The Deck:
My quest to find the best home for Roaming Throne has led me to another very interesting Kindred Deck - Pirates! Most of them have some sort of awesome triggered ability that is doubled up by Roaming Throne, but pirates in particular also have the advantage of utilizing artifact synergies, making an artifact like Roaming Throne the perfect fit to take the archetype over the top. After much playtesting and winning a few events with the deck, I have whittled the list down to this.
Beating Aggro:
The cheap interaction and creature base full of incredible synergy make this matchup very winnable as long as we know what to prioritize and how to flip between the roles of defender and aggressor. Though it can still be very play/draw dependent, this deck is absolutely capable of racing other aggro decks while keeping them off balance. Sometimes defensive speed and early trading off is more important to stabilize with a healthy life total and proceed to win the game from there via incremental advantage. Our sideboard has more cheap burn spells and a couple of one-sided damage-based wraths to safely get us to the midgame.
Beating Midrange:
This is actually our easiest matchup since Roaming Throne is a Midrange card with its own built-in protection that can grind with the best of them. The versatility provided by all of the different pirate abilities is already good enough on its own - providing maps, clues, treasures, card advantage, removal, evasion, and even +1/+1 counters. But all of that is essentially doubled as soon as Roaming Throne hits the battlefield. All we have to do is board in Disdainful Stroke to stop their big plays, Urabrask's Forge for inevitability, and Witchstalker Frenzy to efficiently pick off their chunky threats and watch our deck go brr.
Beating Control:
You may think that because this is a creature-based deck that our game essentially ends after a board wipe and we will then lose to any planeswalker, but you'd be wrong. Look a little closer and you'll realize that most of our creatures are two-for-ones that keep us gassed and that our removal can burn planeswalkers down while also providing instant speed 3/3 golems to dodge sorcery speed board wipes. I've been thoroughly impressed with how well pirates are able to rebuild and continue scrapping well into the late game, especially alongside Roaming Throne. Sideboarding in Spell Pierce and Disdainful Stroke to watch them squirm feels fantastic while a resolved Urabrask's Forge can finish the job all on its own.
Beating Combo:
This could actually be our toughest matchup, as most of our synergy is built upon amplifying our board past our opponents while having little interaction with the stack or with graveyards in game one. Our deck can be fast, but not always fast enough to kill before an effectively game ending combo has been presented by the opponent so our sideboard is going to be the real key to victory here. Just pay extra close attention to how the opponent is trying to win in game one and then sideboard in the appropriate tools to prevent that accordingly.
