MTG Monarch Explained: Rules, All 63 Monarch Cards, the Ten Courts, Why the Crown Has Never Been Standard-Legal, the Pauper Ban, How to Keep It and Steal It, and a Budget Queen Marchesa Deck (2026)

The monarch is the crown that draws you a card at the end of every one of your turns and that any opponent can take from you by hitting you with a creature. It is not a keyword and it is not on a card: it is a designation, a status the player holds, written into the Comprehensive Rules as rule 725 with two triggered abilities that have no source. It arrived in Conspiracy: Take the Crown in August 2016, has been printed on 63 cards across eleven products since, and in ten years it has never once appeared in a set that was legal in Standard, Pioneer or Modern — which is why it is a Commander mechanic, a Pauper mechanic and a Legacy mechanic and nothing else.

This guide measures the crown rather than describing it. The Comprehensive Rules of 7 August 2026 define seventeen designations; twelve belong to permanents, one to the game itself, and four to a player. Two of the four are shared markers nobody can lose. The other two are single-holder titles that move on combat damage, and the monarch is the original — the initiative copied its steal clause six years later. Below: the rules and the rulings that follow from them, all 63 cards with how each one hands you the crown (44 do it when a permanent enters; five hand it to an opponent instead), the eleven products and the formats, the ten Courts, the ten Pauper commons and the one Pauper ban, the Legacy contrast with the initiative, the cards that keep the crown and the cards that take it, the commanders, the fourteen precons on this site that hold a monarch card, and a Queen Marchesa Commander deck priced from the cheapest ordinary printings.

What the monarch actually is

Rule 725 is short, and the whole mechanic is in its second paragraph:

725.2 There are two inherent triggered abilities associated with being the monarch. These triggered abilities have no source and are controlled by the player who was the monarch at the time the abilities triggered. This is an exception to rule 113.8. The full texts of these abilities are “At the beginning of the monarch’s end step, that player draws a card” and “Whenever a creature deals combat damage to the monarch, its controller becomes the monarch.”

Four things follow from the wording, and every monarch ruling on Scryfall is one of them restated. First, the game starts with no monarch (725.1). Nothing happens until a card says “you become the monarch,” and from that moment the game has exactly one monarch until it ends — if the monarch leaves the game, the active player inherits the title, or the next player in turn order if the active player is the one leaving (725.4). Second, only one player can be the monarch at a time (725.3): becoming the monarch strips it from whoever had it, which is why “whenever you become the monarch” abilities like Custodi Lich’s do not trigger if you already are. Third, the draw and the steal are triggered abilities. They go on the stack, they can be responded to, and Stifle counters them. If the draw trigger is on the stack and someone else becomes the monarch before it resolves, the player who was the monarch when it triggered still draws the card. Fourth, the steal is combat damage only. A burn spell to the face, a Pestilence activation, a fight — none of them move the crown. A creature has to connect in combat, and it moves the crown to that creature’s controller, not to the attacking player if those differ.

One more consequence that matters at the table: because the two abilities have no source, no card can remove them. You cannot Disenchant the monarch, bounce it or exile it. Once it exists, the only ways it moves are the steal trigger, a card that makes someone else the monarch, and a player leaving the game.

What the draw is worth

“At the beginning of the monarch’s end step, that player draws a card” is one card per turn cycle for as long as you hold it. In a four-player game that is a card every fourth turn of the table — the same rate as Phyrexian Arena, without the life payment and without a permanent to destroy. In a two-player game it is a card every other turn, and the whole question of the format becomes whether the opponent can connect with a creature before the extra cards bury them. That is why the crown plays so differently in Commander and in Pauper: in one it is a mostly-shared resource that changes hands every combat, in the other it is a Phyrexian Arena the opponent can only turn off by winning the board.

One of only two things a player can hold that another player can take in combat

The Comprehensive Rules use the word “designation” for a status that is neither an ability nor a characteristic — a marker the rules attach to an object, a player or the game. Read the 7 August 2026 text for every rule that defines one and there are seventeen. Twelve are things a permanent can be: goaded, monstrous, Ring-bearer, suspected, harnessed, renowned, saddled, solved, prepared, a sector, a level, an unlocked half. One belongs to the game itself: day and night. Four belong to a player, and they are the whole list.

Two of the four — the city’s blessing from ascend (Rivals of Ixalan, 2018) and the enduring story from storied (The Hobbit, 2026) — are written the same way: “a designation that has no rules meaning other than to act as a marker,” and “any number of players may have [it] at the same time.” You earn them, you keep them, nobody can take them. The other two are written the other way: “only one player can be the monarch at a time” (725.3), “only one player can have the initiative at a time” (726.3), and each carries a sourceless trigger that hands it to the controller of a creature that deals combat damage to the holder. The monarch (Conspiracy: Take the Crown, August 2016) is the original; the initiative (Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate, June 2022) is the second player designation in Magic’s history that can be stolen by attacking. The initiative ventures into Undercity instead of drawing, triggers at the start of the holder’s upkeep instead of their end step, and adds a third trigger for taking it — but its 726.4 “if the player who has the initiative leaves the game” clause is a near-verbatim copy of 725.4.

How you become the monarch: 44 of 63 hand it over when a permanent enters

Scryfall’s oracle-text search o:monarch returns 63 paper cards (there is no keyword:monarch; the crown is not a keyword, and asking Scryfall for it returns every card in the game). Sixty are on sale today; three — Ginger, Queen of Sweets and Tamiyo, Upriser Crowned from Reality Fracture Commander (2 October 2026) and Chief Magistrate of Mercadia from Mystery Booster Commander Edition (9 November 2026) — are previewed cards that are not yet legal anywhere and are tabled below with that caveat. Read each card for how the crown changes hands and the 63 sort into seven kinds.

The dominant pattern is the one Conspiracy set in 2016: “When this creature enters, you become the monarch” and its enchantment twin, 39 cards in all, from the four-mana Palace Sentinels to the ten Courts. Five more crown you when another permanent enters — Faramir, Steward of Gondor on any legendary creature with mana value four or more, Nakia, Wakandan Operative on your commander, Crown of Gondor on any legendary creature if nobody is the monarch yet, and the two Auras (Fall from Favor, Fealty to the Realm) on themselves. Four are activated abilities with a real cost attached: Throne of the High City sacrifices itself for {4}, Coin of Fate exiles two creature cards from your graveyard and sacrifices itself, King Solomon’s Frogs exiles itself, T’Chaka, Venerable King exiles himself from your graveyard. Seven crown you when a spell or a chapter resolves or some other trigger fires (Feast of Succession, Oath of Eorl’s third chapter, Regal Sliver’s granted enters ability). Exactly one card in the game makes you the monarch through the crown’s own mechanism — Forth Eorlingas!, whose delayed trigger crowns you when any of your creatures deal combat damage to a player that turn, whether or not that player was the monarch. And two cards (Garrulous Sycophant, Throne Warden) only reward the crown without ever granting it.

The five that give the crown to an opponent

The most interesting design space is the one Commander Legends opened in 2020 with Jared Carthalion, True Heir: hand the crown to an opponent on purpose, then hit them. Jared crowns a target opponent and forbids you from taking it that turn; Éomer, King of Rohan and Denethor, Stone Seer crown a target player and deal damage in the same breath; Garland, Royal Kidnapper crowns an opponent and then steals a creature from them for as long as they hold it; M’Baku, Jabari Chieftain crowns an opponent at your end step if nobody has it and pumps every creature that attacks them. The crown is a card a turn to whoever holds it — but it is also a target painted on their forehead, because every other player at the table now has a reason to attack them instead of you. Four further cards punish an opponent for holding it: Queen Marchesa makes a deathtouch Assassin every upkeep an opponent is the monarch, Knights of the Black Rose drains two when someone takes it from you, Palace Jailer’s exile lasts “until an opponent becomes the monarch,” and Garland’s theft above.

Five cards carry the clause “if there is no monarch” — Archivist of Gondor, Crown of Gondor, M’Baku, The Spear of Bashenga and Starscream’s vehicle face. They create the crown but never seize it, which makes them the safest monarch cards to run at a table that resents the mechanic: they only ever start the game, never restart it.

Every monarch card in Magic: all 63, oldest first

Every row below was read from Scryfall on 22 September 2026: mana cost, type, the card’s full monarch text, the set of its first printing (pulled through Scryfall’s set endpoint, never labelled from a code), rarity, the cheapest ordinary printing (promos, box toppers and Secret Lairs excluded) and its EDHREC rank. The population is 39 creatures (14 of them legendary), 15 enchantments (the ten Courts, two Auras, a Saga and two plain enchantments), five non-creature artifacts, one land, one instant and two sorceries; 44 rare, three mythic, five uncommon and eleven common; 13 mono-white, nine mono-black, eight mono-blue, eight mono-green, six mono-red, five colourless and 14 multicoloured. Mean mana value 4.16. The 60 released cards cost $93.13 together at the cheapest ordinary printing, 45 of them under a dollar; Court of Garenbrig at $16.16 is the only one over ten, and the ten Courts together ($54.26) are 58% of the whole population’s price. Queen Marchesa, the most-printed monarch card at nine printings, is $1.12.

Ten years, eleven products, never Standard

The monarch was designed for Conspiracy: Take the Crown, a multiplayer draft set, and it has stayed in supplemental products ever since. The eleven products that have introduced a monarch card (Garland, Royal Kidnapper’s Final Fantasy Commander printing carries a 5 December 2025 date, six months after the rest of that product) are three draft-innovation sets (Conspiracy: Take the Crown, Commander Legends and the upcoming Mystery Booster Commander Edition), one Transformers crossover, one Masters set and six Commander-deck releases. Not one is a Standard-legal expansion or core set: Scryfall counts zero monarch cards legal in Standard, zero in Pioneer, zero in Modern — and, because none of the eleven products has been ported to MTG Arena, zero legal in Historic, Timeless, Brawl or Alchemy. The Lord of the Rings cards are the near-miss: Aragorn, Faramir, Éomer, Denethor and the rest are in the Tales of Middle-earth Commander decks, not the Modern-legal main set. Meanwhile 60 of the 63 are legal in Legacy, Vintage and Commander, and ten commons are legal in Pauper. Few mechanics this widely played have never once been legal in a rotating format.

The curve is lumpy: 17 cards in 2016, a four-year silence, 14 in 2020, one in 2022, 16 across three products in 2023, two in 2025 and thirteen dated 2026 — one in Lorwyn Eclipsed Commander, nine in Marvel Super Heroes Commander, where the Wakanda deck was built around the crown as its throne, and three still to come (two in Reality Fracture Commander on 2 October, one in Mystery Booster Commander Edition on 9 November).

The ten Courts

Commander Legends printed five enchantments — Court of Grace, Cunning, Ambition, Ire and Bounty — on one template: “When this enchantment enters, you become the monarch. At the beginning of your upkeep, [small effect]. If you’re the monarch, [large effect] instead.” Wilds of Eldraine Commander added five more in 2023 (Ardenvale, Vantress, Locthwain, Embereth, Garenbrig) with the same skeleton and bigger payoffs. They are the most-played monarch cards on EDHREC by a wide margin: Court of Grace is the highest-ranked card in the whole population at #1,667, and Court of Ire is a 60% inclusion in decks tagged monarch. The design is clean because it self-corrects: the Court makes you the monarch, the upkeep check rewards you for still being the monarch a full turn cycle later, and if you were hit in between you get the small mode and a reason to take it back.

The monarch in Pauper: ten commons and one ban

Eleven of the 63 are commons, which means they are Pauper cards, and the crown has been a defining Pauper engine since Palace Sentinels and Thorn of the Black Rose reached Magic Online. Boros Monarch runs Palace Sentinels with Prismatic Strands, Kor Skyfisher and Battle Screech; Mono-Black Control runs Thorn of the Black Rose over Pestilence, Chainer’s Edict and Crypt Rats. The plan in both is identical: take the crown, make combat impossible, and draw an extra card every turn until the opponent is buried.

Commander Legends added a third engine in November 2020 — Fall from Favor, a three-mana Aura that taps a creature, keeps it tapped while you hold the crown and makes you the monarch — and it lasted eight weeks. It is the only monarch card banned in any format. Wizards’ announcement of 14 January 2021 put it plainly: “Fall from Favor pushes out aggressive creature decks and places too much emphasis on a player becoming and remaining the monarch before opposing decks can prepare counterplay,” and the stated goal was to “reduce the importance of the monarch mechanic early in the game.” The other ten commons remain legal.

The Legacy contrast: Palace Jailer, and what happened to the initiative

In Legacy the crown belongs to Palace Jailer: a four-mana Human Soldier that makes you the monarch and exiles a creature “until an opponent becomes the monarch.” The 2021 rulings spell out the trap on both sides. If you are not the monarch when the exile resolves, the creature stays gone until an opponent becomes the monarch — not while one already is. Palace Jailer leaving the battlefield does not return the creature. And any opponent becoming the monarch returns it, not just the one who owned it. Death and Taxes has played it for years, because against a fair deck the opponent has to connect through Thalia and Mother of Runes to get their creature back.

The instructive comparison is the initiative. Nine months after Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate, Wizards banned White Plume Adventurer in Legacy (6 March 2023) “to reduce the consistency and speed of this gameplay pattern,” noting that the initiative “has had a large impact on the Legacy format and continues to rise in popularity.” The monarch’s sequel was banned in Legacy within a year; the monarch itself has never been. The difference is the front-loading: the initiative ventures the moment you take it (Undercity’s first room fetches a basic land on the spot) and again every upkeep, while the crown pays nothing until your end step and hands the opponent a full turn to take it.

Keeping the crown

The steal trigger needs a creature to deal combat damage to you, so every card that taxes attackers, limits attackers or punishes attackers is a monarch card in practice. The pillow-fort family — Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Windborn Muse, Sphere of Safety, Baird — charges mana per attacker; Crawlspace and Silent Arbiter cap the number; Maze of Ith and Kor Haven neutralise the one that gets through; No Mercy destroys anything that connects, one hit too late for the crown but early enough that nobody tries twice; Hissing Miasma and Marchesa’s Decree make the attack itself cost life. The stax guide covers the family in full; the table below is the monarch-specific shortlist with every card’s wording checked against its oracle text.

Two population cards deserve a note here. Champions of Minas Tirith makes an opponent pay {X} equal to their hand size to attack you while you hold the crown, and Tamiyo, Upriser Crowned (Reality Fracture Commander) taps and stuns every creature that connects with you as the monarch — the crown moves, but the creatures that took it miss their next untap.

Taking the crown

Taking it back is the mirror image: you need one creature to connect. Evasion does it (Rogue’s Passage, Whispersilk Cloak), and so does the mechanic designed to be the crown’s partner — goad. Conspiracy: Take the Crown introduced both in the same set for a reason: a goaded creature must attack a player other than the one who goaded it, and in a game with a monarch that player is very often the monarch. Disrupt Decorum goads every creature you do not control; Karazikar, Marisi and Baeloth goad on a schedule. The tokens from myriad attack every opponent at once, which makes a myriad creature the cleanest crown-thief in the game — one of its copies is attacking the monarch whoever the monarch is.

Doubling the draw, and countering the steal

Because the draw is a triggered ability you control, it can be copied. Strionic Resonator and Lithoform Engine both read “copy target triggered ability you control,” and the sourceless monarch trigger qualifies. Obeka, Splitter of Seconds is the commander EDHREC files under monarch for a different reason: she grants additional upkeep steps when she connects, and the crown draws at the end step, not the upkeep — what she doubles is every Court, Skyline Despot and Queen Marchesa trigger, not the draw itself. And because the steal is also a triggered ability, Stifle and Tale’s End counter it: the creature connects, the trigger goes on the stack, and for one blue mana it never resolves. (Sundial of the Infinite does not do this job — it can only be activated during your own turn, and the steal happens during theirs.)

Rulings that decide games

• The game starts with no monarch, and once a player becomes the monarch the game has exactly one from then on (Aragorn, King of Gondor ruling, 2023).
• “Whenever you become the monarch” triggers only if you weren’t already the monarch. Custodi Lich entering while you hold the crown does nothing (Canal Courier ruling, 2016).
• The draw belongs to whoever was the monarch when it triggered. If someone else takes the crown in response, the first player still draws (Canal Courier, 2016).
• Combat damage that kills the monarch does not move the crown by trigger; the attacker usually becomes the monarch anyway because it is their turn and 725.4 hands it to the active player (Aragorn, 2023).
• Upkeep and end-step checks are intervening-if. Skyline Despot, Keeper of Keys, Throne Warden and Garrulous Sycophant check the crown as the step begins and again on resolution; nothing you do during the step can make the trigger fire late (four separate 2016 rulings).
• Palace Jailer’s exile watches for an opponent becoming the monarch, not being one; the Jailer leaving does not end it; any opponent taking the crown ends it; exiled tokens never return (2021).
• Knights of the Black Rose drains as long as you were the monarch as the turn began, even if the crown changed hands twice in between (2016).
• Protector of the Crown redirects all damage to itself whether or not you are the monarch, and redirected damage is still combat damage — but it is dealt to the Protector, not to you, so the crown does not move (2016).
• Regal Behemoth’s extra mana is a triggered mana ability: no stack, no response (2016).
• Jared Carthalion’s prevention applies before the steal trigger resolves, so combat damage dealt to you and to Jared in the same combat pumps him and then loses you the crown (2020).
• Fealty to the Realm’s control effect keeps its original timestamp; a later control-changing effect beats it even after the crown moves, and if the monarch leaves the game the enchanted creature follows the crown to the next monarch (2023).
• Emberwilde Captain triggers once per attacking player regardless of how many creatures they send, and resolves even if the attacker took the crown in the meantime (2020).
• Garland’s theft fails if the opponent stops being the monarch before it resolves, and creatures you control but don’t own cannot be sacrificed for any reason while Garland is out (2025).

Monarch commanders

EDHREC tags 6,390 decks as monarch decks. Queen Marchesa leads with 2,020 of them (32%) — a three-mana deathtouch, haste commander that crowns you on entering and manufactures deathtouch Assassins every upkeep an opponent holds it, which is the cleanest possible statement of how the mechanic wants to be played: take it, let them take it, take it back. Aragorn, King of Gondor (847 decks) crowns on entering and stops all blocks while you hold it; Obeka, Splitter of Seconds (463) is not a monarch card at all — she grants extra upkeeps, which do not draw you extra cards but do fire every Court, Skyline Despot and Queen Marchesa again; Éowyn, Shieldmaiden (382) captains the Riders of Rohan precon that holds thirteen monarch cards; Jared Carthalion, True Heir (382) gives the crown away and, once you take it back, turns damage aimed at him into +1/+1 counters. Two names need untangling: Marchesa, the Black Rose — the 2014 Conspiracy commander covered in our Marchesa deck guide — is a dethrone commander with no monarch text, and Marchesa, Resolute Monarch, the back face of March of the Machine’s Invasion of Fiora, has “Monarch” in her name and no crown in her rules.

The fourteen precons on this site that hold a monarch card

Every preconstructed Commander deck on the precon browser was matched card-for-card against the 63, exact names only. Fourteen of 174 decks hold at least one; two are built around it. Riders of Rohan (Tales of Middle-earth Commander, 2023) carries thirteen — every LTC monarch card plus Court of Ire, Throne of the High City and Palace Jailer — and Wakanda Forever (Marvel Super Heroes Commander, 2026) carries eleven. Palace Jailer and Throne of the High City are in three decks each, the reprint workhorses of the mechanic.

A budget Queen Marchesa monarch deck

Queen Marchesa is $1.12 after nine printings, so the commander is free and the money goes to the crown. The list below plays 32 monarch cards — 32 of the 37 Mardu-identity monarch cards on sale, leaving out only Court of Ardenvale ($8.93), Court of Locthwain, Forth Eorlingas!, Starscream and Regal Sliver — a pillow fort to keep it (Ghostly Prison, Windborn Muse, Sphere of Safety, Baird, Blazing Archon, Blood Reckoning, Hissing Miasma, Mystifying Maze and Thaumatic Compass’s back face), the removal to reset a board that beats the fort, and 35 lands. Every card was validated against Scryfall for Commander legality and Mardu colour identity and priced at the cheapest ordinary printing; the total is $70.96. Paste the list into the deck builder to tune it, and check any card’s current price on the pricing tool.

How it plays: cast Marchesa on turn three or four, take the crown, and never attack with her unless the coast is clear — she is the engine, not the clock. Let an opponent take it once the fort is up; every upkeep they hold it you get a deathtouch Assassin, and Knights of the Black Rose and Garrulous Sycophant drain them for the privilege. Take it back with an Assassin or Rogue’s Passage when the extra cards matter, and let the Courts, Skyline Despot and Emberwilde Captain do the rest. Feast of Succession and Blasphemous Act are your resets; both leave you the monarch at the end of them.

Frequently asked questions

What does the monarch do in MTG?

The monarch draws a card at the beginning of their end step. Whenever a creature deals combat damage to the monarch, that creature’s controller becomes the monarch. Both are triggered abilities with no source, defined by rule 725 of the Comprehensive Rules.

Is the monarch a keyword?

No. It is a player designation — a status the player holds — not a keyword ability on a card. That is why Scryfall has no keyword:monarch search; you search the oracle text instead.

How do you become the monarch?

Only a card can start it: 44 of the 63 monarch cards crown you when a permanent enters (usually the card itself), four through an activated ability, seven when a spell or chapter resolves, one (Forth Eorlingas!) through combat damage, and five give the crown to an opponent instead. After that, dealing combat damage to the monarch with a creature makes you the monarch.

Can two players be the monarch?

No. Rule 725.3: only one player can be the monarch at a time, and becoming the monarch removes it from the current holder.

Does non-combat damage steal the monarch?

No. The steal trigger is “whenever a creature deals combat damage to the monarch.” Burn, fight damage, Pestilence and commander damage from a non-combat source do not move the crown.

What happens to the monarch when that player loses?

The active player becomes the monarch as the losing player leaves; if the active player is the one leaving, the next player in turn order gets it (rule 725.4). The crown never disappears once it exists.

Can you respond to the monarch’s draw?

Yes. It is a triggered ability that uses the stack. Stifle counters it; Strionic Resonator copies it. If someone becomes the monarch in response, the original monarch still draws.

Is the monarch legal in Standard or Modern?

No monarch card has ever been legal in Standard, Pioneer or Modern. Every one of the eleven products that introduced a monarch card is a supplemental release — Conspiracy, Commander Legends, Transformers, the Commander decks. Sixty of the 63 are legal in Legacy, Vintage and Commander; ten are legal in Pauper.

Is the monarch on MTG Arena?

Not as of September 2026. Scryfall lists no monarch card as legal in Historic, Timeless, Brawl or Alchemy, because none of the products carrying the mechanic has been released on Arena.

Which monarch card is banned?

Fall from Favor, banned in Pauper on 14 January 2021, eight weeks after Commander Legends released it. It is the only monarch card banned in any format.

How many monarch cards are there?

Sixty-three paper cards mention the monarch in their oracle text as of 22 September 2026: 60 released, plus two previewed in Reality Fracture Commander and one in Mystery Booster Commander Edition.

What is the difference between the monarch and the initiative?

Both are single-holder player designations that move on combat damage. The monarch draws a card at its holder’s end step; the initiative ventures into the Undercity dungeon when taken and at its holder’s upkeep. The monarch dates from 2016, the initiative from 2022, and the initiative’s White Plume Adventurer was banned in Legacy in March 2023 — no monarch card has been.

Does goad protect the monarch?

Yes, and it was designed to. Goad arrived in the same set as the monarch, Conspiracy: Take the Crown. A creature you goad must attack a player other than you if able, so it cannot take your crown unless you are the only player it can legally attack. Disrupt Decorum on the turn you become the monarch sends every opposing creature at somebody else. Our goad guide has the rule, all 84 goad cards and a budget Nelly Borca deck.

Does Ghostly Prison protect the monarch?

Indirectly. Ghostly Prison charges {2} per creature that attacks you, so an opponent must pay to send the creature that would steal the crown. It does not stop the steal if they pay and connect.

Who is the best monarch commander?

By EDHREC deck count, Queen Marchesa: 2,020 of the 6,390 decks tagged monarch, ahead of Aragorn, King of Gondor (847), Obeka, Splitter of Seconds (463), Éowyn, Shieldmaiden (382) and Jared Carthalion, True Heir (382).

The crown is ten years old this August and still confined to the formats that were built for tables of four; if you can name a monarch commander from its art alone, Guess That Commander will test it, and the deck builder will validate anything above before you sleeve it.