This week has some pretty interesting cards, but The Monarchs StormForth may be one of the most interesting.

Tributes have not been viable in a very long time. However, this card almost single-handedly could make several tributes a LOT more playable.

To get an idea of what makes this card so good it is important to compare it to its nearest cousin, Soul Exchange.

Soul Exchange targets a monster and allows you to tribute it, but then you skip your battle phase.

What makes The Monarchs StormForth so much better? Well, it does not target and it allows you to keep your battle phase.

If you aren't paying attention, that means that this is direct removal that does not target and it still allows you to have a battle phase.

In the OCG we saw Shaddoll decks siding The Monarchs StormForth and Caius the Shadow Monarch as an easy way to remove enemy El Shaddol Windas and then Caius allowed them to remove facedown Shaddoll monsters without activating them.

We also saw Batterymen get a few tops thanks to The Monarchs StormForth, Batteryman Charger, and Batteryman 9V easily removing Winda and allowing quick OTKs out of nowhere.

You could easily also create a deck with The Monarchs StormForth, Majesty's Fiend, and March of the Monarchs and easily lock your opponent down. You could summon Majesty's Fiend easily with The Monarchs StormForth and your opponent would be unable to target or destroy your Majesty's Fiend or even activate the effects of their monsters. Chances are for many decks that field would be nearly unbreakable.

Whether or not you like this card at the moment, in my opinion at least, is somewhat irrelevant. This card is likely to be at least semi-viable from now until the end of the game. Removal that does not destroy and does not target is always incredibly useful. People will find a use for this card.

Traditional: 1/5 (I would give this card a higher score, but the popularity of FTKs makes it too slow.)

Advanced: 3.5/5 (Very solid removal; hard to counter. Just needs to be placed in the right deck.)

With XYZ and Synchro summoning, Tribute Summons became slow and obsolete.  Perhaps this card will help even things out a bit.

The Monarchs StormForth

Ruling, for the record:  You cannot use this card to Tribute Summon during your opponent's turn, unless you have a card like Ultimate Offering or Escalation of the Monarchs to alter the rules on Tributing.

This is obviously for the Monarchs, but Batterymen, some Qlipoth builds, Earthbound Immortals and other decks are taking a look at this.  Me personally, it has helped revived my interest in rebuilding the Light and Darkness Dragon deck.

It still has the weakness of Soul Exchange, that it is combo reliant.  So, in the end, while it will help decks with tribute monsters, it can't bear the burden of an entire deck.  You'll have to find ways to make the monster summonable without relying on this card.  God forbid if you don't draw this card, your hand will clog with Tribute Monsters.  Frog Monarchs, for example, already have other ways, so this card can be splashed in with ease.

Soul Exchange has been power creeped out over the years as giving up your Battle Phase is a bit too permissive and prevents you from plussing further that turn.  With power creep, I'd say StormForth in 2014 is as powerful as Soul Exchange was in 2008.

Assessments

Power – 4/5 ; Crank out a big monster and removal.  Helps out aggressive plays.  The two restrictions this card has are quite fair as you should be already getting enough power from this card as it is.

Versatility – 4/5 ; When wouldn't you want basic removal, plus something to make monsters summon more easily?

Dependability – 3/5 ; Requires other cards to combo with it.  Its useless if you don't have a tribute monster in your hand or if your opponent has no monsters.  Its less useful if the tribute monster in your hand isn't what you need for the situation or the opponent has only weak/floater monsters.

Card Advantage – 4/5 ; Removes an opponent's monster without destroying it, and also saves you the cost of tributing, so I'd say it's somewhat of a plus overall.

Speed – 3/5 ; While it is a chainable quick-play, doing this requires other cards to bend the rules on Tributing.  As a result, most of the time, this is just a Normal Spell.

Ratings

Traditional – 1.5/5 ; With all the banned cards in that format, there are better ways to crank out monsters.

Advanced – 3.75/5 ; This will definitely see some tournament play in certain decks.

Mechanic Design – 3/5 ; Helps certain decks out and does what its designed to do.  Pretty straightforward.

Artwork – 4/5 ; Dark drab colors mix well with the white-gray tornado whic his excellently drawn.  Good amount of detail.

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Verdict

Stronger version of Soul Exchange recommendable to decks that are already running Tribute Monsters.

The Monarchs Stormforth
 
This card is simply amazing, and for Monarchs or any deck that Tribute Summons monster’s this is going to make quite the impact.
 
Firstly, it’s effect doesn’t Target which means that it’s going to be rather difficult to play around for the opponent in most cases, especially if they have more than 1 monster on the field, as although they could use Forbidden Lance on 1 of their monsters, that still leaves the other monster for use.
It also can be activated even without your opponent controlling a monster, so if your opponent Summons a monster(s) later on in the turn, you are also able to use one of those monsters for your Tribute Summon.
 
Even better is that this card is a Quickplay Spell, and while this may not seem all that special it does open up options for use with Escalation of the Monarchs, or for Traditional Format, Ultimate Offering. Also as it’s a Quickplay you could even use this card to play around your own Light and Darkness Dragon if you wanted to Summon a monster with Continuous effects (so that LaDD doesn’t Negate that effect and lose more ATK), such as Jinzo for example. In this instance you’d be using it if you believed that you were in a position to win the game.
 
As for the downsides to this card, first it has that “You can only activate one per turn” clause attached, however for the most part this really should never cause you issue since 1 should almost always be enough anyhow.
Second is that you cannot Summon from the Extra Deck the turn that you activate this card. Now in reality this really shouldn’t be much of a problem, Monarchs don’t need to Summon from their Extra Deck every turn anyhow, and if you were to use it during your opponents turn, it doesn’t cause you any problems at all.
 
As for the cards that this card will be compared to, most obvious is Soul Exchange a card which not only Targets, but also prevents your Battle Phase as well. For the most part The Monarchs Stormforth will be a direct replacement for that card, and in a Monarch Deck that doesn’t use the Frog engine, both cards can work extremely well side by side.
The next card to compare this to is Enemy Controller, again this card Targets and it requires you to Tribute a monster to take control of your opponents monster… Normally Treeborn Frog is involved in this exchange. Even with the additional effect of Enemy Controller, The Monarchs Stormforth is better, although in general I don’t expect it to completely replace Enemy Controller since Enemy Controller is still such an excellent card for Monarchs in general.
 
Practically faultless overall, and extremely hard to actually counter, The Monarchs Stormforth is going to be the new staple for Monarchs, and that it’s a Common means this is going to be easy to get.
 
Traditional: 2.5. While this really won’t shine here, it may have some uses with Archlord Kristya or the Vanity monsters as a Special Summon lock, that it’s also able to be chained to Imperial Order if all goes wrong gives this card maybe just enough versatility.
 
Advanced: 4.25. For what is required of this card it almost ticks every box, only the fact that it prevents use of the Extra Deck the turn that you activate this card is what could potentially hurt this card. Decks that Tribute Summon monsters will want to run this card though however.

The Monarchs Stormforth is the latest support card for the ever-popular Monarch cards. Whereas the more recent Monarch support has not meshed very well in competitive builds (as the most common variant is the Frog one, which cannot make good use of the new Continuous Spell/Trap Cards thanks to Treeborn Frog), this card happens to fit perfectly into the Deck.

The Monarchs Stormforth is pretty much a better version of Soul Exchange; it does effectively the same thing but with a lot less drawbacks. The main thing is that Stormforth does not force you to skip your Battle Phase, nor does it specifically target a monster. This means you can use it to get around threats such as Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree. It also means that you don’t run the risk of your opponent getting rid of whatever monster you plan to Tribute, as you choose which one when you Tribute it. The only monsters immune to Stormforth are those that are immune to Spell Cards (such as through Forbidden Lance). The card’s restriction of the Extra Deck for a turn does not mean much to a Monarch Deck, which hardly uses the Extra Deck anyway.

Being a Quick-Play Spell Card with no activation requirement also allows you to manipulate Chain Links to make cards miss timing. For example, if your opponent has an Ice Hand on the field, you can summon a monster, activate The Monarchs Stormforth in response to the summon, and then respond with Torrential Tribute. Since the last thing to happen is the resolution of Stormforth, Ice Hand misses timing.

Monarchs aren’t the only Deck that can make use of this card either. Shaddoll can make use of it, along with a couple copies of Caius the Shadow Monarch, in the Side Deck to make the mirror match easier, as you can Tribute an opposing face-down Shaddoll and then banish an opposing El Shaddoll Fusion Monster, thereby avoiding the effects of both monsters (and possibly dealing 1000 damage to the opponent). Additionally, Batteryman Decks (which have received a boost through Batteryman 9-Volt) have Batteryman Charger, a Level 5 monster with pitiful stats but a powerful swarm effect. Stormforth allows you to summon it by getting rid of an opponent’s monster and then using its effect to summon another Batteryman from your Deck. Again, neither of these Decks would be hurt too much by the loss of the Extra Deck for a turn; Batteryman doesn’t need to use it and Shaddoll does not want to rely on it in the mirror match).

Overall, The Monarchs Stormforth is a powerful card with many applications, and is certainly a great choice in any Deck that makes use of Tribute Summons.

Traditional: 2/5

Advanced: 4/5

We have quite the powerful and interesting card for you folks today, The Monarchs Stormforth.  Now, what does it do? "Once during this turn, if you would Tribute a monster(s) you control for a Tribute Summon, you can Tribute 1 monster your opponent controls as if you controlled it. You can only activate 1 "The Monarchs Stormforth" per turn. During the turn you activate this card, you cannot Special Summon monsters from the Extra Deck. "
 
It is a Quick-Play spell, so it can essentially be activated at any time.  You can only activate one per turn, but this only really hurts two-tribute behemoths.  There is almost no reason outside of a stupid gimmick to set this card anyways.  You can't use your extra the turn you use this, but that is really dependent on what you summon anyways.
 
So, essentially, this card is amazing.  A much better Soul Exchange.
Now, what would you use this in?  Obviously, you would use it with the Monarchs, who have been receiving a surprising amount of support lately.  Use this with honorary Monarchs too, such as Vanity's Fiend, Majesty's Fiend, or any other one tribute boss.  My personal favorite use for this card is in Batterymen.  By using this in Batterymen, it enables so many Charger plays its unreal(the tribute monster, not the
spell)  This+ Charger equates to 6800 alone, in that you just Charger, Special 9-volt, add Fuel Cell. 6800 to the face.  The fact that you can attack makes this card miles better than Soul Exchange, especially in a deck that makes such swift OTKs.
 
One thing I almost forgot to touch upon: IT.  DOESN'T.  TARGET.  This is a huge advantage when using this card, as it skirts around Bujingi Turtle and other targeting protection.  It is also unparalleled in getting rid of hard-to-kill nuisances, such as El-Shadoll Winda.  Take note, that you cannot tribute a monster affected by Forbidden Lance, or Apoqliphoth Killer.  But if they do chain Lance, and they have another monster on field, you can still tribute that.
 
Overall, a simply amazing card, and I am frankly surprised it is a common.
 
Trad-3/4 
Advanced- 4.5/5

If you love your one tribute monsters, then have we got a nifty card for you. The Monarchs Stormforth is a quick-play spell card that allows you to use one of your opponent's monsters for a tribute summon. There are a few catches to it though. When you use Monarchs Stormforth, you cannot special summon from the extra deck, but I don't think that'll be a problem. You can use this card for a two tribute monster, but you have to use one of your monsters along with one of your opponent's monsters. Also, you can only use this once per turn. There are a few similarities between Monarchs Stormforth and Soul Exchange, as Soul Exchange takes away your battle phase, but allows you to tribute your opponent's monster for more than just a tribute summon. Monarchs Stormforth excel in best in Monarchs, Evilswarm, even Batteryman. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a rise in decks that started using Jinzo because of this card. 
 
Traditional: 2 (It's all about LIGHT and DARK here)
Advanced: 3.5