The best part of this deck tech was Snail talking about all of the ways the deck struggles. I often see budget deck techs that go on & on about how strong the deck is in all sorts of scenarios, and how reliable the gameplan is, but never talk about the shortcomings when compared to non-budget builds or the most common ways the deck might get disrupted.
I agree. Just about any deck will feel powerful if you get the perfect hand and ideal situations. It's nice to acknowledge what the hiccups are when you don't have that ideal hand and how you're intending to work around that.
I feel like every video completely changes the way i look at this format. They are thoughtfully put together by someone who knows what they are talking about. Thanks for the snailful wisdom! On another note, is there any chance you could show one of your decks in action? I would love to see when they shine or don't in play. Thanks!
Honest hate having two commanders, for some reason my play group never allows me to keep both out ever. Some one always tunnels one of them so I end up having to spend ten mana for one of them by turn 4. At that point I just said screw it but wasting all my interaction keeping them on the field wasn’t working. Now I just run one and only ever play home if I have at least three four cards of interaction for him/her. Noob problems 😕
imagine if some deck just started the game with an extra card in hand. That unto itself would be extremely valuable. Now imagine you tutor for a specific card at the start of each game and put it into your hand. Now repeat that one more time. That is partially why partners are so powerful.
@DREADEDuuubGAMING a lot of partner commanders I've found fall into the category of and work best as "removal bait" as in; what appears to be a juicy, high value target that can be redeployed that fishes out your opponents interaction so you resolve something more worrisome out of the 99. My anecdotal example: trynn and silvar are both great bait for me to be able to resolve a winnota or a felidar sovereign
Futher pushes my mindset that Wizards has never added a single Commander specific ability that is good for the format. The more they leave it alone, the better.
You're the gameplay theory equivalent to Rhystic Studies' art deep dives and historical essays. You're got a gift for seeing the big picture that I wish I had as a player and I greatly appreciate your input helping to educate me as a player. Keep this up man.
This is effectively Yuriko with extra steps haha Great breakdown of what makes a cEDH list through the perspective of a casual deck. Commanders with card advantage and mana ✅ Efficient combo ✅ Interaction + tutors ✅ A winning strategy no matter the price point!
You should totally post gameplay with your friends, i feel like these decks would make way more interesting games than other channels like game knights
for less than a dollar Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar is a Coastal Piracy effect that only triggers once per player but is 3 mana and provides a small amount of protection for your blockable creatures, Call of the Ring is over a dollar but is a 2 mana Phyrexian Arena effect that tempts providing your small creatures with evasion and even more card advantage might be a bit win more however
I run that in my favorite $100 comp deck (Malcolm Kediss) and it does serious work. I’d also suggest it. It’s def better than the postal piracy affects. Kediss w Malcom make curiosity, tandem lookout, and ophidian eye honestly broken but even in that deck I find Graz well worth the include.
Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender would be great in this deck. Sacrificing 5 artifacts per turn once you pop off will give it +5/+5 per turn, and it's also a lifegain resource in a pinch
I agree 100%. He's the best imo. He's getting there, and it's very well deserved. He has blown up quite a bit recently though, considering I can recall that it was not that long ago where he was around 6 or 7K
yeah i feel really lucky i randomly clicked on him from recommended videos. so many content creators in the MTG space don't do nearly as much with their videos.
Thank you for making CZcams videos at this level of quality. I gain so much insight and learn so much about commander deck building by watching your videos. Keep creating such great content. Cheers.
You made making this deck sound so simple and easy, you really know your stuff! This is making me want to relook at all my decks, especially my control and combo decks, to make their curve and their turn to turn strategy super clean. Great video!
The principle outlined at the end of this video reminds me of the Gruul Control deck previously covered on this channel, and a version of such a deck I had built prior on a budget of only 5$. Having a value engine in the command zone is extremely potent to allocate deck space for interaction and alleviate issues of low card quality, but having an interaction engine offers the same benefit, ensuring you almost always have an answer and can defend yourself while your deck works its magic. As someone who enjoys the mechanical intrigue of tinkering with a deck's power level, but does not enjoy particularly high level play, building well-tuned and optimized decks on a hyper-budget of 5 dollars gives me room to try to exploit cards for every penny they're worth, without becoming too oppressive in play. While I love thinking about and designing with complex commanders that explore interesting concepts, it's really this idea of value/interaction efficiency and making the most out of deck space that makes these decks punch above their weight in brass.
Hey, do you have a decklist for that budget Gruul control deck? I'm always interested in looking at interesting builds, and that one sounds very interesting.
I like this deck for a few reasons not the least of which is how this demonstrates how EDHREC isn't always "right" (as you demonstrated in your ode to Skeleton Ship a bit back). I tried to build a Francisco/Malcolm deck shortly after Francisco was released but gave up, figuring that Malcolm and Breeches just makes more sense. Adding the Time Sieve combo really gives this deck an identity beyond "pirates in worse pirate colors" or "bad ninjas/rogues/etc."
This is a really well done deck tech, I'm glad the algo sent me this way! Like some others have been saying, I really appreciate how you took the time to point out some of the decks weaknesses as well as its strengths. As someone that usually likes building his own decks, when I do follow someone elses build I feel like sometimes people can have ownership bias and tend to only tell you about all their best games/plays with their list but won't highlight the weak points, and then when someone (like me) comes along to copy it or use it as a baseline it can be a little harder to pin down whats going wrong. 10/10 video in my book!
Instantly subscribed, you're great at making videos! I want to build this deck right NOW, I want to try and solve the problems you highlighted AND I'd love for you to make more and more videos about decks! You really put the deckbuilding into the perfect perspective, one which I lost in the last months, and this explains why I'm not loving and buying any decks that I try to build anymore... Thank you, you gave me refound energy to go on and deckbuild!
The discussion of interaction and removal here reminded me of an interesting concept from yugioh dexkbuilding: managing your deck's ratio of engine to nonengine. Basically, the fewer total cards in deck you need to dedicate to your gameplan of wining the game, the more card space you can instead spend on yugioh's high-power suite of generic interaction- cards that sre the equivalent of situational free counterspells, one-sided boardwipes, etc. This deck sounds like it would be doing very well by that yugioh standard
Thanks for sharing! You definitely appeal to the analytical strategist in me. I feel kindred with you in that building for fun/casual play is my priority, but I do try to maintain competitiveness and build some decks on the "sweatier" end of casual. Your thought processes are excellent and helpful for any player to think through. That being said, you challenge me to think through my decks and what I might need to do to change them or even why I should/shouldn't change them.
Love to see it! We’ve been running a 50euro budget cedh league and it’s the most fun I’ve had in a while. I run a 50euro Tivit list around the same combo. Cool to see a similar deck!
I remember i did something similar with Selvala once. Some people on my LGS used to roflstomp casual tables with their expensive, fast mana full decks and people complained a lot about being able to "buy" power, so i built a list that was both powerful anc affordable, ending up at about $130 total (currency is different over here so it cost me less than $100 actually). To this day i only pull it out on the fastest of tables and even some cEDH pods and it always performs, and most inexperienced players dont believe its a budget deck until i show them the decklist. Power on a budget is very much achievable and very, very fun to do so
This is the reason channels like this one and Commanders Quarters are important and worth recommending to newer players. Budget decks can slap, it just takes more thought than opening your wallet.
Your videos are so awesome. Love all the reasons you give about you deck crafting decisions. I really want to see you do a grist the hungertide deck, he's one of my favorite commanders but I have yet to figure him out from a budget standpoint.
Love the deck! Can't wait to give it a try. As a solution to your early creatures being blocked, I've used Cover of Darkness in similar decks with great success.
looks like an awesome deck! Appreciate the focus on the most likely t1-t2-t3 playpattern. Feels like a lot of commander deck techs don't consider this too much.
i absolutely love magic, specifically the deck building aspect, but unfortunately had to give it up because there are no decent play groups in my area (buncha winter orb type people if you know what i mean). This channel just perfectly scratches that itch that i found in the game, so thank you for uploading! 100% subbed and binging these videos.
Love the deck, I have a similar Malcolm partner deck and one card that does absolute work is March of swirling mist, could easily take out one of your harder removal spells for it like slaughter pact
I'm currently building an Eisenhorn deck based on a similar idea (create a lot of clue, sacrifice them with Time Sieve) and I must say, this video gave me a ton of good advice.
Love this sort o videos! While the archetypes you play are not my jam, you definitely present, what is the plan with every deck. Also nice to see really creative approach, because I am good at scouring scryfall and filtering out low quality cards, and more or less stabilizing gameplan, the decks still end up costing 200-380$. Although, tri-color manabases and some high-power cards (that used to be cheap) add up real quick.
I also built these as a budget strong deck! I like that we had similar ideas, the difference was that i went for big CMC sorcery as my win con. That made it so i dont play the artifact package and instead plays more interaction. Love this pair!
Dude, I love this vid It really did give me a lot to think about with my red blue pirate deck. Its fundamentaly different than what malcolm and Francisco can offer (not being able to filter as often, but plundering from opponents instead) But it did help me see that maybe some cards need to be cut Especially seeing you run all 4 bident of thassa cards made me rethink how i should build my deck The interaction suite too, maybe i should add more to mine
Honestly this is such a cool deck. Thinking about the early turns and how I want to develop are something I really thought about with my Safana / Dungeon Delver deck. That deck isn't a combo deck, it's much more of a control deck, but it has a lot of the same principles. Safana is just a very strong card once she gets going. So seeing those same principles applied by others is cool! Also Oaken Siren is cool! I've played her in the Captain Storm Cosmium Raider and having an artifact pirate that also is a vigilant flier for counters ended up making the card really impactful.
We have converged on the same idea. However, I went Izzet and used Kediss as my 2nd partner with Malcolm. Kediss allows Malcolm to gain +2 treasures, and if Kediss can find an opening with an Amoeboid Changeling or Imagecrafter activation, even more. Glint-Horn Buccaneer + Malcolm/Curiosity/Tandem Lookout/Ophidian's Eye is the primary combo, but you never feel bad slapping any of those on Malcolm and drawing 3 with Kediss. The secondary wincon is burn/burst with Price of Progress, Fireblast, Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, with Surge to Victory or Candlekeep Inspiration. Funny how that plays out!
i do like how there's still meany different ways such a simple deck can be built, as an example i made a version of this deck that adds a little more draw value to a normal use of cards, removal, counter spells and pirates have a lot of options and that what makes working with Malcolm and Fransisco so much fun as commanders. they cooked with the pirate commanders!
I have a high-powered $100 Yuriko deck which started in a similar place to your build (replacing cheap pirates with cheap ninjas, similar attack-draw and counter suite). In the end, I still added the demonic/thoracle/doomsday lines. They take up half the deck's budget but they also minimise the footprint of the win cons, letting you go up to 20+ interaction cards and a few cedh bombs like peer into the abyss.
This guy understands edh very well. The space that the plan to win occupies in midrange decks is the main reason they don't run much interaction. Also the commander mana value and the curve of the deck is very important. I do think the land count is somewhat low if you want to hit your fourth land drop on turn 4 consistently. But I don't have much experience with Francisco. It's possible the filtering is enough and the land count is fine. Also the treasures help. Very nice deck and video!
I built a somewhat similar deck around malcolm and keddiss, once again playing commanders early then going heavier on the treasures, playing stuff like xorn/lizard blades for extra treasures and then finishing with a burn spell, love malcolm
I had a similar idea for my upgraded olivia opulent outlaw precon by adding a small engine of vile entomber (outlaw) and lively dirge (coupled with a low curve) to send anger and a select few flashback cards. The deck is full of evasive creatures and will tap out each turn to rely on treasure mana to interact. The deck can easily fly under the radar as the opponents will just see a handful of weak evasive dudes before they get pumped up and extra combats are made for massive damage and lifelink. These types of decks are by far the most fun to build and really showcase a person's ability and passion.
I do love time sieve, as it fits perfectly into my Lurrus / Bjorna / Wernog artifact token deck. It fits the Lurrus restritction, is a win condition, and perfectly utilizes the mountain of tokens I vomit out. The problem is however that the deck has difficulty winning quickly, mostly building up a sir ginger or similar, and swining with it until the opponent runs out of blockers. This takes a lot of turns, and since most of my engine pieces are two mana, I generally do not achieve a deterministic infinite turns combo, but one that heavily relies on scrying about 10x a turn, finding some artifacts, drawing those, and looping graveyard artifacts. If this would happen sometimes, it would be fine, however as the deck has a lot of draw and scry, since it needs to make the most of 2 mana cards, it can quite consistently find time sieve, and with time sieve being by far the most consistent way to close out games, it basically loses everything else. The main ways to counteract it I thought of where adding disciple of the vault, as an aristocrat that can shorten the amount of turns needed. Or add thopter foundry + sword of the meek as a combo to make it deterministic, and thus be able to be shortcut. Diciple of the vault is currently being tested, sword + foundry simply does not work, as the cards are mostly dead when they are not used as combo pieces (you would think that thopter foundry would do things in an artifact deck, however three games showed that it does close to nothing normally)
I have the same deck built! ThopterFoundry/Sword of the Meek/Time Sieve is the classic combo, letting you make thopter tokens for 1 mana each, which even after the 5 you sacrifice every turn will close out a game pretty fast. If I can't get those online, or my backup animate dead combo, I typically try to win with Cranial Plating or Michiko's Reign of Truth. Sword of the Meek isn't quite dead because I can recast a 1/1 from my grave every turn with Lurrus, and Bjorna can sacrifice it for more goads. Thopter Foundry is more likely to be dead; it has niche applications as being a way to get some artifacts into my graveyard if Bjorna is dead or if I'm trying to kill multiple artifacts per turn.
@@bekeleven Reign of Truth sounds like a nice alternative to cranial plating I might try it. What is the Animate Dead combo? I know it has a lot of combo's associated, however worldgorger dragon is not quite Lurrus material. Thank you for responding by the way, I really appreciate it
Might have to try using your method. The planning of those first 5 turns to perfection is really inspiring. Most of my decks don't have a clear wincon (outside of my Mikaeus combo deck) and therefore durdle around just having fun and generating value. Maybe starting with a high power "Win by turn 5" deck plan is a good way to start
Great video. I took lots of inspiration to build my own version. I would love to see a „upgraded“ version where you put maybe 50 dollars worth of cards into it
Like the reference to Time Pirates in the deck title. Spellskite, Teferi's Veil and Slip Out The Back might also be more convenient ways to protect your stuff than counterspells.
Man you just keep pulling ideas straight out of my brain lol I was building a similar deck without the infinite combo. Evasive pirates hitting hard and being difficult to kill with counterspells and feign death effect as protection. A bunch of curiosity effects and funny equipments and on hit effects (vorpal blade, phyresis, etc...) to finish the games. I couldn't fit it in our very restrictive budget league so I gave up on it but maybe I should try again.
If you don't mind adding a 5 drop, kindred discovery is a bident of thassa that also makes your 1 drop pirates cantrip. This is definitely a riskier card as it doesn't fit in the 5 turn plan, but the card is a great recovery option
Since Malcolm is sort of crucial and knowing he will be targeted, there are some responses that are cheaper than counter spells that would probably be better keeps in opening hands. First ones that come to mind are hex proof providing instants, such as Shore Up that costs 1 mana. If a deck relies on a certain creature of mine to stick on the board, I like cards like those. Mizzium Skin is a personal favorite, as it can be overloaded and grant hexproof to your board. :)) Even, You See a Guard Approach could be good, since knowing you want to connect early for the treasure you can tap something before blockers can be declared too.
Looks like Edric "flying man" I built a while ago. But I went into another road - with not a Time Sieve, but with a extra turn spells like versions of Time Warp. Also I use Druids' Repository as a mana solution for it. But it's a little bit more pricey - I ended up with about 3 times more expensive deck. And Francisco wasn't even around, when I was building it, so I, guess it's a great improvement over the similar concept.
If you are willing to wait for turn 4-5 to cast malcolm you could cut the 4 bident of thassa effects and add more artifact based ramp to ensure you have a counterspell up incase your commander gets hit by removal, in the case he does not get hit you could possibly still combo afterwards depending on your current board while still having countermagic up.
A currently still very cheap card is Mirrodin Besieged. This is one of my favorite cards and to this day I still have yet to find a deck it cannot fit in with minimal effort. Your deck would benefit from an artifacts package (misleading signpost, talismans', etc.) and since francisco ditches cards when not needed you can dump your grave pretty hard and get 15 artifacts fairly reasonably. While it does not win the game on the spot, you take out the biggest threat, and put your other two opponents on a one turn and two turn clock depending on threat level. It forces players to expend extra resources to get rid of it and puts you in a much stronger position. Food for thought :)
Another factor to consider is that Malcolm (and Francisco's) ability triggers on ANY damage to opponents, not just combat damage. The 3xtreasures per turn (from combat) can then be supplemented with cards such as Pirate Ship plus untapper or with Captain's Hook/Pirated Copy/Maskwood Nexus on any number of Creeping Bloodsucker/Thrashing Wumpus/"damage each opponent/player creature". This does not increase the efficiency of the deck in this video but certainly could help add resilience-y and flavour/jank element to the deck.
definitely building this in paper! Thanks for the video. Is there any way to recur the time sieve if it gets destroyed pre combat or do we just move to plan B ?
I opted not to include any because I found Malcolm getting killed was a more common issue for the deck, but I've considered adding in Argivian Restoration or Emergency Weld, and one of those would be a good add in a meta where Krosan Grip is popular.
Nice video! I like how the individually unassuming cards make up a great deck! As a follow-up to this video: What non-budget options would you consider? Black market connection comes to mind immediately.
If I could add a single non-budget card it would be Grim Hireling, card is just straight up a double Malcolm. Beyond that, mostly just updates to the draw and interaction of the deck.
You could run brainstorm due to its nature as straight up draw (avoiding the problem that creature-based draw has) as well as allowing the cards put back on top to be milled through fransisco
While I definitely see the fun in hyper optimizing a deck, most of the time when I build my decks, I’m looking for ways to have a variety of interactions from game to game so that the time and money I spent putting the deck together goes longer. To me it seems like a streamlined deck only does one thing every game, and maybe that’s a fault of my own. This vid inspired me to take a look at my own decks again just to do a little more streamlining, and even look to build a deck for the sole purpose of streamlining it!
Had a similar idea with time sieve but used eloise, nephalia sleuth, and then used myr battlesphere, other token generators and some recursion to aim for infinite or at least a bunch of terms, and marionette master to finish people off, its definitely a lot of fun
Malcolm is one of the strongest cheap commanders, for sure. The most disgusting commander deck I own is a Malcom + Kediss deck which can fairly reliably finish the game in an infinite combo in a few rounds, and it runs ~80 bucks when I remove the shock and fetch from it. Doesn't get much play, because it's just not how the regular pod plays, but I still like what it does a whole lot.
I wonder what the win rate would be with out the budge limit. A while back i was looking at running pirates and this looks like a fun way to build. I think i got a lot of the cards you mentioned along with other cards to buff the deck up. If i had a playgroup to hang with i might end up running something like this.
You’ve gotta give Malcolm and Kediss a go, Kediss giving you 3 treasures a turn any turn you can get in with Malcolm is insane. Plus with red you get access to glint horn buccaneer for an amazing combo finish.
Weirdly similar to how I built the new Outlaw Olivia (which I think is her optimal state). She runs pirates, low cmc creatures, evasive beats, then wins with the treasures fueling a combo (in this case Aggravated Assault). I don't it's as powerful on a budget just because of the three-color mana base and the white stax effects to keep everything safe; but it does scratch the same itch deck composition wise.
Love these videos please keep them up. Question for you sal' can you create a deck for us where if your commander gets punished the deck can still make it and win. My casual EDH decks are incredibly commander-centric "hence commander format" but commanders with emminence and other commanders I have chosen i can technically win without casting them. Would love to see your take on a budget deck that achieves this.
just recently built malcom and fransisco, i went futher into artifacts and holy it feels strong, the curve is so easy and so consistent. i also have a lower power non combo centric version of this deck and my experience is no one ever wants to remove fransisco cause killing a 2 drop feels bad. the other version i run focuses more on the evasive creatures and card draw on combat damage
This looks very neat. Maybe I would convert my (upgraded precon) Admiral Brass deck in something like this. Maybe not that centered in the combo and playing more in the treasure theme with cards like Mirkwood bats and Marionette Master
Love Malcom because it doesn't say a pirate has to deal "combat" damage to create a treasure. love turning a [[Reckless Fireweaver]] or [[Ingenious Artillerist]] into a pirate and pinging everyone into oblivion. excellent video, love the discussion of thoughts!
Oh wow This'll be an interesting watch later I'm working on a Blue Red version of this, with Breeches as the red commander I wanna glean insight on how i could improve my list
For recovering from major setbacks, have you considered patriarch's bidding? Could be a good way of rebuilding - especially with francisco filtering more stuff into the bin. You could also swap out a counterspell for Teferi's Veil as a more proactive way of protecting your board from catching stray boardwipes
Excellent video! Patreon supporter here Really like this kind of content. Specially liked to see you highlighting the weak spots of the deck and how to play around them. For the next ones I would also suggest adding a quick mulligan "guide" - you did something similar in laying down the 5/6 turn gameplan, but I'd be very interested in seeing what makes you keep some hands. I'm guessing I liked this deck so much that I want more :) For instance in this deck specifically, what makes you keep a hand with no 1-drops? Because IMO a turn 2 Francisco without a previous 1-drop is quite bad. So I am guessing you are at least looking for a hand with a 1-drop, or a 2-drop that you can line up with Malcolm. Mulliganing anything else, is that right?
First two hands typically get mulliganed if they don't have a one drop unless they're perfect in every other way. Once I'm at risk of going down to 5 or less cards I get a bit less picky. 2-cost evasive pirates are one of the things I look for, with other Malcolm and Kitesail Freebooter being the strongest, and in a pinch I also might keep a hand with a Combat Research type effect that can buff my Francisco to attack with on turn 3, preferably with a mana rock I can also play out if I don't draw into a pirate.
The best part of this deck tech was Snail talking about all of the ways the deck struggles. I often see budget deck techs that go on & on about how strong the deck is in all sorts of scenarios, and how reliable the gameplan is, but never talk about the shortcomings when compared to non-budget builds or the most common ways the deck might get disrupted.
This is huge, really improves the video
I agree. Just about any deck will feel powerful if you get the perfect hand and ideal situations. It's nice to acknowledge what the hiccups are when you don't have that ideal hand and how you're intending to work around that.
this is a snail trademark i have come to find
Aw yeah. Snail knowledge for my 1:30 AM mtg itch
me fr
Litterally did 3 exams back to back to back in the middle of the night and THIS is how i close out the night. Lol.
Usually I get a 130am ass itch
@@TheRealLachlan damn dude you might have a parasite in your bunghole
Snailedge
I feel like every video completely changes the way i look at this format. They are thoughtfully put together by someone who knows what they are talking about. Thanks for the snailful wisdom! On another note, is there any chance you could show one of your decks in action? I would love to see when they shine or don't in play. Thanks!
this one two three curve shows why partners have so much more advantage over a single commander
Doubling the amount of turns you auto curve out is pretty good
Honest hate having two commanders, for some reason my play group never allows me to keep both out ever. Some one always tunnels one of them so I end up having to spend ten mana for one of them by turn 4. At that point I just said screw it but wasting all my interaction keeping them on the field wasn’t working. Now I just run one and only ever play home if I have at least three four cards of interaction for him/her. Noob problems 😕
imagine if some deck just started the game with an extra card in hand. That unto itself would be extremely valuable. Now imagine you tutor for a specific card at the start of each game and put it into your hand. Now repeat that one more time. That is partially why partners are so powerful.
@DREADEDuuubGAMING a lot of partner commanders I've found fall into the category of and work best as "removal bait" as in; what appears to be a juicy, high value target that can be redeployed that fishes out your opponents interaction so you resolve something more worrisome out of the 99.
My anecdotal example: trynn and silvar are both great bait for me to be able to resolve a winnota or a felidar sovereign
Futher pushes my mindset that Wizards has never added a single Commander specific ability that is good for the format. The more they leave it alone, the better.
You're the gameplay theory equivalent to Rhystic Studies' art deep dives and historical essays. You're got a gift for seeing the big picture that I wish I had as a player and I greatly appreciate your input helping to educate me as a player. Keep this up man.
This is effectively Yuriko with extra steps haha
Great breakdown of what makes a cEDH list through the perspective of a casual deck.
Commanders with card advantage and mana ✅
Efficient combo ✅
Interaction + tutors ✅
A winning strategy no matter the price point!
Except yuriko is broken and kinda lame
@@BingbongRectoAt least killing these commanders does something, but both seem kinda lame NGL.
You should totally post gameplay with your friends, i feel like these decks would make way more interesting games than other channels like game knights
for less than a dollar Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar is a Coastal Piracy effect that only triggers once per player but is 3 mana and provides a small amount of protection for your blockable creatures, Call of the Ring is over a dollar but is a 2 mana Phyrexian Arena effect that tempts providing your small creatures with evasion and even more card advantage might be a bit win more however
Oh yeah I forgot about Grazilaxx! That might be a sweet addition.
I run that in my favorite $100 comp deck (Malcolm Kediss) and it does serious work. I’d also suggest it. It’s def better than the postal piracy affects.
Kediss w Malcom make curiosity, tandem lookout, and ophidian eye honestly broken but even in that deck I find Graz well worth the include.
Grazilaxx is probably the best coastal piracy effect since he can also theoretically reuse etb effects. but mostly just because he's only 3 mana.
Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender would be great in this deck. Sacrificing 5 artifacts per turn once you pop off will give it +5/+5 per turn, and it's also a lifegain resource in a pinch
so strange you dont have more subs, such a good content every time
I agree 100%. He's the best imo. He's getting there, and it's very well deserved. He has blown up quite a bit recently though, considering I can recall that it was not that long ago where he was around 6 or 7K
yeah i feel really lucky i randomly clicked on him from recommended videos. so many content creators in the MTG space don't do nearly as much with their videos.
he's a very new channel so there's more to come I'm sure of it
Thank you for making CZcams videos at this level of quality. I gain so much insight and learn so much about commander deck building by watching your videos. Keep creating such great content. Cheers.
You made making this deck sound so simple and easy, you really know your stuff! This is making me want to relook at all my decks, especially my control and combo decks, to make their curve and their turn to turn strategy super clean. Great video!
Great video as always! The amount of mtg insight you pack into these is impressive
The principle outlined at the end of this video reminds me of the Gruul Control deck previously covered on this channel, and a version of such a deck I had built prior on a budget of only 5$. Having a value engine in the command zone is extremely potent to allocate deck space for interaction and alleviate issues of low card quality, but having an interaction engine offers the same benefit, ensuring you almost always have an answer and can defend yourself while your deck works its magic. As someone who enjoys the mechanical intrigue of tinkering with a deck's power level, but does not enjoy particularly high level play, building well-tuned and optimized decks on a hyper-budget of 5 dollars gives me room to try to exploit cards for every penny they're worth, without becoming too oppressive in play. While I love thinking about and designing with complex commanders that explore interesting concepts, it's really this idea of value/interaction efficiency and making the most out of deck space that makes these decks punch above their weight in brass.
Hey, do you have a decklist for that budget Gruul control deck? I'm always interested in looking at interesting builds, and that one sounds very interesting.
Genuinely, how do you make a deck on a $5 budget? Even commons are like a dime a piece.
I like this deck for a few reasons not the least of which is how this demonstrates how EDHREC isn't always "right" (as you demonstrated in your ode to Skeleton Ship a bit back).
I tried to build a Francisco/Malcolm deck shortly after Francisco was released but gave up, figuring that Malcolm and Breeches just makes more sense. Adding the Time Sieve combo really gives this deck an identity beyond "pirates in worse pirate colors" or "bad ninjas/rogues/etc."
This is a really well done deck tech, I'm glad the algo sent me this way! Like some others have been saying, I really appreciate how you took the time to point out some of the decks weaknesses as well as its strengths. As someone that usually likes building his own decks, when I do follow someone elses build I feel like sometimes people can have ownership bias and tend to only tell you about all their best games/plays with their list but won't highlight the weak points, and then when someone (like me) comes along to copy it or use it as a baseline it can be a little harder to pin down whats going wrong. 10/10 video in my book!
Instantly subscribed, you're great at making videos! I want to build this deck right NOW, I want to try and solve the problems you highlighted AND I'd love for you to make more and more videos about decks! You really put the deckbuilding into the perfect perspective, one which I lost in the last months, and this explains why I'm not loving and buying any decks that I try to build anymore... Thank you, you gave me refound energy to go on and deckbuild!
The discussion of interaction and removal here reminded me of an interesting concept from yugioh dexkbuilding: managing your deck's ratio of engine to nonengine. Basically, the fewer total cards in deck you need to dedicate to your gameplan of wining the game, the more card space you can instead spend on yugioh's high-power suite of generic interaction- cards that sre the equivalent of situational free counterspells, one-sided boardwipes, etc. This deck sounds like it would be doing very well by that yugioh standard
Yeah, that's why I'd still go for the thoracle/consult/doomsday package - probs still worth it even though it takes out a chunk of your budget.
I really like your videos. they're entertaining and informative. keep it up!
Another great video, keep up the good work!
Deck's so fresh the boat got stuck near magnetic north
Your twist on the archetype gives very good ideas!
Thanks for sharing! You definitely appeal to the analytical strategist in me. I feel kindred with you in that building for fun/casual play is my priority, but I do try to maintain competitiveness and build some decks on the "sweatier" end of casual. Your thought processes are excellent and helpful for any player to think through. That being said, you challenge me to think through my decks and what I might need to do to change them or even why I should/shouldn't change them.
You're an amazing deckbuilder. All of these cards just have so much synergy
Great video, keep up the great content
Love to see it! We’ve been running a 50euro budget cedh league and it’s the most fun I’ve had in a while. I run a 50euro Tivit list around the same combo. Cool to see a similar deck!
I remember i did something similar with Selvala once. Some people on my LGS used to roflstomp casual tables with their expensive, fast mana full decks and people complained a lot about being able to "buy" power, so i built a list that was both powerful anc affordable, ending up at about $130 total (currency is different over here so it cost me less than $100 actually). To this day i only pull it out on the fastest of tables and even some cEDH pods and it always performs, and most inexperienced players dont believe its a budget deck until i show them the decklist. Power on a budget is very much achievable and very, very fun to do so
This is the reason channels like this one and Commanders Quarters are important and worth recommending to newer players. Budget decks can slap, it just takes more thought than opening your wallet.
Incredible! Really cool deck building advice too
Excellent work. You gained a new sub!
Your videos are so awesome. Love all the reasons you give about you deck crafting decisions. I really want to see you do a grist the hungertide deck, he's one of my favorite commanders but I have yet to figure him out from a budget standpoint.
Love the deck! Can't wait to give it a try. As a solution to your early creatures being blocked, I've used Cover of Darkness in similar decks with great success.
Snail never disappoints me with his simple, effective and elegant wisdom. Good vid Snail!
looks like an awesome deck! Appreciate the focus on the most likely t1-t2-t3 playpattern. Feels like a lot of commander deck techs don't consider this too much.
incredible as always. bro is inspiring
i absolutely love magic, specifically the deck building aspect, but unfortunately had to give it up because there are no decent play groups in my area (buncha winter orb type people if you know what i mean). This channel just perfectly scratches that itch that i found in the game, so thank you for uploading! 100% subbed and binging these videos.
Yep, I built this same deck on a $30 budget and it's both super fun and quite strong. Nice video!
After watching this it helped me to solve the problems of my Hakbal deck that also needs the commander to be in play to do its thing
Love the deck, I have a similar Malcolm partner deck and one card that does absolute work is March of swirling mist, could easily take out one of your harder removal spells for it like slaughter pact
I have been playing magic for two years now and I just found your channel today.
Who will give me back the years I lost??
I'm currently building an Eisenhorn deck based on a similar idea (create a lot of clue, sacrifice them with Time Sieve) and I must say, this video gave me a ton of good advice.
Love this sort o videos! While the archetypes you play are not my jam, you definitely present, what is the plan with every deck. Also nice to see really creative approach, because I am good at scouring scryfall and filtering out low quality cards, and more or less stabilizing gameplan, the decks still end up costing 200-380$. Although, tri-color manabases and some high-power cards (that used to be cheap) add up real quick.
I also built these as a budget strong deck!
I like that we had similar ideas, the difference was that i went for big CMC sorcery as my win con. That made it so i dont play the artifact package and instead plays more interaction.
Love this pair!
Dude, I love this vid
It really did give me a lot to think about with my red blue pirate deck. Its fundamentaly different than what malcolm and Francisco can offer (not being able to filter as often, but plundering from opponents instead)
But it did help me see that maybe some cards need to be cut
Especially seeing you run all 4 bident of thassa cards made me rethink how i should build my deck
The interaction suite too, maybe i should add more to mine
most definitely trying this at my LGS, seems really fun and strong
These are some of the best mtg strategy videos I've bumped into
Honestly this is such a cool deck. Thinking about the early turns and how I want to develop are something I really thought about with my Safana / Dungeon Delver deck. That deck isn't a combo deck, it's much more of a control deck, but it has a lot of the same principles. Safana is just a very strong card once she gets going. So seeing those same principles applied by others is cool!
Also Oaken Siren is cool! I've played her in the Captain Storm Cosmium Raider and having an artifact pirate that also is a vigilant flier for counters ended up making the card really impactful.
We have converged on the same idea. However, I went Izzet and used Kediss as my 2nd partner with Malcolm. Kediss allows Malcolm to gain +2 treasures, and if Kediss can find an opening with an Amoeboid Changeling or Imagecrafter activation, even more. Glint-Horn Buccaneer + Malcolm/Curiosity/Tandem Lookout/Ophidian's Eye is the primary combo, but you never feel bad slapping any of those on Malcolm and drawing 3 with Kediss. The secondary wincon is burn/burst with Price of Progress, Fireblast, Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time, with Surge to Victory or Candlekeep Inspiration. Funny how that plays out!
Please make more decks like this, this deck is incredibly fun!
Theres some fun Izzet version of this with a partner pirate that has a fun steal effect
I'm glad I was working the greaveyard shift this moth. It let me catch this video right after it came out!
i do like how there's still meany different ways such a simple deck can be built, as an example i made a version of this deck that adds a little more draw value to a normal use of cards, removal, counter spells and pirates have a lot of options and that what makes working with Malcolm and Fransisco so much fun as commanders.
they cooked with the pirate commanders!
I have a high-powered $100 Yuriko deck which started in a similar place to your build (replacing cheap pirates with cheap ninjas, similar attack-draw and counter suite). In the end, I still added the demonic/thoracle/doomsday lines. They take up half the deck's budget but they also minimise the footprint of the win cons, letting you go up to 20+ interaction cards and a few cedh bombs like peer into the abyss.
This guy understands edh very well. The space that the plan to win occupies in midrange decks is the main reason they don't run much interaction. Also the commander mana value and the curve of the deck is very important.
I do think the land count is somewhat low if you want to hit your fourth land drop on turn 4 consistently. But I don't have much experience with Francisco. It's possible the filtering is enough and the land count is fine. Also the treasures help.
Very nice deck and video!
I built a somewhat similar deck around malcolm and keddiss, once again playing commanders early then going heavier on the treasures, playing stuff like xorn/lizard blades for extra treasures and then finishing with a burn spell, love malcolm
extremely interesting deck, very cool video showing it off
I had a similar idea for my upgraded olivia opulent outlaw precon by adding a small engine of vile entomber (outlaw) and lively dirge (coupled with a low curve) to send anger and a select few flashback cards. The deck is full of evasive creatures and will tap out each turn to rely on treasure mana to interact. The deck can easily fly under the radar as the opponents will just see a handful of weak evasive dudes before they get pumped up and extra combats are made for massive damage and lifelink. These types of decks are by far the most fun to build and really showcase a person's ability and passion.
I do love time sieve, as it fits perfectly into my Lurrus / Bjorna / Wernog artifact token deck. It fits the Lurrus restritction, is a win condition, and perfectly utilizes the mountain of tokens I vomit out.
The problem is however that the deck has difficulty winning quickly, mostly building up a sir ginger or similar, and swining with it until the opponent runs out of blockers. This takes a lot of turns, and since most of my engine pieces are two mana, I generally do not achieve a deterministic infinite turns combo, but one that heavily relies on scrying about 10x a turn, finding some artifacts, drawing those, and looping graveyard artifacts.
If this would happen sometimes, it would be fine, however as the deck has a lot of draw and scry, since it needs to make the most of 2 mana cards, it can quite consistently find time sieve, and with time sieve being by far the most consistent way to close out games, it basically loses everything else.
The main ways to counteract it I thought of where adding disciple of the vault, as an aristocrat that can shorten the amount of turns needed. Or add thopter foundry + sword of the meek as a combo to make it deterministic, and thus be able to be shortcut. Diciple of the vault is currently being tested, sword + foundry simply does not work, as the cards are mostly dead when they are not used as combo pieces (you would think that thopter foundry would do things in an artifact deck, however three games showed that it does close to nothing normally)
I have the same deck built! ThopterFoundry/Sword of the Meek/Time Sieve is the classic combo, letting you make thopter tokens for 1 mana each, which even after the 5 you sacrifice every turn will close out a game pretty fast. If I can't get those online, or my backup animate dead combo, I typically try to win with Cranial Plating or Michiko's Reign of Truth.
Sword of the Meek isn't quite dead because I can recast a 1/1 from my grave every turn with Lurrus, and Bjorna can sacrifice it for more goads. Thopter Foundry is more likely to be dead; it has niche applications as being a way to get some artifacts into my graveyard if Bjorna is dead or if I'm trying to kill multiple artifacts per turn.
@@bekeleven Reign of Truth sounds like a nice alternative to cranial plating I might try it.
What is the Animate Dead combo? I know it has a lot of combo's associated, however worldgorger dragon is not quite Lurrus material.
Thank you for responding by the way, I really appreciate it
I enjoyed this. Thank you
Might have to try using your method. The planning of those first 5 turns to perfection is really inspiring. Most of my decks don't have a clear wincon (outside of my Mikaeus combo deck) and therefore durdle around just having fun and generating value. Maybe starting with a high power "Win by turn 5" deck plan is a good way to start
Looks like a pretty fun pirate deck, been wanting to make one!
The snail is back!
techo pfp😭
Great video. I took lots of inspiration to build my own version.
I would love to see a „upgraded“ version where you put maybe 50 dollars worth of cards into it
Like the reference to Time Pirates in the deck title. Spellskite, Teferi's Veil and Slip Out The Back might also be more convenient ways to protect your stuff than counterspells.
Man you just keep pulling ideas straight out of my brain lol
I was building a similar deck without the infinite combo. Evasive pirates hitting hard and being difficult to kill with counterspells and feign death effect as protection. A bunch of curiosity effects and funny equipments and on hit effects (vorpal blade, phyresis, etc...) to finish the games.
I couldn't fit it in our very restrictive budget league so I gave up on it but maybe I should try again.
this deck is awesome, also i highly recommend military intelligence (and maybe mask of memory) for draw! i have a similar deck that loves these cards
Waw, that's the best and clearest deck tech i have ever seen ! I tip you my pirate hat ;)
Holy shit. That is one dirty deck. Love it.
Great insight
If you don't mind adding a 5 drop, kindred discovery is a bident of thassa that also makes your 1 drop pirates cantrip. This is definitely a riskier card as it doesn't fit in the 5 turn plan, but the card is a great recovery option
Since Malcolm is sort of crucial and knowing he will be targeted, there are some responses that are cheaper than counter spells that would probably be better keeps in opening hands. First ones that come to mind are hex proof providing instants, such as Shore Up that costs 1 mana. If a deck relies on a certain creature of mine to stick on the board, I like cards like those. Mizzium Skin is a personal favorite, as it can be overloaded and grant hexproof to your board. :)) Even, You See a Guard Approach could be good, since knowing you want to connect early for the treasure you can tap something before blockers can be declared too.
I have a fog deck, and every time I see a combat damage commander, I’m reminded of exactly why I made it.
Looks like Edric "flying man" I built a while ago. But I went into another road - with not a Time Sieve, but with a extra turn spells like versions of Time Warp. Also I use Druids' Repository as a mana solution for it. But it's a little bit more pricey - I ended up with about 3 times more expensive deck. And Francisco wasn't even around, when I was building it, so I, guess it's a great improvement over the similar concept.
If you are willing to wait for turn 4-5 to cast malcolm you could cut the 4 bident of thassa effects and add more artifact based ramp to ensure you have a counterspell up incase your commander gets hit by removal, in the case he does not get hit you could possibly still combo afterwards depending on your current board while still having countermagic up.
oh man the counterspell and treasures tech in this is evillll
A currently still very cheap card is Mirrodin Besieged. This is one of my favorite cards and to this day I still have yet to find a deck it cannot fit in with minimal effort. Your deck would benefit from an artifacts package (misleading signpost, talismans', etc.) and since francisco ditches cards when not needed you can dump your grave pretty hard and get 15 artifacts fairly reasonably. While it does not win the game on the spot, you take out the biggest threat, and put your other two opponents on a one turn and two turn clock depending on threat level. It forces players to expend extra resources to get rid of it and puts you in a much stronger position.
Food for thought :)
Another factor to consider is that Malcolm (and Francisco's) ability triggers on ANY damage to opponents, not just combat damage. The 3xtreasures per turn (from combat) can then be supplemented with cards such as Pirate Ship plus untapper or with Captain's Hook/Pirated Copy/Maskwood Nexus on any number of Creeping Bloodsucker/Thrashing Wumpus/"damage each opponent/player creature".
This does not increase the efficiency of the deck in this video but certainly could help add resilience-y and flavour/jank element to the deck.
definitely building this in paper! Thanks for the video. Is there any way to recur the time sieve if it gets destroyed pre combat or do we just move to plan B ?
I opted not to include any because I found Malcolm getting killed was a more common issue for the deck, but I've considered adding in Argivian Restoration or Emergency Weld, and one of those would be a good add in a meta where Krosan Grip is popular.
Nice video! I like how the individually unassuming cards make up a great deck! As a follow-up to this video: What non-budget options would you consider? Black market connection comes to mind immediately.
If I could add a single non-budget card it would be Grim Hireling, card is just straight up a double Malcolm. Beyond that, mostly just updates to the draw and interaction of the deck.
You could run brainstorm due to its nature as straight up draw (avoiding the problem that creature-based draw has) as well as allowing the cards put back on top to be milled through fransisco
Another great video from the best slimy little magic player on the tube
While I definitely see the fun in hyper optimizing a deck, most of the time when I build my decks, I’m looking for ways to have a variety of interactions from game to game so that the time and money I spent putting the deck together goes longer. To me it seems like a streamlined deck only does one thing every game, and maybe that’s a fault of my own. This vid inspired me to take a look at my own decks again just to do a little more streamlining, and even look to build a deck for the sole purpose of streamlining it!
Had a similar idea with time sieve but used eloise, nephalia sleuth, and then used myr battlesphere, other token generators and some recursion to aim for infinite or at least a bunch of terms, and marionette master to finish people off, its definitely a lot of fun
"this video ended up a little longer than i was intending" that's how it goes, lol. no one from youtubers to published authors can escape length creep
I like the idea of this. But are there more alternative wincons we can potentially add besides the ones mentioned in the video?
Malcolm is one of the strongest cheap commanders, for sure. The most disgusting commander deck I own is a Malcom + Kediss deck which can fairly reliably finish the game in an infinite combo in a few rounds, and it runs ~80 bucks when I remove the shock and fetch from it.
Doesn't get much play, because it's just not how the regular pod plays, but I still like what it does a whole lot.
im definitely gunna steal this idea 😂😂 ill add my own stuff of course but i love this deck. also in every blue deck, run a telepathy.
I wonder what the win rate would be with out the budge limit. A while back i was looking at running pirates and this looks like a fun way to build. I think i got a lot of the cards you mentioned along with other cards to buff the deck up. If i had a playgroup to hang with i might end up running something like this.
You’ve gotta give Malcolm and Kediss a go, Kediss giving you 3 treasures a turn any turn you can get in with Malcolm is insane. Plus with red you get access to glint horn buccaneer for an amazing combo finish.
Weirdly similar to how I built the new Outlaw Olivia (which I think is her optimal state). She runs pirates, low cmc creatures, evasive beats, then wins with the treasures fueling a combo (in this case Aggravated Assault). I don't it's as powerful on a budget just because of the three-color mana base and the white stax effects to keep everything safe; but it does scratch the same itch deck composition wise.
Love these videos please keep them up. Question for you sal' can you create a deck for us where if your commander gets punished the deck can still make it and win. My casual EDH decks are incredibly commander-centric "hence commander format" but commanders with emminence and other commanders I have chosen i can technically win without casting them. Would love to see your take on a budget deck that achieves this.
babe wake up new salubrious snail dropped
Great video! I'd look at adding Grazillax.
just recently built malcom and fransisco, i went futher into artifacts and holy it feels strong, the curve is so easy and so consistent. i also have a lower power non combo centric version of this deck and my experience is no one ever wants to remove fransisco cause killing a 2 drop feels bad. the other version i run focuses more on the evasive creatures and card draw on combat damage
Would love a deck list as I tend to dont run combo in my group
This looks very neat. Maybe I would convert my (upgraded precon) Admiral Brass deck in something like this. Maybe not that centered in the combo and playing more in the treasure theme with cards like Mirkwood bats and Marionette Master
Love Malcom because it doesn't say a pirate has to deal "combat" damage to create a treasure. love turning a [[Reckless Fireweaver]] or [[Ingenious Artillerist]] into a pirate and pinging everyone into oblivion.
excellent video, love the discussion of thoughts!
Oh wow
This'll be an interesting watch later
I'm working on a Blue Red version of this, with Breeches as the red commander
I wanna glean insight on how i could improve my list
I made a similar deck, except I used kediss to really amp up the treasures
have you considered running the artifact lands? they seem super good in this deck
OAKEN SIREN MENTIONED
For recovering from major setbacks, have you considered patriarch's bidding? Could be a good way of rebuilding - especially with francisco filtering more stuff into the bin. You could also swap out a counterspell for Teferi's Veil as a more proactive way of protecting your board from catching stray boardwipes
Excellent video! Patreon supporter here Really like this kind of content. Specially liked to see you highlighting the weak spots of the deck and how to play around them. For the next ones I would also suggest adding a quick mulligan "guide" - you did something similar in laying down the 5/6 turn gameplan, but I'd be very interested in seeing what makes you keep some hands. I'm guessing I liked this deck so much that I want more :)
For instance in this deck specifically, what makes you keep a hand with no 1-drops? Because IMO a turn 2 Francisco without a previous 1-drop is quite bad. So I am guessing you are at least looking for a hand with a 1-drop, or a 2-drop that you can line up with Malcolm. Mulliganing anything else, is that right?
First two hands typically get mulliganed if they don't have a one drop unless they're perfect in every other way. Once I'm at risk of going down to 5 or less cards I get a bit less picky. 2-cost evasive pirates are one of the things I look for, with other Malcolm and Kitesail Freebooter being the strongest, and in a pinch I also might keep a hand with a Combat Research type effect that can buff my Francisco to attack with on turn 3, preferably with a mana rock I can also play out if I don't draw into a pirate.
@@salubrioussnail makes sense thanks!
Cool deck, I imagine it plays quite similar to strong yuriko lists