Pirates first appeared back in 1996 during the Mirage set. They've since featured across various sets overtime in variable quantities, most often appearing in high concentrations in specific planes such as Ixalan.

Sea-faring by nature, Pirates overwhelmingly lean towards , though they aren't fully immersed in the color.

There's a fair amount of variation with to represent their free spirits and to represent their tendency to blunder, even without any splash of .

This means Pirates can be found across all of Grixis, with there being multiple Grixis Pirate commanders.

In the Grand Creature Type Update, Pirates absorbed the now-defunct Merchant creature type, primarily affecting the Talas such as Talas MerchantTalas Merchant.

As of Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Pirates are considered Outlaws alongside Assassins, Mercenaries, Rogues, and Warlocks while remaining distinct creature types from one another.

Join the Crew

Pirates, by their nature of thieves and scoundrels, excel at stealing your opponents' permanents.

This most often manifests in cards like Zara, Renegade RecruiterZara, Renegade Recruiter and grants you temporary control of your opponents' creatures, but they just as well steal artifacts or even just the top card of their deck.

This is entirely reliant on the strength of your opponents' creatures, where Spellslinger or Mill decks might have no useful creatures for you to recruit into your ranks!

But Pirates don't entirely rely upon the creatures they steal, they just use them to supplement their own strategies.

With how much Pirates lean into, that's perfect to get free sacrifice fodder.

Alternatively, having an additional blocker while focusing on a primary attack with your Pirates adds an extra level of security.

Treasure and Plunder

Pirates love treasure, so it's only natural that they have multiple ways of creating Treasure tokens.

Sometimes this involves active participation from attacking an opponent or losing life while other times your Pirates just have an enter-the-battlefield (ETB) effect that give you Treasure for free.

Treasure is a generic artifact token that can be tapped and sacrificed to give you one mana of any color.

This gives Pirates the unique position of having enhanced mana production alongside card draw and removal from the colors they're aligned with.

Their mana production coming from artifacts also means they can get additional benefits from the multiple methods of artifact-interaction inherent to .

Scum and Villainy

Pirates sail ships, so they have a fair amount of support for fielding Vehicles. They're also Outlaws, meaning they find friends in Assassins, Mercenaries, Rogues, and Warlocks. Pirates, therefore, have synergy with quite a few different non-Pirate creature types!

Certain Pirates or Pirate-adjacent creatures have effects that hit on different synergies Pirates can lean into, most often separated by set.

Thunder Junction leaned more into Outlaw support while Ixalan Pirates of had Vehicle support. Pirates aren't tied to either synergy, allowing you to flexibly incorporate either or neither in your deck.

All Offense

Very few Pirates have any amount of protection, either for themself or your other creatures.

As such, they're incredibly vulnerable to targeted removal or board wipes or targeted damage from spells.

Their toughness usually is lower than their power, sometimes significantly so. And you have little recourse against flying creatures.

The ideal battlefield setup won't have to worry about that, though, because of how many of your opponents' creatures you can steal.

With all of the Treasure you're making, you can simply play more Pirates. And while some of your Pirates might be more valuable than others, few are expensive.

Pirates therefore find protection not in actually protecting themselves, but by the opportunity cost of what else your opponents can target instead.

Once you start getting aggressive you might force their hand, but until that point you'll likely be able to avoid their notice by sticking to skirmishes.

Keep the Crew Happy

Pirates aren't expensive as individual creatures, though they often come with additional costs to them.

Alternatively, they'll require specific setup or investment before they actually have a payoff that is worth fielding them.

Unlike other creature types which have static synergies that stack atop one another, Pirates require more direct involvement in their preparation. This might be making sure you have enough Treasure, discarding cards, or losing life.

There are many Pirates that do simply grant incremental bonuses to your creatures, but overall Pirate strategies tend to rely upon loud, swingy decisions that can really hurt you if you play them poorly.

Edward KenwayEdward Kenway

Edward KenwayEdward Kenway does everything Pirates synergize with! Each of your end steps, Edward Kenway creates a Treasure token for each tapped Assassin, Pirate, and/or Vehicle you control.

This includes tapping after attacking as well as tapping to crew a Vehicle, allowing you to maximize your treasure production by fielding high-Crew Vehicles in your deck.

Vehicles are artifacts that can temporarily become artifact creatures by tapping a number of creatures whose combined strength exceeds a listed value.

Further, this lists various permanents you control, which aligns with the Pirate strategy of stealing your opponents' permanents for yourself.

And this "benefit from creatures crewing Vehicles" extends into Kenway's second effect, allowing you to exile and play the top of an opponent's library after dealing combat damage to them with a Vehicle.

Which if it's a creature, can then gain you more Treasure tokens on subsequent turns.

Admiral Brass, UnsinkableAdmiral Brass, Unsinkable

Admiral Brass, UnsinkableAdmiral Brass, Unsinkable really leans into being Grixis, with how it prioritizes short-term benefits involving self-sacrifice.

Playing Admiral Brass mills four of your cards and then at the beginning of each combat on your turn, you may return a Pirate from your graveyard to the battlefield.

They have a base power and toughness of 4/4, which is better than most Pirates have natively, and gain haste until end of turn which allows them to attack instantly.

The unfortunate side-effect is that they gain a finality counter, causing them to be exiled upon death.

However, Admiral Brass gives free retrieval from the graveyard with an upgrade to your Pirates' statline in most cases. Any ETB effect can thereby be doubled from your Pirates, assuming you can play them, lose them, and then return them with Admiral Brass.

And ultimately, most of your Pirates will help you steal permanents or produce Treasures. If a few get exiled along the way, that's well-worth it.

Admiral Beckett BrassAdmiral Beckett Brass

Admiral Beckett BrassAdmiral Beckett Brass gives a very comfortable +1/+1 to all of your other Pirates, which is nothing crazy but certainly helps.

Particularly any Pirates that might have one toughness, allowing them to survive most token blockers.

This pales to Admiral Beckett's second ability, allowing you to gain control of a nonland permanent controlled by a player who was dealt combat damage by three or more Pirates.

This might be a creature that's a major threat, an artifact that's core to their engine, or an enchantment that's just nice to have.

No matter the target, this is a powerful ability that requires capitalizing on an opening given it requires actually dealing combat damage with three or more Pirates.

Though this ends up being an upward spiral where the more you take from an opponent, the easier it is to dismantle their defenses, allowing for more plundering.

Breeches, Brazen PlundererBreeches, Brazen Plunderer // Malcolm, Keen-Eyed NavigatorMalcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator

Breeches, Brazen PlundererBreeches, Brazen Plunderer is a 3/3 with menace, which facilitates its second ability and allows it to deal damage to your opponents.

Whenever your Pirates deal damage to an opponent, you may exile the top card of their library and play that card, using using mana of any color to cast it.

This is incredibly aggressive but somewhat limited by your mana production, which is why Breeches is so often partnered with Malcolm, Keen-Eyed NavigatorMalcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator. Partner is a keyword that allows you to have two commanders which both have Partner.

Malcolm, Keen-Eyed NavigatorMalcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator is a 2/2 with flying, which is yet another way of bypassing your opponents' defenses.

But Malcolm capitalizes off of this by creating a Treasure token each time one or more of your Pirates deal damage to an opponent.

This of course synergizes with Breeches, allowing you to both exile cards from the top of your opponents' decks and gain mana-producing Treasures at the same time.

Francisco, Fowl MarauderFrancisco, Fowl Marauder// Malcolm, Keen-Eyed NavigatorMalcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator

Malcolm, Keen-Eyed NavigatorMalcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator shows up once again as a part of another partner deck! Malcolm provides all of the same benefits, but instead of fueling a strategy surrounding stealing cards from your opponents it instead pumps your economy.

Francisco, Fowl MarauderFrancisco, Fowl Marauder is a 0/1 with flying and who can't block, but who gets to explore every time one or more of your Pirates deal damage to a player.

To explore, you check the top card of your library. If it's a land, you may put it in your hand; otherwise, Francisco gets +1/+1.

This means that as you continue to push the advance, Francisco gets stronger as a flying attacker which allows you to create more Treasures.

These allow you to play more Pirates, furthering the growth of Francisco with every additional opponent dealt damage to.

Don Andres, the RenegadeDon Andres, the Renegade

Don Andres, the RenegadeDon Andres, the Renegade benefits from taking control of your opponents' spells.

For creatures, they gain +2/+2, menace and deathtouch, and are a Pirate in addition to their other types. Casting noncreature spells you don't own creates two tapped Treasure tokens.

This relies on the ability to gain control of your opponents' spells, which Pirates are swimming in.

Menace and deathtouch across all of your creatures you control but don't own alone is already quite powerful, but making those creatures Pirates allows them to continue whatever method of plundering you have access to.

Then with menace, that allows your stolen creatures to by pass your opponents' defenses and deal damage as Pirates, furthering your ability to take control of more creatures.

Mary Read and Anne BonnyMary Read and Anne Bonny

Mary Read and Anne BonnyMary Read and Anne Bonny can tap to draw a card and then discard a card. Any time you discard an Island, Pirate, or Vehicle, create a tapped Treasure. Being in affords quite a bit of self-discard via drawing and discarding.

You'll have plenty of options to thin your hand of cards that will grant you Treasure tokens with the potential to reclaim them later.

Particularly in the mid-late game when basic lands aren't as necessary due to your Treasure production, being able to discard an Island for delayed mana further rewards cycling through your cards.

Captain Storm, Cosmium RaiderCaptain Storm, Cosmium Raider

Captain Storm, Cosmium RaiderCaptain Storm, Cosmium Raider allows you to put a +1/+1 counter on a Pirate you control whenever an artifact enters the battlefield under your control.

This doesn't have any limit on how many times it can occur, meaning every time you create a Treasure token, play a Vehicle, or cast any other Artifact spell such as Equipment will progressively strengthen your Pirates more and more.

For such a cheap commander, its payoff is slow to build but consistent. The more ability you have to create artifact tokens such as Treasures, the faster this will scale.

Dire Fleet DaredevilDire Fleet Daredevil

Dire Fleet DaredevilDire Fleet Daredevil is a 2/1 with first strike that has an ETB to exile an instant or sorcery spell from an opponent's graveyard.

This turn, you can cast it by spending mana of any type and then the spell is exiled.

Not only does this allow you to single-out specific spells your opponents' might be looking to cast or return from their graveyard, it also gives you great flexibility in what spell to choose.

With how many Treasure tokens you can create, it's entirely reasonable to grab an expensive sorcery or you can nab a cheap instant to push the edge over in combat. You can even hold onto a counter to keep yourself safe during your turn.

Warkite MarauderWarkite Marauder

Warkite MarauderWarkite Marauder is a 2/1 with flying, where each time it attacks a creature the defending player controls becomes a 0/1 without any abilities until the end of turn.

Being a flying Pirate gives great utility in being able to bypass many defenses and proc a variety of abilities that rely on Pirates dealing combat damage to an opponent.

And for , the ability to shut down a creature once per turn is pretty great.

You have to put your Marauder in harm's way by attacking in order to gain its effects, but even a single turn of shutting down your opponent's most dangerous blocker can have an incredible effect on the game.

Merchant RaidersMerchant Raiders

Merchant RaidersMerchant Raiders has an ETB where it taps one target creature which doesn't untap during its controller's untap step for as long as you control Merchant Raiders. It then grants this same ETB to every other Pirate you control.

So long as you can protect Merchant Raider, you can leave an opponent wide open which, again, is incredibly important for Pirates.

You want the ability to deal combat damage to activate multiple effects powerful Pirates have. Forcing an opponent's blockers to be tapped gives you a much easier time swinging directly.

The BelligerentThe Belligerent

The BelligerentThe Belligerent is a 5/5 Vehicle with Crew 3, meaning it's not considered a creature.

On your turn, you may tap any number of creatures whose power equals or exceeds three to make it a creature for the remainder of the turn.

The Belligerent creates a Treasure token whenever it attacks and allows you to look at the top card of your library until end of turn. You may play lands and cast spells from the top of your library for the same duration.

This Vehicle can be crewed with a single Pirate and provides immediate value upon attacking.

And because both the Treasure and card on top of your library are interacted with upon attacking, you can include any instant revealed as a part of that attack with effectively a one-mana discount.

JackdawJackdaw

The JackdawJackdaw is another Crew 3 Vehicle, meaning it's very easy to convert to a creature. Then each time it deals combat damage to a player, you may discard your hand and draw a card for each artifact you control.

This scales off of your Treasures, your Equipment, your Maps, and of course, your Vehicles.

Even if you have a single card in your hand, having a collection of tokens and Vehicles could lead to you drawing multiple more cards than you lost.

This is reliant on the Jackdaw dealing combat damage, which without keywords means you'll have to plan around it.

But it's equally useful to have the Jackdaw draw your opponents' attention while your other Pirates attack alongside it, giving you other ability activations.

Bident of ThassaBident of Thassa

The Bident of ThassaBident of Thassa allows you to draw a card whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, which is a trigger Pirates love inflicting. For all of their Treasure production, Pirates don't involve that much card draw. This turns the tide on how your economy will be fairing, giving you many more options to spend all of your mana on.

It can also tap for to force your opponents' creatures to attack this turn if able, allowing you to clear out an opponent's field of blockers before attacking with your own Pirates directly. You'll have to defend against their attack, but the ability to swing directly with your Pirates can't be understated.

Coastal PiracyCoastal Piracy

Much like the Bident of ThassaBident of Thassa, Coastal PiracyCoastal Piracy grants you card draw from your creatures dealing combat damage to an opponent.

This can stack alongside something like the Bident or function on its own, but either way drawing more cards from a strategy you were already going to do is a great thing.

Revel in RichesRevel in Riches

Revel in RichesRevel in Riches creates a Treasure token whenever a creature an opponent controls dies. At the beginning of your upkeep, of you control ten or more Treasures, you win the game.

Alternate win-cons are always tricky, since they tend to be hard to build around and often struggle to take off when not directly supported. Creating Treasures, however, is one of the main things Pirates do.

Further, Revel grants you passive Treasure generation even if you aren't going for the alt win con.

While spending your Treasure tokens takes away from your progress towards Revel, they're so easy to replace that you should feel comfortable using them normally.

Once you reach eight or nine Treasures, a well-timed instant before your upkeep can win you the game.

Double DownDouble Down

Double DownDouble Down copies any outlaw spell you cast, including Pirates. This doubles all of your non-legendary Pirates as well as their ETBs, granting you additional bodies to swing in order to deal direct damage.

It's a solid inclusion for any Outlaw deck, whether mono-class or batched together.

Lookout's DispersalLookout's Dispersal

Lookout's DispersalLookout's Dispersal is a counter that reduces its cost by if you control a Pirate, which you almost always will.

The spell's controller can pay to overcome this effect, which for most decks will dissuade even important spells from being cast.

And even if the opponent does pay the , that's four less mana they can spend on other spells.

Counters are doubly useful in a typal deck such as Pirates which lack in-built protections.

Blood MoneyBlood Money

Blood MoneyBlood Money is a board wipe that destroys all creatures and then creates a tapped Treasure for each nontoken creature destroyed.

This doesn't discriminate between your creatures and opponents' creatures and is quite expensive, but the delayed mana generation from the resulting Treasure tokens will offset that.

This can potentially win you the game when paired with Revel in RichesRevel in Riches or simply wipe the board and create great value for you.

March of the DrownedMarch of the Drowned

March of the DrownedMarch of the Drowned is a cheap way to return one creature from your graveyard to your hand or two Pirates. Frail as they are, Pirates often are going to leave the battlefield shortly after being played and any way to return them will preserve your momentum.

It then doubles any ETBs they might have or those prompted by other permanents you have.

Vraska, Relic SeekerVraska, Relic Seeker

Vraska, Relic SeekerVraska, Relic Seeker can create a 2/2 Pirate with menace, which is a great vector to deal combat damage to opponents or thin out their defenders.

Vraska can also destroy an artifact, creature, or enchantment and create a Treasure, giving a highly efficient targeted removal. And as an ultimate, it reduces a player's life total to one.

You'll get the most value from balancing Vraska's +2 and -3 abilities, gaining Pirates and Treasures as necessary.

But assuming there's no interaction from your opponents, Vraska only requires two +2 activations to be able to use her ultimate.

If you want to try and rush down an opponent, it can absolutely work out where you can create some Pirates as blockers and then rush an opponent at one life.

Dihada, Binder of WillsDihada, Binder of Wills

Dihada, Binder of WillsDihada, Binder of Wills can grant your legendary creatures vigilance, lifelink, and indestructable until your next turn, protecting them for an entire round.

Dihada can also reveal the top four cards of your library and put any number of legendary cards into your hand and the rest in the graveyard.

For each put in the graveyard, you gain a Treasure token. Dihada's ultimate gains control of all nonland permanents until end of turn and gives them haste.

While not possessing direct synergy with Pirates or even Outlaws, Dihada synergizes with Pirates through Treasure generation and gaining control of opponents' permanents.

And a focus on legendary creatures is generic enough to apply to any creature type, though Pirates benefit from the addition of legendary Vehicles.

Angrath, Minotaur PirateAngrath, Minotaur Pirate

Angrath, Minotaur PirateAngrath, Minotaur Pirate deals 1 damage to an opponent and each creature that player controls, though unfortunately he is not a Pirate and does not activate any abilities triggered by Pirates dealing damage.

Angrath can also return a Pirate card from your graveyard to the graveyard, doubling any ETB effects they might have.

Angrath's ultimate destroys all creatures an opponent and deals damage to that player equal to the destroyed creatures' total power.

Consistent ping damage in and the ability to clear token blockers are fantastic for Pirates with how aggressive they are.

The safety net of being able to return select Pirates from the graveyard to the battlefield allows you to make riskier plays and recover from them. Your Pirates can prioritizes applying consistent pressure and then Angrath can activate in order to supplement your primary strategy.

Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage

Rogue's PassageRogue's Passage can tap to make a creature unable to be blocked this turn. For Pirates with how much they love dealing combat damage to opponents in order to activate effects, this is essential.

Particularly given how lacking many Pirates are in keywords such as menace or even flying.

An unblockable Pirate rarely "just" does damage, it's often able to continue or initiate multiple benefits that will further your other Pirates.

Desolate LighthouseDesolate Lighthouse

Desolate LighthouseDesolate Lighthouse allows you to draw a card and discard a card. With how many Treasures Pirates can produce, card draw is often their limiting factor so being able to advance that speeds along whatever gameplan they have in mind.

Further, a few Pirates have abilities that activate off of discarding certain types of cards, where this is a consistent means of activating them.

Pirates enjoy their aggressive skirmishes, rarely trying to rush down an opponent at once and more-so poking them consistently and taking what they can.

This means a lot of attacks, but rarely committing your entire force at a time. Most often this will involve one more Pirate than the opponent has defenders, allowing you to confirm combat damage without overextending.

After building up additional Pirates and Treasures, you're in a position to fully commit to rushing down an opponent.

This will be supplemented by high-impact Vehicles as well as instants and sorceries, both your own and your opponents'.

While Pirates aren't a creature type reliant on obscene quantities of creatures, they often field many Pirates at a time alongside their plundered allies.

As mentioned earlier in this guide, Blood MoneyBlood Money is a board wipe that creates Treasures and Revel in RichesRevel in Riches creates Treasures when an opponent's creature dies, where you likely win the game upon your next upkeep.

There are alternatives to Blood Money in this setup such as Brass's BountyBrass's Bounty, where really anything that creates Treasure tokens and can push you above 10 is sufficient.

The biggest issue here is surviving until your next upkeep with Revel in Riches remaining on the field, which is highly dependent on the board state in how feasible that is.

Holding onto at least one counter and keeping your Pirates primed as blockers are good starts, but you also have to look out for your Treasures being destroyed or stolen.

Pirates also have the ability to completely roll the dice and rely upon their opponents' cards to win the game for them.

They take control of permanents regularly, meaning they can easily take Rhystic StudyRhystic Study and choke out an opponent slowly or Craterhoof BehemothCraterhoof Behemoth and rush down an opponent by sheer coincidence.

This isn't a reliable strategy by any means, as it entirely relies on not only the ability to take control of permanents but then also the power of those permanents.

But Pirates can take control of enough permanents that, should you try hard enough, it is reasonable you will eventually grab something like Sheoldred, the ApocalypseSheoldred, the Apocalypse and can pivot to accommodate it.