Revolution, September, 2023 – 

The first tournament of Revolution’s ninth rotation concluded this past month at Grand Prix Pidae! This month, Zangy's Theros: Age of Trax joined the format, inspiring a variety of novel decks that made heavy use of the new pool of cards and mechanics! 22 players took to the battlefield wielding decks across 13 different archetypes, centering around Mono-Red Devotion, Blue-Black Mill, and UW Control as the three decks to beat!

The finals brought together two of these brand-new decks; Epid's Mono-Red Devotion used a collection of powerful mono-red aggro tools to beat the opponent down in the early game, closing the game out with Military or the devastating combination of Gravefire Arcanist and Ignite to burn the opponent out. Facing off against Epid was Zangy with his UW Control deck. Unlike most reactive control decks, Zangy's list plays to the board, making use of a combination of oblivion-ring style effects like Banish to the Isle and permananent-based counterspells like Agent of Deception and Omen of Deception. These permanents contribute to his devotion to blue and white for cards like Ephara's Judgment and Travel Through the Mystic Sea, and can even be copied by cards like Benthalos of Land and Sea or Stormscraper of Ketaphos to produce additional late-game value. 

Both decks came together as innovative, cohesive packages, but only one could prevail. After three close and well-fought games in the finals, Zangy emerged victorious! Zangy identified Omen of Deception as the most important card in his deck, which provided much-needed disruption while being a consistently strong turn-2 play. Reflecting on his win, Zangy observed that the triumph of UW Control was "a fun show of how permanent-based a control deck can be, while still wanting to leverage their instant speed interaction." 

Congratulations to Zangy, well fought to Epid, and remember: if you’re interested in playing some awesome custom magic, the best time to join the revolution is now!