Gladiator Beast

Gladiator Beast
Gladiator Beast
Japanese	剣闘獣(グラディアルビースト)
Japanese (ruby)	グラディアル・ビースト
Japanese (base text)	剣闘獣
Japanese (translated)	Gladial Beast
Other names German: Gladiatorungeheuer Korean: 검투수
Appears in (sets)	Gladiator's Assault Phantom Darkness Light of Destruction The Duelist Genesis Crossroads of Chaos Crimson Crisis V-Jump Edition 3 Extreme Victory
Appears in (anime)	Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time
Lists	members support

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. The types consist of Beasts, Beast-Warriors, Winged-Beast, Dinosaurs, one Rock, one Aqua, two Fish and one Reptile. With a few exceptions, all non-Fusion Gladiator Beasts have an effect to return to the Deck during the end of a Battle Phase when it battled, and then to Special Summon another Gladiator Beast Monster to replace it (this is also known as Tagging Out). The newly special summoned Gladiator Beast monsters usually gain another effect when special summoned in this way. Despite their special summoning abilities, many Gladiator Beast Monsters have low ATK and/or DEF stats which are compensated for by their support cards.

In addition to "tagging out" Gladiator Beasts, Gladiator Beasts have four Fusion monsters, each of which requires one specific Gladiator Beast monster and either one or two other Gladiator Beast monsters on the field (depending on the Fusion monster being summoned), at which point the Gladiator Beast monsters can be returned to the Main Deck to Special Summon the appropriate Gladiator Beast Fusion monster. The monsters used for the Special Summoning of these Gladiator Beast monsters ("Gladiator Beast Gaiodiaz", "Gladiator Beast Heraklinos", "Gladiator Beast Essedarii" and "Gladiator Beast Gyzarus") can be used as Fusion Material monsters while face up or face down on the field, and with the exception of "Gladiator Beast Heraklinos" and "Gladiator Beast Essedarii", the Gladiator Beast Fusion monsters can be returned to the deck in the same way as normal Gladiator Beast monsters after they've battled (although they cannot summon the specific Gladiator Beast monster required for their summoning). Gladiator Beast Fusion monsters, because they do not require a spell card to Special Summon them, are considered Contact Fusion Monsters.

Also, nearly every card in the archetype is capable of being returned to the Hand, Field, or Deck from the Graveyard, whether using the Gladiator Beast monsters themselves or using their support cards. The Gladiator Beast deck includes a mix of destruction, aggro, and toolbox cards and tactics. It is this versatility which landed this deck as one of the top decks in the Shonen Jump Circuit.

Due to the new September 2010 Banlist, Gladiators Beasts have become more popular, especially with cards like "Heavy Storm" getting banned and "Royal Oppression" limited, both of which were a threat to the Gladiator Beast strategy.

Due to the new March 2011 Banlist, Gladiator Beasts will be able to pull off more plays with Test Tiger, because of the limiting of "Book of Moon", particular reason that Test Tiger was unpopular during the September format.

Weaknesses and Counter-Strategies

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", "Solemn Warning", "Archlord Kristya", "Cactus Bouncer", "Corridor of Agony" and others all prevent Gladiator Beasts from tagging 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, Prime Material Dragon, Stardust Dragon, and Divine Wrath all work well. Divine Wrath also works well 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, Ally of Justice Catastor, Ally of Justice Core Destroyer (with DNA Transplant).
  • 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, Armed Dragon LV10, 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 opponents turn except for itself.

• Destroy on Summoning - "Trap Hole","Bottomless Trap Hole", and especially "Mirror of Oaths", that destroy the monsters when are special summoned from the deck. Also, "Swallow Flip" will greatly hurt any Gladiator Beast deck when special summoning using the Gladiator Beasts effect.

• Effect Canceling - Cards such as "Skill Drain","Chivalry","Effect Veiler" 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, as "Corridor of Agony", that can completely negate the effects of the Gladiator Beast monsters and prevent them to attack.

• 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", i.e. 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.

Recommended Cards

Monster Cards

• Test Tiger
• Thunder King Rai-Oh
• Gladiator Beast Bestiari
• Gladiator Beast Laquari
• Gladiator Beast Equeste
• Gladiator Beast Darius
• Gladiator Beast Hoplomus
• Gladiator Beast Murmillo
• Gladiator Beast Retiari

Spell Cards

• Book of Moon
• Enemy Controller
• Giant Trunade
• Smashing Ground
• Gladiator Proving Ground
• Gladiator Beast's Respite
• Forbidden Lance

Trap Cards

• Compulsory Evacuation Device
• Dimensional Prison
• Gladiator Beast War Chariot
• Seven Tools of the Bandit
• Solemn Judgment
• Solemn Warning
• Trap Stun

Extra Deck

• Gladiator Beast Essedarii
• Gladiator Beast Gyzarus
• Gladiator Beast Heraklinos

Prisma Gladiator Beasts

Also known as "Prismadiators" or "Prisma Glads", this deck is variation of the basic Gladiator Beast Deck that uses "Elemental Hero Stratos" to add "Elemental Hero Prisma" to your hand. Then you use "Elemental Hero Prisma" to act as "Gladiator Beast Bestiari". Then it is used to summon "Gladiator Beast Gyzarus" and destroy cards on your opponents side of the field. After attacking you can return "Gladiator Beast Gyzarus" to the Extra Deck to summon "Gladiator Beast Darius" and another Gladiator Beast. Use "Gladiator Beast Darius" to summon "Gladiator Beast Bestiari" to summon "Gladiator Beast Gyzarus" again and destroy more cards. Then "Gladiator Beast Bestiari" is back in the deck and the process can be repeated.

One of the best combos of the deck is to start with a hand consisting of "Elemental Hero Prisma" (it can be also a "Reinforcement of the Army" or "E - Emergency Call" to search for him), "Test Tiger" and "Cold Wave" (optional).

You can start activating Cold Wave, then Normal Summon "Prisma" and activate his effect to send "Bestiari" to the Graveyard. Next, Special Summon "Test Tiger" and tribute him to send "Prisma" back to the deck and Special Summon "Darius", activate his effect and Special Summon "Bestiari". Contact Fusion both monsters and Special Summon "Gyzarus" to destroy up to 2 cards on the field. Next, attack with "Gyzarus" and tag-out for another 2 Gladiator Beasts monsters. If you have "Laquari" in your Graveyard then tag-out for "Darius" and another Gladiator Beast, then Special Summon "Laquari" by the effect of "Darius" and Contact Fuse for "Heraklinos".

Alternatively, if you already have a Gladiator Beast monster on the field, you can summon "Prisma" and take "Bestiari's" name to contact fuse the two. After you tag out with "Gladiator Beast Gyzarus", summon "Darius" as one of the two and use him to retrieve "Bestiari" from the grave. If you wish, you may either contact out for "Gyzarus" a second time (totaling 4 destructions from "Gyzarus'" effect alone), or proceed to summon "Gladiator Beast Heraklinos" if your second choice happens to be "Laquari".

Monster Cards

• Elemental Hero Prisma
• Elemental Hero Stratos
• Test Tiger
• Thunder King Rai-Oh

Spells

• Book of Moon
• My Body as a Shield
• Reinforcement of the Army or E - Emergency Call (RotA is better due to the flexibility of teching in a D.D. Warrior Lady)
• Smashing Ground

Traps

• Dimensional Prison
• Starlight Road
• Trap Stun
• Waboku

Extra Deck

• Stardust Dragon

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