A lot of our idea about what pirates are all about comes from one major source — a book called A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson. The stuff that seemed important to him got more ink in the book which is why we tend to think grinning skull flags (not really a thing) buried treasure (literally why, who would do that?) lady pirates (a handful but the high seas weren’t the gender-neutral meritocracy we’d like to think) and that goofy pirate voice we associate with pirates because of Robert Newton in Treasure Island trying to make fun of how Welsh people sound and everyone assumed that was how pirates talked. Don’t get me wrong; white European pirates terrorizing the high seas, skirmishing with the British Navy and proving Johnny Depp had more acting range than “weirdo in a Tim Burton movie” is fun, but it’s sort of like Ninjas and Samurai — fun for dress-up time but not super accurate historically. Real pirates were a lot more Captain Phillips and a lot less Curse of the Black Pearl — what we think of as “piracy” was a pretty minor blip on a historical scale.

So what made me think I needed something more than just stealing creatures? Partly, it was a game where I was playing my current pet deck — Rubinia Soulsinger Enchantress. I play a ton of Propaganda effects and steal their creatures and beat them with them. It’s a fun way to play Magic but it does have a particularly glaring weakness — spells. If no one really played creatures or the whole table was wrathing, stealing creatures just mean I wasted a spell when the creature was killed by the same Wrath that was going to kill it later in the turn cycle anyway. After my Commander ate multiple wraths and was stuck in the Command zone, I watched big spells resolve and watched someone win with a combo (albeit one I could have stopped if my Commander had lived). I am adding even more countermagic to the deck but I need something more — I need a way to make sure the non-Wrath spells are to my advantage also. In short, I want to steal it all, even the non-Permanents. Does my Rubinina deck maybe need a few more counters (Did you know that grinning like an idiot just waiting for your dumb dumb opponent to play Merciless Eviction naming Enchantments so you can cast Second Sunrise isn’t going to go your way?)? Yes, for sure. But that doesn’t mean the seed wasn’t planted. I want to have all of the spells. Let someone else counter stuff.

Commandeer 2017 ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Mizzix of the Izmagnus

• Creatures (7)
• 1 Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1 Captivating Crew
• 1 Charmbreaker Devils
• 1 Goblin Electromancer
• 1 Guttersnipe
• 1 Melek, Izzet Paragon
• 1 Memnarch

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Dack Fayden

• Instants] (23)
• 1 Aethersnatch
• 1 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Capsize
• 1 Clockspinning
• 1 Commandeer
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Dig Through Time
• 1 Disallow
• 1 Firemind's Foresight
• 1 Gather Specimens
• 1 Increasing Vengeance
• 1 Insidious Will
• 1 Mystic Confluence
• 1 Reiterate
• 1 Scour from Existence
• 1 Shattering Pulse
• 1 Spell Burst
• 1 Spelljack
• 1 Turnabout
• 1 Whispers of the Muse
• 1 Wild Ricochet

• Sorceries (16)
• 1 Acquire
• 1 Beacon of Tomorrows
• 1 Blatant Thievery
• 1 Bribery
• 1 Epic Experiment
• 1 Expropriate
• 1 Fanning the Flames
• 1 Mizzix's Mastery
• 1 Mystic Retrieval
• 1 Mystic Speculation
• 1 Past in Flames
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Tezzeret's Gambit
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Vandalblast
• 1 Volcanic Vision

• Enchantments (16)
• 1 As Foretold
• 1 Jace's Sanctum
• 1 Metallurgic Summonings
• 1 Sunbird's Invocation
• 1 Swarm Intelligence
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Memory Crystal
• 1 Paradox Engine
• 1 Primal Amulet
• 1 Pyromancer's Goggles
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Vedalken Shackles
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (34)
• 16 Island
• 8 Mountain
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Izzet Boilerworks
• 1 Izzet Guildgate
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Swiftwater Cliffs
• 1 Temple of Epiphany
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse

Buy This Deck

I opted not to include typical Mizzix cards like Comet Storm. Is that the only way to win with a typical spellslinger build? It’s certainly a good one when you have a ton of Experience counters. I cut a lot of cantrips and may have raised the average CMC too much. I also cut down to a lean 34 lands which is almost certainly not correct. This is a great basis for a deck but you will ultimately want to customize it a bit.

I really like the package consisting of the Memory Crystal, buyback spells, Paradox Engine and mana rocks. I jammed so much weird stuff into the deck I didn’t have room for more mana rocks, Isochron Scepter (not enough targets, anyway) and stuff that makes the Paradox Engine even better. I’m not tutoring for it, so I don’t want to lend too much of my build to it. Accordingly, I only added Buyback spells that are actually good. Luckily, the ones I added are very good. Clockspinning doesn’t just add or remove time counters; it can add or remove counters to and from any permanent. You may want to add another Planeswalker or two to the deck to take better advantage. Shrink their creatures, kill their Planeswalkers, etc. I think the Buyback does work and it’s worth having the package to make our Reiterate really good for when they play spells.

I added my typical Acquire, Bribery, Expropriate package and I think once you pile up Experience counters, it will be really reasonable to cast them. I like them so much I wanted to find room for Archaeomancer, Snapcaster Mage, etc. and maybe Equilibrium or something to get them going. There simply wasn’t room. If you like that idea better than the buyback shenanigans, it could be a lot of fun to Bribery the same person every turn or Acquire all of their mana rocks. Izzet Chronarch and friends would love to help you get the most out of your old spells lying around, but there’s always Past in Flames et al. in there, now.

I cut the token producers like The Locust God, Talrand, Sky Summoner, and Docent of Perfection. If you like those, feel free to add them back, but I don’t think I want to trifle with 1/1 tokens when I could be dropping their own Consecrated Sphinx on them. Hit them with big creatures and use deck slots for cards like Bribery that can get more than one creature with the flashback shenanigans this deck is capable of. Let them waste roster slots on useless meat sacks. You’re a Pirate after all!

What do we think? Any glaring omissions? Questionable inclusions? Got a similar deck you want to tell me about? Hit me up in the comments section, and don’t forget to share this on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc. Thanks for reading. Until next week!