commander · Admiral Brass, Unsinkable
Ahoy Mateys (LCC).
A Grixis Pirates deck from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan that mills its own crew and reanimates them for combat. Admiral Brass, Unsinkable brings a dead Pirate back every turn, then the tribe swarms in for treasure, steals, and extra damage.
The Commanders
Ahoy Mateys is the Grixis Pirate deck from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, and it treats the graveyard as a second hand. You mill your own crew, then keep dredging them back onto the battlefield to attack. Pirates here do more than swing: they steal creatures, spit out Treasure, and punish opponents every time they connect.
Admiral Brass, Unsinkable fills the yard the moment she lands, milling four cards off the top. From then on, every combat you can return a Pirate from your graveyard with a finality counter on it, as a 4/4 with haste. The finality counter means it exiles instead of dying, so you get one clean use per card, but the reanimation happens every single turn. Mill a Coercive Recruiter, bring it back to steal a blocker, swing, and repeat next turn with the next body. The deck never really runs out of gas because the graveyard is the gas.
Key Cards
Coercive Recruiter
Every time this Orc or another Pirate enters, you steal a creature until end of turn and give it haste. That is already strong, and Admiral Brass turns it into a machine. Reanimate the Recruiter each combat and you grab a fresh blocker or bomb before every attack. Point the stolen creature at its old owner, and once you have a sacrifice outlet you can keep the body for good.
Pitiless Plunderer
Whenever another creature you control dies, Plunderer makes a Treasure. In a deck built to sacrifice, chump block, and trade in combat, that adds up to a lot of ritual mana. Use the Treasure to reanimate more Pirates, cast the stolen creatures you took with Coercive Recruiter, or power out a seven-drop early. It quietly turns every dead crewmate into a coin.
Port Razer
When Port Razer connects, you untap your team and take an extra combat phase. Each extra combat is another Admiral Brass reanimation trigger and another round of Pirate enter effects. Add a second attack step and the steal engines, Treasure makers, and damage triggers all fire twice. Just remember it cannot attack the same player twice, so aim it around the table.
Angrath's Marauders
Any damage a source you control deals is doubled, so your whole crew hits twice as hard. A 4/4 reanimated Pirate suddenly deals 8, and Dire Fleet Ravager's life loss doubles too. Pair it with an unblockable Pirate and you close games out of nowhere. It is the card that turns a wide, grindy board into a lethal one.
Ramirez DePietro, Pillager
He lands with two Treasures and a small life payment, then rewards you for connecting. Whenever your Pirates deal combat damage to a player, you exile the top of that player's library and can cast it. With a wide board that is several free cards a turn off other people's decks. He gives the aggressive plan a card advantage engine that does not touch your own library.
The Indomitable
This Vehicle draws you a card every time one of your creatures deals combat damage, which in a go-wide Pirate deck is a fistful of cards per turn. It has trample and crews for three, and you can cast it straight from the graveyard once you control three tapped Pirates or Vehicles. Since the deck mills itself constantly, that recursion clause comes up often. It rewards the exact board state you are already building.
Fathom Fleet Captain
A cheap Pirate with menace that makes more Pirates. Attack while you control another nontoken Pirate, pay two, and get a 2/2 menace token. Those tokens fill out the board, trigger your enter effects when combined with the reanimation package, and give Pitiless Plunderer more fodder to convert into Treasure. It is an early drop that keeps paying off into the late game.
How to Play
Get a mana rock down and start filling the graveyard: Admiral Brass mills on entry, and the deck runs enough self-mill to stock the yard fast. Once she is out, plan each combat around which Pirate you want back, usually Coercive Recruiter to steal a blocker or a big body to swing with. Pitiless Plunderer and the Treasure makers keep your mana ahead so you can reanimate and recast stolen creatures in the same turn. When the board is wide, Angrath's Marauders and Port Razer turn a grindy Pirate swarm into a kill. Protect Admiral Brass, keep the yard full, and let the crew come back for one more raid every turn.
