{"ops":[{"insert":"The deck's gameplan is quite simple; fill up the GY with as many pirates as possible, and use Admiral Brass to bring them out for free. Use trigger doublers and extra combats to use her effect multiple times in a single turn. Then, kill the whole table in one big turn, through overwhelming combat damage.\n\nThe deck's primary win condition is Port Razer, a pirate that can grant you extra combats, setting up for Admiral Brass perfectly. The biggest weakness of Port Razer is of course that it must deal combat damage to trigger its effect, so making it evasive is incredibly important. Because Admiral Brass brings Port Razer to the battlefield during the combat step, sorcery speed evasion effects like auras and equipment will not work. Or at least, they introduce the major weakness of having to wait a turn before you attack. Port Razer is an incredibly obvious threat when its on the field, which means playing it too early will draw the aggression of the entire table. So, instead we focus on using either instant speed evasion effects like Rogue's Passage and Key to the City or effects that apply passively to your entire board, like Wonder and Cover of Darkness. \n\nBecause Admiral Brass can bring 1 or more pirates out of your GY for free every turn, we basically never need to worry about trying to cast them from hand. Whenever you surveil or explore, you should always send any pirate creatures you find to the GY. Your mana should be spent on powerful enchantment and artifact spells that set up you and your pirates for more success when they actually hit the field. This is also why we don't run cards like Reflections of Littjara or Double Down, which might seem like perfect fits, but since the pirates are basically never actually \"cast,\" those cards end up being a waste more often than not. \n\nOne of the greatest strengths of this deck is its consistency, thanks to access to several tutor-to-GY effects like Entomb and Buried Alive. As I mentioned before, going for Port Razer too early can be a big mistake, since it puts a huge target on its back and on yours. Plus, Admiral Brass can really only take full advantage of extra combats if your GY is already filled with pirates. So, if you get to use one of the tutor-to-gy effects in the early game, its better to go for cards that can help fill the GY even more, or cards that set you up for the future. Whenever I resolve Buried Alive in the first few turns, I like to send specifically Francisco, Fowl Marauder, Forerunner of the Coalition, and Wonder. Use Admiral Brass to bring out Francisco first, and use his Explore ability to fill the GY as much as you can. Bringing out Forerunner while Francisco is already on the field is a great play, because Forerunner lets you tutor any pirate to the top of your deck, then Francisco immediately lets you send it from the top of the deck to the GY before you draw it next turn. All the while, Francisco keeps getting bigger from the +1/+1 counters. \n\nOne of the weaknesses of this deck is the lack of removal. Or more specifically, the removal that you do have is fairly narrow. Rather than running actual removal spells, we use removal effects on our pirates when they ETB. This is great because it means we always have easy access to it, can find the ones we need fairly consistently, and don't have to pay mana for them. The down side is that it limits the type of removal to just what is printed on pirates. Enchantments in particular a a big threat to this deck. If any of you want to make changes to the deck, adding more removal would be the way to go.\n"}]}