Upgrading Commander Precon - Ahoy Mateys (Admiral Brass, Unsinkable)

The Lost Caverns of Ixalan have finally been explored, and this time we returned only with goodies: Merfolk, Vampires, Dinosaurs, and, of course, Pirates.

Carrying the Grixis color combination, here we have a typal deck focused on Pirates with dozens of creatures. This deck will try its hardest to always have a full board, and will even bring back your crew from the graveyard if needed.

This deck has a very simple main theme, typical of any typal deck: having the highest number of creatures possible on the battlefield and attacking with these creatures. Still in this deck there is the sub-theme of stealing permanents, but we won't focus on it one for now. Some cards that steal others still remain, but some of them can be replaced by cards that work a bit better.

Focusing on consistency, we'll add Pirates who aren't in the original list, and add interactions with the Finality counters that our commander, Admiral Brass, Unsinkable, provides when you Reanimate a Pirate.

Ahoy Mateys Decklist

The original list counts with several good cards for this creature type, such as the previous version of this commander - Admiral Beckett Brass, and also brings familiar Pirates such as Breeches, Brazen Plunderer and Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator. This deck also counts with other great cards, like Shared Animosity and Black Market Connections.

We changed around 11 cards total - we didn't alter the mana base and focused only on adding good cards for this deck. As mentioned before, we'll use this deck's original commander, Admiral Brass, Unsinkable.

We have other options available, such as Don Andres, the Renegade, but, personally, to have him as a commander, you better test out another individual build, focusing on his ability.

Cards Removed

As this list had too many lands, we removed 2 basic lands to open up space. Ramp cards like Wayfarer's Bauble and Commander's Sphere will also not be missed, in general, so they've also been removed.

The Pirates we removed (Broadside Bombardiers, Departed Deckhand, Francisco, Fowl Marauder, Zara, Renegade Recruiter and the aforementioned Don Andres, the Renegade) are good cards, but maybe not in this list, and that is why they're being replaced. The cards above can be better in other builds of Pirate decks.

Finally, we removed King Narfi's Betrayal. It is a good card that also focuses on stealing your opponent's cards, but, again, we need space for the new cards, and this card was selected to come out.

Interactions with Counters

Admiral Brass, Unsinkable's Finality counters are interesting at the same rate they're frustrating - after all, it isn't all that interesting to lose Pirates who are essential to the game to exile. Considering that, we brought Soul Diviner, Hex Parasite and Fain, the Broker to remove, exclusively, the counters our commander grants us, and on top of it interact with that somehow.

Soul Diviner draws a card, for instance, and Fain, the Broker can interact well with this deck not only removing counters, but also with its other abilities, be it creating Treasures or possible 2/1 blockers with Flying, taking advantage of the other mechanics in this deck - in this case Treasures and sacrificing creatures.

New Pirates and Drawing Cards

As mentioned previously in my review of the best Lost Caverns of Ixalan cards, a card that can fit into practically any deck, be it typal or not, is Roaming Throne.

Its utility becomes even more interesting in this list considering the context of this Pirate typal deck, as most Pirates used in this deck count with triggered abilities. It is also good to note that there are no limitations to this card, like "this only happens once per turn", which makes it a great card, even though it is not a Pirate, per se.

But returning to actual Pirates, we count with Breeches, Eager Pillager, Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel and Kitesail Larcenist, from the new set. The previous versions of Breeches and Malcolm already come in the original list, and, because their new versions also work with this strategy, they were added.

Breeches, Eager Pillager counts with 3 ability options, and can use all of them in the same turn. Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel feeds the graveyard with its looting, and, with enough counters, triggers its free cast. As it is a creature that costs very little mana, fills the graveyard and also helps with a free cast in a Grixis deck, which tends not to have that many ramp cards, it clearly stands out.

Kitesail Larcenist is a great "removal", considering it deals with 3 permanents at the same time for just 3 mana and has a good body - 2/3 with Flying, and even protects itself with Ward 1. It is a relatively simple card, but it fits this build like a glove.

Finally, when it comes to Pirates, we have Forerunner of the Coalition to search for any necessary Pirate at any moment and also lower your opponent's life points with its effect, which is similar to an Impact Tremors.

To actually finish, both to feed the graveyard, to draw cards and even create Treasures, we use Big Score and Unexpected Windfall. These are two great cards for the broad context of this deck, and will help you as the game goes on.

This is how this deck turned out after the changes. Even though we changed just a few things, the changes were significant, and they brought this deck to a more acceptable and fun level to play.

The original list already counts with several essential, great Pirates, and like so we didn't need to mess around with its build too much.

Alternative List with Don Andres, the Renegade

To not completely toss aside Don Andres, the Renegade, below we have an alternative list with him as the commander, and with a theme centered around stealing spells from your opponents.

Grixis is my favorite Green-less combination, so it is always an undescribable pleasure to be able to interact with decks with these colors, be it with a build of my own or an upgrade like this. Ixalan's precon Commander decks came with several good cards, and it was even difficult to decide what to remove, which shows how these decks are becoming more and more consistent in their original builds, and that is a good sign.

Would you use another commander? What did you think of this list? Do you prefer Merfolk? Comment down below!