The Emperor of Darkness Structure Deck hit shelves this past weekend and revitalized the original Tribute Summon strategy: Monarchs!

The original six Monarchs all have 2400 ATK/1000 DEF and require one Tribute in order to Summon them. When you Tribute Summon them, they immediately do something to offset the cost to play them! Zaborg destroys a monster, Mobius destroys up to two Spell/Traps, Thestalos discards a card from your opponent’s hand, Granmarg destroys any face-down card, Raiza returns a card on the field to the top of the Deck and Caius banishes a card on the field. All of these cards got Mega-Monarch upgrades over the past couple years to expand their power even further!

Emperor of Darkness introduces two new Monarchs to the mix. Ehther the Heavenly Monarch and Erebus the Underworld Monarch are Level 8 and have the same 2800 ATK/1000 DEF as the Mega Monarchs. They can also be Tribute Summoned for only one Tribute if that Tribute is a Tribute Summoned monster, like another Monarch. Both also reward you handsomely for using the many different “Monarch” Spell/Trap Cards released alongside the Mega Monarchs!

When you Tribute Summon Ehther, you can send two “Monarch” Spell/Traps with different names from your hand or Deck to the Graveyard to Special Summon a Monarch from your Deck. You can then add that monster to your hand at the end of the turn. Use this to field multiple huge monsters for direct attacks on your own turn, while setting yourself up for future Tribute Summons later. You can also utilize this ability on your opponent’s turn, either by using Escalation of the Monarchs or Ehther’s own ability to banish a “Monarch” Spell/Trap Card from your Graveyard to allow you to Tribute Summon her during your opponent’s Main. This is a good effect to use after your opponent finishes playing cards for the turn, so that you can set up for your own turn!

Erebus the Underworld Monarch can attack any part of your opponent’s strategy while avoiding all the common ways to protect cards. When he’s Tribute Summoned, you can send two different “Monarch” Spell/Traps from your hand or Deck to the Graveyard to shuffle any card in your opponent’s hand or Graveyard or send any card on their field back into the Deck. This effect doesn't target, and if you want to return a card from the hand back into the Deck, it’s chosen randomly. Better yet, even if Erebus falls to the Graveyard you can constantly get it or other Monarchs back from the Graveyard by discarding “Monarch” Spell/Trap Cards. You can only use this effect once per turn, but you can use it during either players turn, setting you up for multiple Monarch Summons on your own turn!

These two new Monarchs from Emperor of Darkness bring Tribute Summoning strategies back into the mix after years of being absent! You can try them right now!