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Welcome back!
Today we'll be going to go over some of the best Pirates in the game! You might think Pirates are a more obscure creature type, but no! There are actually 179 different Pirate creatures in the game.
Interestingly enough, over half of those - 103 in total - ended up spawning from the various Ixalan sets, including Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, and The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander. It's clear Ixalan kind of invigorated the Pirate creature type, of which there were only a smattering of before we visited the plane.
As far as other sets, Foundations was responsible for adding six new Pirates to the game (the set also included a Pirate lord, so there was clearly a small Pirate theme in the set), Aetherdrift added eight Pirates, and Commander Legends added 20 brand-new Pirates to the game.
As for colors, every Pirate in the game is either Blue (89 total), Black (41 total), red (69 total), or some combination of the three. There is one outlier, however, which is the Sultai Pirate, Xavier Sal, Infested Captain.
With all the interesting Pirate facts out of the way, let's begin!
Broadside Bombardiers
Straight out of LCC, Broadside Bombardiers was nearly printed straight into Legacy, the way some cards from Commander sets often are. These guys also find a home in a number of Vintage Cubes due to their incredible synergies. This is an incredibly strong card. Not only do they have two very good keyword abilities, making them very aggressive and very hard to block, they can also just kill a player out of nowhere by having a big enough artifact in play. You can also use the ability just by attacking; they don't even need to connect!
Dockside Extortionist
How much do I really need to say about this guy? He was made specifically for Commander, then he was banned in Commander. Then everyone rejoiced! Dockside Extortionist is absolutely one of the most controversial Pirates ever printed.
Emberwilde Captain
Emberwilde Captain is a bit of a dark horse here, as I didn't even realize it was a Pirate; I just knew it was a solid monarch-granting creature that saw play in some Cubes. While its toughness is fairly low, the ability to deal damage equal to the number of cards in your hand if your opponent tries to take the monarchy from you makes this quite strong as an aggressive creature. What if you have five or six cards in your hand. Are they still going to attack you? Maybe, but the Captain provides a powerful incentive not to and a powerful clock if they do.
Hostage Taker
Hostage was a legend from the first time it was printed in original Ixalan. So much so that it has seen printings in seven different sets. Back in the day - and probably presently as well - the Taker was taking everything...then letting you cast it! I have some fond memories of stealing things like Umezawa's Jitte and then casting it against my opponent in Cube drafts. But honestly, go for broke! Steal whatever you want, so long as it's an artifact or a creature! Then cast it!
Hullbreacher
Hullbreacher is another shockingly frustrating Pirate that was so powerful it was banned in Commander...and it was also a card that was printed in Commander Legends! I guess when a player casts a card like Wheel of Fortune or Timetwister in Commander, only for you to cast Hullbreacher, deny each player seven cards, then make 21 Treasure tokens, it ends up being one-sided and not very fun. But I'm not an expert. Thankfully, you can still play the Merfolk Pirate in Legacy, Vintage, and whatever Cube you want.
Kitesail Freebooter
Kitesail Freebooter kind of redefined the genre of creatures that remove a card from the opponent's hand when they come into play. Before this you had cards like Mesmeric Fiend or Brain Maggot that had less toughness and didn't have flying. The problem was that the Freebooter couldn't hit creatures, but that didn't prevent it from being massively playable. I would say that Kitesail Freebooter was only recently dethroned with the printing of Deep-Cavern Bat (also found in an Ixalan set, conveniently), which might be the best version of this type of card ever printed.
Pitiless Plunderer
As you know, I don't play a lot of Commander, but I know that this card is pretty ridiculous. This is a Rivals of Ixalan uncommon that has ranged from $7 to $25, depending on time and printing, of which it has eight. This includes a Secret Lair printing, a Special Guest printing, a White-bordered Mystery Booster printing, and a printing in the Fallout set. Apparently getting a free Treasure token every time any other creature you control dies can enable a good number of strategies and combos.
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Ragavan is easily in the running for best one-drops ever printed. It takes a lot for a one-drop creature to be banned in Legacy - ask Delver of Secrets - but here we are. I was kind of surprised the little guy never got banned in Modern, but I do feel like Ragavan's market share has gone down in the format he was directly printed into. That being said, Ragavan is still an insanely powerful one-drop that threatens both mana acceleration and card advantage, and there's not much more you can ask for at one mana.
Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll catch ya next time!
Frank Lepore
