Lorwyn Eclipsed Pirates Theme Deck Upgrade Guide

Fearless Swashbuckler | Illustration by Konstantin Porubov

With the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed, a new wave of themed decks has surfaced! This time, pirates are among the featured crews. Packed with evasive threats, vehicles, and a handful of shiny tricks, the big question is whether the treasure they bring is actually worth digging for. Is this deck a solid pickup, or just flashy loot? Let’s find out.

Sale

Magic: the Gathering 60-Card Theme Deck - Pirates

• 60-CARD THEME DECK—Accessible, ready-to-play decks filled with iconic Magic themes. A fun, fast entry into Standard format—choose a theme that fits you and jump right in
• WHAT IS STANDARD?—Standard is Magic's most-played 60-card constructed format, where you build decks from the most recently released sets. Dynamic gameplay and evolving strategies make Standard one of the most fun and popular ways to play!
• CONTENTS—1 battle-ready 60-card Pirates theme deck, 1 deck box, 5 double-sided token cards, 1 strategy insert, and 1 reference card

$17.33

Buy on Amazon

What Is the Lorwyn Eclipsed Pirates Theme Deck?

The Lorwyn Eclipsed Pirates Theme Deck is a ready-to-play 60-card Standard deck built around an Izzet () Pirates aggro-midrange strategy. It focuses on attacking early with evasive pirates, then using vehicles and discard effects to turn combat into card advantage and growing threats. Out of the box, it does a solid job of showcasing those synergies, but it isn’t quite as fast as other Izzet decks in the format, and the weaker mana base can slow it down at times, even though it’s only a 2-color deck.

With some tuning, however, it can become a very strong option for players on a budget. Before going into upgrades, let's break down what the deck is trying to do first, and then talk about how we can refine that idea.

The Deck

Overall Theme and Strategy

Out of the box, the main appeal of this deck is pirates. You want to curve out with aggressive, evasive creatures, keep attacking, and turn combat into card flow. Cards like Spyglass Siren and Staunch Crewmate help you dig for gas early, while Secluded Courtyard makes sticking to your plan smooth and consistent.

From there, the deck branches into two subthemes that intentionally overlap: Vehicles and discard. These aren’t separate plans so much as they are two engines designed to feed each other during combat.

The vehicle subtheme gives the deck power and reach. Subterranean Schooner is the cleanest example, turning any small pirate into a growing threat through explore, while only needing crew 1. Gastal Thrillroller adds speed with haste and even uses discard to come back from the graveyard, and Magmatic Galleon acts as a finisher that removes blockers and converts excess damage into Treasure.

The discard subtheme is where the deck really clicks. Cards like Fearless Swashbuckler reward you for attacking with both a pirate and a vehicle by drawing and discarding, which keeps the momentum going. Inti, Seneschal of the Sun turns every attack step discard into counters, trample, and pseudo-card advantage, while Captain Howler, Sea Scourge converts discarded cards into huge damage bursts and extra cards.

Even your cheap threats like Marauding Mako and Scrounging Skyray scale naturally with discard and can cycle themselves to trigger those payoffs.

In terms of identity, this deck sits firmly in the Izzet aggro-midrange space. You’re not an all-in aggro deck that empties its hand as fast as possible, but you aren’t a slow control deck. Instead, you rely on early pressure from pirates, then use vehicles and discard synergies to keep cards flowing and turn combat into value.

That said, the current Standard environment rewards tighter curves and more immediate impact, and that’s where this list can use some refinement. There are recommended changes I would strongly encourage, aimed at speeding up the early game, reducing clunky draws, and helping the deck better compete with the faster Izzet builds and other decks you’re likely to face.

4x Riverpyre Verge

The first change I would make is tightening up the mana base, and that’s where cards like Riverpyre Verge come in. These lands do a great job of smoothing your early turns while still entering untapped in most real games, which is crucial for an aggressive Izzet deck. No matter what other changes you make later, improving the mana should always come first. That said, these are on the pricier end at roughly $20 each, so it’s completely reasonable to trim them down. If you do, running just two alongside a mix of Steam Vents or Thundering Falls works just fine. I personally prefer shocks here since they don’t enter tapped, even if you pay some life.

4x Spirebluff Canal

With Spirebluff Canal being reprinted multiple times, it’s easy to pick up a full set for around $10. These should be your first mana investment. In an aggro-midrange deck, they enter untapped early very consistently, and in the late game, when they might come in tapped, you can simply pitch them to your many discard outlets without feeling bad.

2x Thundering Falls

These are optional, but I like having a couple. The surveil matters more than it looks, especially in longer games where filtering your draws or setting up discard synergies adds up. Still, at roughly $12–15 each, they’re easy to skip. If you do, you can lean harder on the Secluded Courtyard copies that already come with the deck.

2x Steam Vents

With the recent set release, Steam Vents should continue trending down in price. My optimal build only needs two, but you could easily go up to four and cut the surveil lands entirely. A setup with 4× Steam Vents and 4× Secluded Courtyard is perfectly serviceable if you want a cleaner, simpler mana base. I prefer the mixed approach, but flexibility is important.

3x Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel

Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel is a very underrated card and one you can usually grab for a few dollars total. It does everything this deck wants: evasion, pirate synergy, and built-in looting. The “free spell” text doesn’t come up often, but if the game drags on, it can absolutely steal wins. Even without that, a flying pirate that loots on hit is exactly where you want to be.

1x Gastal Thrillroller

The deck already runs one copy, but I strongly recommend adding a second. Gastal Thrillroller is a solid attacker with haste, and in this deck, it comes back from the graveyard more often than you’d expect since discarding it is part of the plan. At around 50 cents, it’s a very low-risk upgrade.

1x Subterranean Schooner

This is one of the deck’s core engines, and at roughly 50 cents per copy, there’s no reason not to run the full set. Subterranean Schooner turns your cheap creatures into real threats and keeps your attacks profitable through explore. Vehicles also effectively give haste to new creatures, since you can crew and attack immediately, keeping pressure high.

4x Spectral Sailor

About half a dollar for a playset, Spectral Sailor is an easy inclusion. It’s a pirate, it has built-in evasion, and it plays well on both offense and defense (in a pinch) thanks to flash. In grindy games, the card draw ability becomes very relevant and helps you keep up with slower decks.

2x Staunch Crewmate

This is another card where you really want the full set. Staunch Crewmate provides much-needed card advantage by digging for pirates or vehicles, and the body it leaves behind is perfect for attacking or crewing. It does a lot of quiet work holding the deck together.

3x Gran-Gran

Gran-Gran is the honorary pirate of the deck. While it isn’t technically a pirate, the ability is perfect for this strategy. Tapping it to crew vehicles turns into looting, which directly fuels discard payoffs like Marauding Mako. It doesn’t even need to attack to generate value, which makes it surprisingly flexible.

4x Firebending Lesson

This card is often worse than Burst Lightning on rate, but I still like it here because it’s a lesson. That matters with Gran-Gran, and it also opens the door to sideboard lessons that can be relevant against the metagame. The flexibility makes up for the slightly lower power level.

Other Cards to Try

When considering your sideboard, it will always depend on your local meta, but cards like Negate, Flashfreeze, Annul, Spell Snare, and lessons such as Accumulate Wisdom are solid tools you can mix and match.

You can also move some existing cards like Broadside Barrage or Magmatic Galleon to the sideboard. They lose some relevance in the main deck but shine in specific matchups, where they can swing games after sideboarding.

Cards to Remove

This upgrade guide removes the following cards from the deck:

• 2x Magmatic Galleon
• 4x Scrounging Skyray
• 3x Fearless Swashbuckler
• 2x Spell Snare
• 4x Burst Lightning
• 2x Broadside Barrage
• 1x Mountain
• 2x Island
• 4x Secluded Courtyard
• 4x Swiftwater Cliffs

I’m generally not a fan of picking up a new deck and completely tearing it apart, but there are a few cards from the original build that I would rather bench to make room for cleaner upgrades.

To start, Spell Snare is a strong card, no doubt about it, but it feels much better as a sideboard option than a maindeck staple. The same applies to Magmatic Galleon. While powerful, it’s fairly expensive for the main deck and lines up better in post-board games where you know you need that kind of top-end removal and reach.

From a budget perspective, cards like Swiftwater Cliffs are totally fine, but they’re far from optimal. This deck runs several blue and red 1-drops that you actively want to cast on turn 1, and lands that enter tapped can get in the way of that plan. Relying more on untapped duals makes the deck feel much smoother and faster overall.

As mentioned earlier, you can absolutely keep Burst Lightning if you prefer the efficiency. That said, if you’re leaning harder into the discard and lesson package, swapping it for Firebending Lesson makes sense, especially with Gran-Gran in the mix. It’s a small downgrade in raw power, but a meaningful upgrade in synergy.

Lastly, we need to talk about Fearless Swashbuckler. If this were a 2-mana pirate, it would be an easy include. At 3 mana though, it feels too expensive for what it does, even with haste and a strong attack trigger. This ends up being one of the tougher cuts, but it’s necessary to tighten the curve.

Scrounging Skyray falls into a similar category. While the evasion and growth are nice, it’s largely outclassed by Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel, which is also a pirate and comes with flying, flash, and built-in discard value. Malcolm doesn’t grow, but the overall package is simply stronger and more consistent, making Skyray an easy trim once you upgrade the list.

Final Deck and New Cards

Here’s the final version of the deck with all the changes we’ve discussed.

If you’re only interested in picking up the cards you’re missing, you can do so directly by using the shopping cart icon.

Wrap Up

Malcolm, Alluring Scoundrel | Illustration by Fesbra

From what I could find, the rough price for this deck is around $24 on Amazon and similar retailers, which feels appropriate. That said, it falls a bit short when it comes to value. You can likely pick up the full list for under $10 in singles, which makes the sealed version harder to justify. Personally, I’d rather spend closer to $40 building the deck piece by piece and end up with a much stronger, more refined version.

Also, why pirates now? The only Lorwyn card is Spell Snare, which is a reprint, so yeah… WotC strikes again, I guess.

Sale

Magic: the Gathering 60-Card Theme Deck - Pirates

• 60-CARD THEME DECK—Accessible, ready-to-play decks filled with iconic Magic themes. A fun, fast entry into Standard format—choose a theme that fits you and jump right in
• WHAT IS STANDARD?—Standard is Magic's most-played 60-card constructed format, where you build decks from the most recently released sets. Dynamic gameplay and evolving strategies make Standard one of the most fun and popular ways to play!
• CONTENTS—1 battle-ready 60-card Pirates theme deck, 1 deck box, 5 double-sided token cards, 1 strategy insert, and 1 reference card

$17.33

Buy on Amazon

What do you think? Would you be interested in trying this deck out? What other changes or directions would you take it in? Let us know in the comments. And if you enjoyed this kind of content, be sure to follow us on social media so you never miss an update.

Take care, and I’ll see you again in the next article.

Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to make a purchase, you’ll help Draftsim continue to provide awesome free articles and apps.