The Forbidden & Limited List (F&L) for the World Championship is a special mix of both the TCG and OCG lists with additional modifications. Because of that, the World Championship becomes a very unique tournament in terms of what strategies are being played. This is a fantastic opportunity for highly skilled Duelists because they can analyze what they think will be the strongest strategies for a completely new environment. Luckily, any Duelist who has made it as far as the World Championship is definitely at that skill caliber, so things are looking exciting for this weekend.

Monarchs have been a major player in the TCG for a while, considered the most powerful strategy in the current scene despite being a little inconsistent. Ehther the Heavenly Monarch and Erebus the Underworld Monarch are the strongest Monarchs ever released; Ehther brings more monsters to the field while Erebus can shuffle away any opposing card, both while filling your Graveyard with resources you can use later. The Prime Monarch and Pantheism of the Monarchs are what you want to be sending to the Graveyard, the former providing you with either Tribute fodder or Xyz Material, while the latter finds you more cards. Starting with Pantheism of the Monarchs and discarding The Prime Monarch to activate it is one of the most powerful card combinations available right now in the TCG; but in the OCG Monarchs took a pretty big hit. Both Pantheism of the Monarchs and Domain of the True Monarchs are Limited on the OCG Forbidden & Limited List, and Limited for this weekend’s tournament. Drawing Pantheism of the Monarchs could be the difference between having a playable hand and not being able to make any actions, while Domain of the True Monarchs is the way that Domain Monarchs plan to win the Duel. Can Monarch Decks still thrive with only one of each?

If there is any reason to still use Monarchs, The Monarchs Stormforth is definitely it. The Monarchs Stormforth is practically unconditional removal, and when utilized alongside Ehther the Heavenly Monarch you can disrupt the opponent during his or her own turn. Every powerful threat other than Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy is vulnerable to The Monarchs Stormforth, so the advantage and tempo it gains is absurd. However, consistency is already a huge problem for Monarch Decks, so losing two copies of Pantheism of the Monarchs is a very big deal. Duelists may need to find additional ways to get going, even though they can still recycle Pantheism of the Monarchs with the effect of Edea the Heavenly Squire.

So how do you fix this consistency problem? Well Domain Monarchs is basically out of the picture. With only a single copy of Domain of the True Monarchs, you can’t rely on it sticking around to win you the game, and that version of Monarchs is notorious for weak opening hands already. However, Extra Deck Monarch variants could have much more success. They were already only using a single copy of Domain of the True Monarchs just for the option of level reduction, and have many cards that can help get the hand going immediately such as Brilliant Fusion. It is also the more powerful Deck of the two because it can just do so much more, so it is more likely that it can break up a Blue-Eyes field than the Domain variant.

One possible Extra Deck Monarch variant that could see success is Burning Abyss Monarch. While not a big player in the OCG, Burning Abyss Monarch Decks saw a decent amount of success in the TCG for quite some time. Because both strategies have lost cards to the World Championship F&L List, combining the two to fill the gaps could lead to a decent amount of success.

Will we see Monarchs help crown the King of Games? Or will they fall short? Stay tuned to coverage this weekend to find out!