Monarch Control Deck

A Monarch Control Deck revolves around using the following Monarch cards: The focus of a Monarch Control deck is to utilize the effects of the Monarch cards (Zaborg, Mobius, Thestalos, Granmarg, Raiza, and Caius) 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). You can combine Monarchs with Reshef the Dark Being because you can in one turn Ritual Summon him and discard Spell Card to take control of your opponent`s monster. This effect is more effective, because you can take face-down monster
 * Granmarg the Rock Monarch
 * Mobius the Frost Monarch
 * Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
 * Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
 * Raiza the Storm Monarch
 * Caius the Shadow Monarch
 * Kuraz the Light Monarch

While a very powerful deck types 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.

Monster Cards

 * Granmarg the Rock Monarch
 * Mobius the Frost Monarch
 * Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
 * Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
 * Raiza the Storm Monarch
 * Caius the Shadow Monarch
 * Kuraz the Light Monarch
 * The Tricky
 * Evil Hero Infernal Prodigy
 * Giant Germ
 * Cyber Dragon
 * Spell Striker
 * Nimble Momonga
 * D.D. Warrior Lady
 * Marshmallon
 * Exiled Force
 * Treeborn Frog
 * Samsara Kaiser
 * Breaker the Magical Warrior
 * Stardust Dragon
 * Kreebons

Spell Cards

 * Monster Reborn
 * Heavy Storm
 * Mystical Space Typhoon
 * Enemy Controller
 * Lightning Vortex
 * Soul Exchange
 * Brain Control
 * Smashing Ground
 * Stray Lambs
 * Book of Moon
 * Fiend's Sanctuary
 * Fissure or Hammer Shot

Trap Cards

 * By Order of the Emperor
 * Bottomless Trap Hole
 * Royal Decree
 * Trap Dustshoot
 * Torrential Tribute
 * Ultimate Offering
 * Imperial Order
 * Metal Reflect Slime
 * Limit Reverse

A Soul Control Deck is essentially a Monarch Control Deck that focuses heavily on taking control of the opponent's monsters with cards like Brain Control and Soul Exchange and then tributing them to Tribute Summon Monarchs, thus generating advantage and clearing the opponent's field.

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.

Another alternative that is becoming popular is the Macro Monarch Deck, which uses cards like Macro Cosmos and Dimensional Fissure together with D.D. Survivor and D.D. Scout Plane. Because these cards can return to the field when removed from the field, they make good tributes for Monarchs. This deck has become more popular with the release of Caius the Shadow Monarch.

There also exists a cross between Volcanics and Monarchs called Volcanic Monarchs. Volcanic Monarchs achieves hand advantage while destroying opponents' cards. To achieve this goal, a Volcanic Monarch player would use Volcanic Shells with Blaze Accelerator to destroy monsters on the field. Volcanic Rocket is used to search out Blaze Accelerator, while Pot of Avarice and Royal Firestorm Guards are used to recycle Volcanic Shells. Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch is used to maintain hand advantage over your opponent. This deck was very popular for a short amount of time, but has fallen by the wayside ever since.

An upcoming monarch build is the monarch synchro build. One option is the variation of the apprentice monarch build with some tuner monsters like frequency magician and junk synchron splashed in.