{"ops":[{"insert":"I recently rewatched Pirates of the Caribbean and remembered how much I love those movies, and then I saw this deckbuilding competition almost immediately afterwards. The stars aligned a little too perfectly, so I knew I wanted to build something piraty.\n\nAraumi ended up being perfect for it. She is not a Pirate and never mentions Pirates, but her actual MTG lore fits the deck almost suspiciously well: pirates attacked and plundered her home, and she eventually used her magic to drag them to their deaths and raise them again as undead servants. Mechanically, that turns the graveyard into Davy Jones’ Locker. The crew dies, Araumi calls them back with Encore, and suddenly the same Pirate is raiding every opponent at once.\n\nThe play pattern was something I really wanted to feel piraty too. Instead of just playing tribal lords and attacking, the deck is constantly looking for opportunities to raid, steal, loot, sacrifice, make Treasure, commandeer resources and reuse dead crew members. We can steal artifacts, creatures and other permanents, and Wrexial can even cast instants and sorceries out of an opponent’s graveyard. Sometimes the most Pirate thing the deck can do is simply take the best thing somebody else brought to the table and use it against them.\n\nEven the way the deck creates value fits the theme. The graveyard is not just a pile of dead cards; it is basically a second hand. Looting and sacrificing creatures stocks the Locker, spent spells become fuel for Araumi, dead Pirates can be returned to hand or battlefield, and the best ones can be turned into three temporary copies through Encore. So a card being discarded, sacrificed or killed often does not mean it has stopped being useful. The deck keeps squeezing value out of things that should already be gone, which feels very appropriate for a crew that refuses to stay dead.\n\nDespite being pretty creature-dense, the deck is intentionally very adaptable. The best line changes depending on what is in the Locker and what the table is doing. Merchant Raiders can turn an Encore into a huge tempo swing and clear blockers. Corsair Captain can return as three ghost Captains, leave behind three Treasures and temporarily strengthen the fleet. Gutless Plunderer rewards attacking first and then using Encore postcombat to sculpt the deck and stock the graveyard, while Fathom Fleet Cutthroat can turn damage dealt earlier in the turn into removal.\n\nThere are also plenty of ways to get extra value from creatures that are supposed to disappear. Plumb the Forbidden can turn an Encore board into cards before the ghosts are sacrificed. March of Swirling Mist can phase them out so they dodge the delayed sacrifice. Reins of Power can move them to another player when the sacrifice trigger resolves and let them return afterwards. Daring Thief, Treasures, sacrifice outlets and the tap/untap package also give smaller Pirates useful jobs when simply attacking is not the best line.\n\nThe deck can win in several different ways instead of following one scripted combo. Dire Fleet Ravager Encore can take enormous chunks out of everyone’s life total. Merchant Raiders can clear the way for a lethal fleet attack. Repeated Pirate ETBs with Forerunner of the Coalition can turn the crew into a drain engine. A Gyruda Encore can create three separate mill-and-reanimation waves and completely reshape the battlefield. Other games can be won by building a pile of Treasure, stealing the best resources around, or simply overwhelming the table with repeated value from the graveyard.\n\nAnd then there is the part that exists because I wanted the deck to have some actual pirate-movie soul. Skeleton Ship and Pirate Ship are here because a cursed navy should actually look cursed. The Ships give the crew something to operate, Treasure is both mana and literal plunder, and when all the careful raiding and scheming stops being enough, there is always the option to RELEASE THE KRAKEN with Wrexial, Gyruda, Rot-Tide Gargantua and the other things waiting in the Deep.\n\nSo the deck is basically a supernatural Pirate toolbox: build a crew, fill Davy Jones’ Locker, keep your options open, steal whatever is not nailed down, and figure out which kind of ghost raid causes the most tr\nouble this turn.\n"}]}