While I am back to a hectic schedule with my spare time used for doing my paper works for the graduate school, I decided to do a quick visit at the Standard decks page in MTG Top 8, looking for a possible deck update from the Pirates build that I did previously. What I am looking for is an updated Grixis-based build basing on the tribal land Unclaimed Territory which does the fixing of the tribal colors. Rivals of Ixalan have provided new components for the deck to play on.

Upon checking the cards on the new set, the new decklist would look like this one:

Creatures
3 Admiral Beckett Brass
1 Captain Lannery Storm
1 Deadeye Tracker
2 Dire Fleet Poisoner
4 Dire Fleet Captain
1 Dreamcaller Siren
4 Fathom Fleet Captain
3 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Siren Stormtamer
2 Hostage Taker

Spells
3 Abrade
3 Fatal Push
1 Vraska’s Contempt
1 Chart a Course

Lands
4 Unclaimed Territory
3 Drowned Catacomb
4 Dragonskull Summit
1 Fetid Pools
3 Canyon Slough
4 Spirebluff Canal
1 Island
2 Mountain
2 Swamp

The card spoilers for Ixalan are here and the full list will be completed in the coming weeks. We are now speculating the possible deck archetypes with the coming Standard rotation as we bid goodbye to the four expansions from Battle for Zendikar to Eldritch Moon. Ixalan is somewhat introducing a few tribal themes and one of which are the Pirates. Based from the current revealed cards, Pirate creatures are printed in Blue, Black and Red which we can shortcut to the name Grixis. Here listed below is what’s revealed so far:

Blue
Daring Saboteur
Dreamcaller Siren
Prosperous Pirates

Black
Deadeye Tormentor
Deadeye Tracker
Dire Fleet Ravager
Fathom Fleet Captain
Ruin Raider

Red
Angrath’s Marauders
Captain Lannery Storm
Rowdy Crew

Multicolor
Admiral Beckett Brass
Dire Fleet Captain
Deadeye Plunderers
Hostage Taker
Marauding Looter

With the printing of Admiral Beckett Brass, it is clearly shown that Grixis is the best route for the deck. We won’t worry with the mana fixing as they have also printed the card Unclaimed Territory along with the reprint of Drowned Catacomb and Dragonskull Summit. That said, here is the initial decklist of the Grixis Pirates deck:

3 Admiral Beckett Brass
2 Captain Lannery Storm
3 Deadeye Tracker
4 Dire Fleet Captain
4 Fathom Fleet Captain
2 Hostage Taker
4 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
2 Ruin Raider
3 Scrapheap Scrounger

3 Abrade
3 Unlicensed Disintegration
2 Vraska’s Contempt
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

4 Unclaimed Territory
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Dragonskull Summit
1 Fetid Pools
3 Canyon Slough
4 Spirebluff Canal
2 Mountain
2 Swamp