This doesn't seem wholly sufficient to explain the spike, otherwise why didn't it pop off during Bloomburrow, which brought in a popular new bird commander Kastral, the Windcrested
Honestly, this list is a little loose and I'll need to tighten it up a lot, but rather than talk about where this deck could be bad, let's talk about the cards I love and finally get to play in a cascade deck
Destiny HERO - Dark Angel X DARK Level 1 [ WarriorEffect ] ATK 0 DEF 0 If you have 3 or more "Destiny HERO" monsters in your GY: You can discard this card, then target 1 "Destiny HERO" monster in your GY
Wizards also really hit the flavor mark with how they used artifacts to references ships and other items a pirate would find interest in
From a market perspective, Surging Sparks benefits from strong demand across multiple collector demographics
Spoils of Adventure - The same cost as if you cast Sphinxs Revelation for X = 3, for the same effect