Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Ramirez DePietro, Pillager!

Ramirez is a four mana 4/3 that when he enters we lose 2 life and create two Treasure tokens and whenever one or more Pirates we control deal combat damage to a player we exile the top card of that player’s library and we can cast that card for as long as it remains exiled.

Pirate shenanigans are abound, making sure that we can take our opponents things and use them for our own benefit. Running a Pirate theft deck is not out of the ordinary, and Ramirez is not doing anything revolutionary in being able to steal our opponents cards.

What is interesting about Ramirez is that he has the enters trigger in being able to make Treasures, and that seems to be a much more interesting build around than just a pure theft deck. Our goal is to be making a bunch of Treasures to get the most value from our Pirates and our “Pirates” that we use to get our opponents cards.

The first thing that we need to do is to have a few ways to blink Ramirez in order to start piling in on the Treasures.

Siren’s Ruse is a blink/flicker card that I had no idea existed, and it turn’s out to be a perfect card for the deck since it is specifically coded to be a blink spell for a Pirate typal deck since if we blink a Pirate, then we can draw a card.

While it is nice to have a typal flicker spell, we do have plenty of other spells we can use that aren’t typal coded that will work well with our deck like Ghostly Flicker, which can flicker two artifacts, creatures, and/or lands.

Essence Flux is a one mana flicker which works better if we had Spirits but works well enough because it is one mana, Planar Incision is a generic flicker spell that also gives the creature that it flickers a +1/+1 counter, and Teferi’s Time Twist is a blink spell that brings the creature back at the beginning of the end step with a +1/+1 counter which can be useful when protecting Ramirez from a board wipe.

Conjurer’s Closet has been getting a decent number of reprintings lately, which is great since it makes it way cheaper to include in a deck like this since at the beginning of your end step you can flicker a creature you control, meaning you can get a ton of Ramirez triggers.

The next thing that we need to look for are some more Pirates that can be evasive and can get us some value.

Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator is the prime example of this being an evasive flier that can also make you some more Treasures whenever one or more Pirates you control deal damage to you opponents, making you a Treasure for each opponent dealt damage.

Speaking of Pirates that happen to get value for your Pirates dealing damage that also happen to have flying and Partner, there is Francisco, Fowl Marauder who explores whenever one or more Pirates we control deal damage to player, which can help us get lands to our hand at the very least while also slowly becoming a big threat.

Corsair Captain enters with a Treasure token and gives other Pirates we control +1/+1, Fathom Fleet Captain can make more Pirate tokens with menace when it attacks if we control another nontoken Pirate and pay two mana, and Merchant Raiders taps another creature and prevents it from untapping when it or another Pirate enters the battlefield.

Departed Deckhand is an interesting Pirate because when it becomes the target of a spell it is sacrificed, but it can only be blocked by Spirits, which means that early on unless your opponents want to waste a removal spell on a 2/2, we can have an early reliable way to get some damage in. Plus it also happens to give the unblockable except to Spirits ability to another creature for three and a blue.

While we definitely are primarily going to focus on playing mostly Pirates, I do want to shout out Changeling Outcast being a Changeling creature that can’t block but more importantly cannot be blocked as an integral piece since it can help us get more triggers from Ramirez.

Now if you have access to a Roaming Throne then I suggest you add it to the deck since it can make the deck a lot more effective in doubling triggered abilities like Ramirez’s as well as some other Pirates, but keep in mind that you don’t need it for the deck to function well.

If you want a solid substitute for it while gaining a different avenue of value, then I would suggest going for Academy Manufactor, which makes a Clue, Food, and Treasure instead when you try to make one of those types of tokens.

Now that we have a ton of Pirates and ideally a ton of Treasures, what are we going to use them for? Things that interact with a ton of artifacts.

Deadeye Plunderers is an example of something that interacts well with the number of artifacts that we control by getting a +1/+1 for each artifact we control, while also having a mana sink ability in being able to make more Treasures.

Along with that we can also play Worldwalker Helm, which makes a Map token whenever we make one or more artifact tokens and can also pay mana to make a token copy of an artifact token we control to get even more Treasures.

We can then use all of these Treasures to cast Summoning Station, which taps to make a 2/2 Pincher token, but untaps itself whenever an artifact is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, meaning that the more Treasures we have and use, the more creature tokens we get into play.

Arcbound Crusher is a Modular creature with trample that gets bigger whenever another artifact enters, Whir of Invention can be used to tutor an artifact from out of our deck with cost X or less while having Improvise to have our tokens tap to help pay for it, and Blinkmoth Urn to make a ton of mana for each artifact we control (it is symmetrical).

We can win via using our opponents cards, but if we need some back up ways to win then we can use the staples of Revel in Riches to win us the game if we have ten or more Treasures at the beginning of our upkeep while also making Treasure whenever a creature an opponent controls dies and Mechanized Production which makes a token copy of the artifact it is enchanting and if we happen to control eight or more artifacts with the same name (any artifact not just the enchanted one) then we win the game.

Ramirez is an engine Commander in which the deck is built around getting a ton of Treasures into play via his ability while also occasionally stealing our opponents things. The theft aspect is underplayed in this deck because that is the obvious route most people would expect, but the Treasure route may catch people off guard.

What this deck will have issues with is potentially driving our life total low because Ramirez does drain us when he comes into play. There are ways we can mitigate this, though it does dilute the deck with cards that keep us alive rather than win the game.

Risk for reward is playing very much into how much hubris you are willing to feel if you lose, but that is the life of the Pirate, at least in Magic.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual