A Pirates Life for Me!
Art: Admiral Beckett Brass
by Jason Rainville
Table of Contents
Welcome to another installment of Brewed EDH:
Todays Featured Commander is:
Admiral Beckett Brass is a very fun Grixis Pirates commander. Pirates is an archetype that was very weak over magics lifetime but with the multiple Ixalan sets there is a great amount of support these days and the Admiral offers a lot of cool cards and a fairly competitive tribal deck! Admiral’s ability to steal opponents nonland permanents is not only very on theme but is a great way to recruit your opponents threats to your side!
The Deck:
Admiral Beckett Brass Pirates!
Why Admiral Beckett Brass?
There are a lot of commanders in the Pirate tribal space and a lot of them are very good such as Ramirez DePietro, Pillager
or Captain Vargus Wrath
. Admiral Beckett Brass gains the edge on them because not only is she a pirate lord but she also can steal our opponents nonland permanents. While the above commanders are very powerful for pirates I believe they work much better in a Beckett Brass 99 than in the command zone. Admiral is also very easy to cast for our deck only costing for and can have an immediate impact by buffing our pirates. I think Admiral Beckett Brass is the best choice for a pirates commander that we currently have!
Deck Overview:
The main goal of our deck is to attack early and often and get the most out of creatures we have many strong early game creatures like Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
who is a great early threat in our deck. Impulsive Pilferer
is also a great early game creature with payoff when he dies.We are in every way an aggressive creature deck but that doesnt mean we aren’t packing some hate cards, most of our hate cards are tribe specific which works well in saving our board. Our hate cards include Kindred Dominance
, Fiery Cannonade
and Crippling Fear
.These cards are very well positioned in our deck because they do not affect our deck this can allow us to swing in for massive damage and steal a permanent our opponent has left with the Admiral! Another card that fits great into our deck is Cloudstone Curio
this allows us to reuse some strong ETB’s like Dire Fleet Daredevil
allowing us to cast our opponents instants and sorcerys and Forerunner of the Coalition
allowing us to tutor pirates everytime they ETB and pings for 1 if we return another creature.Even though we have a pirate lord in the command zone we have one in the 99 as well, Dire Fleet Neckbreaker
may only apply to attacking pirates but when combined with cards like Daring Piracy
we can swing in for a lot of damage and trigger Admiral.We also come to the table with a strong enchantment package highlighted by Kindred Discovery
allowing us to draw a card every time a pirate enters and Reflections of Littjara
which allows us to get multiples of our aggressive pirates. This starts getting out of hand very quickly and can allow us to swing games in our favor. Since we are a tribal deck we are packing tribal staples like Urza's Incubator
and Herald's Horn
for some sweet discounts on our already cheap creatures. One of the newest cards we play in the deck is Zephyr Singer
Which is a sweet card that makes our pirates airborne and makes them much more evasive this makes the Admirals ability trigger quite often! We have a light treasure theme in this deck and this payoff is not only for mana generation but for Revel in Riches
which will win us the game just for having ten treasures which is very easy to get in this deck. Revels ability to creature treasures when opponents creatures die is also beneficial when casting something like Kindred Dominance. Overall I think that Admiral Beckett Brass is a very fun pirate tribal deck with a light treasure theme that can aggressively close out games!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Easy mana generation through treasure
- Strong early game
- Many of our creatures are evasive and this can be enhanced with artifacts and enchantments
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Weak against creature hate
- Weak against combo decks
- Can be outmuscled by more supported tribes (Elves, Allys)
Deck Stats:
Sample hands:
Main Win Conditions:
Our main win condition is attacking and just out aggroing our opponents and swarming them with creatures
Our only combo style win is by using Revel in Riches with 10 treasure tokens
Conclusion:
In Conclusion I think that Admiral Beckett Brass is a great commander for a tribe that has gained a crazy amount of support over the past couple of years. Admiral Beckett Brass is a fast fun and multi-faceted tribal deck that is slowly climbing the ranks of the tribal ladder!
Thanks for Reading to the End!