Summary

• Pirates became more prominent in Magic with Ixalan, gaining more support over time including powerful cards like Dockside Extortionist.
• Skeleton Crew offers a self-reanimation effect and can create 2/2 Pirates, synergizing well with cards like Admiral Brass.
• Coercive Recruiter has theft-related effects; it can steal a creature from your opponent when a Pirate enters the battlefield.

Pirates were introduced to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering in 2017's Ixalan set. Technically, the first Pirate was released in the block right before that with Kari Zev, Skyship Raider, but that was more of a teaser for what was to come. Many creatures from Magic's history 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:have since been errata'd with the Pirate creature type, but Ixalan's where they really got their start.

Pirates have received much more support since then, being a key Draft archetype in Commander Masters, receiving 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:an entire Commander precon in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, and being included in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Outlaws of Thunder Junction's outlaw batch. Dockside Extortionist and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer are top-notch Magic ca🔜rds,♋ but Pirates have much more nuanced and interesting support cards.

10 ꧂ Skeleton Crew

Dead Men Tell No Tales

Skeleton Crew's a two-parter for your Pirate deck. It provides a traditional +1/+1 'lord' effect for your swashbuckling creatures, and all the merrier if you happen to have any Skeletons lying around. It also has a built-in self-reanimation effect, which can change combat math at instant speed, though at a hefty cost.

Th🤪e interesting part is the middle effect, which creates a 2/2💮 (functionally a 3/3) Pirate whenever cards leave your graveyard. This plays perfectly with Admiral Brass, Unsinkable, the commander of the deck Skeleton Crew was originally printed in.

Unfortunately, Skeleton Crew's activated ability won't cause its triggered ability to trigger, since it's not on the battlefield to see itself leave the graveyard. The reminder text should clear that up.

9 ﷺ Coercive Recruiterও

Pirates Like To 'Borrow' Their Recruits

Pirates branch off into several sub-themes, from combat-damage saboteur effects to Treasure-makers. They're also known for plundering the high seas, which means you'll see 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:quite a few theft-related effects attached to💛 various Pirates. Coercive Recruiter puts that strategy on full display.

While a little under-statted itself, Recruiter temporarily steals a creature any time a Pirate enters your side of the battlefield. From there, you're welcome to send it into combat or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:sacrifice it to some other effect. It also notably turns the 'borrowed' creature into a Pirate for the turn, which is way more significant than it sounds.

8 Pirated Copy 🐻

Bootlegged Clone Didn't Sound As Good

'Pirated Copy' is a bit on the nose, but an apt name nonetheless. It's a creature that copies something and becomes a Pirate. No secrets here. It's a little more expensive than the average Clone creature, but you're paying extra for minor Pirate synergies.

The quirky part of this creature is the combat damage trigger, which not only applies to itself, but also the creature it copied. And it all works out in your favor; if the original creature you copied hits someone else entirely, you're still the one who draws the card.

Try pairing Pirated Copy 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:with goad effects to force the original copyౠ to attac♐k and trigger the draw ability for you.

7 🐼 Admiral Beck𒁏ett Brass

The Original Cap'n

Admiralꦐ Beckett Brass was the original Pirate commander, and is still the most pop๊ular despite having more competition. She highlights exactly what Pirates tend to be all about: evasion and sneaking in hits on the opponent. Do that enough and you can start stealing permanents from your opponents.

Beckett Brass at the head of your ship means you're highly incentivized to play cheap, evasive Pirates. Ideally, you can start out early with cards like Siren Stormtamer and Fathom Fleet Captain, then cast your commander on the same turn you plan on fulfilling her 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:end step trigger.

6 B𒈔ack In Town

The Boys, Presumably

Outlaws of Thunder Junction created the new 'outlaws' batching term, which combined Warlocks, Pirates, Assassins, Rogues, and Mercenaries into one category of cards. That means anything that generically refers to an outlaw creature also coincidentally works with Pirates. Enter cards like Back in Town from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the Most Wanted Commander precon.

Back in Town offers mass reanimation at a cheaper cost than similar effects, with the caveat that you're more restricted on the types of creatures you can get back. Assuming you're an all-Pirates deck, this starts at four mana to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:reanimate a single creature and scales up from there.

5 𝄹 Breeches, Eager Pillager 🎃

Best Paired With A Crew Of Mateys

Breeches is a recurring character in Magic, first introduced in Commander Legends and since associated with an insatiable appetite for destroying th🤪ings. His individual cards have varied pretty wildly, though Eager Pillager is the best of the bunch by quit♛e a bit.

Pirates like to attack, and they're good at bypassing blockers, so why not reward your Pirate deck for doing just that? Breeches gives you the choice between card draw, mana production, or removing a blocker from combat whenever a Pirate attacks, and you can pick all three modes if you attack with three Pirates at once.

4 ﷽ Discreet Retreat

Ramps And Card Draw For Outlaws

The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:blue-red-black color trio isn't exactly known for mana acceleration, though 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Treasure tokens shore up that we♏akness to some extent. And Pirates love their Treasure tokens. Still, this color♉ pair could always stand to find more, which makes Discreet Retreat a great addition to these decks.

Retreat enchants one of your lands and passively adds additional mana and card draw, usually once per turn. That comes at the cost of one life per draw, but Phyrexian Arena's a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:black Commander staple that people have been fond of for quite some time, so it's nothing new.

Flash creatures play exceptionally well with Discreet Retreat, allowing you to trigger the card draw effect on opponents' turns as well.

3 Ramirez D෴ePietro, Pillager 🎉

Back And Better Than Ever

Ramirez DePietro made his debut in 1994's Legends, and received the makeover treatment in 2022's Dominaria United. This re-imagined version took the character from the original, admittedly lackluster Legends card and leaned into his origins as a Pirate.

This more pillagy version of Ramirez combines everything that Pirates like to do: it makes Treasures, rewards you for hitting your opponent, and steals cards from other players. It also functionally produces mana upon entering, which enables a number of multi-card combos 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:looking to blink this card near-infinite times.

2 🍌 Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator

Competitive Piracy At Its Best

Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator has an established pedigree 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:in competitive Commander due to the ease with which it makes Treasure tokens. That popularity is probably what spawned this character, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:their partner in crime Breeches🧔, each receiving multiple additional cards in later sets.

The key to the original Malcolm's success is the fact that any damage from Pirates triggers the ability, not just combat damage. That makes it an infinite combo enabler alongside Glint-Horn Buccaneer, and even an unassuming Pirate-support card like Lightning-Rig Crew puts in a ton of work with Malcolm soaring the skies.

1 Admiral Brass, Unsinkable 🅰

She Won't Go Down With Her Ship

The second coming of Beckett Brass headlined an entire Pirates-themed Commander deck, putting The Lost Caverns of Ixalan's new finality counters on display. It's best described as a 'Pirate Reanimator' deck, with your Unsinkable commander pulling Pirates directly out of your graveyard.

Finality counters are tricky, though. Once a finality counter's in place, the creature it's on is exiled the next time it would die. However, you can work around this by 'resetting' finality counters. Bounce or blink your own creatures to effectively remove those counters, allowing them to die, reanimate, and begin the cycle anew.