Nearly Identical - Admiral Beckett Brass or Don Andres?

<h6 style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">(<span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Act of Treason" href="#" target="_blank">Act of Treason</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> | Art by</span> <a href="https://www.murphyillustration.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Scott Murphy</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">)</span></h6>
<h1><span style="font-weight: 400;">A Pirate's Act of Treason</span></h1>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Have you ever made a Commander bucket list? Welcome to </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Achievement Unlocked</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, where we take a look at the cool and unique things you can do in this format other than just winning.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Building a Pirate deck has long been on my bucket list. Many of the Pirates in the game lean heavily into the flavor of the stereotypical “thieving pirate”. This means that decks built around them can play in a completely different space to your average typal deck. I love leaning into these unique strategies within the scope of a typal deck so today I set out to build a Pirate themed Theft deck.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Previously, we had <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Admiral Beckett Brass" href="#" target="_blank">Admiral Beckett Brass</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, who was an interesting build around that's very difficult to actually make work with any consistency. My go-to Pirate deck in the past was instead <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zara, Renegade Recruiter" href="#" target="_blank">Zara, Renegade Recruiter</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. The deck made use of many of the <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Act of Treason" href="#" target="_blank">Act of Treason</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> variants, but it struggled to fully leverage those cards without access to the best sacrifice outlets in black. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Luckily, <em>The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander</em> gave us a new option for the “<span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Act of Treason" href="#" target="_blank">Act of Treason</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>” Pirate deck that lets us harness the full power of the Grixis color identity. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Don Andres, the Renegade" href="#" target="_blank">Don Andres, the Renegade</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> doesn't do the stealing itself, but it gives us access to an awesome payoff for stealing our opponents' cards. Let's take a look at how we can leverage this.</span></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Don Andres, the Renegade"></div></div>
<hr />
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Your Creatures? You Mean OUR Creatures</span></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As I mentioned, we don't have to look far to find ways to steal creatures. Pirates love to plunder, and that starts with the aforementioned <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zara, Renegade Recruiter" href="#" target="_blank">Zara, Renegade Recruiter</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. Players can effectively “play around” our steal effects by not playing out their high value creatures until they have to. Zara doesn't care. This card gives us an additional axis to steal from our opponents' besides just on the battlefield.</span></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Zara, Renegade Recruiter"></div></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That doesn't mean the theft stops once a creature hits the battlefield though. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hostage Taker" href="#" target="_blank">Hostage Taker</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> lets us steal creatures and play them out ourselves, but why even go through the work of casting the creatures. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Coercive Recruiter" href="#" target="_blank">Coercive Recruiter</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> lets you just outright steal creatures at no additional cost. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Captivating Crew" href="#" target="_blank">Captivating Crew</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> may have a cost, but it lets us repeatedly steal our opponents' threats and when combined with a sacrifice outlet this becomes repeatable removal.</span></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Captivating Crew"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Coercive Recruiter"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hostage Taker"></div></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Breeches, Brazen Plunderer" href="#" target="_blank">Breeches, Brazen Plunderer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ramirez DePietro, Pillager" href="#" target="_blank">Ramirez DePietro, Pillager</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> are similar to Zara in that they allow us to steal from our opponents along a different axis. These cards let us play cards off the top of our opponents' libraries and work very well with the fact that our commander turns the creatures we steal into Pirates.</span></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ramirez DePietro, Pillager"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Breeches, Brazen Plunderer"></div></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Act of Treason" href="#" target="_blank">Act of Treason</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> variants are released with just about every set. A few stand out head and shoulders above the others. Instant speed is a huge plus. Even though it only lets creatures block, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Domineering Will" href="#" target="_blank">Domineering Will</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> can still be a blowout since the creatures you steal will all gain deathtouch. Similarly <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Act of Aggression" href="#" target="_blank">Act of Aggression</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Grab the Reins" href="#" target="_blank">Grab the Reins</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> can help you set up trades between two creatures your opponents' control. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Seize the Spotlight" href="#" target="_blank">Seize the Spotlight</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> will often become an incredible draw spell because your opponents won't be willing to part with their biggest threats. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Furnace Reins" href="#" target="_blank">Furnace Reins</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> similarly has upside in that creating treasure tokens synergizes with the strategy that our other Pirates are already trying to do.</span></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Domineering Will"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Seize the Spotlight"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Furnace Reins"></div></div>
<hr />
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">How Can We Take Advantage of the Mutiny?</span></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What a card like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Act of Treason" href="#" target="_blank">Act of Treason</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has to overcome is that it's a temporary swing that doesn't scale well in multiplayer. We can leverage this by turning the cards we steal into additional value.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Village Rites" href="#" target="_blank">Village Rites</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Deadly Dispute" href="#" target="_blank">Deadly Dispute</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Corrupted Conviction" href="#" target="_blank">Corrupted Conviction</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> all let us trade creatures for cards. Once we get a swing in with our opponents' threats we can ditch them to turn them into additional resources. This is huge in that it lets us mitigate the downside of the temporary effect. The biggest weakness in the Zara deck I had previously built was that it frequently ran out of cards or could not sacrifice the creatures it stole. That is not a risk with adequate access to black mana.</span></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Village Rites"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Deadly Dispute"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Corrupted Conviction"></div></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We also have access to one of my favorite effects of all time that never quite fits into any of my decks. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fling" href="#" target="_blank">Fling</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> lets us turn the creatures we steal into a removal spell or even in the late game as a way to close the game. The best of these effects is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kazuul&#039;s Fury" href="#" target="_blank">Kazuul&#039;s Fury</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. This can often just be played as a land when the effect is not good. These effects are a great compliment to the more traditional sacrifice effects that can give us extra value.</span></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kazuul&#039;s Fury"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Fling"></div></div>
<hr />
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">Completing our Pirate's Journey</span></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mass Manipulation" href="#" target="_blank">Mass Manipulation</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Insurrection" href="#" target="_blank">Insurrection</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Blatant Thievery" href="#" target="_blank">Blatant Thievery</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> don't take a lot to be good cards, but if there's any deck that can leverage them more than others it's this one. If your opponents only have small creatures, sometimes these effects aren't quite enough to end the game, but our commander will make them bigger and ensure we can close out.</span></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Blatant Thievery"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Insurrection"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Mass Manipulation"></div></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Additionally, since we're already running so many Pirates we can lean into this with some additional Pirate synergy cards. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Corsair Captain" href="#" target="_blank">Corsair Captain</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Skeleton Crew" href="#" target="_blank">Skeleton Crew</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Dire Fleet Neckbreaker" href="#" target="_blank">Dire Fleet Neckbreaker</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> help, not only our creatures, but also the creatures we steal hit much harder. </span></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Dire Fleet Neckbreaker"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Skeleton Crew"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Corsair Captain"></div></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Admiral Beckett Brass" href="#" target="_blank">Admiral Beckett Brass</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> may not be the best stand alone commander, but she's still an all star in any Pirate deck and gives us an additional way to steal creatures. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Port Razer" href="#" target="_blank">Port Razer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Amphin Mutineer" href="#" target="_blank">Amphin Mutineer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> are strong enough on their own to justify their spot in this deck and get an additional boost thanks to the fact that they're Pirates themselves.</span></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Amphin Mutineer"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Port Razer"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Admiral Beckett Brass"></div></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">With all these Pirates, we can add in a Reanimator-esque backup plan for if we're struggling to keep creatures on the battlefield. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kindred Dominance" href="#" target="_blank">Kindred Dominance</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Haunting Voyage" href="#" target="_blank">Haunting Voyage</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> let us recur all our Pirates and gives us another axis to win the game on if our main theft game plan fails to work out.</span></p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kindred Dominance"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Haunting Voyage"></div></div>
<hr />
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Conclusion</span></h2>
<p>I love Pirates as a type and the different types of theft decks they can enable. I think my dreams of finally building a theft deck can become a reality with this new and unique commander. Have you built a theft deck? Who was the commander? Let me know in the comments below!</p>
<p><div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="A Pirate&#039;s life for me" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards=""></span></div><br />
[Commander]<br />
*1 Don Andres, the Renegade<br />
[/Commander]<br />
[Lands]<br />
*1 Command Tower<br />
*1 Path to Ancestry<br />
*1 Xander's Lounge<br />
*1 Scalding Tarn<br />
*1 Polluted Delta<br />
*1 Bloodstained Mire<br />
*1 Blood Crypt<br />
*1 Steam Vents<br />
*1 Watery Grave<br />
*1 Luxury Suite<br />
*1 Morphic Pool<br />
*1 Training Center<br />
*1 Stromcarved Coast<br />
*1 Haunted Ridge<br />
*1 Shipwreck Marsh<br />
*1 Myriad Landscape<br />
*1 Sunken Hollow<br />
*1 Smoldering Marsh<br />
*6 Mountains<br />
*6 Islands<br />
*6 Swamps<br />
[/Lands]<br />
[Creatures]<br />
*1 Zara, Renegade Recruiter<br />
*1 Breeches, Eager Pillager<br />
*1 Pitiless Plunderer<br />
*1 Hostage Taker<br />
*1 Coercive Recruiter<br />
*1 Captivating Crew<br />
*1 Breeches, Brazen Plunderer<br />
*1 Ramirez DePietro, Pillager<br />
*1 Corsair Captain<br />
*1 Skeleton Crew<br />
*1 Dire Fleet Neckbreaker<br />
*1 Admiral Beckett Brass<br />
*1 Port Razer<br />
*1 Amphin Mutineer<br />
*1 Forerunner of the Coalition<br />
*1 Broadside Bombardiers<br />
*1 Impulsive Pilferer<br />
*1 Dockside Extortionist<br />
*1 Dire Fleet Daredevil<br />
*1 Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator<br />
*1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer<br />
*1 Dargo, the Shipwrecker<br />
[/Creatures]<br />
[Instants]<br />
*1 Domineering Will<br />
*1 Kazuul's Fury<br />
*1 Act of Aggression<br />
*1 Grab the Reins<br />
*1 Cyclonic Rift<br />
*1 Arcane Denial<br />
*1 Chaos Warp<br />
*1 Fling<br />
*1 Rapid Hybridization<br />
*1 Pongify<br />
*1 Village Rites<br />
*1 Corrupted Conviction<br />
*1 Deadly Dispute<br />
*1 Nasty End<br />
*1 Hurl Through Hell<br />
*1 Costly Plunder<br />
*1 Reckoner's Bargain<br />
[/Instants]<br />
[Sorceries]<br />
*1 Molten Collapse<br />
*1 Haunting Voyage<br />
*1 Night's Whisper<br />
*1 Jeska's Will<br />
*1 Kindred Dominance<br />
*1 Blasphemous Act<br />
*1 Seize the Spotlight<br />
*1 Blatant Thievery<br />
*1 Mass Manipulation<br />
*1 Insurrection<br />
*1 Furnace Reins<br />
*1 Act of Treason<br />
[/Sorceries]<br />
[Enchantments]<br />
*1 Makeshift Munitions<br />
*1 Cunning Rhetoric<br />
*1 Goblin Bombardment<br />
[/Enchantments]<br />
[Artifacts]<br />
*1 Sol Ring<br />
*1 Arcane Signet<br />
*1 Izzet Signet<br />
*1 Dimir Signet<br />
*1 Rakdos Signet<br />
*1 Wayfarer's Bauble<br />
*1 Talisman of Indulgence<br />
*1 Talisman of Creativity<br />
*1 Talisman of Dominance<br />
[/Artifacts]<br />
[/Deck]<br />
</p>
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