If you like to sail under a black flag and the sea to be your empire, then Pirate Tribal is the right deck for you. Let’s see how to lead like a captain and play like a pirate. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
I love tribal decks because they combine synergy and flavor and of course power. On top of that you can find many unique cards that support a tribe and can be great budget options as those cards work only on a specific tribal deck and are bad to unplayable to any other deck. That’s why I will try building and presenting a series of decks for all those who share the love for tribal decks.
Pirate is a creature class that first appeared in Mirage. Pirates are motley fighters and scoundrels who sail the sea and skies to loot and plunder the unexpected. Pirates are famed and feared for their unpredictability. Most pirates are blue. In the Grand Creature Type Update the subtype Merchant (Talas Merchant) was incorporated into the Pirate class. (source: MtG Wiki)
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander Deck Ahoy Mateys, is a great starting point for building Pirate Tribal since it features a Pirate Tribal deck focused on grave recursion and powering up of pirates. Of course, there is plenty of space for upgrades. Although you can call this article a precon upgrade, you can start from zero and buy singles. The optimal building option depends on the price and availability of the cards.
Admiral Brass, Unsinkable is a great choice because she supports Grixis (
) colors which are the dominant colors for pirates, she is a great grave recursion tool as she has: “At the beginning of combat on your turn, you may return target Pirate creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield with a finality counter on it. It has base power and toughness 4/4. It gains haste until end of turn. (If a creature with a finality counter on it would die, exile it instead)”. As we see she also buffs small pirates as the 4/4 statline is respectable. Moreover, she forces us to mill four cards on EtB, so she fuels the graveyard a bit.
The finality counters are meant to be a restriction to grave recursion so that we can’t repeatedly abuse strong pirates ,EtB effects, etc. But here is the twist, there are ways to remove that counters and let Admiral Brass become the ultimate Ruler of the Seven Seas. Most of the cards that remove counters are creatures and unfortunately not pirates, so we shouldn’t be able to return those from the graveyard, BUT there’s a double twist to our deck, we have a way to make them pirates so we can run repeatable reanimation loops and get amazing value! Our opponents will become food for fish!
Synergy Diagram
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Pirates. Our priority is to add the ones that have strong EtB effects so that we can get instant value from grave recursion.
- Add Pirate Tribal support. Cards that support Pirate Tribal seem a great choice for our build.
- Add cards that remove counters. Since our build is limited by finality counters, we can remove them to unlock the full power of our build with repeatable grave recursion of our best Pirates.
- Add a way to turn our creatures that remove counters into Pirates so that we can even recur them for greater deck consistency.
- Add cards that fuel our graveyard like cards with self-Mill.
- Add cards that synergize with our strategies. To make the best out of our strategies, we can further amplify them by adding cards that support many of our strategies.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that fit greatly the Pirate tribal theme.
The deck:
Pirate Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
35 Lands
18 Ramp: Sol Ring , Arcane Signet , Izzet Signet , Dimir Signet , Rakdos Signet , Corsair Captain, Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator , Ramirez DePietro, Pillager , Enterprising Scallywag, Gemcutter Buccaneer, The Belligerent, Prismari Command, Fain, the Broker, Breeches, Eager Pillager, Cutthroat Negotiator, Edward Kenway, Patchwork Banner
11 Target Removal: Hostage Taker , Admiral Beckett Brass (steal), Broadside Bombardiers , Amphin Mutineer , Lookout’s Dispersal , Rakdos Charm , Feed the Swarm , Kitesail Larcenist, Dire Fleet Poisoner, Kitesail Freebooter, Admiral’s Order, Mary Read and Anne Bonny
3 Board Wipes: Angrath, Minotaur Pirate (mini), Crippling Fear , Fiery Cannonade
5 Graveyard Recursion: Admiral Brass, Unsinkable , Skeleton Crew (self-recursion),Port of Karfell, Angrath, Minotaur Pirate , The Indomitable (self-recursion)
2 Graveyard Hate: Dire Fleet Daredevil (instant/sorcery), Rakdos Charm
4 Tutors: Forerunner of the Coalition , Staunch Crewmate, Buried Alive, Storm Fleet Negotiator
3 Protection: Siren Stormtamer , Lookout’s Dispersal , Admiral’s Order
20 Card Draw: Breeches, Brazen Plunderer (card advantage), Pirated Copy , Dire Fleet Daredevil (card advantage), Hostage Taker (card advantage), Ramirez DePietro, Pillager (card advantage), Mary Read and Anne Bonny, Bident of Thassa , The Indomitable , Desolate Lighthouse , Geier Reach Sanitarium , The Belligerent (kinda), Arm-Mounted Anchor, Goldberry, River-Daughter, Faithless Looting, Soul Diviner, Glint-Horn Buccaneer, Breeches, Eager Pillager, Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel, Cutthroat Negotiator, Edward Kenway (card advantage)
5 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Timestream Navigator , Coastline Marauders, Port Razer , Angrath’s Marauders, Shared Animosity
As we see form the comparative analysis, the rates per category are very good. There is no score below the optimal low average and we see 5 categories that are above the optimal max average. Ramp at 18 and Card Draw at 20 are the highlights of our deck.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator is an excellent ramp engine in Pirate Tribal that supports aggressive play. We can repeatedly create multiple treasures per turn as long as we deal damage with Pirates to multiple opponents. It is also an infinite combo piece with Glint-Horn Buccaneer that results in near-infinite damage, near-infinite colored mana and near-infinite looting. The combo is described in detail here (EDHREC)
Enterprising Scallywag can also be an excellent ramp engine in our Pirate Tribal as all we need is to descent in our turn. With our build that is easy as we can either discard cards or let our Pirates die, only to bring them back again, stronger with haste and triggering powerful EtB effects or attack trigger effects.
Gemcutter Buccaneer is another excellent ramp engine that can work wonders in Pirate Tribal, since it creates a treasure on Pirate EtB. The treasure comes tapped, but still in our build that we have heavy grave recursion through Admiral Brass, Unsinkable we can expect to have multiple Pirate EtB. Moreover, it turns treasures into equipment and with cheap equip cost for Pirates, so the flexibility makes it a great card.
Ramirez DePietro, Pillager creates two treasures on EtB so he becomes a great grave recursion target. In addition, he greatly fits our aggressive strategy and can offer us great card advantage in our Pirate Tribal build since he has: “Whenever one or more Pirates you control deal combat damage to a player, exile the top card of that player’s library. You may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled”.
Corsair Captain creates a treasure token on EtB and it is a Pirate Lord buffing other Pirates with +1/+1. Great for Pirate Tribal going wide strategy.
Whenever The Belligerent attacks, we create a Treasure token. Until end of turn, we may look at the top card of our library any time, and we may play lands and cast spells from the top of our library. Great for both ramp and card advantage. It also fits the flavor of our deck since it is a Legendary Pirate ship (that was captained by Vraska during her time on Ixalan).
Fain, the Broker is amazing for our build since it synergizes with most of our strategies. It removes finality counters making us able to repeatedly recur our Pirates while on the same time it creates treasure tokens and helps ramp. Moreover, it can become a sacrifice outlet, giving us +1/+1 counters in return for creatures and 2/1 white and black Inkling creatures in return for artifacts. By paying 
we can untap Fain and use it multiple time each turn as long as we have enough mana.
Breeches, Eager Pillager is also a flexible card that can help us with ramp (by creating treasure tokens) and with card advantage (impulse draw) and with evasion (that fits our aggressive strategy). With enough Pirates EtB in a turn we can get all of the above, making it a great choice for Pirate Tribal.
Cutthroat Negotiator can be a great ramp source in commander with the potential of creating up to four tapped Treasure tokens for each time it attacks in a 4-player game. In addition, after that, all players draw a card which is welcome in some cases. It is a great target for grave recursion with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable since with haste we can intantly benefit from the attack trigger.
Edward Kenway becomes a Treasure production engine in our Pirate Tribal build. Even its second ability has synergy with our pirate ships The Belligerent and The Indomitable. Amazing synergy and a top pick!
Mary Read and Anne Bonny can also become a Treasure engine as it has great synergy both with Pirate Tribal and discard strategy. on top of that it can greatly help with card draw. Another top pick for our build!
Patchwork Banner is one of the best cards for Tribal builds as it combines ramp and tribal support. Being both a mana rock and a Tribal Anthem gives us amazing value for its mana cost. Of course it is a top pick for our Pirate Tribal!
Target Removal
Admiral’s Order and Lookout’s Dispersal are our counterspells that can be used both for target removal and protection at instant speed. Lookout’s Dispersal will cost 
most of the time in Pirate Tribal, while Admiral’s Order costs if we attacked with a creature this turn, something that means we will have a very cheap protection counterspell on our turn since we run a very aggressive build.
Hostage Taker can exile target creature or artifact on EtB until it leaves the battlefield and let us cast it as long as it remains exiled, spending mana as though it were mana of any type to cast that spell. It can be a great target for grave recursion and for stealing again and again the best creatures and artifacts of our opponents.
Admiral Beckett Brass is a Pirate Lord that let us gain control of target nonland permanent controlled by a player who was dealt combat damage by three or more Pirates this turn. It is conditional and not exactly removal but stealing the bigger threats of our opponents is a super effective way to “remove” them anyway. Our aggressive strategy contributes to make it less conditional.
Broadside Bombardiers is both a sacrifice outlet and a great way to remove target creatures. Boast ability means it has to attack to trigger, but Haste helps to activate it on EtB. It deals damage equal to 2 plus the sacrificed permanent’s mana value to any target, so it can be a target removal tool and even a potential finisher.
Amphin Mutineer has a strong EtB creature removal effect with the drawback that its owneb creates a 4/3 blue Salamander Warrior creature token. Moreover, it has Encore 
which scales well in Commander as it can remove the top threats of each player. Of course, the optimal play is to recur it with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable and use it many times.
Kitesail Larcenist on EtB turns the best artifacts/creatures of our opponents into treasure tokens as long as it remains on the battlefield. Flying and Ward[/mana]1[/mana] helps it evade some threats and helps our aggressive strategy. The fact that we can recur it with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable and use it many times gives it great value.
Dire Fleet Poisoner has Flash and Deathtouch which is alone great for removal, but works wonders in Pirate tribal as on EtB it buffs target Pirate with +1/+1 and it gives it deathtouch until end of turn. Of course it is another great graveyard recursion target for our commander.
Kitesail Freebooter has another strong EtB effect, even if it is not a permanent removal, but it lasts until Kitesail Freebooter leaves the battlefield. Hand revealing can be very important and exiling a noncreature nonland spell for a while can provide us with time to build our board and both give us a strong advantage. The fact that we can recur it with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable and use it many times gives it great value and even the fact that is has flying helps a lot with our aggressive strategy.
Board Wipes
Fiery Cannonade deals 2 damage to each non-Pirate creatures so in Pirate Tribal it becomes a one-sided board wipe for small creatures. What is great it that we can use it at instant speed and it has low mana cost so it can be better than it seems at first glance. Of course it greatly fits the Pirate theme of the deck.
Crippling Fear is a great budget mass removal for tribal decks as it can clear the board of our opponents while leaving ours intact.
Angrath, Minotaur Pirate can repeatedly clear the board of the small 1/1 creatures but it can also be used as an alternate way to return target Pirate from the graveyard to the battlefield. If we manage to use its ultimate, it can devastate both the board and the life of target opponent. It greatly fits both the flavor of the deck and has synergy with our strategies.
Graveyard Recursion
Admiral Brass, Unsinkable is our comander and our ultimate graveyard recursion tool, as we can consistently cast her and benefit from her abilities. Her self-mill on EtB helps further our goal as it fuels our graveyard. Her recursion ability is free and our Pirate Tribal build is made to optimize the value we get from her abilities.
Skeleton Crew has self-recursion by paying 
but the most important part is that it has great synergy with our Pirate Tribal build because it is a Pirate Lord buffing our Pirates with +1/+1 and whenever one or more creature cards leave our graveyard, we create a 2/2 black Skeleton Pirate creature token. We can many tokens and great value from it.
Port of Karfell is slow but the fact that a land can contribute to our graveyard recursion strategy is great even if we need to pay ,
and to sacrifice it.
Graveyard Hate
Dire Fleet Daredevil on EtB exiles target instant or sorcery from an opponent’s graveyard and let us cast it the same turn spending mana of any type, combining graveyard hate and card advantage. A strong EtB effect and First Strike makes it another great graveyard recursion target for our commander.
Tutors
Forerunner of the Coalition is a great Pirate Tribal tutor and the fact that its effect is on EtB makes it a perfect target for Admiral Brass, Unsinkable. Repeatitive tutoring can be extra strong. In addition drains opponents on Pirate EtB which is a very strong bonus. One of the best cards for our build.
Staunch Crewmate searches only the top four cards of our library so it has a much worse tutoring EtB effect, but it can seach for creature and artifacts, it puts them in our hand and given the fact that we can repeatedly reanimate it with our build, it can be much stronger than it seems. For example it can help us search for Ashes of the Fallen which is valuable for our build.
Buried Alive has amazing synergy with our graveyard recursion strategy, as it can tutor three creature cards into our graveyard and then we can recur them with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable. Amazing tutor card for our Pirate Tribal build!
Adéwalé, Breaker of Chains is a Pirate and Vehicle Tutor on ETB so it is very valuable for our Pirate Tribal. It even has self-recursion whenever a Vehicle we control deals combat damage to a player. The optimal play is to repeatedly reanimate it with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable and become a repeatable tutor.
Protection
Siren Stormtamer is good on its own, providing a protection counterspell by paying and sacrificing it. It is a great target for grave recursion with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable as we get amazing protection and a 4/4 Flyer with Haste which helps both our aggressive and defensive plan. Top pick for our Pirate Tribal build.
All our counterspells also act as protection spells too if needed and that is very important since with our Pirate Tribal build runs many creatures and is focusing on having a strong board presence.
Card Draw
The Indomitable is a Legendary Artifact-Vehicle that greatly supports our aggressive build. It has “Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.” which can give us multiple cards per turn, it has Trample and Crew 3, which along with a 6/6 body makes it a good for attacking. Last but not least, it has self-recurion as long as we control 3 or more tapped Pirates and/or Vehicles (something easy for our build). Amazing card draw option for Pirate Tribal.
Breeches, Brazen Plunderer is an amazing source of card advantage as its stealing effect triggers whenever a Pirate we control deals damage to our opponents. Card advantage through stealing from our opponents is something Pirates are great at, and as we already mentioned above, Dire Fleet Daredevil, Hostage Taker and Ramirez DePietro, Pillager are great Pirates that also help us with card advantage.
Pirated Copy apart from being an amazing flavor win, has a very strong copy effect and synergizes perfectly with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable being a great target for grave recursion. It even helps with card draw as both the original and the copy offer us card draw on dealing damage to a player. Imagine copying for free a Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant (our copy also enters with Haste if recurred with our commander) that also triggers it EtB effect bringing all our Pirates on board!
Bident of Thassa greatly help us with card draw since we can expect to attack with many creatures and deal many times damage to a player and thus draw many cards from it.
Arm-Mounted Anchor can help us with both card draw and filling our graveyard. It buffs equipped creature with +2/+2 and Menace which is important for our aggressive strategy and ponentially has reduced equip cost if we have one or fewer cards in hand. The fact that we can choose to discard either two cards or a Pirate make it a good choice for Pirate Tribal.
Goldberry, River-Daughter and Soul Diviner are part of our strategy to remove finality counters from our Pirates. Moreover, Soul Diviner by removing those counters and Goldberry, River-Daughter by moving those counters from her to other permanents we control (like lands which are more difficult to remove) provide us with card draw. Great utility for our build!
Glint-Horn Buccaneer has , Discard a card: Draw a card. Activate only if Glint-Horn Buccaneer is attacking”. Its ability fits our strategy and on top of that whenever we discard a card it deals 1 damage to each opponent. It is part of an infinite combo with Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator that results in near-infinite damage, near-infinite colored mana and near-infinite looting. The combo is described in detail here (EDHREC)
Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel has Flash and Flying and on dealing combat damage to a player, we draw a card, then discard a card and we put a chorus counter on it. With four or more chorus counters on it, we may cast the discarded card for free. It needs some work to get the maximum value out of it, but even without the free cast, it greatly fits our strategy, filling our graveyard and drawing cards at the same time.
Desolate Lighthouse and Geier Reach Sanitarium help a bit with card draw and filling our graveyard. Desolate Lighthouse needs , to draw a card and then discard a card, while Geier Reach Sanitarium needs 
, and each player draws a card, then discard a card.
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Timestream Navigator needs the city’s blessing to activate its ability, but taking an extra turn can always be game changing. If we reanimate it with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable, it gains haste and we can take the extra turn instantly by paying , and putting Timestream Navigator on the bottom of our library.
Coastline Marauders is alone a nice card that scales well with the game and its Encore ability is very strong in commander. In our Pirate Tribal build, it is a great target for grave recursion with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable since at most times it will be at least a 8/4 with Trample and Haste and it can be a finisher.
Port Razer can give us an extra combat phase whenever it deals damage to a player and untaps each creature we control. It is a great offensive tool and if we manage to get additional combat phases by hitting with it more players, it can even be a game finisher. Of course it is another great graveyard recursion target for our commander.
Angrath’s Marauders have high mana cost, but we can recur them for free from our graveyard with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable. The double damage effect is always very strong and can easily make our Pirates extra deadly.
Shared Animosity is a staple for tribal decks since most of them run many creatures (of the same type) and go wide so they get a huge power buff. It can be a finisher in our aggressive Pirate Tribal build.
Other synergy pieces
Great Pirates
Captain Vargus Wrath on attack trigger, buffs all Pirates with +1/+1 until end of turn for each time we’ve cast our commander. Works great with our aggro strategy and is a great target for grave recursion since it comes back as a 4/4 with haste with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable and we can get instant value. He even buffs himself which is a nice bonus!
Captain Storm, Cosmium Raider on artifact EtB, let us put a +1/+1 counter on target Pirate. Although it may seem more revelant for a different kind of deck, it has great synergy with our deck since our Pirates create Map and Treasure tokens so we can trigger the ability more often than it seems. In addition it may fill another purpose in our build. Since we have a remove counter strategy and some of the creatures that remove counters have payoffs for removing them, Captain Storm helps us fuel that strategy. For example, even if it isn’t optimal, removing a +1/+1 counter for card draw is not half bad.
Francisco, Fowl Marauder scales well in commander since its Explore ability triggers on dealing damage to a player (with a Pirate) and in Pirate Tribal we can get multiple triggers per turn. It may seem harmless but that bird can be a master explorer!
Warkite Marauder on attack trigger, makes target creature defending player controls lose all abilities and have base power and toughness 0/1 until end of turn. We may not count it as removal, but it is a pseudo-removal for a limited time, which greatly helps our aggro strategy. It also is a great target for grave recursion since it comes back as a 4/4 flyer with Haste with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable and we can get instant value.
Dire Fleet Neckbreaker is an aggro Pirate Lord, buffing attacking Pirates with +2/+0. Works great with our aggressive strategy.
Roaming Throne is a great card for every Tribal deck and of course it works wonders in our Pirate Tribal build which run many triggered abilities. Doubling our EtB and attack triggers can really be outstanding in our build. The synergies are too many to mention, but even with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable alone, a double trigger on free grave recursion can be really strong.
Coercive Recruiter steals target creature on Pirate EtB until end of turn and let us use them against our opponents. It can be strong in Pirate Tribal since we run many cheap Pirates. It is worthy to mention that it triggers even on its own EtB and it makes stolen creatures Pirates until end of turn which enable more synergies with our deck. Nice utility card!
Zara, Renegade Recruiter on attack trigger it let us look at defending player’s hand. We may put a creature card from it onto the battlefield under our control tapped and attacking that player or a planeswalker they control and we return that creature to its owner’s hand at the beginning of the next end step. Having Flying make it harder to be blocked and it can give us some memorable plays. It is an excellent target for grave recursion with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable since it comes back for free with Haste and we can get amazing value.
Counter Removal Strategy : 6 cards
These are the cards that help us remove finality counters so we can reanimate again and again our best creatures and get maximum value. We have already analized Goldberry, River-Daughter, Soul Diviner and Fain, the Broker. Hexavus costs a lot mana, but gives flying counters and evasion greatly help our aggressive strategy. In addition, it is worthy to mention that the optimized play is to recur it as a Pirate with the help of Ashes of the Fallen as it comes into play for free and as a 10/10 (4/4 from our commander plus six +1/+1 counters) flying Pirate Construct with Haste. Sounds like a nightmare for our opponents. Power Conduit help us remove finality counters and we can buff our Pirates with +1/+1 counters instead. Great utility cards for our Pirate Tribal build.
Key Card
Ashes of the Fallen is a must-have card for our Pirate Tribal build. It makes all creatures in our graveyard Pirates and that means we can recur our creatures that remove counters, even if they are not Pirates by themselves. That gives us great consistency in our counter removal strategy and as a result, repeatable grave recursion of our Pirates that equals to optimized value.
Let’s see some more statistics about our deck. Some important info to care about is the mana curve and the card type distribution, as it can help us understand better our deck and may indicate where there is space for improving it.
Mana Curve
The mana curve is not too far from average with the exception of 1 mana drops where we see a low number and a spike on positions 2 and 4 where we see increased numbers. Moreover, we notice an absence of very high mana drops ( positions 8+) and few high mana drops, which is a result of our aggressive strategy that has as a backbone low to mid mana cost Pirates.
Card Type Distribution
The Pirate Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant tribal creature-heavy theme with 43 creatures. All other categories have a smaller presence with Artifacts at 11, Instants at 4, Sorceries at 4, Enchantments at 2, and Planeswalkers at 1. No Battles are present for the time.
Of course statistics and comparative analysis are great tools but they don’t always tell the whole truth, since many factors like synergy and combo pieces are hard to be measured numerically. For example in this deck, with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable, the true grave recursion potential of the deck is much bigger than the statistics number shown, since our commander alone is a reanimation machine for Pirates. She is the captain that can lead our Pirate crew to become a fearsome force.
Update v1 (Modern Horizons 3)
Update v2 (Assassin’s Creed)
Update v3 (Bloomburrow)
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If you liked the deck, don’t forget to revisit the article after every major new release as I will try to keep my decks updated and examine any potential upgrades. If you want to keep being updated, you can follow mtgbudgetcommander.com on social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin, reddit, tumblr, medium).
If you like my tribal series, you can check my other tribal decks.
