Difference between revisions of "Gladiator Beast"

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*[[Mask of Restrict]] - This card can potentially work very well in a Gladiator Beast deck, since there are only a few high-level Gladiator Beasts that go in the Deck, and they can all be Special Summoned out of the deck under the right circumstances.
 
*[[Mask of Restrict]] - This card can potentially work very well in a Gladiator Beast deck, since there are only a few high-level Gladiator Beasts that go in the Deck, and they can all be Special Summoned out of the deck under the right circumstances.
  
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*[[Enraged Battle Ox]] - This monster allows almost all significant Gladiator Beasts (the [[Beast]]s, [[Beast-Warrior]]s and [[Winged Beast]]s) to do piercing damage, and is a fair attacker itself. About the only strong Gladiator Beasts it doesn't enhance are [[Gladiator Beast Spartacus]] and its fusion, [[Gladiator Beast Gaodiaz]]. In addition, since the Gladiator Beasts are constantly swapping in and out, this is a more viable way of granting piercing damage than an equip card like [[Fairy Meteor Crush]].
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*[[Enraged Battle Ox]] - This monster allows almost all significant Gladiator Beasts (the [[Beast]]s, [[Beast-Warrior]]s and [[Winged Beast]]s) to do piercing damage, and is a fair attacker itself. About the only strong Gladiator Beasts it doesn't enhance are [[Gladiator Beast Spartacus]] and its fusion, [[Gladiator Beast Gaiodiaz]]. In addition, since the Gladiator Beasts are constantly swapping in and out, this is a more viable way of granting piercing damage than an equip card like [[Fairy Meteor Crush]].
  
 
==Weaknesses and Counter-Strategies==
 
==Weaknesses and Counter-Strategies==

Revision as of 17:12, 13 April 2010

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

Appears in (sets)
Lists

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 (this is also known as Tagging Out), 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 called Fusion Tag). 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.)
  • Widespread Dud - This card can be very helpful in a Gladiator Beast deck as it can be used to its full power. By chaining this card to the summoning of your Gyzarus or Bestiari you can destroy 2 of your opponents monsters by selecting this card as a target for destruction.
  • Fissure and Smashing Ground - Despite being one for one's, these cards are very powerful. They do not Target so they can destroy difficult to destroy monsters such as Thought Ruler Archfiend and Tytannial, Princess of Camellias. Also, many cards require a specific monster on their side of the field to use (e.g. Icarus Attack and Limiter Removal) using these cards to destroy their monster first not only allows you to direct attack more often, it also allows you to tag in Bestiari and destroy them without allowing the opponent from using them later on.
  • Book of Moon - This card is very useful in a Gladiator Beast deck. It can save your own monster from Mirror Force or Bottomless Trap Hole, it can temporarily stop Continuous Monster Effects that prevent you from using certain cards (e.g. Jinzo and Stardust Dragon) but most importantly, it gives you a defensive target for your Gladiator Beast to safely attack into without worrying about cards like Honest and Kalut. Also, if the monster has very high defense, all the monsters you control can ram into it allowing each of them to tag out and use their effects for a relatively small trade off. Alternatively, you can chain this card to Gladiator Beast Darius, flipping Darius face-down before Darius' effect resolves. When Darius' effect resolves and revives the Gladiator Beast monster, that monster's effect will not be negated as the negation effect is Continuous and Darius is now face-down.
  • Shrink - Since this is a Quick-Play spell card, it can be used right when your opponent's monster is going to attack. Activate Shrink and most likely the attacking monster will be destroyed instead of your Gladiator Beast thus "Shrink" is the more offensive compared to "Half Shut". Also, since it attacked your Gladiator Beast monster, you can now tag out.
  • Half Shut - Similar to "Shrink" this card is a Quick-Play spell card. However unlike "Shrink" this card halves the ATK, not the Original Attack. Also, it gives the added effect of making the monster immune to destruction by battle. Both cards have pros and cons depending on how you intend to use it. Both cards can be used to save your own monster from cards such as "Bottomless Trap Hole" however in this case "Half Shut" is superior to "Shrink" as you can attack with your now weakened monster in order to tag out compared to "Shrink" where you would realize your monster is too weak to attack safely. "Half Shut" can also be used to halve and 'protect' one monster on the opponent's side of the field, that way you can safely attack that one monster repeatedly with all your monsters while avoiding any other strong monster your opponent may control, afterwards you can tag them all out and destroy those strong monsters with "Gladiator Beast Murmillo" and "Gladiator Beast Gyzarus".
  • Hedge Guard - Along with the above 2 cards, this can can also be used with Gladiator Beasts. Pros include that this card can be used directly from your hand during damage calculation, this allows you to counter cards such as Honest or Kalut. However, it also halves your own monsters ATK and your monster won't be destroyed from that one battle only. An alternate method to using this card is to set your Gladiator Beast, that way the ATK decrease won't matter.
  • Call Of The Haunted - Despite being a staple, there are a few combos that many duelists don't know about. One such combo is with Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, if Gyzarus has be properly summoned before, then it was destroyed somehow, you can revive Gyzarus with this card and destroy another 2 cards, this is because Gyzarus's effect activates whenever he is Special Summoned (It doesn't say when it is Special Summoned from the Extra Deck).
  • Rescue Cat - Some players consider this card to be a staple in Gladiator Beast decks, while others do not. If you run this card, you should use 3 Test Tigers and 2 Gladiator Beast Samnites, because they are the cards you will want to search for with Rescue Cat's effect.
  • After the Struggle - Similar to Ancient Forest, it destroys any attacking monster, but unlike Ancient Forest, it destroys any defending monsters as well. Because it activates during the End Step, Gladiator Beasts can tag out to prevent their destruction, while also destroying any remaining attack target. This can help set up various tags and clear the field of larger monsters, such as Stardust Dragon.
  • Magic Hole Golem - If your opponent has a strong monster that your Gladiator cannot defeat, you can summon this card. By using this card's effect, your Gladiator Beast's ATK is halved and it can attack your opponent directly. When you end your Battle Phase, you can return the selected Gladiator Beast monster to your Deck to summon Gladiator Beast Murmillo, which destroys your opponent's monster.
  • Mask of Restrict - This card can potentially work very well in a Gladiator Beast deck, since there are only a few high-level Gladiator Beasts that go in the Deck, and they can all be Special Summoned out of the deck under the right circumstances.

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:

  • 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", 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

Spell Cards

Trap Cards

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