CDP: Gladiator Beast 2023, Test Techs

Testing options for the classic Contact Fusion strategy.

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Today's CDP features the Gladiator Beast archetype for the first time as a standalone video on my channel! This archetype consists of monsters of various Types and Attributes that aim to Fusion Summon to victory, not via Polymerization or some other Spell Card, but by shuffling materials from the field back into your deck. The payoff for these 'Contact Fusions' is immense, whether it is Gladiator Beast Tamer Editor cheating out a Gladiator Beast Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck each turn, or Gladiator Beast Gyzarus destroying 2 cards when Special Summoned. The core mechanic of this theme is dominating the Battle Phase, as most of the core monsters include an effect to return to the deck and Special Summon a new Gladiator Beast from your deck at the end of a Battle Phase in which that monster battled. Additionally, each monster also typically carries an effect that activates when Special Summoned by the effect of a Gladiator Beast monster. But that's never been the only way to trigger your Gladiator Beast effects - enter the Test theme.

Test Tiger is first up, as it can be Special Summoned from the hand whenever you control a Gladiator Beast monster. It can also be tributed to shuffle another Gladiator Beast into the deck, then Special Summon one from your Deck, as if it was summoned by the effect of the Gladiator Beast monster. This effect is also shared with Test Panther, the theme's LINK-2 option, but Panther also can tutor any Gladiator Beast card whenever it is initially Link Summoned. Now that you understand the core of this strategy, let's talk about some of the tech options I tried to employ in this build.

First off, I want to highlight the theme's Continuous Spell, Gladiator's Rejection. Once per turn, when a Gladiator Beast is summoned from your Main Deck, Rejection will Special Summon another from your Deck, with a different Type from the monsters you control. Simple and sweet, this obviously combos with the Test monsters, but it also combos extremely well with Gladiator Beast Andal, the theme's Normal Monster. You see, Rescue Rabbit and Unexpected Dai are great at bringing him out from the deck, while also triggering Rejection. The next tech card that I included today is new from PHNI - The Passage of Stars and Frost. Full disclosure - I never got this card to fully work well in any of my test duels, but Stars and Frost lets you conduct a Battle Phase twice as long as a monster was destroyed by a Spell Effect or any opponent's card effect. This is actually the reason why I'm running so many other Spell-based destruction cards in this build, such as Dark Hole and the full Kaiju engine led by Interrupted Kaiju Slumber. Stars and Frost even recovers itself when a monster you control is returned to the deck, which works perfectly with the Gladiator Beast archetype!

The final tech cards I leaned upon heavily that seemed to work out extremely well for me across all test duels were Fusion Deployment and Gladiator Beast Andabata. Deployment has always been a tricky consideration for me in Gladiator Beast, as using it locks you out of Link Summoning for the turn, but I didn't find that as much of a nuisance as I expected prior to fully testing. Not only does it work with Rejection, but it also gives you easy access to either Gladiator Beast Augustus or Gladiator Beast Vespasius, either of which grants access to your Tamer Editor. As for Andabata, this Fusion is typically ignored by most Gladiator Beast builds I've seen in the past, as it requires Augustus and 2 other Glad Beast monsters to Contact Fuse. When you do, it Special Summons a Level 7 or lower Gladiator Beast from your Extra Deck. While this can be easily compared to Editor and seen as worse, I found that its effect to return to the Extra Deck and summon 2 Gladiator Beasts much more impactful than expected; plus, I found that it works extremely well when you're locked to Fusions under Deployment.

In closing, I hope you enjoy the replays of the Gladiator Beast strategy in action, but I must stress that I highly encourage you to build this on your own with a much more streamlined build using the tech cards that work best for you!

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