Widely considered to be the most powerful of the original Monarchs, Caius the Shadow Monarch has been a force to be reckoned with ever since its release back in The Dark Emperor Structure Deck. Now that Secrets of Eternity is here, it’s time to meet Caius’s ultimate form: Caius the Mega Monarch!

Like all of the Mega Monarchs, Caius the Mega Monarch can be Tribute Summoned using only one monster, as long as that monster had also been previously Tribute Summoned. He’ll fit right at home alongside the other Monarchs and Mega Monarchs.

The original Caius has an awesome effect already: he banishes any one card on the field when Tribute Summoned – as an added bonus, you’ll deal 1000 damage if the banished card was a DARK monster. This effect enables precision strikes again your opponent’s field, nailing almost any problematic card you could imagine, dodging most protective effects, and sometimes throwing out some free damage too. Caius can even banish himself to throw out the last burn damage you need in endgame scenarios – Caius started that, not Gagaga Cowboy! Now, imagine this great effect, but even more… MEGA.

Mega Caius pumps the whole thing up in an awesome way! You’ll still target any one card on the field, and this time, you deal 1000 damage as long as the card is banished. And like the original, Mega Caius gets a bonus when banishing a DARK Monster Card! If you do, that monster’s controller will lose every single copy of that DARK monster they have! Whether they’re in the hand, Main Deck, Extra Deck, or Graveyard, they’ll all be banished!

Hit a Shaddoll, like that pesky Shaddoll Falco? All gone. Burning Abyss take a hit too (But watch out for Fire Lake of the Burning Abyss!). You can banish Extra Deck monsters like Evilswarm Ophion, shutting down entire Decks at times, or just nail someone’s Ghostrick Alucard or Downerd Magician to keep them from making their ideal plays.

Mega Caius, like the other Mega Monarchs, gets to amplify his effect if your Tribute Summon used the matching Attribute. By Tributing a DARK monster for the Summon, Mega Caius gets a simple and sweet reward: You can target two cards instead of one!

There are several good ways to go about bringing Mega Caius to the field with its effect maximized. The first is, of course, to Tribute Summon the original Caius, then use it as a single Tribute for Mega Caius. This also works with Vanity’s Fiend, Jinzo, and The End of Anubis, to name a few. The Monarchs Stormforth cuts your Tribute requirement in half, so you can fill it in with your own DARK monster like Battle Fader. You can also go for the standard double-Tribute, using Fires of Doomsday or the recently Semi-Limited Gorz the Emissary of Darkness and its Emissary of Darkness Token. You can pick up Caius the Mega Monarch right now, now that Secrets of Eternity is out!