Ghostrick Monarchs (2014)
As its own theme with unique play style, Ghostricks could definitely be used as their own deck, but they could also be used as defence engine that can both stop your opponent's attacks while also getting these small monsters down on your field to tribute summon. Hence, the concept of this deck. The April 2014 format is the last true Zexal format before Arc-V changed the game for the worst forever, however it doesn't mean that this format isn't filled with power decks. In fact, you could say this is what makes it pretty special. It offers the biggest assortment of cards, archetypes and decks up to that point before stepping into Arc-V territory and there's alot of compeittion. In this wide variety of different decks, even when paired with Ghostricks, Monarchs will have their drawbacks; but we can also perform as a solid rogue deck and counter certain decks too.
Notes and strategy: The selection of which Monarchs or other tribute summon monsters you wish to run can be up to your preference, but I believe I've chosen the best selection for all around utility. Caius removes monsters from play so many monster may be gone for good or just lose any effects that would resolve in the graveyard. Raiza would be a very good alternative with its own advantages but Caius can also potentially grant us free burn damage and is compatible with Allure of Darkness. Believe me, consistency is very important for this deck and we're going to need every bit we can get. Thestalos targets the hand making it an obvious choice when we can tribute summon turn 1 or just when your opponent doesn't have anything good on the field for you to kill. If your opponent only has spells and traps set, of course you can still use Caius to target 1 of those, but you'd arther not do that. Your opponent could chain them, or you hit something that doesn't matter much etc. Might as well attack the hand instead. While you won't always have the luxury, occasionally you can get 2 monsters down so instead of a third regular Thestalos I run the Mega Thestalos Monarch. This card will let me see my opponent's hand and pick out what I want to discard which is very good.
The other spells and traps kind of speak for themselves; I run a lot of spell and trap removal to hopefully protect Monarchs when they're about to drop down and we have this space for our own power traps and counter traps. This deck doesn't go into the extra deck too often and if you do it will more than likely be Ghostrick Dullahan. The extra deck you see above is not even a full 15 card extra deck but it includes some of the best xyzs you can possibly go into with the monsters here. Kinka-Byo is the easiest way you can get into a rank 1 xyz with only one card so it makes for a nice one of tech.
A potential win condition we have with this deck is Majesty's Fiend. If you get the monster down and your opponent can't out it with a spell or trap, they could just auto lose the game right there. He also doesn't interfere with our own cards much besides if you wanted to use Call of the Huanted on a Ghostrick xyz and then tribute Majesty's Fiend. In the situation you lose the free Sangan effect which does suck. The Ghostrick monster engine consists of 4 monster played in threes. Eat direct damage and Mary gets you Jiangshi. Jiangshi is the searcher with great defence as well that will get you everyone else including Mary. As luck would have it Specter has 0 defence and so does Jester Confit. This enables us to also take advantage of Recuring Nightmare for a good +1 recovery.
April 2014 Format
Even though Jiangshi and Specter can help with draw and search, this Monarch variant carries the eternal problem all Monarch decks had up to that point (and even in the arc-v era) which is no method to search the Monarchs themselves. And no, Return of the Monarchs isn't good enough. This means you could always just draw a few Monarchs with no way to summon them, or simply see Ghostrick monsters all day long with no Monarch to tribute for. When that happens you will find that you'll lose games very fast or even if you can last thanks to the Ghostricks your opponent will have accumulated enough advantage to deal with a Monarch you'd eventually start dropping every turn.
Still, don't think for a second that this isn't a solid Monarch variant for the time. And if it starts rolling, then it will continue to flow well and defend throughout the rest of the game. Try it out and enjoy!!