Gladiator Beasts: Totally Not My Furry Fetish

Gladiator Beasts are without a doubt one of the most amazing archetypes ever created in Yu-Gi-Oh. They are what is called a "toolbox," which is a group of cards that you have access to that can certain situations. Gladiator Beasts can be aggressive, and can be a control deck, and it isn't uncommon for the deck to switch from one play style to another in mid-duel. Gladiator Beast monsters all have a "tag" effect, in which at the end of a battle phase (including your opponent's), if the Gladiator Beast monster attacked, or was attacked, and was still present on the field, you could return it to the deck ("tagging"), and Special Summon from your deck another Gladiator Beast monster with a different name as the one you tagged. GBs that you tagged in gain effects from being tagged, such as Gladiator Beast Laquari, a 1800 ATK monster. His effect states that when he is special summoned by the effect of a Gladiator Beast monster, his original ATK becomes 2100.

When the deck first came to be, Gladiator Beasts were an anti-meta deck, which got use out of Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, and Gladiator Beast Heraklinos, and hid behind multiple Solemn Judgments. There was no Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, or Essedarii. They came around later, Gyzarus first, and Essedarii, coming out on May 10th, 2011, with all of the Extreme Victory cards. Nowadays, Gladiator Beasts are fast, powerful, and have many options in their main deck, and have lots of ways to take care of different problems.

There are lots of ways to run Gladiator Beasts. Most Gladiator Beast decks run a low amount of monsters, typically 13-16 at most. They run a lot of search cards, as well as a lot of spells, and traps, almost all of which negate things, or destroy a card, or generally just make your opponent lose a card, such as Bottomless Trap Hole, or Solemn Warning. The following are ALL Gladiator Beast variants, all of which play differently, for the most part, and some are more competitive than others. They are:

Prisma Build: Very aggressive, Elemental HERO Prisma's effect can turn himself into either Gladiator Beast Bestiari, or a Gladiator Beast Laquari, and coupled with another Gladiator Beast, you can make a Fusion Gladiator Beast monster very easily. Uses Test Tiger to tag monsters (Including Elemental HERO Prisma)A Hero Lives makes Special Summoning a Prisma or Elemental HERO Stratos easy, and then you can Normal Summon, and make a Gladiator Beast Gyzarus or Essedarii.

Tigerless Build: The anti-meta toolbox. You don't run Prismas, nor Test Tigers, and you just run 11-13 Gladiator Beast monsters, and some tech monsters, such as Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind, Thunder King Rai-Oh, Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, Doomcaliber Knight, and King Tiger Wanghu. The deck negates EVERYTHING.

Dimensional Fissure Build: This deck shits on Dark World, Plants, any deck that relies on the Graveyard. They all need the Graveyard to work, and if D-Fissure sends any monster that would be sent to the Graveyard to the remove from play pile, then cards that get effects that activate in only the Graveyard are dead cards . It's extremely anti-meta. You can even tech in Guardian Eatos.

Icarus Gladiator Beast Build: The deck makes great use of Icarus Attack, by running many Winged Beast monsters, including Gladiator Beast Bestiari, Equeste, and even Lanista, a very interesting Gladiator Beast. You can add in Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind, too, and halve a monster's ATK/DEF permanently, and then play Icarus Attack, tribute the Gale, and destroy two cards (perhaps spells and traps), and play a Gladiator Beast to get over the monster whose ATK/DEF you halved.

Respite Gladiator Beast Build: The deck runs three Gladiator Beast Respite, which you use to recycle dead cards in your hand, and can turn a shitty hand into something amazing. It's an extremely consistent deck. You can return a Gladiator Beast Respite to the deck with the Respite that you play, even, and then return the Respite you used with Gladiator Beast Equeste.

Counter Gladiator Beast Build: This build uses a lot of Counter Trap cards, to negate EVERYTHING. You then can add Van'Dalygon the Dark Dragon Lord, and make great use of it, having an awesome 2800 ATK beater that can do either 1500 burn damage to your opponent, destroy a card your opponent controls, or Special Summon a monster in your Graveyard, such a Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, if it was properly summoned and was perhaps destroyed earlier. You would get the Gyzarus effect from Special Summoning him, and thus destroy two more cards, potentially. Dark Bribe and Divine Wrath are both really good cards for Counter Glads.

Equip Gladiator Beasts: The last variant I'll discuss is not a competitive build, but is still very fun to play anyways. You play with the Gladiator Beast Equip Spell cards, Gladiator Beast Spartacus, and plenty of Gladiator Beast Hoplomus. You can even use Elemental HERO Prisma to copy Spartacus and make the Fusion Monster Gladiator Beast Gaiodiaz.

All in all, Gladiator Beasts aren't the best deck in the game, but they are the most difficult to play, as one misplay can cost you the game. You need to know how to deal with a specific deck, and you need to know how your cards work, too. It takes a lot of time and effort to learn how to play Gladiator Beasts efficiently, but if you do, you will be rewarded with many victories. Stay classy.

-Brian