Well, I got 4th place out of 8 participants. I was somewhat happy with how it worked, but the deck definitely needs revisions. My FNM match summaries:
1st match (0-2): Despite my low mana curve, I struggled to get a 2nd land out, despite the
Opt's. I can see why some players hate running
Opt -- if you open with a single
Island and an
Opt, it leaves you in a scary mulligan decision. What's worse, I opened a round with the lone
Forest, so I had to mulligan. The Unsummons were awful, as my opponent was running a
Panharmonicon deck where all his creatures had, "whenever this creature comes into play..." Yea, try Unsummoning a
Verdurous Gearhulk and see how that works for you! Plus, with all the Temur energy cards floating around, I'll move the Unsummons over to the sideboard.
2nd match (2-1): vs.
Jace Cunning Castaway w/ Merfolk deck. At this point, I had ditched the Unsummons for
Harsh Scrutiny, which is a much better option for trading 1-for-1 in cards, not to mention the Scry. He got Jace out, but it just delayed his death. I still got mana screwed a bit. I did manage to get Vraska out, but I had to tap myself out for it, which is a shame because my hand was flooded with cheap CMC cards from
Ruin Raider. Vraska's looking pretty slow right now.
3rd match (2-1): vs. a Dinosaur deck. The dinosaurs struggled against my pirates with Menace, since the dinosaurs were too expensive, lacking the extra bodies needed to block. Once I gave my Menace pirates a
Pirate's Cutlass, it was fairly easy to win.
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CHANGES:- Needs two more land, and replacing the
Forest for an extra
Island or
Swamp. Even though the curve is low, I can always dump extra mana into pirate tokens,
Daring Saboteur unblocks,
Hostage Taker exiles, swapping around Pirate Cutlass, and the extra land works great with
Ruin Raider, since a land = 0 CMC.
- I'm removing Vraska and the
Forest. Vraska's too slow and I'd have to tap myself out to play her, meaning I can't dump mana into the above mentioned things for a full turn. Maybe just a
simple vehicle, such as
Consulate Dreadnought would suffice; a late game knockout punch with a cheap CMC.