Vintage The obvious way is Vintage
It made waves in Standard, and it plays outrageously well in Commander
Sorcery Ral, Storm Conduit Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, Ral deals 1 damage to target opponent or planeswalker
Charming Prince We can talk about expensive and powerful blink cards all day, but blink deck absolutely needs cards like Charming Prince to function
Another potent mechanic pirate cards often dabble in (seriously, pick a sea-lane) is draw-discard or as you move from the blue towards the red/black part of their color pie, payoffs for discarding more generally
Remember, if you decide you want to try out some of the answers that I've mentioned in this article, you should get them here on Cardsphere