Deck Primer / Description

Optional working title: "Andres Eleven"
Welcome to the heist team. Your goal from this point on is to steal as many of your opponents creatures as you can. Don Andres, the Renegade will be your conduit to keeping your mana reserves topped up and your conscripted army untouchable. Captain Storm, Cosmium Raider will provide a bountiful supply of +1/+1 counters for as long as you can keep him alive. Francisco, Fowl Marauder makes sure that you're consistently either ramping or accessing your deck. Breeches, Eager Pillager gives you multipleearly game options to get your deck into ramping, very similarly to Galadriel, Light of Valinor if she were much cheaper and pirate themed. Etrata, Deadly Fugitive provides the first of many options for digging into your opponent's deck for cards to steal. Ramirez DePietro, Pillager and Gonti, Lord of Luxury also both allow you to steal straight from your opponents libraries. Admiral Beckett Brass is another easy option for card theft, requiring only that you consistently attack with three or more pirates. This should become easier and easier as the game progresses, practically guaranteeing it will work. Gemcutter Buccaneer is another great creature that combos well with this deck, providing both treasure tokens and optional ramp. The Beast, Deathless Prince is another card that allows you to borrow a creature but he also benefits greatly from consistent attacks from among your captured soldiers. Etali, Primal Storm is a topdecking thief for as long as you have him out. The deck contains only two planeswalkers, Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded and Geyadrone Dihada. Both have the potential to win the game outright if you can make full use of their biggest loyalty abilities.

Most of the Instants and Sorceries in this deck focus on borrowing your opponents creatures and using them to deal significant combat damage. Cards like: Claim the Firstborn, Awaken the Sleeper, and Song-Mad Treachery all allow you to use an opponent's creature until the end of your turn. There are also some standout examples that let you keep the creature indefinitely. Blue Sun's Twilight, Entrancing Melody, and Lullmage's Domination give you plentiful options for getting away with kidnapping. Inevitable Betrayal might be the most powerful card in this deck, since it lets you hunt down an opponents endgame creature and immedietly place it on your battlefield. Fumble lets you make sure that you can use a couple of powerful equipment on an opponents beatstick to really ramp yourself up while tearing them down. Kefnet's Last Word is another powerful theft option, letting you steal an aura or equipment that protects a high-value-target like a secret commander or infinite comboer.

This deck also serves as the testing ground for a devious strategy I've dreamed up. Allow me to guide you through my massive mana manufacturing mission. Three cards are required for this technique, and an additional land in hand if you'd like to pull this off on turn one. Coretapper, Sol Ring, and Everflowing Chalice are the main ingredients for this dastardly play that should ensure you have enough mana to pay for all the card theft you'll be doing even before you get a bunch of treasure tokens. What you'll want to do is play your first land, then use it to play Sol Ring. Use Sol Ring to Coretapper, who is an artifact and so can be tapped this turn. Then place Everflowing Chalice onto the battlefield without kicking it (unless you have extra mana, it'll only save you a little time). use Coretapper's abilities to place charge counters onto the chalice for free, and you can open on turn two with a minimum of five mana before even playing a second land. Depending on how much time you have, you could chose to sacrifice coretapper early for the two counters he gives or continue to tap him for individual counters to ramp up the chalice's production.

The deck also contains multiple enchantments meant to allow continual access to enemy baracks and get you free creatures. Legacy's Allure can be sacrificed after a few turns to take permanent control of a choice creature. Cunning Rhetoric discourages opponents from attacking you, lest their library be milled and their spells stolen. Frenzied Fugue guarantees you a creature at the start of every turn and moving it in and out potentially combos with other pirates. Stolen Strategy exiles at least one free card exiled off the top of a library every turn. Eriette's Tempting Apple only works once, but sacrificing it may net you just enough damage to finish of an adversary.