Magic: The Gathering – What Is Monarch?
Sometimes in a multiplayer game of Magic: The Gathering, you need to put a target on your own head. Whether it's Two-Headed Giant or Commander, the only way you're going to push the game forward is by giving yourself something your opponents would rather you didn't have.
RELATED: Magic The Gathering's Streets Of New Capenna Draft Archetypes, Explained
Enter the monarch mechanic. Though it has the potential to give you a huge advantage, being the monarch does run the risk of gaining the attention of all your opponents. When it is worth being the monarch, and how can you keep your crown safe? Here is everything you need to know about MTG's monarch.
Monarch is uncommon among MTG mechanics in that it isn't a keyword or ability. Monarch isn't something you have or do, it's something you are. The official rules text describes the monarch as "a designation a player can have".
At the start of the game, nobody is the monarch. However, if someone has a card that makes them the monarch, the mechanic is introduced into the game, and it stays for the rest of the game. There is no way to remove monarch once it has been introduced, but there are ways to steal it from another player. Only one play can be the monarch at a time – any further cards that add monarch to the game just transfer the designation from the original player.
Being the monarch doesn't give you too many benefits despite the fancy name. The only inherent upside of being the monarch is that, on your end step, you draw an additional card. This is not a 'may' ability; you must draw that second card at the end of your turn if you're the monarch.
Other cards give the monarch more power, such as Court of Cunning forcing the monarch's opponents to mill ten cards on the
Read more on thegamer.com
