Welcome to my first mini-article series where I talk about one card and present at least one deck. Sites like MTGSalvation would call this a MTGS Mini. Sites like Star City Games would call this a Deck A Day. Sites like MTG.com would call it Single Card Strategies. Magic Deck Vortex calls it a “One Card to Rule them All”. I couldn’t just copy one of the other titles, now could I? Anyway, today I’m going to talk about Coastal Piracy.

Given that I just recently posted the Mercadian Masques visual spoiler, I ran across quite a few cards I completely forgot about. Note that you will see the first few articles in this series revolving around Masques cards because of this.  Coastal Piracy is one of those cards that caught my attention.

If any of you remember the Tempest Block, I’m sure you remember a card called Curiosity (recently Timeshifted into Keen Sense). Curiosity was a FANTASTIC card. Slap it on any creature with evasion (like shadow) and you get one extra card a turn in most scenarios. I L-O-V-E-D this card. Scryb Sprite – golden. Squirming Mass – cute. Metathran Soldier – perfect! There are many creatures out there perfectly fitted for Curiosity, and Metathran is among the best.

Then there’s Coastal Piracy...

Back to this Enchantment from Masques, Coastal Piracy is like a mass-curiosity. With Coastal Piracy, any creature that deals combat damage to an opponent is like a creature with Curiosity. The end result is that you deal damage and gain a card. Or, shall I say, you gain an extra card for each creature you have in play that dealt damage to an opponent and deal lots of damage. It’s beautiful.

For those of you completely unfamiliar with Coastal Piracy, it was originally printed as an uncommon in Mercadian Masques and then later reprinted in Eighth Edition as a rare. That’s got to say something for the card – to jump from an uncommon to a rare shows that the card is powerful. It may not be as powerful as a Black Lotus or Mox of any type, but it is indeed a card to fear and loathe (in Las Vegas)… In the right deck, it can be downright nasty.

Let’s first take a look at a deck by Mark Gottlieb, as published on the MTG.com website:

Remember what I said about mixing the card with evasion creatures? This deck does just that. It combines both Curiosity AND Coastal Piracy with evasive creatures. Cephalid Inkshrouder, Escape Artist and Phantom Warrior all have or are capable of being unblockable. Sage Owl, Spiketail Hatchling, Thought Nibbler and Wormfang Drake all have flying. Every creature in the deck, except for Hapless Researcher, have evasion. It’s a perfect match for Coastal Piracy.

However, it’s a bit boring for my tastes. Just having a deck full of evasion creatures isn’t all that exciting.  I'm not knocking down MaGo's deckbuilding style.  This is a good deck.  It has a mana curve, it's focused and the card selections are well chosen.  It's just not to my preference. Let's find some other synergies, shall we?

But first, lets look at a less toned deck revolving more around tribal – Pirates. The following deck was found in the forums on MTGS using Pirates as a theme:

It’s obvious this was a group made deck, as it was, that focused more on a theme than playability. However, it still has some of the same concepts of the first deck. In terms of evasion, Talas Warrior is unblockable. Then Talas Scout, Cloud Pirates and Rishadan Brigand have flying. Unfortunately, the rest of the creatures all have some silly comes into play ability or ability upon dealing damage. Then there’s the Pirate Ship, added just for flavor…

One thing that is clever in this deck is the Cloudstone Curio. It combos with the Rishadan Pirates for comes into play abilities. You know, the Cutpurse and Brigand that make an opponent sacrifice a permanent unless he or she pays X (depending on the pirate). This is relatively ingenious – despite it being minimally executed in the deck’s card choices.

While I must admit this deck is lacking in consistency and focus, it does seem quite fun and flavorful with cards like Hoodwink and Coastal Piracy.

Other Synergies…

Now that we’ve looked at two sample decks, knowing that I haven’t even shown you some of the multi-color decks I found online, it’s time to get down to business. Some things I would like to point out about Coastal Piracy include:

• Coastal Piracy has a better effect when your creatures can't be blocked. This can be accomplished by unblockable creatures, creatures with evasion, preventing creatures from coming on the board (discard), and also by bouncing creatures to the hand to prevent your creatures from ever being blocked.
• Coastal Piracy only triggers upon COMBAT damage. And thus, pingers won’t trigger it. Cards like Prodigal Sorcerer and his progeny won’t work with Coastal Piracy. However, creatures dealing normal damage will – which leads me into my next point.
• Coastal Piracy has twice the potency when an unblockable creature (or creature with evasion) has double-strike. Thus netting you two cards when it would only normally net you one.
• Coastal Piracy likes to have company. That is, more than one Coastal Piracy is like having double, triple or whatever strike -- minus the extra damage but with the extra card drawing.
• Lastly, don't forget about animating other cards into creatures as another means for surprise and victory. Coastal Piracy may not net you a card for an enchantment or land just sitting there looking pretty, but it sure will work if that card becomes a creature by some other means.

I’m sure you Johnny’s out there are already thinking of cards like Greater Morphling, Boros Swiftblade, Fireshrieker, Copy Enchantment, Overrun and a Hurricane followed up by Levitation. Or even Unveiling Oddity!?! Whichever card you are thinking of, I’m sure it will work. But I’m not here to build your deck for you.

However, that doesn’t mean I haven’t built a deck myself, which I care to share with you. What fun would a “one card to rule them all” article be without a deck by its author. And thus, I bring to you the following deck:

Coastal Rule incorporates two of the points I made above including using creatures with evasion and creatures with double-strike. Unblockable creatures include Phantom Warrior, Hunted Phantasm, Escape Artist and Deep-Sea Kraken. Creatures with evasion, a.k.a. Flying, include Spiketail Hatchling and the animated land Faerie Conclave.

Double strike comes in the form of Fireshrieker. While the Fireshrieker wreaks havoc on the mana curve of the deck, several copies of Sapphire Medallion should help to balance that out. By decreasing your blue spells by 1 colorless, it should open up mana for other spells including Fireshrieker.

Echoing Truth has a nice little combo with Hunted Phantasm while still providing useful bounce throughout the entire game. Remand and Rune Snag should give you the control you need against quick decks. Another nice thing about these two cards is that with a Sapphire Medallion, Remand and Rune Snag will only cost you one blue mana to counter a spell.

Oh yes, and Sol Ring. Sol Ring is a great card you could conceivably put into any deck should you have one. If you don’t, just substitute it for another Island.

I hope you enjoyed this quick ‘deck-a-day’ like article featuring Coastal Piracy. I’ll be honest in saying I’m not quite fulfilled with just one deck. However, I trust you will use your own deckbuilding skills to build yourself a deck using one of the following methods:

• A bunch of double-strikers, naturally with the ability, combined with Coastal Piracy and perhaps some evasion (i.e. Unveiling Oddity).
• An enchantment heavy deck with Copy Enchantment, Coastal Piracy, and possibly even Mesa Enchantress! (Or use her green reflection – one of them anyway). Opalescence anyone?
• A crazy UG deck utilizing quick green beats, trample and Coastal Piracy. Overrun is a definite option here.
• An insane UB deck using LOTS of shadow creatures, discard with Coastal Piracy.
• Or even an artifact deck using one of the 5 or 6 artifacts that have unblockability or that can grant unblockability with Coastal Piracy. I must say this one can be quite fun and rewarding to build.

But don't let that list limit you -- there are endless possibilities to be explored.

Until next time, may you find other cards to “Rule them All” with.

John Streetz
webmaster of www.magicdeckvortex.com

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.
Find other articles by this author here.
Find other articles from this series here.

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Articles Spotlights from 2007:
Lorwyn Theme Week Intro & Schedule of Events
Blink And Bounce: Timing is Key
Going Blind: XCB Metagaming - A Prolonged Conclusion.
The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.
Shifting Lineaments: Casual Metagaming (Pt. 2).
The Dungeon Of Malefict: Pure Evil!
Land Week Introduction & Schedule.
Combofusion: Legends Timeshifted.
One Card to Rule Them All: Coastal Piracy
Irrational Love: Chimeras. The Lego's of Magic.