Today on my weekly Monday article I take a quick look at some interesting new tech that has come out for Monarch decks as well as future tech card that will influence more than just Monarchs.
I did an article similar to this a while back, where I highlighted the baby Chaos Dragons among other things as some unique and interesting new potential cards of note for Monarch decks. Well, a lot of new and interesting cards have come out that I think give Monarchs a nice new sharp edge that I think are quite interesting.
Now, when I’m speaking about what I call “Monarchs” or Monarch decks, today I am specifically talking about Frog Monarchs, which I still believe is the best and most consistent variant. You could make a fair argument for Ghostrick monarchs, but I still don’t think that it’s up to snuff. That being said, you may be thinking there have been a whole bunch of potentially good traps that came out for Monarchs that I won’t be mentioning, and that’s because I’m looking from the framework of a deck that runs Treeborn Frog, which can’t support traps. An example would be the card The First Monarch, which I think is a fantastic card, but not if you’re running Frogs.
I’ll first start with some new cards from Dragons of Legend then move onto other things.
Mathematician:
I think this card is rather interesting. Right now, as of this article’s writing, this card is extremely low in value (sitting at around $5) despite it having massive amounts of future potential. Not only does this card have obvious future uses with decks like Shadolls, but it’s almost inevitable that decks will want their monsters in the graveyard in the future, so I see no reason for this card to stay low in value for long.
In my previous article I mentioned one of the major shortcomings of Frog Monarchs is that when you don’t open Treeborn Frog or Swap Frog you generally have a bad hand. This card ultimately remedies that by creating an additional way to set up first turn while also maintaining card advantage. Mathematician can simply dump Treeborn Frog turn 1, or late game dump Ronintoadin or Frog fodder for Ronintoadin. Mathematician also has a 1500 body, which becomes 1900 with a Gachi Gachi Gantetsu, which I think is pretty significant.
Soul Charge:
“Soul Charge works in everything” as they say, but there are very specific applications in this deck. At a first glance, Soul Charge doesn’t have any place being run in a Monarch deck since Monarchs are predominantly based on Normal Summoning. There are a couple specific plays that I think make Soul Charge extremely viable for this deck though.
The first and most important play you can do with Soul Charge is use it to revive a Swap Frog and any Monarch monster. The Swap Frog first gets it’s effect to dump a Frog, which is a nice bonus. You then bounce the Monarch to hand with the Swap Frog’s effect. Then you can either Tribute the Swap Frog or a Treeborn Frog from earlier in the turn to summon that Monarch. This essentially makes Soul Charge way to Tribute Summon a Monarch monster from your graveyard for 2000 lifepoints.
The second thing that Soul Charge provides is opportunity to make Extra Deck plays. Revive two Monarchs to make a Constellar Ptolemy M7 or Photon Strike Bounzer. Revive a Monarch and an Effect Veiler to make Black Rose Dragon or a Formula Synchron and a Level 8 Synchro using Treeborn Frog in addition.
There’s also two other things you can do with Soul Charge, but they are more determined by the build you’re running. For example, in a build running Sea Lancer, this is a really easy way to revive Sea Lance and continuously recur your banished Frogs. Soul Charge might even make a good case for maining 1 Sea Lancer in a standard Frog Monarch deck. Another potential play depending on your build is a defensive one using Dupe Frogs. If you have two Dupe Frogs in the graveyard you can revive them both with Soul Charge to make a soft lock, or maybe just revive 1 Dupe Frog in addition to any other Soul Charge play you may make for an extra layer of protection.
Majesty’s Fiend:
This is a pretty obvious addition to Monarch’s arsenal. It’s a single tribute monster with an amazing effect and 2400 ATK so it makes a case for itself. I think it takes a more logical place in the side deck though, because this card has some terribly adverse effects on the Frog engine itself making it a liability if the opposing deck isn’t particularly affected by its lockdown ability. That being said, the amount of lockdown this card brings makes it worth the summon against decks like Mermails, Dragon Rulers and many other decks. I would most certainly side 1 or 2 copies along side my Vanity’s Fiends.
Ghostrick Socuteboss:
Onto the Extra Deck. Frog Monarchs have gained two interesting additions to their arsenal. The first is Ghostrick Socuteboss. This card isn’t what I’d call amazing, but the utility it brings is what I think that matters. Socuteboss is a Rank 2 XYZ, and that’s what Ronintoadin does, so I won’t explain that further. Socuteboss’ effect can detach once per turn to destroy a monster with ATK less than or equal to the total ATK of all Ghostrick monsters you control, then the monster card zone that monster was in can’t be used as long as you control a Ghostrick monster, essentially until Socuteboss dies. With just one Socuteboss, you can destroy anything with 1400 ATK or less, which is pretty nice grab from the extra deck in a pinch. Also, if you control another Ghostrick monster your opponent cannot attack Socuteboss.
Both effects it has are rather underwhelming, but it begs for a specific application. If you get two Socuteboss on the field you can make a pretty irritating lockdown. Neither Socuteboss can be attacked, and both can destroy a monster with 2800 ATK or less once per turn. In addition, if they do you eat away the opponent’s monster card zones. That in tandem with Monarch control is pretty nasty.
Getting this lockdown is a little difficult though without a lot of Frog setup. It’s not particularly feasible in a standard Frog line-up for Monarchs. It’s a little more feasible with a 3 Ronin 3 Dupe line-up that you would run in a Sea Lancer build. It’s very easy to do with a Soul Charge, but at the cost of potentially 4000 lifepoints, so try at your own risk.
Downerd Magician:
One of the major shortcomings of Frog Monarchs is when you draw only or mostly Frog monsters and the opponent is aggressing you, you don’t have any viable options for striking back. Now the extra deck for Frogs is very versatile. When running on only Frogs you can now turn any Rank 2 XYZ into a Downerd Magician. With all 3 materials intact Downerd will have 2700 ATK, which is very beneficial. This is especially powerful in tandem with Herald of Pure Light.
Herald of Pure Light can recycle your graveyard of Monarchs and put them back into your hand, or recycle hand traps for control plays. Previously, it almost definitely would die on your opponent’s next turn and burn your Ronintoadin fodder in order to get back Monarchs. Instead of doing that, now you can slap a Downerd Magician on top of it with 2500 ATK to have some staying power. This play also has the added bonus of making a LIGHT and a DARK monster for your graveyard to support Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning or even Chaos Sorcerers if you want to go that far. What’s even better is that the play itself can recycle Black Luster Soldier back into your hand using the Herald of Pure Light in the play.
The Monarchs Storm Forth:
The Monarchs Storm Forth (name pending)is a card that will be released in the next pack, Duelist Alliance. This card will undoubtedly become very important for more than just Monarch decks in the future. The Monarchs Storm Forth is a Quick-Play Spell Card. Here’s its effect:
Once during this turn, if you would Tribute Summon a monster, you can Tribute 1 monster your opponent controls as 1 of the Tributes required for that Tribute Summon. You can only activate 1 “The Monarchs Storm Forth” per turn. You cannot Special Summon monsters from your Extra Deck the turn you activate this card.
This card is basically Soul Exchange on steroids. Firstly, you can still enter your battle phase the turn you activate this card, unlike Soul Exchange. Second, this card doesn’t target, which is insane; that makes this card an all access pass out of any lockdown. You can tribute your opponent’s Master Key Beetle that has a Safe Zone on it. You can tribute your opponent’s Obelisk the Tormentor that was summoned by tributing a Hardened Armed Dragon. There’s just about nothing this card can’t solve. It can even tribute some pretty dumb things like Constellar Pleiades or Leo the Keeper of the Sacred Tree.
QOTW? Question of the Week:
Anything I missed? Can you think of any other cards you think are some interesting potentially unheard of tech idea for Monarchs? Discuss below!
Written by: Kyle Oliver
I actually haven’t considered using Downerd like that at all, now maybe my no monarch hands won’t be as bad lol. But what is your opinion on the trap “The Monarchs Awaken” that essentially make the mega monarchs unstoppable wrecking machines once their effects trigger?
My opinion would be that all or most Trap cards are unviable in Monarchs as long as no viable tribute engine aside from Frogs is available, which I think is the case. The Monarchs awaken is alright, but in most instances I consider Monarchs expendable monsters, so making them unaffected by things isn’t an effect I would consider desirable. Also, in most instances the only time you need them to be unaffected by card effects is when their effect is activating, and since The Monarchs Awaken negates their effect it’s kind of counterintuitive.
I have found a potential deck that could go far