Gladiator Beast

The Gladiator Beasts are a series of cards released in Gladiator's Assault, that look like futuristic versions of the ancient Roman Colosseum slave-warriors, and consist of many different Attributes and Types, (though Beasts, Beast-Warriors and Winged Beasts are the most prominent). 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 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. Instead, the Fusion Material Monsters are returned from the Field to the Deck. For this reason, Fusion between Gladiator Beasts is considered a form of Contact Fusion. Also, nearly every card in the archetype is capable of being returned to the Hand, Field, or Deck from the Graveyard. Since nearly every card in this Archetype can be accessed at will by the user or recycled in some way, 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 acquiring 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. It is this versatility which landed this deck as one of the top decks in the Shonen Jump Circuit.

Optional Support Cards

 * Waboku - This card is almost identical to Defensive Tactics, but unlike Defensive Tactics, it can be activated if you control no face-up Gladiator Beasts, 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 - 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 Spells or Traps if you don't have Heraklinos out.


 * Cold Wave - While a Gladiator Beast Deck relies heavily on its Spells and Traps, it can easily build up advantage using monsters only. When used at the right moment, this card can offer you the edge you need to win. It can prevent your opponent from using destructive cards like Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, Bottomless Trap Hole and Lightning Vortex to destroy your Gladiator Beasts, while you keep gaining advantage with their effects. It is significantly less effective against other Effect Monster centered Decks, however, so be careful.


 * Wild Nature's Release - While there are many different equip cards for Gladiator Beasts, this card turn the tables on even the higher ATK based monsters, and better yet, won't destroy yours because they return to the deck at the end of the battle phase rather than have them destroyed at the end phase. Gladiator Beast Dimacari, is a very good choice for this card because he has rounded ATK and DEF stats, plus the ability to attack twice, making him a very difficult enemy to deal with.


 * Fairy Wind - You can use this card against decks that have many Continuous Spell and Trap cards. Since not all decks have Continuous Spell and Trap cards in them, you may want to put it in the Side Deck.


 * Minoan Centaur - This card is useful to get cards out like Gladiator Beast Andal, and use them with Gladiator Beast Laquari or Gladiator Beast Bestiari, to Fusion Summon Heraklinos or Gyzarus.


 * Ancient Forest - You can attack and return your monster without the effect of the destruction, while the monsters your opponent attacks with will be destroyed at the end of the battle phase. This is because Ancient Forest's effect is Chain Link One, while the GB's effect is chain link two. (Ancient Forest's effect is mandatory, while the GB's effect is optional.)


 * Icarus Attack - Although only 3 of the Gladiator Beasts are Winged Beasts, they can tag out for each other, making it easy to activate this card.


 * Thunder King Rai-Oh - A very powerful card that cripples nearly all of the meta. It stops the usage of popular cards such as Stratos, Goblin Zombie, and Charge of the Light Brigade. It also negates synchro summons, which is very useful against top-tier decks such as Blackwings and Destiny Hero Zombies. Rai-Oh's effect shouldn't harm you since you shouldn't be using Gladiator Proving Ground or Samnite when Rai-Oh is on the field anyways.


 * Dust Tornado - One of the main cards that wreck Gladiator Beasts that is commonly used today is Royal Oppression. Dust Tornado can help remedy that problem, and it also destroys other cards such as Black Whirlwind and Mirror of Oaths.


 * Dimensional Fissure - Your Gladiator Beasts won't be going to the grave very often and this can help stop Lightsworns from milling, Blackwings from using Shura and Vayu, and Zombies from using Mezuki and Plaguespreader Zombie. Be careful when using this card, however, because this card removes your Test Tigers from play, you can't use Rescue Cat's effect, and it can conflict with Gladiator Beast Darius.

Weaknesses and Counter-Strategies
Gladiator Beast monsters and support are spread over six booster packs evenly, making them more difficult to get. Gladiator Beasts are currently one of the most tournament-competitive deck types, due to their incredible flexibility. However, they are not invincible. Some good ways to overcome a Gladiator Beast user are as follows:


 * 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 others all prevent Gladiator Beasts from swapping out or performing Contact Fusion, paralyzing the deck.  Jowgen the Spiritualist and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo also have the ability to destroy any Special Summoned monster already on the field in addition to preventing Special Summoning.


 * Counter-Destruction -- Often, it is the Gladiator Beasts with the effect to destroy cards that are the most troublesome, but there are a few good cards that specifically prevent that in use. Destruction Jammer, Stardust Dragon, Prime Material Dragon and 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 - Since Gladiator Beasts must battle to gain their effects, monster card effects that trigger during battle are highly effective. Note, however, that Gladiator Beasts have access to "Gladiator Beast War Chariot", so be prepared with something like "Trap Jammer" or "Counter Counter" to lock that card out. Here are some good monster card effects:
 * Monsters that destroy the monsters that attacked them - Newdoria, Man-Eater Bug, Old Vindictive Magician, Exploder Dragon,Yomi Ship,Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare
 * Monsters that return the cards that attacked them - Wall of Illusion, Hyper Hammerhead, Morphing Jar #2, Penguin Soldier, Nightmare Penguin, Legendary Jujitsu Master, Neo-Spacian Grand Mole : These cards are even better than the destroyers above, since they can get around Gladiator Beast's Battle Archfiend Shield, and the Gladiator Beasts cannot be brought back with Gladiator Beast Darius.
 * Monsters that remove from play the cards that attacked them - D.D. Warrior, D.D. Warrior Lady, D.D. Assailant - Even worse for the opponent than the destroyers or returners, since though they have a heavy focus upon recycling or hand exchanging, Gladiator Beasts have no internal method of re-using removed-from-play cards.
 * Trump-card monsters with mass-destruction effects - Cards like these can destroy the Gladiator Beasts by effect, preventing their battle-swap from activating, or they can destroy the support cards that prevent the Gladiator Beasts from being destroyed by battle. A few can even do both. Some of these include: XYZ-Dragon Cannon, Red Dragon Archfiend, Judgment Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, Demise, King of Armageddon, Volcanic Doomfire, and Beast King Barbaros. 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. Yubel - Terror Incarnate is especially devastating, destroying the whole field at the end of your turn except for itself.


 * Destroy on Summoning - "Trap Hole","Bottomless Trap Hole" and especially "Mirror of Oaths" can take down the opponent's cards before they even have a chance to attack your own cards. Also in the newest set "Swallow Flip" will greatly hurt any Gladiator Beast deck when special summoning using the Gladiator Beasts effect.


 * Effect Canceling - Cards such as Skill Drain or Angel 07 can prevent your monsters from tagging out or negate the effects of the ones that are Summoned leaving your monsters defenseless against some of the more powerful ATK monsters. G.B. Hunter is exclusively designed to stop the Gladiator Beasts to come back to the deck.
 * Attack Negation/Prevention - You can only "tag out" a Gladiator Beast for another if the first Gladiator Beast "attacked or was attacked". Unlike most card effects with a similar activation requirement, the battle must "go through", ie. instead of just declaring an attack or being targeted as the target of an attack, the battle has to go into and apply Damage Calculation (even if the damage for that battle would be 0. Therefore, any Spell, Trap, or Monster Effect that lets you negate a monster attack would prevent the opponent from tagging out their Gladiator Beasts.

Monster Cards

 * Gladiator Beast Samnite x2
 * Gladiator Beast Darius x2
 * Gladiator Beast Equeste x2
 * Gladiator Beast Hoplomus
 * Gladiator Beast Laquari x3
 * Gladiator Beast Murmillo
 * Gladiator Beast Bestiari
 * Gladiator Beast Secutor
 * Gladiator Beast Retiari
 * Rescue Cat
 * Test Tiger x3

Spell Cards

 * Gladiator Beast's Respite
 * Gladiator Proving Ground

Trap Cards

 * Gladiator Beast War Chariot
 * Waboku
 * Defensive Tactics