This one takes a little explaining. Pirates suck. Even the Admiral kinda sucks. She's flavorful. Pirates attack and steal stuff. That's what she encourages. But in Commander, that means overcommitting to a board and making enemies. Furthermore, since pirates suck — meaning that that they are generally overpriced for what they do — it's hard to get in with the requisite amount of hits in order to trigger Beckett.

The solution was two-pronged. One, the deck focuses on cheap pirates with evasion. That meant ignoring interesting pirates (such as Timestream Navigator) in favor of less interesting pirates (such as Kitesail Corsair) because the former can't fly (and doesn't really want to attack anyway since she needs to tap to activate). Second, the deck needs lots of card draw to compensate for the obligatory overcommitment required to function.

What we are left with is a surprisingly aggressive pile of jank.


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These are not “tier” EDH Commander/Oathbreaker decks. My playgroup is very social. We enjoy powerful Magic, but also aim for the enjoyment of all players at the table (playing decks ranging from a 4-7 on the 1-10 power scale most of the time). As such, we don’t run many infinite combos, mass land destruction, hard locks, extra turn spells, etc. That’s not to say those cards/strategies don’t show up from time to time. On the whole, though, we run midrange strategies — prioritizing theme and flavor — which aim to win through the red zone. If a deck doesn’t appear “optimized,” that is likely intentional. That said, we are always open to constructive criticism and welcome dissenting views when presented respectfully.