Gladiator Beasts
From Yu-Gi-Oh!
The Gladiator Beasts are a series of cards released in Gladiator's Assault, themed after the famed ancient Roman slave-warriors of the Coliseum. With few exceptions, the Gladiator Beasts all have the effect to return to the Deck during the end of a Battle Phase if it battled, and then Special Summon another Gladiator Beast Monster to replace it, with most gaining new effects when Summoned in this manner. Because of this, and the fact that many Gladiator Beast Monsters are fairly weak, most of their support cards are designed to either protect them during battle (thus ensuring they can return to the Deck to Special Summon another Gladiator Beast Monster) or return unwanted Gladiator Beast cards in the player's Hand or Graveyard to the Deck, where they can be brought out more readily by the battle effects of the others. To fuse Gladiator Beasts, the key monster and any other Gladiator Beasts must be on the field to Special Summon the monster. Fusions between Gladiator Beasts do not require Polymerization. Because of this recycling feature, a Gladiator Beast Deck is probably the most flexible one can make, even more so than a Hero Deck, for while a Duelist may be able to fuse almost any combination of Heroes, he must still rely on aquiring a fusion card to conduct it. The Gladiator Beasts are a mix of destruction, aggro, and toolbox tactics, making them very aggressive, strategic and fast paced in a themed Deck. Many cards in the theme are TCG exclusives, examples being "Test Tiger" and "Gladiator Beast Octavius".
[edit] Optional Support Cards
- Reload, Magical Mallet, and Card Trader --Since Gladiator Beast effects trigger from the Deck and not the Hand, cards like these are important to return unwanted cards to the Deck (and increase the chances of getting something you need).
- Spell Absorption -- Since the Equip cards are self-recycling, you can use them again and again and get many LP from this card.
- Witch Doctor of Sparta -- Its name is a dead giveaway--this monster is meant to work with Gladiator Beasts. You'll be doing damage to the opponent just by Special Summoning monsters, every turn.
- Mask of Restrict -- There are only a few high-level Gladiator Beasts that go in the Deck, and they can each be special summoned from the deck under the right circumstances. This card will greatly hinder your opponent but leave you generally unhindered.
- Respect Play or other cards that reveal the player hands -- Since your entire arsenal is at your disposal in your Deck, you may be at less of a disadvantage than your opponent by having your hand revealed.
- Waboku -- This card is identical to Defensive Tactics except for one important thing--unlike Defensive Tactics, it can activate if you control no face-up monsters, or no monsters at all, so you can use it if you play a weak Gladiator Beast in Face-Down Defense Position, trigger it when the opponent declares an attack, then summon a Gladiator Beast afterwards.
- My Body as a Shield or Divine Wrath-- Gladiator Beast Heraklinos can jam almost any Spell or Trap card your opponent uses, but it has no defense against monster effects, and there are two monsters in particular that are the greatest threat to Heraklinos-- Judgment Dragon and Dark Armed Dragon, either of which can appear without warning and wipe you out. My Body as a Shield can also be used to stop destructive Traps or Spells if you don't have Heraklinos summoned yet.
- Enraged Battle Ox -- The majority of the Gladiator Beasts are either Beast-type, Beast-Warrior-type, or Winged Beast-type, and all three of these monster types do piercing damage just by having Enraged Battle Ox on the field.
- Pitch-Black Warwolf or Mirage Dragon -- Traps are important to the survival of Gladiator Beasts, so you don't want to use cards like Jinzo. Instead, these two cards prevent the opponent from triggering Traps during the Battle Phase, the most important time when you need your Gladiator Beasts to be unhindered by an opponent's card effects.
- Wild Nature's Release - This can almost double the ATK of a Beast or Beast-Warrior, but the monster is destroyed afterwards--Gladiator Beasts can get around this disadvantage by swapping themselves out for another Gladiator Beast.
- Shrink and Rush Recklessly -- Instead of using Waboku or Defensive Tactics, these cards can turn the tables on an attacking opponent, letting you destroy their monster and/or summon another Gladiator Beast. They're also Spells, not Traps, so an opponent using Jinzo won't be able to stop them.
- Grave Protector -- Gladiator Beasts already have a heavy theme of card recycling, so this card can assist with that. It also automatically recycles an opponent's monsters, making it more difficult for them to use Graveyard effects.
[edit] Weaknesses and Counter-Strategies
Gladiator Beasts are currently one of the most tournament-competitive deck types currently in use, due to their incredible flexibility, but they are not invincible. Some good ways to overcome a Gladiator Beast user follow:
- Stalling -- Gladiator Beasts need to battle in order to swap themselves out, and also in order to use Gladiator Beast's Battle Halberd. Use Wall of Revealing Light, Gravity Bind, Level Limit - Area B, Negate Attack and pairs of monsters that restrict attack targets, like Solar Flare Dragon or Command Knight. That way, the only way they'll be able to destroy your cards is if they use a Test Tiger or manage to summon a Gyzarus.
- In order to win this way, you'll most likely need to use a Stall Victory condition such as Final Countdown or else slowly burn their life points away.
- When stalling, even if an opportunity presents itself, never attack a Gladiator Beast user--they will most likely just use a Defensive Tactics, swap out for a monster that can destroy something you control, and take the battle back to you.
- Prevention of Special Summoning -- This is the big one, the one sure-fire way to shut down a Gladiator Beast deck. Vanity's Fiend, Vanity's Ruler, Deck Lockdown, Royal Oppression and similar cards will kill a Gladiator Beast user's ability to swap out monsters or use Contact Fusion, putting them at a huge disadvantage. These cards (except Vanity's Ruler) also prevent you from Special Summoning, so make sure you can win with only Normal Summons.
- Jowgen the Spiritualist and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo deserve a special mention--they not only prevent Special Summoning but also destroy all Special Summoned monsters. If the Gladiator Beast user has already got an advantage over you, these cards can be lethal.
- Effect Negation -- Cards that negate an opponent's monster's effects, which will prevent them destroying your cards (or do other things) when they appear. The best choice is Divine Wrath, as a Negated Gladiator Beast can still return itself to the deck to summon another one (since returning it to the deck counts as a cost and cannot be negated), but Destiny Hero - Plasma and Skill Drain will still be able to prevent them from activating their on-field effects.
- Counter-destruction -- Cards that prevent card destruction are becoming more and more prevalent with current releases, and often, the Gladiator Beasts with the effect to destroy cards are the most troublesome. Destruction Jammer, Prime Material Dragon, Stardust Dragon and the aforementioned Divine Wrath all work well. These also work against Gladiator Beast Heraklinos when it activates its effect to negate and destroy a Spell or Trap.
- Monster Effects -- Gladiator Beast Heraklinos is incredibly powerful but lacks any kind of defense against monster card effects. Some very good Monster effects to ruin the day of a Gladiator Beast user include:
- Monsters that destroy the monsters that attacked them -- Newdoria, Man-Eater Bug, Old Vindictive Magician, Exploder Dragon, Adhesive Explosive, Blast Sphere
- Monsters that return the cards that attacked them -- Wall of Illusion, Hyper Hammerhead, Morphing Jar 2, Penguin Soldier, Legendary Jujitsu Master : These cards are even better than the destroyers above, since they can get around Gladiator Beast's Battle Archfiend Shield.
- Trump-card monsters with mass-destruction effects -- XYZ-Dragon Cannon, Judgment Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, Demise, King of Armageddon, Volcanic Doomfire. Judgment Dragon and Dark Armed Dragon, in particular, are great because they can appear suddenly without warning to wipe out most everything the opponent has.
- Destroy On Summoning -- "Trap Hole" and especially "Bottomless Trap Hole" can take down the opponent's cards before they even have a chance to attack your own cards.
- Jinzo -- This classic lockdown card prevents the opponent from using Waboku or Defensive Tactics, the two greatest thorns in the side of anyone trying to destroy Gladiator Beasts by battle. The opponent might still be able to use a Gladiator Beast's Battle Manica but will still take any damage that occurs from the battle. Royal Decree also works.
