Pattern Recognition #277 - First of Her Name

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

6 April 2023

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Good day everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut's longest running article series. I am something of an Old Fogey and a definite Smart Ass, and I have been around the block quite a few times. My experience is quite broad and deep, and so I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. Be it deck design, card construction, mechanics or in-universe characters and the history of the game. Or whatever happens to catch my attention each week. Which happens far more often than I care to admit. Please, feel free to talk about my subject matter in the comments at the bottom of the page, add suggestions or just plain correct me.

And welcome back everyone! Today, I will talk about a subject that leaped into my brain with the previews of March, and one of the Invasion cards. Or rather, with Invasion of Fiora  ^Flip and its flipside, Marchesa, Resolute Monarch  ^Flip. Because wow I wish I could roll her as my Commander. That's an amazing card! Both sides!

She is also completely done with this stupid bullshit Invasion, thank you very much. At least, that's the vibe I get from that image. Anyway, talking about Marchesa herself, while she is a great character from what little we've seen of her, is not the subject of this article. Rather, I'm going to talk about one of the things she's really good at, and that is making you the Monarch.

Monarch is a mechanic introduced in the special expansion set Conspiracy: Take the Crown. Conspiracy, as a format, is also a different subject, but what this set introduced was a multiplayer-optimized mechanic called Monarch to represent the current holder of the Throne of the High City, and rulership over Paliano, the High City and realms beyond. Players would fight for the advantage of being the Monarch and only the last man, woman or Goblin standing would win the prize.

Until someone else comes along, and the game begins again.

It has also appeared in Commander Legends, as well as a couple of Preconstructed Commander decks. It's not going away any time soon.

Monarch is not a token. It is not a counter. It is not an embalm, even though Wizards has printed a Monarch card to represent it using that format. Rather, The Monarch is a conceptual state that can only be applied to a player. Though this is not the first time that Wizards has experimented with that, nor has it been the last.

You see, Monarch doesn't exist until it is introduced into the game by an effect on a card. Before that point, Monarch does not exist, and has no effect. But once it enters into the game state by being associated with a player, it is there to stay until the game ends. It can move, be taken and lost, but it cannot be destroyed in any way.

I'm reminded, in a way, of the qualities of Renown and Monstrous from Magic Origins and Theros respectively. These abilities, in addition to other things, attached an intangible concept to the creature that had it once invoked, and while the ability itself may be removed - say, you used Heliod's Punishment on an Acolyte of the Inferno that has become Renowned. That concept stays with the creature, even if it loses the ability, which means that cards that check for the status of the creature - like Enshrouding Mist, still see it as Renowned. The same goes for Monstrous, save that is an Activated ability that utilizes the quality of becoming Monstrous to avoid activating the same ability again.

It is also similar to having the Initiative from Commander Legends: Baldur's Gate, or the Day/Night mechanic from Crimson Vow and Midnight Hunt. Though the latter is a state that is applied to the board as a whole, and not to a single player.

But back to Monarch. Monarch enters into play only when a card specifies that it does, and as of the time of this writing, there are only 30 cards that do so. Which is more than enough. When you - or in the case of Starscream, Seeker Leader  ^Flip or Jared Carthalion, True Heir, an opponent - becomes the Monarch, they gain that state. And being a Monarch, there are two things attached to that state that are inherently relevant.

First is that while a person is a Monarch, during their end step, they draw a card. Second; if an opponent of the Monarch would deal combat damage to the Monarch, the attacking player becomes the Monarch. Should the player who is the Monarch lose the game, but not through combat damage, then the player whose turn it is becomes the Monarch. If it is the Monarch's turn when they lose the game, then the player next in turn order becomes the Monarch at that point. Things such as Door to Nothingness can make things into fun times all around.

That's it. Those are the only two things that being the Monarch does. Everything else comes from having or taking possession of the Monarchy via cards on the battlefield.

In addition, there can only be one Monarch in a game at a time. That's why cards that, when they enter the battlefield and bring the Monarch with them, they say that "When $CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you become the monarch." Which is an elegant way of saying that you can make the Monarch exist, or you take it from whomever is currently the Monarch.

Monarch was designed for the multiplayer format of Conspiracy in order to help encourage board state interaction and combat as the game went on. Having Monarch was a good thing for you, but it also put a target on your head - and now I really want an Artifact/Equipment based on the Sword of Damocles that can do something with this mechanic, and Artifacts don't interact with the Monarchy all that much. And for the most part, for a draft/limited format, it worked pretty well. It encouraged politicking, more aggressive plays, and a certain degree of player-on-player interaction that I find I'm not really all the comfortable with. Call me an introvert.

Of course, this didn't always happen, as one player could resist efforts to take the monarchy from them either by dint of arms, and others not having a way to take it out from under them, but that was more the exception and not the rule. But it also reflects the very real-to-life notion that politics and rulership is a balance and not a single thing that can be held for eternity. Brago, King Eternal found this out the hard way.

This can be even more pronounced when Monarch is taken out of its default state, the Conspiracy draft, and into other formats. Commander decks with Monarch are designed to gain and exploit that advantage as much as possible, and more so that another player could. Palace Sentinels was the cornerstone of a Pauper deck, a Boros Midrange deck that used Monarch to help draw cards in a colour pairing that had issues with that at the time, while Palace Jailer can be used to repeated exile permanents because he only returns things when someone else becomes the Monarch, not when he leaves the Battlefield, such as with Banisher Priest or Brutal Cathar  ^Flip.

But because of its position as mechanic from a Supplementary set, it wasn't legal in Standard or Modern. Cards with this mechanic are only legal in Pauper, Vintage, Legacy, Commander and Oathbreaker. And that's another thing I have to talk about, don't I? jots down notes somewhere

But that's OK! I can live with that, and it makes things interesting. Although the mechanics of Monarch in a 1v1 match are far different as the possibility of one player getting and keeping the Monarchy go up. Which turns into something should be fought over into a snowballing advantage of free card draw and better other things to go with it. Multiplayer has a different dynamic that can allow for more latitude with such things.

In terms of colour usage, has the most cards that make and care about the Monarchy with 7, while are close behind with only 6 each and having 5. This, of course, does not count multi-coloured cards, all of which have in them, but no . Now, I could say that this is because certain colours are more inclined to the nature of being a Monarch, such as 's desire for order, or 's desire for power, but that would be silly. Even , the color of nature and all that, will respect the might and power of the King of the Jungle.

Why is there no card by that name?!?!?

Yet as I doubt many of you will get into a Conspiracy draft with Monarch now, as the set is well out of print. Not impossible, just highly unlikely, the most likely place you will see the Monarch in play will either be Pauper decks, or in Commander, and Commander has some interesting Commanders that roll into this.

First, and least, is Starscream, Seeker Leader  ^Flip, who gives someone the Monarchy just so he can take all the power for himself. I don't have experience with him, and honestly, he's probably better in the last one I'm going to mention. Secondly is Jared Carthalion, True Heir. This Naya coloured Commander also starts out by making an opponent the Monarch, but comes with the additional caveat that you can't become the Monarch this turn. You have to earn it, and not just steal it by giving it to a defenseless player, and hitting them with another creature you have the same turn. It's an interesting way to discuss his personal history, as it's one of the few pre-Revisionist stories still standing.

Lastly, is the woman who started this all. Queen Marchesa. Having instigated the assassination of the previous ruler, King Brago (though the actual deed was done by Kaya, Ghost Hunter), she takes to the battlefield and claims the Monarchy for her own. And if someone dares to take it from her, well, she has disposable tools to use to reclaim it. I want to build this deck, but I don't have the cards for it. I want to roll out with the Monarch and just make deals all day, punishing anyone who would DARE TAKE MY THRONE FROM ME.

Least of all the Phyrexians. Probably can't even appreciate a good poison.

I know we'll see Monarch in the future. It's a fun mechanic that encourages interaction in a multiplayer table, it doesn't limit design space in any way as cards can make you become the Monarch, or check for the Monarchy without needing to do both. It fits into all colours without needing to jump through hoops, and best of all?

It's fun. Try it for yourselves. I doubt you'll have a problem with passing around the Crown.

Join me next week when I talk about something else. What? I don't know yet, but I'm always open to suggestions.

Until then please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!