Playing ten or more Monarchs is a very risky strategy that’s paid off for very few duelists at Shonen Jump Championships. This is because the chances of drawing unplayable hands are high enough that losses can occur too early to survive until the Top 16. Big Monarch decks also face the possibility of being trampled by overly aggressive players. They usually want a few turns to set up stability and gain control over the opponent. If the opposing player aims to win as fast as possible, the Big Monarch user can find him- or herself without enough life points to continue.

At World-level competition, chances are that most players won’t be extremely aggressive. Many top players realize that it’s easy to lose a game if over-extending doesn’t pan out. The very thought that one reckless play can lose a match steers most duelists away from making these moves. As such, one could expect less aggressive play trends at Worlds, especially against a Monarch deck. Most players know by now the destruction that one Brain Control plus Raiza the Storm Monarch can cause against a strong field like Cyber Dragon, Card Trooper, and Mirror Force. Most players will try to play conservatively, confident that a Big Monarch deck couldn’t storm a game against a field of face-down spells and traps. Of course, Worlds-level competitors will have a few tricks up their sleeves. Let’s take a look at what Dexter Dalit ran at World Championships 2007:

Monsters: 24

3 Raiza the Storm Monarch

3 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch

2 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

2 Mobius the Frost Monarch

3 Mystic Tomato

3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive

2 Cyber Dragon

1 Snipe Hunter

1 Sangan

1 Treeborn Frog

1 Spirit Reaper

2 Gravekeeper’s Spy

Spells: 8

2 Brain Control

2 Soul Exchange

1 Scapegoat

1 Snatch Steal

1 Heavy Storm

1 Premature Burial

Traps: 8

2 Waboku

2 Trap Dustshoot

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Call of the Haunted

You’ll see that this build, much like Bryan Rockenbach’s, doesn’t play any copies of Mother Grizzly. Instead, it puts three spots toward Mystic Tomato to search out Treeborn Frog via Sangan. The best part about this search engine is that Sangan can be sacrificed as a tribute for any of the Monarchs, allowing Dexter to search for Treeborn Frog and play a Monarch on the same turn.

Of course, the strength of Mother Grizzly was that it put Treeborn Frog onto the field and then into the graveyard without requiring a normal summon. If you’re relying on Sangan to search Treeborn Frog, as Dexter was, it can mean spending a turn setting the Frog before getting to use its effect. Since Big Monarch decks like this one always want to keep opponents on their heels, it does no good allowing them to build up field presence. That’s where Trap Dustshoot and Snipe Hunter come in.

Trap Dustshoot does an excellent job of stripping opponents of monsters before they can even play them. Not only do you get to select which monster to send back (potentially leaving your opponent with nothing playable), but you also get to see your opponent’s hand and decide on the best course for victory. You can leave your opponents with monsters that will hurt them more than help. Leaving your opponent with Card Trooper, Cyber Dragon, Raiza the Storm Monarch, Mirror Force, and Scapegoat, for example, will leave him or her completely devastated if you have Brain Control and Mobius the Frost Monarch. In addition, since Cyber Phoenix can really hurt the spell cards this deck needs to win, Trap Dustshoot provides another outlet for getting that monster safely out of the way.

Snipe Hunter seems out of place at first, but a closer look reveals that it’s one of the best options for this deck. First, it offers a way to discard Treeborn Frog while removing something from the opponent’s field and hopefully forcing game simplification. If your opponent takes the bait and destroys Snipe Hunter after it has destroyed something else, then the cards your Monarchs start to destroy will hurt the opponent that much more. Pretty soon, your opponent will find him- or herself without any means to fight back, and your Monarchs will just walk over opposing monsters and life points.

Snipe Hunter provides an extra, subtler advantage. Because many players fear it, and its ability to win a game on any given turn is very possible, they’ll likely invest many cards to destroy it. This means either playing a Cyber Dragon and Card Trooper to ensure that it’s taken down—a play we know this deck tears apart—or playing a Brain Control and Monarch combination earlier than is preferable, which leaves the opponent with less ways to take care of our Monarchs once they start dropping next turn. If opponents leave Snipe Hunter alone, then we simply play Soul Exchange and Monarch next turn, and suddenly they’re staring down a field that will absolutely destroy them a turn later. It’s another one of those lose-if-you-do, lose-if-you-don’t scenarios that so often occurs with the strongest decks.

Gravekeeper’s Spy and Waboku are here as protective measures. Fast decks or fast players that aim to win before Dexter can get set up are a real problem. Gravekeeper’s Spy puts a damper on almost any offensive and can turn around to become an offensive tool at any given moment. Its self-replacing effect also allows Dexter to tribute one of the two copies. This means that he can push with a Monarch and remain confident with life points because of the defense-mode Spy.

Waboku is included mainly to stop the game-winning turn on which most players rely. It’s no secret that today’s metagame involves a lot of “Cyber Dragon, Snipe Hunter, Brain Control, Snatch Steal, and attack for game” kind of turns. Just as possible are those Card Trooper / Machine Duplication or Future Fusion / Overload Fusion combos that can pump out monstrous amounts of ATK power in one turn. Waboku means that Dexter can safely survive stuff like that. In addition, it will usually take at least one card with it, such as when it’s targeted by Mystical Space Typhoon or Snipe Hunter. This can leave opponents in very exposed positions, ready to be annihilated by one of Dexter’s many Monarchs.

Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive made the cut for this deck to force opponents into action. Usually, most players won’t attack back against Big Monarch decks, knowing that they’ll be hard-pressed to make an aggressive move or build terrifying field presence as long as they have a spell or trap card blocking the Frog from returning. Dekoichi can start chipping away at opposing monsters, clearing up room on their side of the field unless they attack the train. Soul Exchange achieves the same goal of removing opposing monsters from the field and strengthening Dexter’s side. His opponents will be forced to make plays, and that lets Dexter make counter plays: his first step towards winning the game.

Whether or not a deck like this can hold up in a nine-round tournament remains to be seen, but I expect to see many players making a run with this ten-Monarch deck this weekend at Shonen Jump Indianapolis.