Edward Kenway Pirates

Commander Overview

Assassin’s Creed is another magic set that came and went extremely quickly, because most people missed that many commanders and cards. I was one of those people who missed Edward Kenway and didn’t even realize that they were an option. Edward is a very cool, thematic pirate commander who helps pirates and vehicles and produces a ton of treasure. When you are playing this deck, it truly feels like you are living the pirate life! Edward is a very important card in our deck, since they produce a ton of treasures. They can easily set up wins with Mechanized Production or Revel in Riches, and they also assist with the overall game plan a ton. This deck is much more thematic than effective, and we have sacrificed strength for theme, but don’t underestimate this deck, it is quite strong and a lot of fun to play.

How to Play the Deck

There isn’t a ton of complicated interactions going on within this deck. If we have a big board, there will be quite a lot of triggers that we have to manage, but overall, if you are a newer/intermediate player, you should be great at playing this deck and not have any trouble. Playing the deck mostly consists of casting as many pirates as we can, making a ton of treasures off of Edward Kenway, and being aggressive / attacking. We also have a lot of vehicles in the deck, so we can easily trigger Edwards other ability as well. While we may not always be able to cast them, exiling them away from our opponents is great.

Synergy’s in the deck

Our whole deck is synergized around our pirates and our vehicles. Edward is one of the biggest synergies we have in the deck, since they allow us to produce a ton of mana, and, with so many benefits of having treasures, we are able to utilize cards like Mechanized Production extremely easily. We are a pretty aggressive deck, so we are able to tap our creatures and attack all the time, so getting a big trigger off of Edward is very easy. We also have a ton of pirate synergies in the deck like Admiral Brass, Unsinkable, which is a great source of recursion for the deck, and Captivating Crew, which can allow us to steal our opponents’ best creatures and clear the way for our attackers.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game: The early-game is all about establishment and getting some of our support pirates out, we don’t ramp really at all in this deck so we can start quite slow but we do have cheap pirates like Captain Storm, Cosmium Raider and Francisco, Fowl Marauder which are great cheap attackers for the deck and provide a ton of support. While the early game is a little slow for us, it is a great stage where we can establish our overall gameplan

Mid-Game: By this point, we have a good board and are attacking pretty well, and because of that, we can have a lot of mana production from Edward and can cast out a ton of our hand. Just keep attacking, hitting hard, and making as many treasures as we can.

Late-Game: The late-game can be very situational for us. At the same time, we have a big board, and our pirates aren’t huge attackers. By the late game, we can be outpaced in combat; as a result, we rely more heavily on alternate win conditions like Mechanized Production or Revel in Riches. If we are playing against a deck that scales well and is good in combat, this is the best way for us to win the game.

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

We do not have a lot of ramp in this deck, but we do have some cheaper pirates in the two-to three-mana range that we can establish early. The only real ramp we have is Arcane Signet or Sol Ring, but those can be inconsistent if we don’t draw them. While it doesn’t happen until the mid-game, Edward Kenway can provide a nice mid-game boost with all of the treasures they create. Even though we don’t ramp, we can still have a good showing on the board.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

Big Score and Unexpected Windfall are both great sources of draw in the deck and produce treasure tokens, which is amazing for us, and the drawback of discarding a card doesn’t matter to us at all. I also got a lot of value off of Breeches, Eager Pillager, which is a strict source of card advantage and can trigger quite a lot. Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel is another great option for card draw, and getting four chorus counters is actually quite easy and can provide some additional card advantage when we meet that condition. I want to finish by highlighting Coastal Piracy, which is an amazing source of card draw and a very thematic card for the deck, which is perfect for a bracket two deck. Even though we don’t have a ton of sources of card draw, we have more than enough to be sufficient for the deck.

Removal

Removal is one of the weaker aspects of our deck we do have some cheap sources like Terminate and Go for the Throat which are cheap ways for us to remove opponents threats but our sources are removal are limited, if we do end up falling behind or if an opponent gets too out of hand we can use Blood Money. At the same time, it is a little pricey mana-cost wise, but with Edward and all of the other sources of treasure production in the deck, it is pretty easy for us to cast and reset the game, being able to reset the game and more importantly get a ton of treasures out of it is very strong.

Protection

Bloodline Bidding is my favorite source of recursion/protection in the deck; it’s extremely easy to cast, and after a board wipe, we can easily recover our entire board, which can swing the game’s momentum heavily in our favor. Untimely Malfunction is a very cool card as well, and allows us to direct an opponent’s piece of single-target removal to their stuff and protect our creature. Our counterspell package is quite small, but I have been loving Spell Swindle in this deck. It’s a little pricey, but it can produce a ton of treasure tokens and works great with our alternate win conditions.

Utility / Support

Let’s highlight some of the coolest cards in the deck! Because of Edward’s ability, we often have a ton of treasures hanging around, and we can take full advantage of that with Time Sieve. Time Sieve lets us chain a bunch of extra turns and deny our opponents the ability to do anything not at instant speed. I typically won’t drop Time Sieve until I’m ready to take at least one extra turn because opponents immediately identify you as the primary threat when you drop this. I also want to highlight some of our awesome vehicles like Jackdaw, which can be an amazing source of card draw and since we have a ton of artifacts hanging around we are able to draw a ton of cards and keep our hand full, discarding our hand is a small drawback especially if we have a low count of cards in hand. I also love Nautiloid Ship, a great option in the mid/late-game when opponents’ graveyards are full; it feels great to steal our opponents’ stuff.

Mana Base

We have nothing super exciting going on in our landbase besides efficiency, this is a landbase where we only care about establishing our colors and this landbase does a great job at that since we have all of the shocks, fetches and bond lands as well as Xander's Lounge so its very easy for us to get all of our colors established. While our manabase doesn’t contain any exciting non-basics, it’s efficient and works well with the deck.

Win Conditions

Our primary win condition is combat, whether it be from our vehicles or pirates. There are a ton of different attack combinations we can use to end the game. As for alternative win conditions, we have two, and both are relatively easy for us to pull off. Mechanized Production on a treasure token is extremely difficult, especially if we have Edward Kenway on the field. The same is true for Revel In Riches in my testing games; I was always hovering around eight to ten treasures, so as long as we make it back to our upkeep, we can easily steal a win.

Strengths of the Deck

Edward Kenway’s treasure production allows us to accelerate our gameplan a ton and get ahead of our opponents.

We have some amazing vehicles in the deck that aren’t always creatures allowing us to dodge single-target removal.

Weaknesses of the Deck

Edward is such a big part of the deck that they often get removed and hated out of the game. Many opponents do not want us to have access to that many treasures.

Without Edward and our treasures, we can be slow to build or recover, especially after a board wipe.

Deck Testing/Matchups

I tested this deck against three different decks

Game 1: Vs Ayesha Tanaka, Armorer. Matchup Record: 3-2

While I was able to get the advantage in the win column this was a tough matchup, there commander is perfectly setup to be unblockable against us and having Ayesha’s attack trigger can be pretty rough, we need to stick to our gameplan here and hit hard, in two of the games i did have success with Mechanized Production as an alternative win con.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Mechanized Production, Blood Money and Hostage Taker.

Game 2: Vs Thassa, God of the Sea. Matchup Record: 4-1

Thassa can be hard to remove, and their cheap ability to make a creature unblockable can be a bit tough to play through. Still, we have a much better board presence than they do and can go a lot wider. Cards like Dire Fleet Neckbreaker can allow us to output a ton of damage, as long as we aren’t super slow and can resolve Edward, we should be just fine here.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Dire Fleet Neckbreaker, Coercive Recruiter and Forerunner of the Coalition.

Game 3: Vs Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam. Matchup Record: 1-2

I struggled with this matchup. While we can have a good showing in combat, they are a lot bigger. Our biggest saving grace in this matchup is that we don’t have to deal with a ton of removal against them, and if we fall behind, we do have cards like Blood Money to help us recover.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Broadside Bombardiers, Corsair Captain and Blood Money.

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed it. Edward Kenway is a very fun commander, and if you love pirates, you will have so much fun with this one. Even though this deck is focused on being thematic, it is still quite strong and a great option for some good old pirate fun. Bracket 2 often has a lot of thematic and creative decks, and this one feels right at home.