Primer cEDH Temur Pirates (Tana – Malcom)

Temur Pirates may not seem like the obvious choice when considering pirates in cEDH. Many players are building turbo Ad Naus or Curious Control variants in Grixis. There certainly are obvious benefits to partnering with Vial Smasher, Temur, however, has many strenghths of its own and a unique deck identity that isn’t shared by the myriad of other Grixis Ad Naus builds like its black aligned counterpart. We are on strategies and win conditions that other decks in our space are not and we execute them with a degree of consistency that is absent in many Divergent Transformations or Food Chain Temur lists. It is safe to say that when compared to other decks in its colors Temur Pirates occupies a unique space, doing things that decks like Kalamax Control or Animar cannot do.

This is a proactive deck that has a deadly combination of consistency and speed; furthermore, it has a great Temur grind plan as a back up in case things get bogged. Similar to Najeela, we aim to get our 3 drop commander out every game turn two or sooner. Green’s mana dork suite coupled with the fast mana package we all know and love can help us achieve this. Typically, we want to attempt to combo off on turn three or four and then keep attempting combo wins every turn or almost every turn until the game is over. This strategy is possible thanks to the consistency that comes from a one card creature combo with our commander, combined with green’s strong creature tutor suite. If you fail the first time just try to combo off again the following turn. Because of the constant pressure this deck can put on the table it often sets the pace for the game on turns 3-6 which are the turns it is most likely to win.
Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator is really good. Like really good. Easily top 3 partner commanders. He is an evasive, single color, easy to cast creature with an extremely relevant ramp/tempo ability and tons of combo potential. In this deck, thanks to green’s mana dorks, he comes down consistently on turns one or two and doesn’t even need to be able to attack in order to generate treasures for his combos. At the very worst he is like a flying Captain Lannery Storm, which is still pretty good. The consistency and combo potential that he provides from the command zone is what can propel us into proactive wins that can come out of nowhere thanks to the efficiency of the Glint-Horn Buccaneer combo. Additonally, due to his evasiveness, he can generate incidental advantage with cards like Tandem Lookout.

Tana the Bloodsower is here largely for colors but also serves some utility as a 4cmc creature we can Neoform into Wandering Archaic, or Eldritch Evolution into Niv-Mizzet, Parun. Saprolings can also be Eldritch Evolutioned into a Dockside Extortionist or Gilded Drake, or used to convoke Chord of Calling. She can also increase the creature count for Gaea’s Cradle and Toski, Bearer of Secrets.

The Win Condition: Glint-Horn Buccaneer
Requirements: Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator and Glint-Horn Buccaneer on field, able to generate 1R , at least 1 card in hand, combat step available.

This is our mainstay combo and our most efficient and consistent one by far. It is a one card combo from the command zone which is the main strength of this deck. All you need to start the combo is to have both Malcolm and Glint Horn on the board. Since Glint Horn has haste you can even drop him the turn you plan to win and have Malcolm out there making treasure in the meantime. Start with Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator and Glint-Horn Buccaneer on the field. Attack with Glint Horn and pay 1R to activate his discard ability. Note that you need to be able to discard a card to begin this loop. Once you discard, Glint Horn’s other ability will trigger and deal one damage to each opponent. Malcolm then triggers and makes three treasures. Spend two of those treasures to restart the loop. This deals damage, makes treasures, and loots cards equal to the number of cards left in our library. Also note that Glint Horn is still attacking after it deals combat damage so if you don’t have the mana for his ability you can generate it by dealing combat damage with two pirates. It is actually recommended to let him connect first even if you have mana to activate him, so you have have additional treasures to activate on top of any interaction.

To kill the table with this combo you need the opponent with the lowest life total to have at least half the life total of the player with the highest life total.