Gladiator Beast Octavius generated some debate when he was first posted over on the official Sneak Preview page. Mostly, people couldn’t read his effect due to the miniscule size of the text. But here’s what he does:

Winged Beast / LIGHT         

Level 7                  

2500 ATK / 1200 DEF

When this card is Special Summoned by the effect of a “Gladiator Beast” monster, destroy a face down Spell or Trap. At the end of your Battle Phase, if this card attacked or was attacked, send it to the Deck unless you discard a card.

Gladiator Beast Octavius may not look like much at first glance, but he’ got a tremendous number of things going for him, not the least of which is the chief Gladiator Beast mechanic.

How Gladiator Beasts Work

In order to understand what this card really does, you need to know a bit about the Gladiator Beasts: the newest monster group and the namesake of Gladiator’s Assault. The Gladiator Beast monsters are a mish-mash of attributes and monster types—everything from Fish to Dinosaurs. The one thing that binds them together is an effect on nearly every card that lets them jump back into your deck at the end of the battle phase if they attacked or were attacked. Then you can special summon another Gladiator Beast in the place of the original, and that “tag out” gives the new Gladiator Beast an effect.

The Gladiator Beasts have a lot of cool abilities to make the mechanic worthwhile. Double attacking, spell negation, and all sorts of destruction effects are just the tip of the iceberg, but one thing they lacked in Japan was size. They just didn’t have anyone to go toe-to-toe with Monarchs or Jinzo, and that hurt their playability.

Luckily, Octavius is Huge

With 2500 ATK, Gladiator Beast Octavius solves this problem. You can attack over a smaller monster like Breaker the Magical Warrior or Snipe Hunter, and then at the end of the battle phase you can send the attacker back to your deck and special summon Octavius with no tribute. That gives you a 2500 ATK brick wall, and on your next turn you’ll get to swing with him and cause some havoc.

2500 ATK is a big deal nowadays, perhaps even more so than last format. While most tribute monsters in the March ’07 format would have been Monarchs, we’re now seeing far fewer of those and more copies of Jinzo and Ryu Kokki. That’s good news, because it’s going to be easier for Gladiator Beasts to take on Kokki and Jinzo, since neither has significant disruption effects that target your monsters. In turn, the fact that Octavius can swing over either of these guys is pretty great, and he deals a hefty punch when he’s attacking directly.

Speaking of which, Gladiator Beasts get to do their tag-out trick when they attack directly, too. There are lots of situations in which you can special summon Octavius, and it’s a lot easier than it might look.

That Discard Cost . . .

The only drawback to Octavius is that each time he battles on your turn, you’ll have to discard a card to keep him on the field. Notice, though, that his card text only requires this during your battle phase—he can brick wall the opponent all he wants on the opponent’s turn and even if he should survive an attack, your opponent won’t be able to force you to discard, or ditch Octavius back to the deck.

As for dealing with that discard, there are tons of ways to do so. Treeborn Frog is a great idea for Gladiator Beasts since it gives them an added dose of defense, as well as some tribute support for those situations where you draw into their bigger monsters. Volcanic Shell has gained some serious popularity lately, and can be a potent source of support for the Gladiator Beasts when combined with Card Trader (something the Gladiators already worked well with). Destiny Hero - Malicious and several other monsters are also great for this purpose, while Necro Gardna can be discarded and later removed to keep your smaller Gladiator Beasts on the table.

The thing is, even if you discard a real card you could have used, you still control the biggest, baddest beastie on the field. In a format with less monster removal than previous ones, that counts for a lot. If Octavius destroys a monster each turn and you discard to keep him around, you’re not gaining any immediate card presence over your opponent, but you are dominating the field, and that really can’t be underestimated.

The Best Part!

The coolest thing about this card is that when it hits play, you get to blow away a face-down spell or trap. That effect’s basically free in any sense of the word, and if you rob your opponent of a card, that factor can balance out a discard to keep Octavius around. Even if Octavius gets destroyed by something like Smashing Ground, it won’t matter that much since you’re already up a card.

“But Jason!” you cry. “That face-down card is probably just Sakuretsu Armor! My opponent will destroy my attacking Gladiator Beast before I even get a chance to bring Octavius to the field!” A percentage of the time that’ll be correct: losing your smaller Gladiator Beast before you can get Octavius out can certainly hurt you. However, personally, I don’t generally attack into face-down cards all the time without having some sort of backup plan. Dust Tornado and all the usual spell and trap removal aggressive decks like to use can clear the back row, but then you won’t get to use Octavius’ ability. It’s a catch-22, but it’s one we can work around.

Personally, I like the idea of running Cold Wave with Gladiator Beasts to solve this problem. These guys attack a lot, and they can really dominate if they’re given a couple of turns without interference from spells and traps. Royal Decree could offer something similar, but Cold Wave is just so difficult to deal with. Dust Tornado can’t chain to stop it, and it doesn’t need to be set for a turn like Decree. Running three copies can give this deck a serious advantage in a lot of matchups, but it’s especially good against burn and Diamond Dude Turbo, the threats of which are still very much alive. Heck, you can back up Octavius with Jinzo too, and watch as your opponent sets bluff after feeble bluff.

In fact, bluffing is really the issue that makes Octavius so good. With the average player running only five defensive traps in his or her main deck anyway, a lot of the cards the opponent sets are going to be bluffs to try and fend off attacks. The cool thing about Octavius is that when you’re playing against Gladiator Beasts, you can’t do that. Anything you set that can’t be chained to his special summoning is going to be destroyed by his effect—usually sooner rather than later—so most players just won’t set anything. This does two things.

First, it can leave the back row barren more often than not. That’s going to encourage the Gladiator Beast player to attack, which gives him or her control over the duel’s momentum and sets him or her up to win the game. That’s bad.

Second, when a card is set in the back row, it will almost always be a very obvious defensive play. That means that when something has been set, the Gladiator Beast player knows to blow it away with spell and trap removal. If the Gladiator Beast duelist is running Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, Breaker the Magical Warrior, and just two more pieces of removal, he or she will have a good shot at keeping the average opponent from ever stopping an attack.

Scary idea, huh?

Gladiator Beast Octavius is just one of the new world-exclusive cards being offered in Gladiator’s Assault, and he may not be the only new addition to the Gladiator Beast arsenal. Stay with us for the next two weeks, as we count down the days to the Gladiator’s Assault Sneak Preview Weekend!