my Sorcerous Spyglass (and if he’d had a Nova, he’d have certainly used it to destroy all creatures instead). More copies of Revitalize kept buoying my opponent’s life total, but my pushing in for 2 every turn kept him around 9 or 10 life. Finally, still lacking answers, my opponent played a Lyra Dawnbringerfoil in an effort to stave off my attacks and stabilize, leaving him with only one open mana. I thought that this was uncharacteristically reckless of him. He really wasn’t respecting the fact that I had boarded in Price of Fame, and had been drawing two cards a turn for quite a while (and was therefore reasonably likely to have one). I thought he should have sat on his Settle the Wreckage for one more turn, but maybe it wouldn’t have mattered. I hit the Lyra Dawnbringerfoil with a Price of Fame during his end step, and then surveilled into a Dire Fleet Neckbreaker. On my turn, I drew and cast it, now presenting well over lethal against his empty board with only one of his lands untapped. He offered his hand in defeat. Justice had finally come, in convincing and consistent fashion, to the Jeskai control menace, and a motley crew of swarthy brigands were the ones on delivery duty. I said it before and I’ll say it again: revenge is sweet. That being said, I respect my opponent and we had some good games. He’s a decent guy and a strong player. In the end, the Top 2 split and I went home with some nice prizes (in a Karmic turn of events, the Golgari player who’d forced the Top 4 to play had been eliminated in his match). This was a great night to be ranging the high seas with my Rakdos Pirate crew. I can’t recommend this deck enough. I can’t think of too many other $50 decks that can do work like this in Standard.