Gladiator Beasts have been regarded as a deck that just can’t beat TeleDAD for a while now. The archetype’s recent collapse was a surprising turn of events for many players who thought Gladiators would never fall. Cold Wave and Gladiator Beast Heraklinos allow for total control over your opponent’s spell and trap cards, and Gladiator Beast Gyzarus makes it all work together smoothly. Decks would always need spell or trap cards, and being able to side both Light-Imprisoning Mirror and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror meant you could always have a significant edge over anyone’s entire deck.

Until Synchros came around. With Destiny Hero - Malicious in the graveyard, TeleDAD can actually win the game, even when under the effect of Cold Wave. If a Gladiator player thinks he or she’s sitting pretty with Heraklinos and Solemns set for next turn, but I special summon Colossal Fighter safely under Cold Wave and beat up Herk, that perfect set-up is destroyed. Cold Wave just couldn’t dominate Synchros the way it could dominate Dark Armed Return in the past.

Manuel Gonzales showed up at Shonen Jump Championship Detroit with a plan to change all that. Gladiator Beast Retiari came onto the tournament scene with a bang softer than that of a teddy bear. Most people really didn’t think it was that awesome. Who needs another dead Gladiator to draw, right? Well think about how Gladiators got knocked off the tournament scene in the first place. Malicious makes Synchros and Dark Armed possible. Remove Malicious, and Cold Wave is just as good as it was before.

Monsters: 19

2 Gladiator Beast Darius
2 Gladiator Beast Laquari
3 Test Tiger
2 Elemental Hero Prisma
1 Gladiator Beast Hoplomus
1 Gladiator Beast Retiari
1 Gladiator Beast Murmillo
2 Gladiator Beast Bestiari
1 D.D. Warrior Lady
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
1 Gladiator Beast Equeste
1 Elemental Hero Stratos

As you can see, Manuel’s deck is very similar to the ones that had been dominating the game in ages past. Three Test Tiger cards are complimented by two copies each of Elemental Hero Prisma and Cold Wave. The usual Gladiator Beast suspects make the cut, although Gladiator Beast Secutor has been given the day off. In to take its place is the much more playable Gladiator Beast Retiari. Secutor was always a dead draw without Test Tiger because you couldn’t shuffle it back into the deck. Retiari can tag himself out, meaning he’s actually playable if the game boils down to a topdeck war.

The problem most people have with Retiari is that 1200 ATK isn’t that awe-inspiring. It’ll be destroyed in battle and you’ll lose a monster. But consider this: if you remove a copy of Malicious, Necro Gardna or Plaguespreader Zombie you even the trade. Retiari becomes a lot easier to lose because it dealt with a live card already. Removing Malicious means you’ll see one less level-8 Synchro. That’s a huge deal for Gladiator Beasts.

One thing Retiari really helps Gladiators do is extend the game. Not many players use that strategy, but I believe it can work extremely well. TeleDAD has a tendency to go off like a firework, exploding quickly but flaring out just as fast. Dead card after dead card is drawn and the result is a pretty pathetic topdeck war. But if one player isn’t playing that carbon copy of TeleDAD, he or she should draw better. Gladiator Beasts, we know, are the best at this point in the game. Any Gladiator Beast can become two Gladiator Beasts thanks to Darius.

I believe that’s how Manuel would have won most of his games. Just looking at his featured match you can see how prolonged his victories are despite their dominating nature. His deck just plays strong for a long period of time, eventually causing TeleDAD to run out of wind and sink. Of course, Manuel is going to help that process along as much as he can, and he made a lot of unique choices to cripple TeleDAD.

Instead of D.D. Crow Manuel plays Thunder King Rai-Oh. Rai-Oh is a great monster to support Gladiator Beasts. Making a play like Monster Reborn, contact Fusing for Gyzarus, tagging out for Heraklinos, and summoning Rai-Oh is a pretty good turn. In fact, add Rai-Oh to pretty much any scenario for the opponent and see how much worse it gets. Trying to break out of a Gladiator Beast War Chariot loop? Probably won’t happen if I add Rai-Oh to the mix.

The cards that happen to protect Rai-Oh the best also work well with Gladiator Beasts. Shrink, Book of Moon, Compulsory Evacuation Device, and Solemn Judgment help maintain the lock. In fact, with these cards Manuel can allow the wrong Synchro summons past his Rai-Oh without fear. With Solemn and Compulsory set there’s no reason for him to tribute the Rai-Oh off when you Synchro a Stardust Dragon. He can let these cards take care of the Synchros while Rai-Oh still locks down the other cards in the opponent’s hand.

The trap line-up is bent on controlling monsters and protecting your Gladiators from them. I really like how Manuel has taken a toolbox approach with his spell and trap support. Clearly his opponents had no idea what to expect from his decklist on Day 1, and the one-of tech cards were certainly a part of that. Waboku will win games like Gorz might have. D.D. Warrior Lady is going to take care of those Stardust cards that were considered so unbeatable. Book of Moon becomes a surprise power card instead of one of the main tools of the deck.

But why just one copy of Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror? Drawing a copy of the Mirror is great against the expected metagame. Dark Armed Dragon decks and Zombie decks lose a lot of their monster effects and even Lightsworn can’t abuse Necro Gardna to shut down your battle phase. Drawing one seems quite optimal, and protecting one with Gladiator Beast Heraklinos pretty much seals the deal. But drawing two will probably lose Manuel the game. With two of your cards not being able to destroy anything you’ll have to use your other cards to destroy things. Problem is, those other cards usually turn into Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, whose effect is being negated by the Mirror! It’s an awkward scenario that prevents Gladiator Beasts from being able to take full advantage of the Mirror, so one copy is optimal.

This deck is very well built. It functions properly throughout the entire game and can take advantage of TeleDAD at every turn. It comes ready to handle anything TeleDAD can throw at it, and clearly Manuel was able to do just that.

—Matt Peddle