Gladiator Beasts are a particularly troublesome strategy to deal with. Having immediate access to virtually every monster in the main deck and Fusion deck gives Gladiators the means to deal with almost anything you can throw at them. Their toolbox is so versatile and capable of handling so many things that the rest of the deck can be devoted to hate on opposing cards.

Obviously the decks that attract the majority of that hate are those built around Dark Armed Dragon. The Dragon is an incredibly powerful monster, but such power comes with a price. You must have exactly three Dark monsters in the graveyard to play the Dragon. Sadly, this is something the opponent can often disrupt. D.D. Crow is everywhere right now, and with Bottomless Trap Hole and Dimensional Prison also seeing a lot of play, a number of options exist to keep your opponent from reaching the three-monster threshold.

But the more common problem is having too many Darks in the graveyard. Often the best way to deal with Dark Armed Dragon is to play Solemn Judgment on it, then follow up by destroying Dark Grepher or something similar so your opponent has five or more Dark monsters in his or her graveyard. From there, his or her only real powerhouse card is pretty much Phantom of Chaos, a monster easily disrupted by cards like Book of Moon and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. More often than not, the Dark Armed duelist’s graveyard remains overrun with Dark monsters and he or she loses the game while holding dead copies of Dark Armed Dragon.

Hsoros Nairebas found a way to combat that common problem, and earned a 4th place finish at Shonen Jump Championship Toronto for his efforts. Here’s what he ran:

Monsters: 21
3 Dark Armed Dragon
3 Destiny Hero - Plasma

The first thing you’ll notice is that the deck sports very little protection. With only four trap cards and no defensive spells, Sorosh is always trying to be the one in control. He wants his opponents to be answering big monsters every turn, so that they’re unable to deal significant damage to his life points. The trap cards Sorosh does play are there to disrupt his opponent more than to defend himself.

Trap Dustshoot and Mind Crush are two very controversial cards this format. Both are quite powerful, but with Solemn Judgment running around most players are comfortable setting two or three cards to their spell and trap zone. This reduces their hand size below four and makes Dustshoot unplayable. However there’s no denying the fact that Trap Dustshoot on the first turn of a game can win it. Often leaving your opponent without Elemental Hero Stratos and knowing his or her entire hand allows you a direct path to victory.

Sorosh plays eight draw cards. Three copies of Destiny Draw and Trade-In as well as the two copies of Allure of Darkness the current format allows mean that Sorosh will likely draw another four cards on his first turn. That means he can see up to ten cards reliably, or 25 percent of his deck, before the opponent even gets to play anything. The chances of drawing Trap Dustshoot, Mind Crush, or Crush Card Virus are quite high as a result. Each one can allow Sorosh to win games easily, and he capitalized on that fact by making his deck as speedy as possible.

However, what Destiny Hero Turbo decks have found in the past is that dumping a bunch of monsters to your graveyard so you can draw cards results in lower consistency with Dark Armed Dragon. Sure, you can fuel the graveyard fast enough to drop a Dragon or two on your first turn, but what happens when your fourth draw spell nets you a card you can’t play? You don’t want to draw into dead cards, especially in a deck with no protection. Sorosh solved that problem the exact same way he solved the way people deal with Dark Armed Dragon: The Dark Creator.

The Dark Creator is simply huge in the late game. All you need to special summon this guy is at least five Dark monsters in your graveyard. The fact that the number is just a minimum gives The Dark Creator more flexibility than Dark Armed Dragon and allows the user to wait until the opponent has committed to make his or her play. And there is no lack of targets for The Dark Creator’s effect once it hits the field. Dark Magician of Chaos and Destiny Hero - Disk Commander are the two most obvious targets, but Phantom of Chaos and Jinzo are going to make appearances just as often as those two.

Phantom of Chaos works wonders in this strategy. Destiny Hero - Plasma is Sorosh’s primary discard for Destiny Draw and Trade-In, so there should always be a copy available for the Phantom to copy. Most Dark Armed decks struggle when the opponent is able to bust out Gladiator Beast Heraklinos. Sorosh simply flops a Phantom down and gets Herk off the field with ease. Furthermore, the Phantom can copy Snipe Hunter or Dark Armed Dragon, allowing for the destruction of multiple cards.

Of course, if it were this easy all the time, Gladiators wouldn’t constantly be winning. The problem is that Gladiators have so much to defend themselves with. Book of Moon, Solemn Judgment, and Enemy Controller give Gladiator players a means to stop opponents dead in their tracks . . . at least until that opponent plays The Dark Creator. There are two reasons why Solemn, Book, and Controller are able to stop Dark Armed Dragon players so well. The first and most obvious is that they stop immediate problems. Solemn Judgment rids the field of Dark Armed Dragon instantly and you don’t have to worry about losing anything else.

The second reason, which is just as important, is that these three cards leave your opponent unable to play any more copies of Dark Armed Dragon. If the Gladiator player has Heraklinos on the field the problem is amplified. Solemn Judgment is particularly deadly because it can shut down your entire plan of attack. You can’t even use cards like Monster Reborn or Premature Burial to bring your graveyard back to three Darks. Book of Moon and the other support cards Gladiators use can then prevent Phantom of Chaos from controlling the graveyard, and the Dark Armed player just runs out of monsters.

Then The Dark Creator drops, and the opponent has used up all of his or her defensive cards. The average opponent just isn’t expecting Creator, and now you’ve suddenly got both it and Dark Magician of Chaos on the table. You’re free to ruin the opponent’s field. What’s more is that you’ve given yourself control over your own graveyard again. You are now free to play that last Dark Armed Dragon you were holding and wipe your opponent’s field clear.

The Dark Creator also gives you a lot more ways to win the game. The reason Solemn Judgment is so good is that it completely shuts down the turn for Dark Armed players. But not with The Dark Creator in the mix. Imagine you’ve got three Dark monsters in your graveyard and you special summon Dark Armed Dragon. Your opponent flips Solemn Judgment to negate the summon, waiting to take his or her turn so the opponent can rebuild. But you’ve got other plans. You now play Dark Grepher, and use its effect to put Phantom of Chaos in your graveyard. The Dark Creator comes next once your field is cleared, reviving the Phantom and using its effect to copy Dark Armed Dragon, usually as soon as the following turn. You clear the opponent’s field with your Phantom, and the best part is that your opponent used Solemn Judgment. Dark Grepher + The Dark Creator = 4000 damage. Game over.

This is why Sorosh played three copies of Dark Grepher. In addition to fuelling the graveyard for both  and The Dark Creator, Grepher gives you a toolbox of sorts when combined with the Creator’s effect. Any Dark monster you want is yours via the graveyard and The Dark Creator. Factor in Dark Magician of Chaos and any spell in the graveyard is always within your reach.

When it comes to the Magician, D.D. Crow is always a problem. That’s why Sorosh has two copies of D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation. He’ll bring the Magician back anyway, and can discard a Dark monster to do so. That allows him to bring his graveyard back to three or five Darks, depending on the scenario, and gives him a spell card in the grave as well. Assuming it’s a draw card that comes back, that’s even more Darks in the graveyard. The Dark Creator is rarely going to be unplayable.