Revolution (block)

Revolution is the 14th block of card sets in the Duel Masters trading card game.

Nomenclature
Revolution sets are named "[ADJECTIVE] [NAME OF TRUMP CARD]".

Unlike in Episode 2 or Dragon Saga, the trump cards are used by various characters in the anime instead of only cards used by Katta.

List of Sets
It is composed of sets released after April 25, 2015.

DMR Sets
 * DMR-17 Burning Dogiragon!!
 * DMR-18 Seize the Moment, Miradante!!
 * DMR-19 Forbidden Dokindam X
 * DMR-20 Gyuujinmaru's True Identity!!

DMX Sets
 * DMX-20 Deck Ultimate Perfection!! Due-Max 160 ~Revolution & Invasion~
 * DMX-22 Super Black Box Pack

DMD Sets
 * DMD-21 Due-ma Start Deck: Invincible Fire Civilization
 * DMD-22 Due-ma Start Deck: Destroyer Darkness Civilization
 * DMD-23 Due-ma Start Deck: Miracle Bringer Light Civilization
 * DMD-27 Custom Transformation Deck Revolution vs. Invasion: Explosive Passion Fire Civilization
 * DMD-28 Custom Transformation Deck Revolution vs. Invasion: Dragonic Polaris Light Civilization

Masters Chronicle Sets
 * DMD-24 Masters Chronicle Deck: Bolmeteus Returns
 * DMD-25 Masters Chronicle Deck: Romanov Rises from Purgatory
 * DMD-26 Masters Chronicle Deck: Survivor Evo-Theory α to Ω
 * DMX-21 Masters Chronicle Pack: Comic of Heroes

It also features promotional cards from Year 14.

Plot
After the defeat of All Over The World, Supreme True Dragon Soul, the world was peaceful and the story transfers to another continent. This continent was a peaceful continent ruled by the kings of the Light, Darkness and Fire civilization, until one day creatures are given mysterious marks and Invaded the continent. Those who were not given the mark of the invader were given the mark of the Revolutionary and they fought against the invaders. With overwhelmingly powerful Invaders and New-type Invaders, the world destroying forbidden and The masterminds of all teaming up to assault on the once-peaceful continent, the worst and longest war of Duel Masters history unfolds...

Timeline

 * Main: Timeline/Revolution

Details

 * It places focus on 2 new main warring races, Invader and Revolutionary.

These races both have allied races that they are partnered with.
 * Power creep continues as cards such as Hell's Scrapper and Terror Pit have Creature Versions which can join the attack and powerful invader evolution creatures can be put into the battle zone quicker than ever. Additionally, A very powerful card has caused most 3 to 5 civilization decks to die out.
 * A new rarity, Legend Rare appears, which is a card of the highest rarity, but 2 will always appear in a box. As there are usually only 2 legend rares in most sets, this means that they are guaranteed gets when opening a box of booster backs, allowing new players to participate in games easier.
 * Aside of this, the packaging rate of Super Rares has been increased to 3 per box, and the packaging rate of Very Rares has increased to 6 per box.

Pre-DMR Stage
With the release of DMD-21, DMD-22 and DMD-23, the Revolution meta began.

Previous Dragon Saga meta decks such as MaltNEXT, Imen loop and Mono Light Heaven's Gate persisted in the environment. DMD-22's Darslain, Dream Knight led to the creation of a new decktype - Darslain beatdown.

With the new Hall of Fame update, Deis Magician, Ranger of Gaia, Upheaval, Eureka Program and Violent Dragon Alarm were restricted. As such, Imen loop, Heaven's Gate and Mono Darkness Draguner decks were somewhat weakened, but they still remained in the environment.

DMR-17 Stage
Two new effects appeared, Invasion and Revolution. Because Revolution is an effect reliant on the number of shields, it has not appeared as much in the meta due to its difficulty of being activated. On the other hand, Invasion has been really easy to use. Out of them all, Redzone, Roaring Invasion was the strongest due to its synergy in hyperspatial decks with Gaial Kaiser, the Victorious. As such, even Light/Water/Darkness hyperspatial control decks began adapting Redzone. But in the end, it mostly worked at best in Mono-Fire rush along with Gatling, Sonic, aiming for a 3 turn kill.

Besides the Invasion and Revolution cards, a new mana restraining creature appeared - Mega Manalock Dragon. It was immediately adapted alongside Faerie Gift into MaltNEXT as a way to counter multi-civilization decks.

Creature versions of popular shield triggers such as Terror Pit and Hell's Scrapper appeared in the form of Death Hands, Misfortune Emperor and Sturm, Scrapper. Having the same effects but being creatures, these cards proved as being massively flexible and were adapted to a wide variety of decks.

For players who enjoy luck-based games, Gachanko Gachirobo came off as an interesting card to use, enabling the use of nostalgic cards such as Magmadragon Jagalzor and Legionnaire Lizard.

Meanwhile, at the recent Duel Masters Grand Prix, the winner was Imen loop, followed by a Heaven's Gate Loop deck adapting Alephtina, Spiritual Princess.

With the release of DMD-24, DMD-25 and DMD-26, Bolmeteus Control, Romanov Sign and Survivor decks were reinforced, but out of them all only Romanov Sign proved as being meta worthy due to the strength of Eternal Sign in combination with competitive creatures.

DMR-18 Stage
Even though new effects did not appear, Revolution and Invasion cards got strengthened. Bearfugan, Super Beast Army enforced Mono Nature rush to the point where it could do a three turn kill similar to Gatling and Redzone decks. To support Nature evolution decks, Evolution Blueprint got reprinted. The other civilizations' Invaders did not become less important, as Water got Master G, Super Eureka which has resistance to removal, Fire got Mach 55, Supersonic which can't be destroyed at all upon the opponent having 2 or less shields which makes it harder to defend against and Darkness got Galloween, Super Revenge which granted both removal and graveyard recovery in response to the opponent's removal.

On the other hand, a new Legendary card appeared - Death the Lost, Demon Revolution. While Darkness did get more shield reducing cards, this card did not do well outside of Revolution formats where it joined Killer the Kill, Revolution Demon King as a secondary finisher. Vader, Dark Armor also provided both graveyard supply and hand replenishment, proving as a versatile card for Darkness decks.

To keep up with the strength of Death Hands and Sturm, Scrapper, Light decks were enforced with Holy, Flash Guardian while Water decks got Last, Aqua Patrol which was reminiscent of the now banned Aqua Patrol.

In a way, due to Invaders, rush and beatdown decks had become stronger than ever. As such, Bolmeteus Sapphire Dragon was taken out of the Premium Hall of Fame, as it was deemed balanced enough for one copy in the current meta.

But since mono civilization decks persisted in the environment, Mega Manalock Dragon's price began to drop.

With the release of DMX-21 there weren't much new metagame additions as it basically only reinforces fun decks, but it does introduce Unidentified Objective which reinforced Heaven's Gate Loops, No Data which reinforced Imen loops, and Poppo Juvira, Winged God-destroyer which reinforced Universe extra win, although Poppo Juvira's success is limited due to color screw problems.

With the release of DMD-27, a new incarnation of Redzone with a shield burn capacity appeared - Redzone Z, Passionate Invasion. With the addition of a new cheap speed attacker Sonic Command - The Zet, Lightning Sonic, Mono Fire Redzone had been reinforced and it became competitive enough to make an impact on the meta scene. Due to cost trampling cards such as Heaven's Gate, Hogan Blaster/Mystery Cube, Ninja Strike and shield trigger creatures breaking this deck's progression, Magnum, Shortshot was released to help it get around those hindrances.

DMR-19 Stage
The release of DMR-19 saw the appearance of a new card type - Forbidden Impulse, as well as a new update to the Hall of Fame with Forbidden ~The Sealed X~/Dokindam X, The Legendary Forbidden being restricted from the start as to not have players deck out. While the new Seal technique was appreciated, players were quick to criticize the new card due to its strong game loss demerit.

However, as soon as the set was released, tournaments were immediately won by Dokindam X, usually those being Mono Fire Redzone or MaltNEXT due to its Fire Command support. Thus it has lived up to its Forbidden Legend Rare status. Out of these, it especially had synergy with Mono Fire Redzone, since it is a rush deck that spams Commands and thus one could swarm a removal control like Mono Darkness Draguner so that dangerous shield triggers would be gone by the time Dokindam X is liberated, or wait for a one-shot kill against Heaven's Gate decks. As such, the initial negative reaction was changed as the card got reevaluated.

Additionally, a new type of Invaders appeared - S-Rank Invaders. Out of these, Adamski, S-Rank Space found use in Heaven's Gate Loop due to its deckout abilities, Deadzone, S-Rank Zombie found use in Mono Darkness Draguner and Hyperspatial control due to its strong removal effect and Sanmadd, S-Rank Tribe found use in Fire Nature rush and Gift beatdown, the latter two having insane synergy with Gaial Kaiser, the Victorious.

On the side of the Revolutionaries, a new Revolution 0 Trigger appeared: Bolshack Dogiragon which was used as a defense against beatdown, one that was viewed as better than Iron Fist of Revolution in terms of stability. As such ironically, it was adapted in Mono Fire Redzone to defend it from counter rushes and help remove the seals of Dokindam X, thus showing a good compatibility between the Revolutionary and Invader races. The rest are not suitable in a beatdown environment and will be defeated or rendered ineffective before they can activate revolution.

At the start of 2016, the most shocking set ever in Duel Masters history, DMX-22 Super Black Box Pack appeared which shocked many players. While due to the joke content most of the set's useful cards were reprints, Nicol Bolas did find great use in MaltNEXT due to its super-stunning discard capabilities and its 8 cost allows it to be spammed by Jackpot Entry, Dragon Secret Formation. Others include Oriotis Judge, which served as a solid counter to Dokindam X, The Legendary Forbidden, Alphadios, Lord of Spirits and other high-costed creatures. Zakira, Ultimate Lifeform might also see some use due to its discard resistance and reusable fixed removal.

After the 1st of February 2016, Judgement of the Flame's Spear and the Water's Blade, Deep Operation, Mist Rias, Sonic Guardian, Pacific Champion, Rolan, the Oracle, Heavy, Dragon God and Aqua Hulcus were unlimited. Dark Hydra, Evil Planet Lord had also been taken out of the Premium Hall of Fame to a restriction like Bolmeteus Sapphire Dragon beforehand. Out of these, Judgment of the Flame's Spear and the Water's Blade could have a small impact on the environment by ridding the opponent of smaller creatures from both beatdown and control decks, while Mist Rias and Dark Hydra could find compatibility in new control or loop decks.

In addition to this, on the 28th of February 2016 Transmogrify and Deis Magician, Ranger of Gaia had been banned while Galamuta, Matchless Fear Lord, Milzam, Spirit of Miracles and Welcome Hell, Supreme Devil Depth have been restricted. As such, top meta decks such as Imen loop, Heaven's Gate Loop and Mono Darkness Draguner got weakened. In the last day before the Hall of Fame update, the tournament winner was a Heaven's Gate Loop, followed by a Water Darkness Nature Deadzone control.

DMR-20 Stage
For the following months, Mono Fire Redzone and Hyperspatial Deadzone remained at top.

The release of DMR-20 brought Miracle Miradante, which found use in Mono Light Heaven's Gate and Mono-Light rush as a powerful Invasion and Kaiser "Blade Demon" counter. With Milzam restricted, Heaven's Gate strategies began moving away from Loop to its usual blocker spam. Redzone decks also got Redzone X, Forbidden Lightning Sonic, the first multicolored Invader, as a reinforcement which had lower power than past Redzones, but it came with a seal based removal, and could attack infinitely like Adamski, S-Rank Space. On the other hand, Captain Dracken appeared as support for Fire Bird decks, proving good synergy with Borkov Shion and Genji Aini, thus making old cards become useful again. The flagship card, Gyuujinmaru, Legendary Identity did not fare well due to its unnaturally slow speed and reliance on the luck-based It's Showtime, as well as Mono Water Control not being competitive enough. As such, both it and G.O.D., Extreme Invasion were the least used Legend Rares.

A new series of powerful Shield Triggers such as The End of X and Trap Giant appeared. With The End of X being an extremely high form of seal-based removal, it meant that VAN Beethoven, Zenith of "Shura" alone could no longer stop Redzone Invasions. Imen loops were also brought back to life by Sanmadd, S-Rank Tribe and Raija, Aqua Ninja. Mono Nature Sasoris also saw a return, now in a control form with Gyogyou, Revolutionkind and Silver Scoop comboing to lock down the opponent. Even with Welcome Hell restricted, Mono Darkness Draguner adapted Go To Hell, Annihilator Blade and changed its form a bit, still going strong in the competitive game.

At the end of the stage, Mono Nature Sasoris rose onto the top of the metagame.

Competitive Decks

 * Turbo decks:
 * Zenith Turbo
 * Kaiser "Blade Demon"
 * Heaven's Gate decks:
 * Mono Light Heaven's Gate
 * Heaven's Gate Loop
 * Mono-Light rush
 * Mono Darkness Draguner
 * Mono-Fire rush
 * Mono Fire Redzone
 * DMD-20 edits:
 * Malt "King"
 * MaltNEXT
 * Boaroaxe decks:
 * Imen loop
 * Mono Nature Sasoris (control version)
 * Hyperspatial control
 * Mono Nature Bearfugan
 * Fire Nature rush
 * Hyperspatial Deadzone

Important Cards
New cards:
 * Redzone, Roaring Invasion
 * Turbo 3, Supersonic
 * Mega Manalock Dragon
 * Black Psycho, Revenge
 * Dark Masters, Demon Dragon
 * Death Hands, Misfortune Emperor
 * Sturm, Scrapper
 * Gatling, Sonic
 * Romanov the 2nd, Demonic Eye Hierophant
 * Eternal Sign
 * Unidentified Objective
 * Holy, Flash Guardian
 * Vader, Dark Armor
 * Bearfugan, Super Beast Army
 * Forbidden ~The Sealed X~/Dokindam X, The Legendary Forbidden
 * Adamski, S-Rank Space
 * Deadzone, S-Rank Zombie
 * Sanmadd, S-Rank Tribe
 * Gyogyou, Revolutionkind
 * Miracle Miradante
 * Redzone X, Forbidden Lightning Sonic
 * Parasraft, Revinvakind

Old cards:
 * Kaiser "Blade Demon", Zenith of "Certain Victory"
 * VAN Beethoven, Zenith of "Shura"
 * Wedding, Zenith of "Celebration"
 * Heaven's Gate
 * Milzam, Spirit of Miracles
 * Emeralda, Pitch Dragon Elemental
 * Dragment Innovation
 * Hellvorof, Supreme Dragon Edge
 * Hyperspatial Emperor Hole
 * MaltNEXT, Ultra-War Dragon Edge
 * Diehard Ryusei of Invincibility
 * Imen=Bugo, Dragon Edge
 * Sasoris, Dragon Edge
 * Faerie Gift
 * Hyperspatial Guard Hole
 * Miraculous Truce
 * Gaial Kaiser, the Victorious

Gallery
Regular sets

Trivia

 * Unlike in Dragon Saga where most of the Dragons are bipedal, in Revolution most Dragons are quadrupedal, although there are exceptions.
 * Unlike most blocks where the protagonists use offense strategies and the antagonists use control strategies, in Revolution the protagonists (Revolutionaries) use control strategies while the antagonists (Invaders) use offense strategies.
 * This block resembles Fighting Spirit Saga, in which there is a mastermind that is of the Water Civilization and a sealed existence that threatens the end of the world upon unsealing. Both also end with total chaos in the worlds they took place.
 * This is the second block where all main protagonists end up defeated, and is also the first one where the protagonists were defeated by a direct assault by an antagonist. The first is Episode 1, which had the main protagonists defeated by a surprise attack.
 * Aside of this, it is also the first instance where all factions, regardless of protagonist or antagonist, were defeated by an out of control antagonistic faction.