It's Roxy: To nobody's surprise, I'm pretty eager to play with experience creatures again. They're when I first realized that I love smashing face with all-in explosive aggro decks, and Helping Hand played enough of a role in that to be the deck's namesake. The threat of turning your 1-drops into 4/5s and 5/5s on turn 2 always kept the opponents worried, and now with access to cards like Revolutionary Class and Shroud in Stars the deck has several worthy additions to help it stay resilient against the tide of midrange and control.

I'm especially curious to see if experience cards end up winding their way into other beatdown decks - while I'm all-in maulin' all the time, these scaling threats don't need a helping hand to be a real mother. I'm determined to remind people of the destructive potential of these little critters, so I hope the rest of you are ready to experience (or re-experience)... well, experience!

dr platypeople: I've always been enamored with green-based creature toolbox decks. Getting to play lots of singleton silver bullet creatures and searching out the right one at the right time has so much room for expression in both deckbuilding and gameplay. That's why I'm thrilled to get another opportunity to play with Evaldi's Masterpiece in Revolution Eternal. 

What Masterpiece gives up in cost it makes up for twice over in aggression and value. While the extra cost to search out a creature may make it look like the train doesn't start running until turn 4, Revolution actually has its own Eldrazi-fied Dryad Arbor in Cobalt Basin, so Dashing in Masterpiece immediately on turn 3 already applies pressure and generates more mana to use for future searches. Since the card rotated we've added five more sets worth of excellent cheap creatures to recruit to the battlefield, and I'll be cramming as many of them into my deck as possible this month!

Dodger: When you're playing an eternal format, the card pool is bigger and decklists become leaner and more refined. Games get faster, curves get tighter, and one mana makes more and more of a difference between winning and losing.

Serene Mediator was already a major roleplayer during its time in Revolution, but now that we're launching Revolution Eternal I expect the Mediator to be a longtime staple. One mana is a small tax to pay, but in formats where players look to maximize their mana every turn, it makes more and more of a difference. Whether you're using it as an effective flash flier threat on turn 2 or stopping their planeswalker or sweeper spell on turns 4-5, the Mediator is sure to be a key piece of aggro and tempo decks in Revolution Eternal for a long time.

AllWhoWander: The card I'm most excited to see in revolution eternal is Merciless Shieldbreaker! Although it hasn't been long since Ghariv: the Quaking City rotated out, I still miss Shieldbreaker's presence. It's a powerful, on-rate creature with a really brutal and repeatable effect that can quickly close out the game against decks that stumble; and can still impact the board even if it eats a removal spell. And if you can do something special like giving it haste or allowing it to attack multiple times per turn, it gets even stronger! 

Shieldbreaker and I also have a long personal history: one of the first 'real' revolution decks I made was Big Rw featuring four copies of Shieldbreaker, the first deck I ever built myself in magic was casual mono-red land destruction, and the type of deck I tend to gravitate towards (aggressive midrange) is the sort of deck that Shieldbreaker really shines in. All in all, I'm really glad that Shieldbreaker is coming back, and I'm looking forward to smashing some skulls with it come April!

Zangy: A bit cliche, but one of the cards that I'm excited for REVternal is Memory Hostage.  While it isn't the most exciting card by itself, it provides such a nice safety gap that helps midrange-y decks out a whole lot.  While Blacklist definitely does a god job of answering things, the one two punch of both of these together can halt problematic combos and fill in holes in just about any match up.

Scribbl: The card I'm most excited to return to in Revolution Eternal is an unassuming one, in Lorre Blackmailer! The Standard formats where Ravenous Rats are playable are my favourite kinds, and Blackmailer gives you the added bonus of halving Rats' clock, as well as serving as a much better blocker. This card perfectly fits the attrition-y playstyle that I love to build around.

Considering the card in the context of Revolution Eternal takes me back to the first deck I built for the format, featuring Feast of the Crows and a bunch of small value creatures that you could continually kill off and buy back, turning Feast into a kind of proactive engine. You haven't lived until you've cast the same Lorre Blackmailer three turns in a row. Add to it that the Eternal format brings back a bunch of good early fixing lands (thanks Secrets of the River Cities!), and a 2 or even 3-coloured manabase isn't a tough ask for this deck.

Reuben: Your back is against the wall, things are not looking good. You need the perfect topdeck. You draw Ameret. Everything is going to be ok now. Very few cards in any custom format give this feeling quite as consistently as Ameret does in a midrange deck, they are one of both the most powerful, yet fair, yet flexible midrange cards. Whether you need to deal those last points of damage or to stabilize a precarious board state, Ameret is a reliable option. Its sorcery speed Warleader's Helix ability is an extremely potent fallback, making it a valuable addition to any deck. But what sets Ameret apart is its flexibility - its angel form can apply swift pressure against control decks. 

This card has seen play in a wide range of decks, from Helping Hand aggro and Mardu Midrange to Jeskai Control. Now, after a long absence, Ameret is set to make a comeback in Rev Eternal, offering players that same feeling of relief and hope that comes with drawing the perfect card at the perfect time. 

Revolution, March, 2023 – 

The third tournament of Revolution’s sixth rotation concluded this past month at Grand Prix Winterholm. Going into the tournament, Keening Belltower was clearly the card to beat: of the 20 players who registered decks across 14 different archetypes, 32 copies of Belltower were played—more than any other nonland card. But even among the Belltower decks there was tremendous diversity; the card was featured in midrange, ramp, combo, and even control lists. 

The finals pitted HSquid against PurpleMurasaki, champion of last month's GP. HSquid brought Mono-Black Storm, one of the least conventional Belltower decks, which sought to use Demon of Darker Paths in combination with cheap cantripping artifacts and Belltower or Diabolical Minion to burn the opponent out in a single turn. PurpleMurasaki, by contrast, brought Mono-Green Aggro, which sought to prey on the slower Belltower-based decks by pummeling them into the ground with aggressively-statted creatures. 

After two blisteringly fast games, HSquid emerged victorious, upsetting the reigning champion PurpleMurasaki and taking the crown of GP Winterholm!  While HSquid felt that the core of the deck was robust and solid, they attributed their victory to the inclusion of Diabolical Minion—a secondary win condition that also could buy enough time for the deck to combo off, and even sometimes drain the opponent out on its own. While we've seen plenty of Diabolical Minion decks before in Revolution, this is the first time it's shown up in a storm list!

Congratulations to HSquid for their win! Additionally, congratulations to semifinalist Splitmoon, who earned the 16th and final spot in the upcoming Revolution World Championship!

And remember, if you're interested in joining the revolution, there's no better time than now!

To see the match with commentary by Ricky, click here!

Click here for a full look at the deck lists featured in this month's GP.