I do think the uncut sheet is cool and the gold monarch is definitely one of the coolest cards ever.
To add on though, I still think the folks at theory11 who decided to make the gold ones artificially limited by destroying the other gold ones was very foolish. I would like to know what the big error was in the print run because although the monarchs have an intricate design, it is not as complex the rider back decks. The USPCC proven they can print complicated designs with gold ink with the Bicycle New Era deck.
And then theory11 had the nerve to have that pre-release making everyone assume the people who waited a couple of weeks will get the same deck but in reality, GG. Now the intended standard monarchs are limited and now the majority of us are stuck with a sub-standard deck with a semi-standard design.
I know this thread is about the uncut sheet but anything Gold Monarchs makes me mad and I had to vent this subject for the extreme rage every time I think of gold monarchs.
I do like the mass marketed monarchs of course for only its handling, its just that it's a shame that the intended cooler looking monarchs were wiped out for no real logical explanation.
I felt the same way about the whole thing. I didn't get any at the prerelease because I decided I would wait til later on plus I was at work at the time and I also forgot, but either way I think they screwed us all over.
EDIT - I sent a message to that seller on Ebay and he refuses to disclose how he got that uncut sheet. Seems pretty shady to me.
There was a reason - whether you consider it a legitimate reason is another matter altogether.
Theory11 stated that they wanted to do this deck in a way that looked impressive - and they thought a black back with a white border and metallic-gold detail work would look totally great. As it turned out, though, the line work they used the gold ink on was so thin that they thought it was rather lackluster and disappointing. Rather than risk what they felt would be customer disappointment for a deck that they'd hyped as the second coming of Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha all rolled into one, they felt the best course of action would be to destroy the print run, other than the one gross of decks they'd already received from USPC, and start from scratch with a color choice that would look better - dark blue with white line work.
From what I've heard from the few people who've actually opened a deck, the Gold Monarchs actually were disappointing when compared to the modified-and-current version of Monarchs. The gold was just too fine and lost in a sea of black, hardly noticeable and not very impressive.
Now, since that's out of the way, let's stick to this topic if that's OK with you guys... If you want to bring up more about this, go to another topic - this might work nicely:
http://aethercards.com/discourse/index.php?topic=762
