[IfD] July 2009 - For the EMPRAH!: Deck Building and Monarchs

DATE WRITTEN - 25 July 2009 (March 2009 Format)

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

Back in 2002 a TCG pack called "Ancient Sanctuary" was first released on shelves. Following the massive hype of "Invasion of Chaos" and the release of the "Chaos" monsters, players began to look for ways to incorporate LIGHT and DARK monsters into their decks. One of those cards, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, was considered a potential candidate for its solid attack value, LIGHT attribute, and monster removal. However, a format where monsters thrived just as much in the Graveyard as on the field and the need to Tribute summon Zaborg to get its effect left it mostly overshadowed by other potential candidates.

The Chaos era was not meant to be, and over successive ban lists (the first removing Chaos Emperor Dragon right of the bat) the Chaos monsters were removed from competitve play. At the same time, thee more Monarchs were released: Mobius the Frost Monarch in Soul of the Duelist, Thestalos the Firestorm monarch in Rise of Destiny, and Granmarg the Rock Monarch in Flaming Eternity. Together, these formed the card representations of the Four “Emperors” of Chinese Mythology, each representing an element of nature that they had control over (Lightning, Water, Fire, and Earth respectively). Monarchs grew to become a popular and powerful deck type, soon seeing Tier 1 status in mid 2003. Monarchs were eventually supported with Raiza the Storm Monarch in Force of the Breaker, Kuraz the Light Monarch in the LOTD Special Edition, and Caius the Shadow Monarch in the Dark Emperor Structure Deck.

As is the case with such decks though, it eventually tumbled of the top rung on the Yu-Gi-Oh! ladder. The first sign of the fall of Monarchs was Mudkip being pulled in the limitation of Raiza (Caius wasn’t out at the time) and the release of bigger monsters that could overpower Monarchs with ease. The big thing that killed Monarchs though was in Phantom Darkness, and the slowly developing age of TeleDAD. Gladiators had already managed to out-preform Monarchs as a control deck in the previous format, and TeleDAD outpaced both with a speed not seen since. Although Prime Material Dragon Mudkip Monarchs for a while with its protection ability, these two types of decks received the support needed to permanently oust Monarchs from the top spot, and they’ve been sitting in Tier 2 ever since.

However, that’s all relevant. The major focus on this article is to discuss how Monarchs can potentially be played in today’s game – the standard control build is something everyone is aware of, but Monarchs are one of those decks that are based on the engine that supports them as much as the Monarch itself. This article will explain my method of building a deck, and then present Monarchs in two different methods: an attribute-oriented deck, and a control deck.

PART TWO: METHODS OF DECK BUILDING

I’ve noticed that one thing that newer players seem to think regarding attribute or strategic decks is that every monster should be of the same attribute or strategy. This is in fact incorrect, and quite limiting to the possibilities of a deck. I’ve always believed that a person building a deck should keep an open mind about the process and be willing to consider strategies and ideas they may not normally Mudkip with the deck. My personal deck-building process needs to do a number of things, which I’ll summarise in my own crude way below:

1. Look at a deck style and identify a strategy you wish to implement from that deck style.
2. Determine whether the identified strategy is the main focus or a supporting strategy for the deck.
3. Repeat steps one and two – if the first strategy you used was a support strategy, try to make the next one the main strategy.
4. Add same-deck style support as necessary. These are Monsters of the same attribute that is the focus of your deck and that help to facilitate an additional support aspect of the deck, such as a potentially accessible mechanic or the functioning of a pre-existing mechanic in the deck.
5. Add outside-deck style support (if necessary). These are Monsters of a different attribute that help to facilitate an additional support aspect of the deck, such as a potentially accessible mechanic or the functioning of a pre-existing mechanic in the deck.
6. Add ‘staple’ Spells and Traps for the deck type. This is the Heavy Storm, the Monster Reborn, the 3x Solemn and other such cards you would expect to see in most decks in the meta.
7. Add ‘support’ Spells and Traps to the deck. These are the ones that aren’t normally splashed in every deck, but hold enough of a connection and use to be added.
8. Add ‘tech’ cards that you feel may help you against match-ups your deck is naturally weak to. This could be a surprise favourite card, an older card people may not necessarily expect, or a card your deck is not very vulnerable too but strong against other decks.
9. Fiddle with the deck as you think fit to make an even 40 cards. Whether adding or removing, I can’t stress how important it is to try and increase the chances of drawing into that one-per-deck card you may need, or even a key card you run in multiples.

It seems like a long-winded process on paper, but when put into practice people actually find that it comes as second nature to them (except if they only know how to netdeck…). When building a deck, I’d recommend to any beginner to have roughly 20 Monsters, 10 Spells, and 10 Traps. This ‘balanced’ ratio (the proportion of a card to a deck – Monster Reborn is 1-in-40 card, and a 1-in-10 spell) is useful for newer players because it allows for room to adjust their deck to their style. Not enough Monsters? Drop some Traps. Or if you want more Spells, you could drop a Monster or two. Having a basis for the deck’s card count gets a player used to what the deck may or may not need as tey adjust it.

PART THREE: ATTRIBUTE-BASED MONARCHS

The first alternate style of Monarchs involves basing a deck on a particular attribute and adding the right amount of Monarch into the deck. As you know, there are six attributes and seven Monarchs (2 Light monarchs). Therefore, it is always possibly to build this kind of Monarch deck, and it is often a good backdrop for a beginner to get a feel for how Monarchs play. This primarily arose with the release of the Water and Fire Structure decks in 2004, and returned (in a sense) with the release of the Dark Emperor Structure deck.

I think it’s wise to point out that Attribute-typing works well with four of the Monarchs: Caius, Raiza, Zaborg, and Thestalos. Mobius can’t draw on the heavy WATER support too well, whether it is the hand control elements of Spiritual Water Art – Aoi, A Legendary Ocean and its level modification, or the newer Fish and Sea Serpent support. Granmarg draws on Rocks, which tend to lack useful low-level monsters and support. Kuraz is almost an exception to the general monarch theme, and only works well in Combo decks. However, that’s not to stop you from trying an attribute deck with those cards – the catch is that you’ll have a much harder time building an attribute deck with those Monarchs.

Here’s an example of what I’ve said above when applied to an attribute-based deck:
1. Look at a deck style and identify a strategy they wish to implement from that deck style. For this example I’ll take Caius’s removal effect.
2. Determine whether the identified strategy is the main focus or a supporting strategy for the deck. I’ll be taking Caius and using it as a supporting strategy, as a method to help with clearing the field for my main strategy.
3. Repeat steps one and two – if the first strategy you used was a support strategy, try to make the next one the main strategy. Here I’ll be using the long forgotten Jinzo-Returner summon ability in conjunction with Jinzo. I’m using this as the main strategy simply because it’s a classic that people seem to have forgotten over the years, and so needs some love.
4. Add same-deck stylee support as necessary. I’ve added Dekoichi and Black Salvo, Prometheus, Sangan, and Spirit Reaper for the job.
5. Add outside-deck style support (if necessary). With this deck, I only added a Cyber Dragon; the addition of this card gives access to Chimeratech Overdragon and Chimeratech Fortress Dragon respectively.
6. Add ‘staple’ Spells and Traps for the deck type.
7. Add ‘support’ Spells and Traps to the deck. This deck includes Allure of Darkness and D.D.R., both of which are useful to the deck type in general.
8. Add ‘tech’ cards that you feel may help you against match-ups your deck is naturally weak to. This deck’s ‘tech’ is Card Destruction and the Fusion cards. The deck doesn’t mind its cards in the grave, but its primary use is to remove copies of Kalut and Honest from an opponent’s hand, which can both ruin attacking strategies. In addition, Future Fusion and Overload Fusion both provide methods of thinning the deck,
9. Fiddle with the deck as you think fit to make an even 40 cards.

Well, here’s what my build looks like:

MONSTERS

3x Caius the Shadow Monarch
3x Jinzo
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Cyber Dragon

3x Jinzo-Returner
1x Dark Grepher
3x Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
1x Black Salvo
2x Prometheus, King of Shadows
1x Sangan
1x Spirit Reaper

SPELLS

1x Future Fusion
1x Overload Fusion
2x Allure of Darkness
1x Card Destruction
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Heavy Storm
1x Monster Reborn
2x D.D.R – Different Dimension Reincarnation

TRAPS

3x Solemn Judgement
3x Threatening Roar
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Dust Tornado

PART FOUR: STRATEGY-BASED MONARCHS

With the next example, I’ll show you how Monarchs can be incorporated into a deck that relies on a particular mechanic to win games. These decks are not generally attribute oriented, but most of the Monsters in the deck will share a common attribute. The most commonly Mudkip decks in this style that use Monarchs include Hand Control with Thestalos, Spin with Raiza, or RFG with Caius. As I’ve already covered Caius in a deck I’ll present a Hand Control variant with Thestalos.

Hand Control works on a simple set of rules:
1. If you have more cards in your hand then your opponent, you have more options then them.
2. If your opponent has no cards in their hand, they need to top-deck solutions to their problems.
3. If they are top-decking and have nothing on the field, odds are they’ll lose (except for Lightsworn and stupid JD ).

Thus, Hand Control works on discard effects first, and field control second. It’s an old concept that was big around 2006 when Monarchs were the biggest threat around and eliminating them from the hand was a sure fire way to not have to worry about them too much. These days it tends to be overlooked, being ‘slow’ against Cat Synchro and ‘useless’ against Lightsworn and Blackwings. Still, I’ve always felt it has potential as a Tier 2 or even Tier 1.5 deck type if done correctly.

Since I already explained my method of building a deck before, I’m not going to do so again. Instead, I’ll explain some of the choices behind the core concepts of the deck, and you as the reader can identify the processes and card choices for each category yourself.

This deck will use an Apprentice Engine and more Battle Control aspects, using cards like Enemy Controller and Creature Swap along with Recruiters (monsters that can fetch another when destroyed by battle) to maintain field presence. Obviously though, maintaining Field presence is hard in this game, but the deck serves well as a basis.

MONSTERS

3x Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
3x Dark Red Enchanter – Along with Thestalos, Dark Red is the other tribute monster with the capacity to hit the hand. Whilst it’s not as strong as Thestalos it has the advantage of being able to hit the hand more then once.
1x Cyber Dragon

3x Apprentice Magician
2x Crystal Seer
2x Summoner Monk – Fetching Tomato or Exemplar (and if you side in Rose, Warrior of revenge it can fetch that too)
2x Magical Exemplar – Used to fetch Apprentice or Dark Red, and 1700ATK isn’t too bad these days
2x Mystic Tomato
2x Don Zaloog – The other hand-control element in the deck, Don’s 1400ATK makes it searchable by Tomato and can be used to squeeze in a direct attack or two, or just pressure the opponent into playing Kalut on their Gale instead of their Bora like they wanted .
1x Sangan

SPELLS

2x Allure of Darkness
2x Pot of Avarice – with the amount of recruiting this deck should be doing, as well as the possibility of losing a card by battle, Avarice will help keep the deck rolling along by putting those recruiters back where they need to be
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Creature Swap
2x Enemy Controller – the versatility of it being able to steal an opponent’s monster makes it more useful here then Book of Moon

TRAPS

3x Solemn Judgement
2x Dust Tornado
2x Compulsory Evacuation Device (since the deck can target cards from the hand easily, it’s not too much of a concern to give a monster back to them)
1x Trap Dustshoot – sending a card from an opponent’s hand back to their deck is just as useful as discarding it.
1x Mind Crush – seems risky at first, but with the right guess (or the help of Trap Dustshoot) it equates to a chainable discard option for the deck. Especially useful against Blackwings or Lightsworn, since both decks have cards that search their decks for monsters and add them to their hand, allowing you to see what to target (Black Whirlwind and Charge of the Light Brigade respectively).

PART FIVE: CONCLUSION

Really, there’s not much else I can go on about at this point. However, I will say that this is but the tip of the iceberg for building any deck. I could keep going on and on about Monarchs, like their cross-attribute builds and combo builds and even dedicated anti-meta builds, but with so many other deck types out there I might as well move on and let you explore those on your own. If you take anything from this article though, I’d like for you to draw two things. First, always structure your deck builds – that way you have a clear goal you can set out to achieve with your deck. Second, even a deck type that often is only seen with one build can have multiple builds out there. You just need to find it and try to make it work for yourself.

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