Monarch Control Deck

A Monarch Control Deck revolves around using the following Monarch cards:
 * Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
 * Kuraz the Light Monarch
 * Caius the Shadow Monarch
 * Mobius the Frost Monarch
 * Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
 * Granmarg the Rock Monarch
 * Raiza the Storm Monarch

The focus of a Monarch Control deck is to utilize the effects of the Monarch cards (Zaborg, Mobius, Thestalos, Granmarg, Raiza, Caius and Kuraz) to gain card advantage over the opponent. These decks use many strategies to ensure that the opponent is losing more cards than they are. Some of these strategies include: reviving tribute material (Treeborn Frog), utilizing Recruiter monsters and gaining control of the opponent's monsters for use as tribute material (via Brain Control or Soul Exchange).

A very powerful deck type ever since their release, Monarch decks (due to high amounts of problems from Chaos Decks) have not truly made a game changing impact until September 2006, when "Chaos Sorcerer" was banned from competitive play. However, Monarch Control successfully dominated the North American metagame for the duration of the format, but is now less popular since Raiza was Limited in the new banlist, leaving the Monarchs weaker and incapable to compete with Dark Armed Dragon, Gladiator Beasts and Lightsworns decks except the Macro Monarch Deck.

With the new Banlist of March 2009, the semi-limiting Raiza the Storm Monarch allow Monarch decks to regain a stronghold in the Metagame especially as Tele-DAD, Gladiator Beasts, and Zombies have become much less effective. Warriors have also taken a hit (Six Samurais), from Reinforcement of the Army now becoming Limited.

Monster Cards

 * Caius the Shadow Monarch
 * Mobius the Frost Monarch
 * Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
 * Raiza the Storm Monarch
 * The Tricky
 * Mask of Darkness
 * Gravekeeper's Spy
 * Treeborn Frog
 * Sangan
 * Prime Material Dragon
 * Spirit Reaper
 * Exiled Force
 * Breaker the Magical Warrior

Spell Cards

 * Heavy Storm
 * Mystical Space Typhoon
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Smashing Ground
 * Brain Control
 * Enemy Controller
 * Monster Reborn
 * Swords of Revealing Light
 * Double Summon
 * Soul Exchange
 * Scapegoat

Trap Cards

 * Bottomless Trap Hole
 * Mirror Force
 * Torrential Tribute
 * Solemn Judgment

An alternative to a Monarch Control Deck is an Apprentice Monarch Deck, which uses cards like Apprentice Magician, Crystal Seer and Old Vindictive Magician to gain the upper hand in a duel. Old Vindictive Magician lets you destroy your opponent's monsters and Crystal Seer gives you extra cards, giving you more strategies to play with. Apprentice Magician summons those monsters in the damage step when your opponent can't do much about it. These little monsters are also very good tribute materials for Monarchs.

There are many options to support the monarchs it really just depends on what works for the individuals playing the monarch decks. However the Treeborn Frog method seems to work the best since you waste less resources to summon the monarchs.

Another alternative that is becoming popular is the Macro Monarch Deck. It is the most efficient Monarch type deck, and most effective against the current meta.

Macro Monarch Decks are extremely effective against Graveyard-Based Decks such as Dark Armed Dragon since they completely eliminate the Graveyard and can take advantage of the situation to revive Tribute material to keep summoning Monarchs.

Monster Cards

 * Caius the Shadow Monarch
 * Kuraz the Light Monarch
 * Mobius the Frost Monarch
 * Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
 * Raiza the Storm Monarch
 * Cyber Dragon
 * The Tricky
 * D.D. Survivor
 * D.D. Scout Plane
 * Exiled Force
 * Breaker the Magical Warrior
 * Marshmallon
 * Spirit Reaper
 * Cyber Valley
 * Snipe Hunter

Spell Cards

 * Dimensional Fissure
 * Reinforcement of the Army
 * Heavy Storm
 * Mystical Space Typhoon
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Brain Control
 * Enemy Controller
 * Soul Exchange
 * Swords of Revealing Light

Trap Cards

 * Macro Cosmos
 * Bottomless Trap Hole
 * Solemn Judgment
 * Dark Bribe
 * Crush Card Virus
 * Mirror Force
 * Torrential Tribute
 * Return from the Different Dimension

Since The Duelist Genesis came out, there has been a new Monarch deck called Psychic Monarchs. The new Psychic monsters play a role. Cards like Krebons and Psychic Commander stall with their effects. A new card called Emergency Teleport will aid in this deck. However with the March 1st 2009 banlist Emergency Teleport has been limited to 1 and so this deck would be a bit less effective. You can also synchro summon level 8 synchro monsters with Krebons and any Monarch except Zaborg