Can a Gladiator Beast Deck Still Be Competitive in 2019? - Yu-Gi-Oh Old School Duelist Stories

by Phoenix Desertsong

Can Gladiator Beast Bestiari & Friends Still Impact Competitive Yu-Gi-Oh?

For a good part of my Yu-Gi-Oh duelist career, Gladiator Beast decks were the bane of my existence. In particular, Gladiator Beast Bestiari made me miserable. In fact, the absolute domination of Gladiator Beast decks at my locals is why I started playing Magic the Gathering! So it wasn’t all bad.

Fortunately, Konami eventually limited Bestiari to one copy per deck and Gladiator Beasts became a fairer deck. In fact, as much as I hated the deck for being too overpowered initially, I actually went on to build my own Gladiator Beast deck later!

But nowadays, Bestiari is unlimited. So why has no one seemed to notice that there’s a chance for Gladiator Beast decks to be competitive again in 2019 and beyond?

What made Bestiari so good? Gladiator Beasts have this crazy ability that allows them to swap out with other Gladiator Beasts from the deck at the end of the damage step of a combat that monster has been involved in. While there are bigger Beasts and other very useful Beasts, Bestiari was the primary engine of the deck. Not only can he destroy a Spell or Trap card on the field (face-down or face-up) when he’s tagged in from the deck, but he’s the necessary piece for a Contact Fusion into Gladiator Beast Gyzarus. Not only does he have 2400 ATK, but he destroys 2 cards on the field when he enters! Then, he can tag back out after combat and get you two other Gladiator Beasts!

Gladiator Beasts really were a cool archetype because there is actually a lot of important decision-making and strategy to playing the deck properly. But as new and quicker decks hit the scene (Blackwings FTK for example), Gladiator Beast decks sort of took a back seat. So, in the world of Xyz overlays and Pendulum monster insanity, could they still be competitive?

The last time a Gladiator Beast deck won a major tournament was 2014. Check out this list that won the Bulgaria National Championship in June 2014.


Main Deck (40 Cards)

Monsters

2x Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear
1x Coach Soldier Wolfbark
1x Gladiator Beast Bestiari
2x Gladiator Beast Darius
2x Gladiator Beast Equeste
2x Gladiator Beast Laquari
1x Thunder King Rai-Oh


Spells

1x Book of Moon
1x Dark Hole
3x Fire Formation - Tenki
3x Forbidden Lance
3x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Shrink


Traps

2x Black Horn of Heaven
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Compulsory Evacuation Device
2x Dimensional Prison
3x Gladiator Beast War Chariot
2x Mirror Force
1x Needle Ceiling
1x Solemn Warning
1x Torrential Tribute
2x Vanity's Emptiness
1x Wiretap


Extra Deck (15 Cards)

Fusion

1x Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1x Gladiator Beast Essedarii
2x Gladiator Beast Gyzarus
1x Gladiator Beast Heraklinos


Xyz

1x Abyss Dweller
2x Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King
1x Daigusto Emeral
1x Diamond Dire Wolf
1x Evilswarm Exciton Knight
1x Gagaga Cowboy
1x Gem-Knight Pearl
1x Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1x Number 101: Silent Honor ARK


This deck isn’t even playable as constructed anymore, as the banned & restricted list has changed a bunch, I didn’t recall Brotherhood of  the Fire Fist - Bear joining the deck along with Fire Formation - Tenki. But I was pretty much gone from Duel Monsters at that point.

Using input from another top 8 list from a Lisbon, Portugal Regional tournament earlier that year, I’ve come up with this revised list


Main Deck (40 Cards)

Monsters

1x Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear
3x Gladiator Beast Bestiari
2x Gladiator Beast Darius
2x Gladiator Beast Equeste
3x Gladiator Beast Laquari
1x Gladiator Beast Retiari
2x Thunder King Rai-Oh


Spells

1x Book of Moon
2x Fire Formation - Tenki
3x Forbidden Lance
3x Gladiator Proving Ground
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Pot of Duality
1x Raigeki / Dark Hole


Traps

1x Black Horn of Heaven
1x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Compulsory Evacuation Device
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Fiendish Chain
3x Gladiator Beast War Chariot
1x Mirror Force
1x Solemn Warning
1x Torrential Tribute


Extra Deck (15 Cards)

Fusion Monsters

2x Gladiator Beast Essedarii
3x Gladiator Beast Gyzarus
1x Gladiator Beast Heraklinos


XYZ Monsters

1x Abyss Dweller
1x Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King
1x Bujintei Kagutsuchi
1x Diamond Dire Wolf
1x Gagaga Cowboy
1x Gem-Knight Pearl
1x Lightning Chidori
1x Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1x Steelswarm Roach

Or really whatever XYZ Monsters you want really.

This revised deck-list is just a starting point, but right away, you can see it is considerably different than the last world-beating list that Gladiator Beasts enjoyed.

Let’s go through what makes this deck tick.

The Fire Fist package is cute but is actually a nice little addition to the deck. Gladiator Beast Darius and Gladiator Beast Laquari are Beast-Warriors, so Fire Formation - Tenki is a really nice card to have. The extra 100 ATK is something, but adding one of your Darius or Laquari to your hand is even better. The Tiger King is a useful Xyz monster to have around, too.


Having 3 copies of Bestiari means that we can run the three copies of Gyzarus in the Extra Deck. Really, what made this deck so blasted good is something you can do again.

Darius is really cool because he can Special Summon a Gladiator Beast from your graveyard when he enters the field from the deck! While the effect is negated, you can easily grab a dead Bestiari for a quick Gyzarus summon. Really it’s just a great way to recycle Gladiator Beasts that were destroyed back into the deck. With 3 Bestiari, Darius becomes more important than he has been in years.

Equeste is similar to Darius, except that the Beast goes to your hand, not the field. In some cases, this is even better.

Laquari is the big beater of the deck, as he becomes a 2100 ATK beater when he’s summoned from the deck. He’s also the primary piece of contact fusion summoning Heraklinos.

One Retiari has been a staple in Gladiator Beasts decks for a long time. His ability when summoned from the Deck is to remove 1 card from your opponent’s Graveyard. While this isn’t always relevant, it can mess up a lot of strategies. It’s the most expendable of the Gladiator Beasts, but having one is necessary so that you can have enough different Gladiator Beasts with different names in the deck.


Thunder King Rai-Oh was limited to a single copy for a time, but now he’s back to two copies allowed per deck. What makes him so good in Gladiator Beasts is that he shuts down players being able to add cards from their deck to their hand. While this seems really bad with Gladiator Proving Ground in the deck, Gladiator Beasts decks have been playing Rai-Oh for years due to his other ability: you can sacrifice him to negate a Special Summoning. So while you may have a dead Gladiator Proving Ground or Fire Formation - Tenki in hand sometimes with Rai-Oh on board, that ability to stop a special summon is too big not to play!

Onto the spells, Book of Moon is a staple. In Gladiator Beasts though, it’s even better as it can allow you to flip a monster into face-down defense position so you can survive a combat with a bigger guy. Gladiator Beasts are one of those unusual decks with which it’s sometimes advantageous to deal damage to yourself during combat. Being able to tag out is how this deck functions, after all.

We’ve already gone into Tenki, so let’s discuss another staple in Forbidden Lance. Having had the chance to play with Lance years ago, I’ll say it’s probably the most important combat trick in the deck. Having a monster lose 800 ATK is huge. But it can also save your creature from a Spell or Trap card, too. It’s one of the most versatile quick-play spells in Yu-Gi-Oh. Awesome card!

Gladiator Proving Ground is really bad with a face-up Rai-Oh on board, but the rest of the time, it gets any of your Gladiator Beasts to your hand.

Usually, Gladiator Beasts decks play 3 copies of Mystical Space Typhoon. But since we have 3 Bestiari and so many other important spells and traps, we had to cut down to 1. Two more copies could be put in the side deck for certain match-ups.

While Pot of Duality is no longer limited, two copies in Gladiator Beasts are enough. It’s such a Special Summon happy deck that Duality can cost you a turn. But the card selection Duality provides is worth running it. After all, you don’t have to tag out every turn. However, in today’s game, I could see replacing these with the two MST we cut. I’d have to playtest this build a ton in order to answer that question.

The trap cards are pretty much all classic Yu-Gi-Oh staples. Gladiator Beast War Chariot is the only one that needs special explanation. This card has always been powerful, but negating the activation of an Effect Monster’s effect is activated AND destroying that monster is very powerful. The only drawback? You have to have a face-up Gladiator Beast on the field. Seems fine and better than ever.


What About the Other Gladiator Beasts?

There are other Gladiator Beasts that used to see a lot of play, but aren’t in this deck. Let’s see if they still might belong, at least out of the Side Deck.

Gladiator Beast Hoplomus. A base DEF of 2100 is nothing to sneeze at, and when he’s summoned from the deck, it’s 2400 DEF. He’s basically just a wall, but there are still plenty of monsters that can’t beat 2400 DEF. Still, he’s not as good now as he was in the Gladiator Assault days.

Gladiator Beast Murmillo. This little fish has a powerful effect: destroy 1 face-up monster. With only 800 DEF and 400 ATK, and being Level 3, he’s just not the best main deck option anymore. Still, he blows a guy up, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Gladiator Beast Samnite. Being Level 3 is what hurts Samnite these days. He also brings a Gladiator Beast from your Deck to your hand, which while good, is just another bad combination with Rai-Oh. He requires the deck to be built differently than what we have right now.

Gladiator Beast Secutor. This little guy can actually summon TWO Gladiator Beast monsters. It’s a shame that he hasn’t seen play in years. But, with only 400 ATK and 300 DEF, he's really weak. The payoff can be worth it, though. Still, he may be worth a shot in place of Retiari in some match-ups.

The primary issue with these 4 guys is that none of them are Beast-Warriors. If we were to eliminate the Fire Formation Package and a Proving Ground, they may all fit. But would the deck be as good without the added card advantage? Maybe, maybe not. Only playtesting can tell us.


Can Gladiator Beasts Compete in 2018 and Beyond?

Since 2014, I have seen Gladiator Beasts decks occasionally win an odd tournament here and there. Nothing major, though. I really feel as bigger and more explosive archetypes have been released, Gladiator Beasts just sort of got left behind. But there’s still a lot of power in this deck.

Also, it’s possible that the Fire Formation package isn’t even necessary. Perhaps our old Gladiator Beast friends that we haven’t included - Hoplomus, Murmillo, Samnite, and Secutor, in particular - actually belong instead. My feeling is to include them in the side deck, along with other meta-busting cards and see what the best build shapes up to be.

While I won’t be building this deck anytime soon for myself, I feel like there are plenty of duelists out there who’d love to give the old Gladiator Beast toolbox a spin again. The deck is extremely inexpensive to build nowadays. Why not?

Did you ever play Gladiator Beasts at any point? Is this a deck you would ever build again, just to play it for fun? Let us know in the comments!


Here are some other Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game articles you may enjoy:

- Yu-Gi-Oh Blackwings Deck 2018 Profile
-  Is a Toon Deck Now Competitive with Toon Kingdom?
- GOAT FORMAT! - Intro to the Format and Original Aggro Control Deck
- Fire Princess Burn - Old School Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck Profile!
- The Legendary Fisherman - Old School Yu-Gi-Oh Deck Profile