Fire and Ice: Which Cards are Hot and Cold for Magda, Brazen Outlaw?

Taking Sonic the Hedgehog for a Different Spin In Commander

<p style="text-align: right;"><em><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> | Art by <a href="https://www.annasteinbauer.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anna Steinbauer</a></em></p>
<p>From <em>Treasure Island</em> to <em>Pirates of the Caribbean</em>, there has been a romanticization of pirates in media. They’ve been shown as swashbuckling, charming, and anarchistic, doing and taking what they want with roguelike reckless abandon.</p>
<p>It’s debatable as to whether they are positive role models, but eye patches, peg legs, hook hands, and jolly rogers have left indelible marks on modern media from, Spongebob to <em>One Piece</em>. As iconic as they are, Pirates have had a tough time accurately translating into <em>Magic</em> cards.</p>
<p>Like with <a href="https://edhrec.com/articles/building-a-dinosaur-typal-deck-with-gishath-suns-avatar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dinosaurs from last week</a>, Pirates as a supported creature type can trace their origins to <em>Ixalan</em>. One of the problems they had almost instantly, though, is that the same roguelike reckless abandon they’re known for was already occupied, and largely with the same colors…by Rogues.</p>
<p>As a result, it becomes a bit difficult to make a deck around what makes Pirates unique, and it took a few legendary Pirates to finally get one that checks off the ability boxes, although it still doesn't have all of the core colors of piracy.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ramirez DePietro, Pillager"></div></div>
<h2>What Does <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> Do?</h2>
<p>Pirates are known for a variety of things, which makes finding a commander and building a deck that encapsulates as many of those elements as possible difficult.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Coastal Piracy"></div></div>
<p>Originally, Pirates were reflected through cards like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Coastal Piracy" href="#" target="_blank">Coastal Piracy</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, which triggered on combat damage, but those cards have become either generic or Rogue-related. While pillaging cards from damage has a bit of that theft feel, there are cards now that steal opposing creatures and that cast or take control of opponents’ spells. This is where <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> comes in, as the first supported Pirate commander.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Admiral Beckett Brass"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Captain Lannery Storm"></div></div>
<p>But there’s something missing with Beckett, something that <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Captain Lannery Storm" href="#" target="_blank">Captain Lannery Storm</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and her variants emphasize: a predilection for shiny things, especially Treasures.</p>
<p><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> is a beautiful connection between old and new Pirate mechanics. To start, he makes two Treasure tokens when he enters. He then exiles the top card of any player’s library who was damaged by a Pirate in combat and lets us cast any spells exiled that way for as long as they remain exiled, a clean union of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Coastal Piracy" href="#" target="_blank">Coastal Piracy</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and modern theft effects.</p>
<p>The Treasures are the secret sauce that enables us to cast those spells regardless of the color pips: gold is just as valuable in just about every culture, after all.</p>
<p>This biggest problem Ramirez has is that he's only in Dimir colors, while there are two incarnations of Admiral Beckett Brass] that have the full Grixis identity and have a better selection of Pirates as a result. The original was a Pirate lord with a combat damage trigger that stole creatures. While that seems pretty ideal, the theft was limited to creatures, which would be more kidnapping and less pillaging, and didn't care about Treasures.</p>
<p>She’s cool and close to what we want, but there are reasons she didn’t catch on, outside of Spelltable difficulties.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Admiral Brass, Unsinkable"></div></div>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Admiral Brass, Unsinkable" href="#" target="_blank">Admiral Brass, Unsinkable</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, the second incarnation of the Admiral, is more powerful and popular than her previous version, but she really isn’t a Pirate commander. She's a commander that is a Pirate, but her abilities include self-mill and reanimating Pirates. If you want a Pirate deck to play on Spelltable and that has all three colors, she’s your gal.</p>
<p>If you want a deck that really engages in Piracy, Ramirez checks all the boxes: Treasures, stealing, and benefitting off of combat.</p>
<h2>Key Cards for <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></h2>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Warkite Marauder"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kitesail Larcenist"></div></div>
<p>The biggest reason for favoring Ramirez over similar commanders that only do some of his effects is that he puts those abilities in one package, which means we can load up on Pirates and play fewer copies of cards that do those effects.</p>
<p>That allows us to use some of the cuter Pirates that can operate as pseudo-removal, such as <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Warkite Marauder" href="#" target="_blank">Warkite Marauder</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kitesail Larcenist" href="#" target="_blank">Kitesail Larcenist</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. They're evasive threats that consistently get in to trigger our commander, while playing around with opponents’ cards in unique ways.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Control Magic"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Memory Plunder"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Commandeer"></div></div>
<p>Speaking of playing around with opponents’ cards, we have two ways to do that: theft and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Control Magic" href="#" target="_blank">Control Magic</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> effects.</p>
<p>It was mentioned earlier that <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Control Magic" href="#" target="_blank">Control Magic</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> effects are more like kidnapping than pillaging, but, if we’re being fair, capturing people and tying them up with rope is something Pirates are known for, and seems to be a flavorful way for them to deal with larger threats. As a result, we play those alongside cards like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Memory Plunder" href="#" target="_blank">Memory Plunder</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, even the name of which sounds like something magical Pirates would do.</p>
<p>Those effects steal from our opponents’ graveyards, libraries, or hands and take their valuable spells for ourselves, sometimes even <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Commandeer" href="#" target="_blank">Commandeer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>ing them from the stack.</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Mnemonic Deluge"></div></div>
<p>Some of these theft spells have a prohibitively high cost, such as <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mnemonic Deluge" href="#" target="_blank">Mnemonic Deluge</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, while others, like our commander’s ability, require mana to cast, including mana we can’t easily make. So, how do we make colors besides Dimir? And how do we afford these expensive spells? Well, the answer is gold.</p>
<p>Well…not quite gold. Gold tokens were introduced in <em>Theros</em> and operate slightly differently from Treasures. Treasures were introduced along with Pirates, and we use our Pirate booty to cast our Pirate bounty!</p>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Fountainport"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Rogue&#039;s Passage"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Revel in Riches"></div></div>
<p>Since we only have two colors, we don’t need to fix our mana with our nonbasic lands. We can instead use them to synergize with Treasures, like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fountainport" href="#" target="_blank">Fountainport</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Treasure Vault" href="#" target="_blank">Treasure Vault</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, or to sneak in a bit of extra damage to trigger Ramirez with <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rogue&#039;s Passage" href="#" target="_blank">Rogue&#039;s Passage</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> or <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Access Tunnel" href="#" target="_blank">Access Tunnel</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Treasure Map" href="#" target="_blank">Treasure Map</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> shows us the way to go, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Revel in Riches" href="#" target="_blank">Revel in Riches</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is pretty much the endgame of any moustache-twirling comic book villain Pirate. After all, who doesn’t dream of Scrooge McDuck diving into a pool full of coins?</p>
<h2>How Does This <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> Commander Deck Win?</h2>
<p>Ramirez looks to drop early Pirates, make some Treasure tokens, and cast opponents’ spells to go over the top. The tricky part can be finding a good opponent to pick on, and we do want to be judicial in our attacks.</p>
<p>Most opponents will have solid spells for us to cast, and if we go too hard on any one opponent, we lose all of their stuff when they lose the game. Theft decks tend to walk that tricky line of wanting to keep opponents alive long enough to take everyone else out with their spells and then win the one-on-one.</p>
<h2>Ramirez DePietro, Pillager Commander Deck List</h2>
<div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Ramirez DePietro, Pillager EDHREC Deck Tech" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="[Commander]
*1 Ramirez DePietro, Pillager
[/Commander]
[Creatures]
*1 Amphin Mutineer
*1 Azure Fleet Admiral
*1 Cloud Pirates
*1 Corsair Captain
*1 Deadeye Brawler
*1 Deadeye Plunderers
*1 Departed Deckhand
*1 Dire Fleet Poisoner
*1 Dire Fleet Ravager
*1 Fathom Fleet Captain
*1 Forerunner of the Coalition
*1 Francisco, Fowl Marauder
*1 Greedy Freebooter
*1 Gutless Plunderer
*1 Hostage Taker
*1 Kitesail Freebooter
*1 Kitesail Larcenist
*1 Kukemssa Pirates
*1 Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator
*1 Merchant Raiders
*1 Pirated Copy
*1 Pitiless Plunderer
*1 Prosperous Pirates
*1 Ruthless Knave
*1 Sailor of Means
*1 Siren Stormtamer
*1 Skeleton Crew
*1 Slippery Scoundrel
*1 Spectral Sailor
*1 Spyglass Siren
*1 Staunch Crewmate
*1 Storm Fleet Negotiator
*1 Warkite Marauder
[/Creatures]
[Sorceries]
*1 Blood Money
*1 Cruelclaw&#039;s Heist
*1 Mnemonic Betrayal
*1 Mnemonic Deluge
*1 Shadow of the Enemy
*1 Sorcerous Squall
[/Sorceries]
[Enchantments]
*1 Control Magic
*1 Court of Locthwain
*1 Cunning Rhetoric
*1 Legacy&#039;s Allure
*1 Mind&#039;s Dilation
*1 Revel in Riches
*1 Rogue Class
*1 Treachery
[/Enchantments]
[Instants]
*1 Aethersnatch
*1 Commandeer
*1 Deadly Derision
*1 Deadly Dispute
*1 Memory Plunder
*1 Ray of Command
*1 Spell Swindle
[/Instants]
[Artifacts]
*1 Chaos Wand
*1 Helm of Possession
*1 Prying Blade
*1 Treasure Map // Treasure Cove
*1 Vedalken Shackles
[/Artifacts]
[Lands]
*1 Access Tunnel
*1 Cavern of Souls
*1 Command Tower
*1 Fountainport
*15 Island
*1 Path of Ancestry
*1 Rogue&#039;s Passage
*15 Swamp
*1 The Gold Saucer
*1 Three Tree City
*1 Treasure Vault
*1 Unclaimed Territory
[/Lands]"></span></div>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Pirates tend to be small-to-mid power creatures, making a Pirate deck a somewhat slow aggro deck. The Treasures and over-the-top ability to match the power of the table with theft and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Control Magic" href="#" target="_blank">Control Magic</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> spells elevate the deck from mediocre Midrange to powerful and synergistic Pirate typal.</p>
<p>Ramirez brings these disparate parts together to make the whole better than the sum of its parts.</p>
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treasure commander

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