Creature (30)
- 1x Ancient Copper Dragon
- 1x Ancient Silver Dragon
- 1x Breeches, Brazen Plunderer
- 1x Captain Lannery Storm
- 1x Daring Saboteur
- 1x Dire Fleet Daredevil
- 1x Dockside Extortionist
- 1x Galazeth Prismari
- 1x Glint-Horn Buccaneer
- 1x Goldspan Dragon
- 1x Hellkite Tyrant
- 1x Imagecrafter
- 1x Imperial Recruiter
- 1x Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
- 1x Lightning-Rig Crew
- 1x Magda, Brazen Outlaw
- 1x Niv-Mizzet, Parun
- 1x Port Razer
- 1x Professional Face-Breaker
- 1x Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
- 1x Reckless Fireweaver
- 1x Sakashima of a Thousand Faces
- 1x Shimmer Dragon
- 1x Siren Stormtamer
- 1x Spark Double
- 1x Spectral Sailor
- 1x Warkite Marauder
- 1x Xorn
- 1x Zara, Renegade Recruiter
Artifact (8)
Land (32)
- 1x Cascade Bluffs
- 1x Command Tower
- 1x Darksteel Citadel
- 1x Desolate Lighthouse
- 1x Exotic Orchard
- 1x Fiery Islet
- 1x Frostboil Snarl
- 1x Great Furnace
- 1x Inventors' Fair
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7x
Island
-
5x
Mountain
- 1x Mystic Sanctuary
- 1x Plaza of Heroes
- 1x Riverglide Pathway Flip
- 1x Seat of the Synod
- 1x Shivan Reef
- 1x Silverbluff Bridge
- 1x Steam Vents
- 1x Stormcarved Coast
- 1x Sulfur Falls
- 1x Training Center
- 1x Unclaimed Territory
Enchantment (9)
- 1x Coastal Piracy
- 1x Curiosity
- 1x Guild Artisan
- 1x Ophidian Eye
- 1x Reconnaissance Mission
- 1x Rhystic Study
- 1x Sigil of Sleep
- 1x Storm the Vault Flip
- 1x Telepathy
Sorcery (4)
"DRAGON! PIRATES! IN SPACE!
This deck seeks to scale the Tempo deck archetype to the multiplayer format, using the interaction between Malcolm and Kediss to develop a gradual mana advantage over our opponents. Pirates are an ideal tribe, given their low cost, powerful abilities, and aggressive stats. However, we can't rely on turning sideways with 2/1s to win; thus, we transition into a late-game powerhouse driven by dragons. This deck is able to whittle opponents down with must-answer threats and cheap interaction, while falling back on a few powerful combos should the need arise.
This deck wants to play out its first few turns identically. If you want more variance in your early game, this may not be the deck for you. Additionally, this deck runs extremely powerful interaction and potent combos that can end the game out of nowhere. Turn 2 wins are technically possible. You can remove combo pieces and replace them with flavorful and fun pirates and dragons while still making a strong showing at most tables.
However, more potent is the interaction between Malcolm and Kediss. Malcolm generates treasure whenever a pirate (including himself) deals damage to a player. Kediss causes Malcolm's attacks to deal damage to all players at a table. That means, in your average pod, Malcolm will begin generating three treasure per hit. Three extra mana per turn can add up very quickly.
Keep in mind that swapping to Breeches dramatically lowers the power of the deck. Since our mana generation is far less explosive, it becomes imperative to maintain a strong board state. Otherwise, we can find ourselves with many expensive, dead cards in hand. Additionally, some of the stars of this deck such as Sigil of Sleep shine a little dimmer when they can't hit each player each turn.
Early Game/Mulligans
Our early game priority is to cast Malcolm and Kediss as quickly as possible, ideally with protection. A hand with three mana sources, a piece of interaction, and a source of card advantage is ideal. Even better if we can cast Malcolm turn 2 (or 1, with Mana Crypt). Additionally, pay attention to your curve. While this deck doesn't always have a turn 1 play, we certainly want to be able to do something on turn 2. A few things to keep in mind: - You usually want to play Malcolm before playing Kediss. That way, you limit the window of opportunity for your opponents as much as possible. - If you have no ramp sources, you should anticipate casting Kediss on turn 4. Then, your turn 2 play should ideally be a pirate. That way, Malcolm will generate at least one treasure on turn 3. - Mox Opal and Mox Amber are powerful, but should not be counted as early sources of ramp. They are here because they are trivially easy to enable, not to ramp out our commander.
Once we swing with Malcolm, we want to play fairly conservatively. Don't use treasure unless you need to, and focus on getting out a threat that will draw attention away from Malcolm. It's OK if Kediss dies once or twice. Casting him is cheap, and we get his effect immediately. Malcolm, however, should be protected as much as possible. Keep mana open if you can manage it (which should be easy with this deck), and only let Malcolm die if you feel like you've developed your board enough to run away with the game.
Mid game (Turns 5-8)
As mentioned previously, our goal after landing our commanders is to place a strong threat. If you have sufficient countermagic, feel free to play something big, dumb, and scary. An early Copper or Silver dragon can essentially end the game if allowed to attack. If you don't have sufficient countermagic, then you should instead focus on developing your board. While M&K take care of basically all of our mana concerns, they do nothing for card advantage. Try to develop a CA engine. Coastal Piracy effects are helpful and flavorful, while spells like Ophidian Eye, cast on Malcolm, can be backbreaking. Feel free to take things slow. We have lots of interaction, and each turn that passes just nets us more treasure.
Closing the game (8+)
We have a few options to close out the game. We might just overwhelm our opponents with value, using our mana advantage to outpace them. We may have cast a powerful dragon or two and beaten our opponents to death. We may have also resorted to a combo. The most efficient combos in this deck are: Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator + Glint-Horn Buccaneer: Ends the game the turn that its played for only 8 mana. Doesn't work in 1v1, and can fall short of killing everybody in situations where there are big HP disparities. Niv-Mizzet, Parun + Curiosity: Deals damage equal to the size of your library the next time you draw a card for only 7 mana. Ophidian Eye does this at instance speed. Imagecrafter + Reckless Fireweaver + Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator: Fun combo that turns Reckless Fireweaver into an infinite treasure (and thus damage) machine. The not-so-magical-Christmas-land scenario is having both of these in your starting hand. Maskwood Nexus is often a powerful replacement for Imagecrafter late-game.
Current Inclusions
Ancient Copper Dragon: This dragon is our late game Malcolm, for when Malcolm is too costly to cast. The mana output on this dragon is terrifying, and will enable us to do essentially whatever we want.
Dockside Extortionist: For the time being, this guy is just as good here as he is in any red deck. His bannable levels of treasure generation provide us with an explosive turn, allowing us to recover after a board wipe, develop our board, or power out a threat.
Goldspan Dragon: This dragon is an honorary pirate, since he makes treasure on attacking. He also hoards enough gold to double the going price of treasure, in turn making Malcolm's ability that much stronger.
Guild Artisan: This rewards us for what we already intend to do, namely, hit people with our commander. Even better, it triggers on attack, and triggers separately for each of our commanders.
Mana Crypt: Crypt is self explanatory. Incredibly strong, especially in a deck with a 3 cost commander.
Mox Amber: Mox Amber is useful since our commanders are both low value, and since we have other low-cost legendaries.
Mox Opal: This is also fairly easy to enable, since Malcolm ideally generates enough artifacts every time he connects.
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer: Ragavan is our best boy. He does everything this deck wants and more. His interaction with Malcolm is excellent, powering him out on turn 2 and netting us two treasures per hit while he's out. The card theft is fun too.
Sol Ring: This card is a hidden gem that generates tons of mana without a downside. Surprised more people don't run this secret tech.
Storm the Vault : This is trivially easy to trigger in this deck, and turns into one of the greatest lands ever printed. With a bit of luck, this can flip the turn after you cast Malcolm.
Xorn: I love this little rock guy! It doubles our treasure! And its so weird looking, we really can't be certain what it is. Could be a dragon. Or a pirate.
Possible Inclusions
TBD
Current Inclusions
Ancient Silver Dragon: This is the premier card draw engine of the deck. It can often come out on turn 5, and if it connects, draws on average 10.5 cards. Try not to cast it without haste or protection.
Bident of Thassa: Since we are turning our guys sideways, we benefit a lot from piracy effects like this. Bident has a few extra benefits, such as being an artifact and forcing attacks from our opponents, making it a strong choice for this deck.
Breeches, Brazen Plunderer: Sometimes, we may find that we have too much treasure and not enough fancy cards on which to spend it. Breeches deals with that problem by helping us cast our opponents' stuff. This deck would love some Praetors or Eldrazi titans, after all. Breeches also functions as a fun and flavorful (if not quite as strong) alternative commander for the deck.
Chart a Course: We weigh flavor somewhat heavily here. Chart is a decent card which draws efficiently, has an easily mitigated discard, and has a pirate on it.
Coastal Piracy: Yarrgh. Sadly, the weakest of these effects, but also a classic with pirates on it.
Curiosity: One of our favorite cards in the deck. Slap it on Malcolm to draw 3 cards every swing, put it on Lightning-Rig Crew to generate ridiculous card draw and mana, or use that awful, awful Niv-Mizzet combo and end the game. I'll even use it on a turn 1 pirate to simply set up a reliable draw engine.
Daring Saboteur: While technically not CA, it provides nice filtering on an evasive body while also fitting that desirable 2-drop pirate slot.
Jeska's Will: I love this card. Since our commanders come out early and often, this will almost always be live. It is rare that we aren't able to play all three cards drawn off this spell.
Ophidian Eye: The two extra mana is worth it for flash. Most experienced players won't let curiosity stick around, since it is a powerful effect and a notable combo piece. Instead, we can flash this in on end-step, or right before Malcolm connects.
Reconnaissance Mission: Don't be afraid to cycle this if you already have a draw engine set up. That being said, we really like this effect.
Rhystic Study: So good that I will sometimes postpone Malcolm to land this groan-inducing card.
Shimmer Dragon: When piloting this deck, you want to be mindful of when to spend treasure and when to hoard it. This guy rewards us for hoarding, allowing us to hold up treasure mana to interact with our opponents while still netting value should nothing get spent. Its also a royal pain to remove and a very decent beater.
Spectral Sailor: We love this spooky dude. With evasion and flash, he's a very reliable trigger for Malcolm. In a pinch, he's also an expensive draw engine.
Windfall: We are often able to play out our hand very quickly due to our high mana generation. This allows us to refuel quickly. We can also play around having windfall in our opening hand, keeping a riskier seven with little interaction, playing out as many threats as possible, and then drawing into a more defensive set of cards.
Possible Inclusions
Brainstorm and friends: With our low land count, cantrips seem like a no-brainer in this deck. We don't run them for a few reasons. They aren't very flavorful, and we would likely need to cut pirates to accommodate them. We tend to favor repeatable sources of card draw rather than one-offs. Finally, our opening turns are very tight on mana. Its unlikely that we have enough spare to cast a cantrip, except perhaps on turn 1. That being said, I don't think they are a bad choice at all.
Faithless Looting: This deserves its own spot, since its really, really good. I may add it in later.
Current Inclusions
Imperial Recruiter: This guy hits 17 creatures in the deck, including powerful combo pieces, protection pieces, clones, and utility pirates. If you are rushing a win, you'll usually use this guy to grab Glint-Horn Buccaneer; don't sleep on other fun yet powerful options, like Timestream Navigator or Lightning-Rig Crew.
Inventors' Fair: Very easy to activate with very little opportunity cost.
Magda, Brazen Outlaw: More power than toughness? Generates treasure? Grabs artifacts? I feel like Magda is an honorary pirate. Regardless, she's one of the most powerful engines in the deck. She ramps when played early, and lets us tutor out some of our most game-warping dragons. With Reckless Fireweaver out, she can grab Maskwood Nexus and immediately end the game.
Mystical Tutor: It feels really bad not to have any interaction in-hand. Our board is a relatively fragile one, as our commanders have low stat-lines and no natural defense. Our combos are also played out on-board. Mystical tutor lets us grab whatever countermagic or removal we need to advance our gameplan safely.
Pyre of Heroes: Our low CMC pirates are essential for exploding out the gate with Malcolm. However, as the game progresses, they may start to feel a little lackluster. Pyre lets us turn all those 1 CMCs into Timestream Navigator or Dockside Extortionist, or those 2 CMCs into Glint-Horn Buccaneer or Lightning-Rig Crew.
Whir of Invention: Treasures are great for improvise. We can instantly tutor out additional mana or Maskwood Nexus.
Possible Inclusions
Gamble is a great option for this deck. We don't run it because its sorcery speed and because of how often we find ourselves low on cards, increasing the odds that we discard our tutor target.
Current Inclusions
Abrade: A very flexible removal spell, abrade deals with any artifact and many of the most obnoxious creatures in the format. Cards which deeply hamper our gameplan, like Collector Ouphe or Grand Abolisher.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: While usually seen as a slightly worse Swan Song, Offer is actually often the stronger choice in this deck. It can hit artifacts, and the swan left by Swan Song turns off Malcolm for that opponent.
Chaos Warp: While steep in its cost, Chaos Warp hits everything. It deals with Planeswalkers such as Karn, the Great Creator and enchantments like Stony Silence, which this deck otherwise can't remove.
Counterspell: The counter by which all other counters be judged. No drawbacks, fancy effects, or restrictions.
Cyclonic Rift: According to Dicebreaker.com, its the third best card in the format. They also put Cultivate at #2, which is ridiculous. So according to me, its actually the second best card in the format. They also put Sol Ring at #1, which surprised me given its obscurity.
Fierce Guardianship: We love spells that get more powerful when our commander is out. This spell will almost always be a free cast.
Force of Negation: While its often a very powerful spell, it has a couple of notable downsides to keep in mind. Like many combat focused decks, opponents will often wait until your combat step to use removal (rather than at the end of the preceding player's end step). FoN doesn't help us there. Additionally, most of our combos are sorcery-speed, where FoN has to be hard-cast. Still, a powerful option in this deck.
Force of Will: Free countermagic helps us at every stage of the game. FoW lets us play aggressively in the early game or combo out a turn or two faster. Don't be afraid to hard cast this, since you may find yourself in a situation where you have lots of mana and few cards in hand.
Mana Drain: How do you like strictly better counterspell? Treat this like any other counterspell, saving it for game-ending threats and big disruptions to our game plan. We have a difficult time utilizing large amounts of colorless mana, and it isn't worth losing protection in order to siphon mana off of somebody's Colossal Dreadmaw.
Mass Mutiny: Mmmmmmm, flavor. Make sure you get the pirate version of this card. Stealing the best creature from each opponents' board can often win us the game.
Narset's Reversal: The "counterspell" with the highest ceiling and lowest floor. This card lacks versatility, since it fails to counter permanents, and only stalls instants and sorceries. However, it also lets us "steal" some really strong cards and access effects outside of our slice of the color pie. This would be the first thing to cut if you wanted to reduce interaction in the deck.
Pact of Negation: While this deck has a really easy time paying for this, we most often use it to protect or disrupt a game-ending combo. Its really bad at protecting our commander early on for obvious reasons.
Sigil of Sleep: Secretly the best creature removal in the deck. Slapping this on Malcolm wrecks most creature-based decks, especially those which rely on creatures staying on the field. Beware of powerful ETB effects.
Siren Stormtamer: Any player who knows what Malcolm does will prioritize removing him as quickly as possible. Stormtamer gives you an easy way to protect your commanders, while also acting as an evasive pirate while on the field. Having a transparent counterspell works really well with inexperienced players as well, since they tend not to play into countermagic.
Spell Swindle: While its initial casting cost is very high, its effect is very powerful. We can also use treasure mana to cast this without too much guilt, since it handily replenishes our stores. While we don't want to use Mana Drain on high CMC spells just for the mana, I will use this to steal oodles of treasure.
Swan Song: Dirt cheap, versatile counterspell with one huge downside. While most decks don't care about giving somebody a 2/2 flier, this deck needs open opponents for Malcolm to connect with. Keep that in mind when you play this.
Vandalblast: Early game, this clears out Sol Ring and Mana Crypt, while late game it works as a total wipe.
Warkite Marauder: Evasive 2-drop pirate with a peculiar little ability. This most often is used for clearing a path for Malcolm, removing flying blockers or other troublesome cards. It can also be used in conjunction with Abrade to kill bigger threats, or used politically to team-up on a particularly annoying creature.
Possible Inclusions
Pongify and friends: Because we have an abundance of mana, we can afford to have more expensive, more versatile removal. Add stuff like this in if your opponents are putting out threats faster than you can get set up.
Current Inclusions
Dire Fleet Daredevil: If this were just a 2-drop pirate with first strike, it would be well-worth a slot in this deck. First strike interacts well with Malcolm, potentially netting us extra treasure. However, DFD's ability scales very well late game, letting us take advantage of our opponents' sweet spells.
Galazeth Prismari: What do pirates and dragons have in common? They like to hoard treasure. This handsome guy lets us hold onto our treasures when playing instants and sorceries, making counterspells more potent.
Imagecrafter: This guy is an all-star in the deck, having a bunch of weird little interactions. To name a few: - Goes infinite with Reckless Fireweaver and any artifact by turning Fireweaver into a pirate. - Turns Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar into a pirate, letting us net a potential 6 treasure per turn if our opponents are open. - Makes Pyre of Heroes much more flexible. - Squeezes out some extra treasure from Magda, Brazen Outlaw.
Lightning Greaves: Protection and haste? Yes, please.
Maskwood Nexus: Turns all of our dragons into pirates, all of our pirates into dragons, and all of our losers into dragon pirates. It also combos with Reckless Fireweaver, as Fireweaver becomes a pirate before its triggered ability resolves from this hitting the field.
Port Razer: Additional combat steps means additional treasure. Port Razer helps us capitalize off of our many attack and damage triggers and punishes our opponents for under-developing their boards.
Sakashima of a Thousand Faces: We get a lot of mileage from cloning Malcolm, since it doubles the treasure original Malcolm generates when he connects. Even if we don't clone Malcolm, we have tons of cool creatures to duplicate.
Spark Double: See Sakashima.
Telepathy: People tend to underestimate how powerful information is in EDH. Knowing what our opponents are capable of lets us more effectively plan out our turns and prioritize our removal. We can let combo pieces stick and threats resolve if we know our opponents can't end the game, and we can play more defensively if our opponents' hands are full of removal. The fact that this card is cheap and asymmetric makes it a fantastic addition to this deck. Word of warning - people hate this card, and the fact that they can't see your hand means they may overestimate how much of a threat you are.
Zara, Renegade Recruiter: Zara gives us information and lets us steal powerful threats from our opponents. Grab a Praetor and enjoy the effect for a turn, or snatch a combo piece and convince the rest of your table to remove it for you.
Possible Inclusions
Protean Raider: Fun and flavorful, consider this if you want more clone effects.
Captivating Crew and friends: If you want more steal effects, there's no shortage of pirates. I like Zara better, but consider swapping her if you prefer stealing off of boards.
Dragon Tempest: This gives Malcolm and our dragons haste, and gives a nice little extra damage source. Worth trying out.
Hellkite Tyrant: It isn't difficult to net 20 artifacts in this deck. Hellkite is a fun and flavorful card that also works as artifact removal. Its also one of the greatest removal magnets ever printed - count how often this survives a turn cycle.
Lightning-Rig Crew: This lil crew is better than Malcolm. Actually, if you have this in your opening hand, change your entire game plan. Instead of Turn 3: Malcolm, Turn 4: Kediss, go Turn 3: This, Turn 4: Malcolm. Anything you would have played on Malcolm, like Sigil of Sleep and Curiosity, play on this instead. Its that good. And while it can't go infinite, it can, with a bit of luck and a Curiosity effect,do 20+ damage in a turn.
Niv-Mizzet, Parun: Goes infinite with Curiosity and is just fun in general.
Reckless Fireweaver: This is one of our most versatile win-cons. You will be surprised how quickly you generate 40 treasure over the course of a game. It also goes infinite with any type-changing cards.
Timestream Navigator: I like this card a lot. Its trivially easy to trigger City's Blessing, and her ability is relatively easy to reuse. Clone her or tutor her with Pyre of Ancestors to take multiple turns in a row.
11/12/22 OUT: Mass Mutiny - While its a total flavor win, its a very low impact spell for a relatively high cost. IN: Professional Face-Breaker - Honorary pirate that lets us turn our treasures into cards? Yes, please.
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90% Casual
Competitive
| Date added | 2 years |
| Last updated | 1 year |
| Legality | This deck is not Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 16 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.74 |
| Tokens | Bird 2/2 U, City's Blessing, Ragavan, Shapeshifter 2/2 U, Treasure |
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