There were 3 Monarch decks in the last SJC top 16.
The first one was Apprentice Engine Monarchs, using the Apprentice Magician engine to bring out flip effects and tribute fodder. The second is Perfect Circle which uses Destiny Heroes to cycle quickly through the deck while gaining advantage and tribute fodder. The last one was a less conventional one, running a Mystic Tomato tutor box and 3 Sasuke Samurai with a single Flying Kamikari #1.
I personally think that Perfect Circle is the strongest of the trio, but that's not the topic right now. I'm here to talk about how many Apprentice Magician work best in Apprentice Monarchs. To do this, how it works has to be understood.
Apprentice Monarchs require the opponent to attack Apprentice Magician in order for it to search out a Spellcaster with a flip effect. If the opponent does not attack, like against Burn matchup, then Apprentice Magician becomes a completely dead card short of adding a counter to Breaker the Magical Warrior. The good news is that with so many settable monsters, it will be difficult for an opponent to read when to attack a face down monster or not. A face down monster could be a Apprentice Magician but could also be a Magician of Faith. Only the most expert of players will be able to make the read to attack or not.
Sadly, one of Apprentice Monarch's greatest enemy is at 2 copies right now: Nobleman of Crossout. If the opponent is holding one in hand, then the decision to attack or not is greatly simplified:
Option 1: Attack. If the face down monster is an Apprentice Magician, use Nobleman of Crossout on whatever they search out. If the face down monster wasn't an Apprentice Magician, then the advantage change is still 0 at best.
Option 2: Use Nobleman of Crossout then attack. It's damage and a 1 for 1 trade.
Both options are not bad and this can be a major problem for Apprentice Monarchs. The solution is, then, to not play many Apprentice Magician at all. A lone copy of Apprentice Magician will be less expected than a full set. Even just one wrong attack into an Apprentice Magician can spell doom for the opponent. Mystic Tomato can be used to search out Apprentice Magician. Mystic Tomato's larger body can absorb more damage and deal it as well when the time calls for it.
One can argue that an Apprentice Monarch with a single Apprentice Magician isn't an Apprentice Monarch at all. However, I think the single Apprentice Magician with Mystic Tomato and many different flip effect monsters would be the best variation of it just because it does not get destroyed by Nobleman of Crossout.
The use of Soul Exchange in this version is also rather crucial just because some aggressive decks will just not allow any monster to remain on the field long enough to be sacrificed. The lone Apprentice Magician just won't always be drawn, but that's okay because not all games will require Apprentice Magician. If an opponent attacks one in game 1, then they'll be much more hesitant to attack in game 2 and that allows flip effect monsters to be set and flipped without being attacked.
Apprentice Monarchs is still rather slow and very reactive. For this reason, I think that Perfect Circle can be stronger than it, but that's a topic for another day.
