Posts | Tides of Fortune Commander Deck, Featuring Edward Kenway

Before he was an Assassin, Edward Kenway was a pirate — opportunistic, ruthless, and always looking for the next score. This Commander deck captures that perfectly. Built around the Assassin's Creed Universes Beyond version of the legendary privateer, it's a Grixis (blue, black, and red) Pirate tribal deck that converts every attack step into resources, every opponent's card into ammunition, and every blocker into a liability.

If you're new to Commander, it's a casual multiplayer format where each player builds a 100-card singleton deck led by a legendary creature. Your "commander" sets the tone for the whole deck and can be cast from a special zone called the command zone at any time. Edward gives us a very clear directive: attack early, attack often, and take everything that isn't nailed down.

Meet Your Commander

Edward Kenway is a 5/5 who does two things that immediately define your game plan.

Treasure generation: At the end of your turn, Edward creates a Treasure token for each tapped Assassin, Pirate, and/or Vehicle you control. Treasure tokens can be sacrificed for one mana of any color, so a board full of tapped creatures after combat translates directly into a mountain of free mana on your next turn.

Library theft: Whenever a Vehicle you control deals combat damage to a player, you look at the top card of that player's library and exile it — and you may play it. Edward doesn't just beat down; he picks your opponents' pockets on the way through.

The combination is uniquely powerful. Your Pirates and Assassins tap to crew your Vehicles, those Vehicles deal damage and steal cards, and then Edward looks at all those tapped creatures at end of turn and converts them into Treasure. Every combat step is doing at least two things at once.

The Engine: Three Interlocking Themes

This deck operates on three overlapping themes that fuel each other from the first turn to the last.

Pirates and Assassins — Combat Damage Payoffs

The deck runs a deep tribal package of Pirates and Assassins, and both creature types reward you for connecting n combat. Several key creatures carry both subtypes — Edward himself is a Human Assassin Pirate, as are Adéwalé, Breaker of Chains and Mary Read and Anne Bonny — meaning they count for Edward's Treasure trigger and trigger every Pirate and Assassin payoff simultaneously.

On the Assassin side, Basim, Master Assassin is the tribal lord — granting all other Assassins +1/+1 and winning the game outright if a player loses on a turn when one of your Assassins attacked them. With a wide, evasive board already applying pressure, landing an attack with any Assassin while an opponent is on low life becomes a clean kill that requires no further setup. Basim Ibn Ishaq is an evasive two-drop who draws you a card and becomes unblockable whenever you cast a historic spell — artifacts, legendaries, or Sagas. In a deck packed with legendary Pirates and Treasure-producing artifacts, this triggers constantly. Adéwalé, Breaker of Chains tutors on entry — revealing the top six cards and putting an Assassin, Pirate, or Vehicle into your hand — and recurs himself from the graveyard whenever a Vehicle you control deals combat damage. As long as you're crewing Vehicles, he's effectively impossible to permanently answer, and each time he re-enters he tutors again.

On the Pirate side, Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator creates a Treasure token for each opponent your Pirates damage, turning every attack step into a mana-accelerating event. Breeches, Brazen Plunderer takes this further — whenever Pirates deal damage to opponents, you exile the top card of each of those opponents' libraries and may cast those spells that turn, spending mana as though it were any color. Run both in the same attack and you've filled your hand with opponents' cards while padding your wallet with Treasures. Ramirez DePietro, Pillager adds yet another exile layer, letting you cast stolen cards for as long as they remain exiled. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer comes in on turn one and immediately starts generating Treasures and exiled cards on every hit, with Dash as a safety valve to pull him back before blockers can answer him. Forerunner of the Coalition ties the creature package together — a tutor that puts any Pirate on top of your library, while also pinging each opponent for 1 life every time another Pirate enters the battlefield. In a deck this full of Pirates entering the board, that passive drain adds up surprisingly fast.

Treasure — Turning Combat into Resources

This deck produces Treasure at an almost ridiculous rate. Between Edward's end-step ability, Malcolm's attack triggers, Ragavan's hits, and a suite of dedicated producers — Pitiless Plunderer spawns a Treasure whenever any creature you control dies, Corsair Captain creates one on entry while buffing all other Pirates +1/+1, and Gemcutter Buccaneer creates one whenever it or any other Pirate enters the battlefield — you will frequently have eight to fifteen Treasures sitting on the table by the midgame.

Mary Read and Anne Bonny feeds into this beautifully. As a tap-to-loot engine with haste, she draws and discards every turn, and whenever you discard an Island, Pirate, or Vehicle card, a Treasure appears. She converts bad draws — excess lands or redundant Pirates — directly into mana. Captain Storm, Cosmium Raider quietly converts all of that artifact production into power, turning each new artifact entering your battlefield into a +1/+1 counter on a Pirate of your choice, so your Treasure generation actively pumps your board as it goes.

All of that Treasure serves a dual purpose: raw mana acceleration, and fuel for the deck's alternate win conditions.

Vehicles — The Edward Engine

Edward's Vehicle synergy is the deck's most unique angle. Crewing a Vehicle taps your Pirates and Assassins, which counts toward Edward's Treasure trigger at end of turn. That Vehicle then attacks, deals damage, and steals a card from an opponent's library. The tapped crew feeds Edward. Edward feeds your wallet. Your wallet pays for more spells. Everything runs in a loop.

The Indomitable is a 6/6 with trample and Crew 3 that draws a card whenever any creature you control deals combat damage. It can also be recast from the graveyard as long as you control three or more tapped Pirates and/or Vehicles — giving it remarkable resilience for a Vehicle.
Skysovereign, Consul Flagship deals 3 damage to a target creature or planeswalker an opponent controls whenever it enters or attacks, functioning as recurring removal stapled to a threat.
Weatherlight triggers on combat damage to a player, letting you look at the top five cards of your library and put a historic card directly into your hand — a reliable way to dig for key pieces while attacking.
The Belligerent and Subterranean Schooner round out the fleet as smaller, aggressive options that keep the crew engine running on turns where the bigger Vehicles aren't online yet.

Alternate Win Conditions

Winning through combat damage is the default, but this deck has three entirely distinct ways to close out a game — and opponents have to respect all of them simultaneously.

Revel in Riches creates a Treasure whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, and at the beginning of your upkeep, if you control ten or more Treasures, you simply win the game. Between your Treasure-generation engine and opponents' creatures dying to your removal, sitting on ten Treasures within a few turns of landing Revel is entirely realistic. The sheer volume of Treasure this deck produces makes this a constant background threat.

Mechanized Production enchants a Treasure and creates a copy of it each upkeep. If you control eight or more artifacts sharing the same name — trivially easy when you're making five to ten Treasures per turn cycle — you win the game on the spot. This card is particularly devious because opponents often don't realize it's a threat until it's too late to answer it.

Basim, Master Assassin functions as the third win condition, closing out games where opponents have been worn down by repeated attacks. Landing a hit with any Assassin while a player is on low life ends the game outright, no further work required.

The Supporting Cast

A few standout inclusions deserve special mention for the roles they play in locking down the table and converting your board presence into insurmountable advantage.

Coercive Recruiter is perhaps the most brutal: whenever it or any other Pirate enters the battlefield, you gain control of a target creature until end of turn, untap it, give it haste, and it becomes a Pirate. In a deck where Pirates are entering constantly, this locks the table down turn after turn. Zara, Renegade Recruiter supplements this — a 4/3 with flying who, when she attacks, lets you look at the defending player's hand and put one of their creatures onto the battlefield tapped and attacking alongside her. Don Andres, the Renegade supercharges every stolen creature — any creature you control but don't own gets +2/+2, gains menace and deathtouch, and becomes a Pirate. He also creates two tapped Treasures whenever you cast a noncreature spell you don't own, rewarding you for playing opponents' cards with Ragavan, Breeches, and Edward's exile effects.

Merchant Raiders adds a soft lock element — whenever it or any Pirate enters the battlefield, you tap a target creature an opponent controls, and that creature doesn't untap as long as you control Merchant Raiders. A wide Pirate board essentially locks opponents out of their own combat step. Cover of Darkness grants fear to all creatures of a chosen type — name Pirate and your whole fleet becomes nearly unblockable. Double Down rounds things out beautifully: whenever you cast an outlaw spell (which includes Assassins, Pirates, Rogues, Mercenaries, and Warlocks — most of your deck), you get a free token copy of that spell, meaning Coercive Recruiter and Forerunner of the Coalition trigger twice on entry.

Port Razer is one of the most dangerous Pirates in the game: when it deals combat damage to a player, you untap all your creatures and get an additional combat phase. It can't attack the same player twice in a turn, but in a four-player game it can chain multiple combats by hitting a different opponent each time, with Malcolm generating Treasures in every additional combat. Time Sieve converts Treasure abundance into extra turns — sacrifice five artifacts and take an extra turn. In a late-game position where you're reliably creating five or more Treasures per turn, Time Sieve can chain into effectively unlimited extra turns, letting you attack, generate more Treasures, and repeat until the table is eliminated.

How a Typical Turn Feels

By the midgame, a normal turn might look something like this:

Untap with Malcolm and Breeches on the battlefield and five Treasures saved from last turn.
Spend two Treasures to cast Forerunner of the Coalition, tutoring a Pirate to the top of your library — and pinging each opponent for 1 life since another Pirate just entered.
Crew The Indomitable with three Pirates, tapping them. Declare attacks with The Indomitable, Malcolm, and Breeches into all three opponents.
Combat damage resolves: Malcolm creates a Treasure for each opponent damaged, Breeches exiles the top card of each opponent's library for you to cast this turn, and Edward's trigger fires on The Indomitable's damage — you look at the top of the defending player's library and exile it to potentially play later.
You cast one of the exiled cards — an opponent's creature spell — using any color of mana. Coercive Recruiter sees a Pirate entering and steals another opponent's creature for the turn, giving it haste to swing in for free.
At end of turn, Edward looks at your tapped creatures — the three that crewed The Indomitable, Malcolm, Breeches, and Coercive Recruiter — and creates six Treasure tokens.

Next turn, you untap with eleven Treasures and the horizon wide open. The plunder never stops. Opponents can try to answer Edward and the Treasure engine still runs through Malcolm. They can answer the Vehicles and Breeches keeps exiling cards. The deck ends up being quite good at applying pressure from multiple angles, and manages to find a way to win, no matter how your opponents respond.

The Decklist

I'm always updating decks, and the latest iteration can always be found here, or on Moxfield.

Is This Deck for You?

This deck is for players who love combat-focused aggression layered with resource accumulation — who want every attack step to feel like it's doing three things at once. It rewards knowing when to crew which Vehicle, when to hold Treasures for Time Sieve versus spending them on spells, and when to pivot from the combat plan to a Revel in Riches or Mechanized Production close.

It's not a slow, patient engine deck. It comes out of the gates swinging and never really stops. But underneath the aggression is a surprisingly deep resource game — one where you're constantly converting opponents' cards, creatures, and libraries into your own advantage.

Opponents face a genuinely difficult dilemma: if they block and trade creatures, they feed Pitiless Plunderer and Revel in Riches. If they don't block, they feed Malcolm, Breeches, Ramirez, and Edward's Vehicle triggers. And with three separate alternate win conditions on top of the threat of unlimited extra turns through Time Sieve, they can't afford to let any single angle go unchecked.

The sea belongs to whoever is bold enough to take it.