Admiral Brass pirate tribal deck

[gilded summit]

I'm trying to optimize my Admiral Brass deck that I use for online play, but I think I might have overdone it a little. This is an aggro, creature focused deck, but as I've started to cut creatures to add in power spells, my creature count is now low enough that Admiral Brass's mill effect whiffs more often than it hits. I'd like to bring my pirate count back up, so that I can feel a little more confident playing admiral brass with an empty GY and still be able to bring something out that turn most of the time.

https://www.archidekt.com/decks/7718205/untapin_pirates

[tribal crypt]

A handful of notes:

• I would drop a swamp and add an Island, you mana production is a bit askew at the moment.
• Is there a reason you're running Urza's Saga? it only grabs Sol Ring and Codex Shredder, no? Like sure you can create two Karnstructs with it, but that doesn't really seem to be what this deck wants to be doing.
• Is there a reason you're running so many swords? are they for the protection they provide?
• What does this deck want to do? How do you want to be winning games?
• You mentioned wanting more creatures. I'd cut:

Dark Ritual
Fable of the Mirror Breaker
Urzas Saga
Deadeye Quartermaster
Subterranean Schooner
All three Swords of X and Y - yes they're good, but they require dealing combat damage to a player and I'm not noticing a ~ton~ of evasion in this deck (unless I'm missing something?) I just feel as though you'd be better off putting in more creatures or more reanimation effects
Some good includes would be
Faithless Looting
Azure Fleet Admiral
Dire Fleet Neckbreaker
Lethal Scheme
Power Conduit
At Knifepoint
Enterprising Scallywag
Staunch Crewmate

[smoky patio]

I agree that cutting a sword or two would probably be for the best, but I don’t think cutting fable is a good idea

If you’re optimizing it, it’s a bit clunky outside of tron builds for five mana

also not a fan of the Urza saga comment, that card goes insane

Even if you turn one sol ring you can just cheat out codex shredder to start filling your graveyard

If you have them both in hand I mean

[tribal crypt]

I’m not saying Saga isn’t a good card. I just don’t think it’s the right card for this deck, and you already said you wanted recommendations on what to cut

[smoky patio]

I don’t think it’s right to cut saying it’s not a good fit, it’s a generically good card in general that doesn’t really need to be removed

Ramping with the goblins always helpful

and it lets you draw and discard too, filling your grave with pirates

Is the maybeboard just cards already in it?

that you’re thinking of cutting

or just possible substitutes

I think you’d probably want to cut back on some artifacts

[gilded summit]

So, responding to your points in order:

• Noted. I’ll fix that
• Yeah Urza’s was a mistake. I just recently decided to try building my mana base without considering budget restrictions, and I’ve heard that card was good, so I threw it in without really considering if it synergized or not.
• The swords are also a recent addition, though I’ve been quite happy with their performance so far, I think. Yes the protection they provide is nice, and that’s why I originally thought about them, but this deck is also extremely combat focused, at the ones I chose have trigger effects that are quite synergistic with my base game plan. If you think they don’t work because I don’t have enough evasion, I’d rather add more evasion than cut them, I think.
• Alright so the deck’s main game plan. Pirates have 2 main strengths, their ETB triggers and their combat triggers. This is an aggro, creature focused deck that’s meant to win via mid range combat damage. Brass allows me to bring out a creature for free each turn, which means I rarely ever have to actually cast a creature from hand. So I usually spend my mana casting artifacts and enchantments to give everything else buffs. My main goals are to play creatures for free, and copy them when able to double or triple up on those really good trigger effects. For example, if I have Molten Echoes on the field making tokens of everything, and Brass brings out Coercive Recruiter that turn, that alone steals 3 creatures. I tried to fill the deck with synergies like that. Swarm, trigger, attack, trigger. That is why I thought the swords were good. Many of my pirates also trigger when they deal combat damage. So if you think I don’t have enough evasion, then I probably need more. My main win con is through repeated combat phases, either by using Port Razer, or Aggravated Assault (coupled with Sword of Feast and Famine to go near infinite)
• I think I agree with most, but not all, of your cut suggestions. Though most of the cards you suggested filling in are cards that I have ran in the past and found lack-luster

[gilded summit]

The maybeboard is both cards that used to be in the deck that I’ve cut, and cards that I might want to put in if I had the space. It’s nothing in particular, just a place to store cards without adding them to the list

[tribal crypt]

Oh, opp lmao gotcha. TBH I just sorta went to edhrec and pulled some of the top synergy cards - if they haven’t worked for you in the past, that’s aok!

[gilded summit]

The problem with EDH Rec for this deck is that the commander is from a precon, so all the suggestions are HEAVILY biased towards cards that came in that precon. It’s hard to use that site for actual optimization

Also, pirates more typically play into a sub theme of card theft, which I don’t really do as much, except as a form of removal. I don’t card about exiling the top card of my opponents deck so I can play that, for example

[tribal crypt]

Have you tried [[soul diviner]]?

[grave compass]

https://scryfall.com/card/war/218/soul-diviner

Soul Diviner <:manau:292901508754702338><:manab:292901508872273920>

Creature — Zombie Wizard
, Remove a counter from an artifact, creature, land, or planeswalker you control: Draw a card.
As the Eternal's cold fingers tightened around his throat, Domri realized what kind of master he had rushed to serve.
2/3

[tribal crypt]

I know not a pirate, BUT

[gilded summit]

Yeah, removing Finality counters does seem pretty good. I haven’t actually tried it in practice. I knew about the card and chose to not run it until now. On paper, it seems just OK to me. But for this discussion rn, it does not solve any of the issues I’m trying to solve.

Because my main weakness right now is that I don’t have enough pirates, which is causing my mills to whiff. So adding things that aren’t pirates doesn’t really help me

[smoky patio]

Had it crossed your mind to try some changlings out? Or amphin mutineer?

[tribal crypt]

oh, changelings would be good

so would [[arcane adapt]]

[grave compass]

https://scryfall.com/card/xln/46/arcane-adaptation

Arcane Adaptation <:mana2:292901509060886528><:manau:292901508754702338>

Enchantment
As Arcane Adaptation enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
Creatures you control are the chosen type in addition to their other types. The same is true for creature spells you control and creature cards you own that aren't on the battlefield.

[gilded summit]

Would this be good? The only non-pirates I run are Roaming Throne, which becomes a pirate when it ETBs, and the token/card from Mirror-breaker. I don’t really know how this would help. I mean, being able to bring Roaming Throne out of the GY with Brass’s effect would be awesome, but idk if it’d be worth running a card that does exactly and only that

[tribal crypt]

Ah, never mind. I forgot your issue was just raw # of creatures rather than # of pirates specifically

[gilded summit]

If I decided I wanted to keep the swords, even if it’s just as an experiment, do you have other recommendations on what I could cut? I have plenty of cards in mind for what I can add, but I need the deck space. Maybe I should have less mana rocks?