Shonen Jump Championship Baltimore was a monumental event that proved one thing: Gladiator Beasts are still on top. But why are they? Could it be individual skill? Could it be sheer luck? Has the metagame not adjusted enough? Was the hype behind Psychic-types nothing but hot air? Today we’ll explore why the mighty Gladiators are still reigning supreme.
The Not-So-Shocking Evidence
First, let’s take the Gladiators. Everyone knows why they’re good from the basics of the build. Without getting into frivolous details, they are consistent, effective, and do well against other decks. The recent additions of Gladiator Beast War Chariot and Gladiator Beast Equeste add to their strength. This was evident in Jermol Jupiter’s use of War Chariot to clinch the match versus Paul Levitin in the Semifinals
. While setting a card and going down to just one card in hand with Gladiator Beast Heraklinos on the field would generally be construed as a mistake, Jupiter used it as a remarkably clever feint. If War Chariot didn’t exist, then Levitin would have won game 2 and had a shot at winning the match.
The emergence of Teleport Dark Armed decks comes as no surprise. They play similar to T-Hero with Emergency Teleport acting as Metamorphosis. Instead of getting a decent Fusion monster like Ryu Senshi, you get far superior monsters like Stardust Dragon and Goyo Guardian. The ease of accomplishing a Synchro summon adds to the deck’s attractiveness. The speed of the Destiny Hero draw engine has been enhanced by Destiny Hero - Malicious becoming Unlimited. The most recent addition, Krebons, is an excellent attack nullifier that screams "anti-Glads" for the low price of 800 life points.
Despite the obvious advantages within the Teleport Dark Armed deck, why didn’t the deck win? Structurally it was built to counter the Gladiators by using Krebons to defend, Teleport for easy access to Synchro monsters, Caius the Shadow Monarch to side-swipe graveyard dependent cards, Crush Card Virus to slice through Gladiator beatsticks, and, to top it all off, play sets of Destiny Draw, Reinforcement of the Army, and Allure of Darkness for speedy access to important cards. What happened?
Well . . . judging from experience and from the match coverage, there are a few key observations to consider. For one, the Gladiator Beasts’ big plays seem to carry more weight than Teleport Dark Armed’s power plays. For example, re-read the first few paragraphs of the semifinal match between Jupiter and Levitin. Levitin gets the early lead:
"Levitin activated Heavy Storm to destroy Jupiter’s face-down Dimensional Prison, and then normal summoned Dark Grepher. He discarded Sangan to send Destiny Hero – Malicious to his graveyard, lost him to D.D. Crow, but activated Emergency Teleport to bring Krebons from his deck! He Synchro summoned Goyo Guardian, ran over Stratos, and special summoned Stratos to get his effect! He searched his deck for his own Stratos, adding insult to injury—Jupiter had lost a monster while Levitin gained one, searched one, and would get another on a later turn with Stratos’s effect. What a game-breaker."
This is a pretty substantial play considering the net amount of cards earned by Levitin. Despite Jupiter’s counter with Murmillo, Paul adds more leverage to his position:
"Levitin special summoned Dark Armed Dragon, removed Sangan from his graveyard to destroy Jupiter’s face-down Gladiator Beast Hoplomus, and then attacked with Stratos and Dark Armed Dragon. Jupiter was down to 2400 life points."
What surprised me, though, was the strength of Jupiter’s play in response to this:
"Jupiter summoned Elemental Hero Prisma next turn, sending Bestiari to his graveyard. He special summoned Test Tiger, tagged Prisma out for Darius, brought back Bestiari, and contact Fused for Gladiator Beast Gyzarus! Dark Armed Dragon and Stratos went down, and Gyzarus tagged out to Darius and Laquari. Darius brought back Murmillo, and Jupiter contact Fused all three of his monsters for Gladiator Beast Heraklinos! He ended his turn with three cards in hand."
The game is pretty much over at this point. The Gladiator Beast Gyzarus into Gladiator Beast Heraklinos play is also pretty typical of Gladiator decks. Now, one could argue that Paul merely had bad luck and that his main deck was built to counter this threat. Game 2 should’ve been fine right? Wrong. In my opinion, Paul’s side deck was not prepped enough for a Gladiator Beast matchup. He was probably expecting more Teleport Dark Armed and Lightsworn matchups than anything else. Levitin’s second game hand wasn’t much to write home about either. This was probably a bad matchup for Paul, contrary to popular belief, and it goes a bit deeper than side-deck issues. When we move to the Finals you can see that Jupiter didn’t even have to use any of the Gladiator Beast Fusions to take the win from Teleport Dark Armed. To me this says that something is wrong with the Teleport Dark Armed build and its supposed strength against the Gladiator Beasts.
Further Analysis
In the case of Gladiator versus Teleport Dark Armed, you have pure control pitted against aggro-control respectively. Solemn Judgment and Gladiator Beast War Chariot are deadly negation cards, the latter being worse. Negating specific effects gives the Gladiator player more freedom with his or her plays and defensive setup. Solemn Judgment is a staple in Gladiator deck design, but War Chariot adds to the 
deck’s potency. The addition of Neo-Spacian Grand Mole and D.D. Warrior Lady shows that Gladiator players were expecting Synchro monsters to be widely represented in any deck that could fit them. Grand Mole is especially wonderful at taking down Stardust and Goyo. D.D. Crow (another anti-graveyard staple) in the Gladiator lists is another sign of anticipating the potential negative impact of Malicious and other Dark monsters on Gladiator lists. Book of Moon is a crafty pick to counter large Synchros and the likes of Dark Armed Dragon.
When comparing a "big turn" from Gladiators with a "big turn" from Teleport Dark Armed, I’ve found that Gladiators have an easy time recovering from a Synchro + Dark Armed Dragon rush. If the rush consists of Goyo + Dark Armed, then all it takes to recover is Test Tiger + Elemental Hero Prisma/Gladiator combo to level the playing field with Gyzarus and wrap it up with Heraklinos (assuming you have the Bestiari in the graveyard and the opponent doesn’t have Solemn Judgment). The expended cards end up being positive for you when every card gets cycled from the deck. The Teleport Dark Armed player has to commit more cards to the process but the cost ends up being the same as with Gladiators: it’s either neutral or a gain. I find it amazing that both decks can pull off such substantial plays with next to no cost.
My main critique of Teleport Dark Armed is its inability to deal with retaliations from Gladiator effectively. This was shown in the recent match coverage. While Stardust + Dark Armed Dragon + Solemn face down is the ideal setup, it’s not as easy to get. The Goyo + Dark Armed Dragon play is more vulnerable to counterattack from the Gyzarus --> Heraklinos play than the Stardust + Dark Armed Dragon combo. But the Stardust + Dark Armed Dragon combo can be thwarted by a simple Book of Moon, assuming the opponent doesn’t have Solemn face down. Gladiators don’t have this counterattack issue. After the Heraklinos play, you’ve got a monster that is far more powerful than Stardust Dragon on the defensive. I don’t think it’s enough simply to negate cards that destroy. Sometimes you have to hit those cards that change the game state.
War Chariot is another one of those cards that doesn’t have the limitation of only negating cards that destroy. This game being what it is, it’s very nice to have a "free" card that negates effects. Teleport Dark Armed has to rely on effects like Krebons’s attack blocking or graveyard tricks via Malicious and Dark Armed Dragon. Dare I say it’s an unfair advantage? I’d say yes. Teleport Dark Armed’s speed, in my opinion, counts for nothing against a deck that can target what threatens it with impunity. Solemn is probably not enough and neither is Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. Like I told my friend Josh Graham with respect to the format, "my money is on Gladiators."
As for the Lightsworn crowd, the lack of representation in the Top 16 could be misleading. According to the reports I hear from the recent post-September 1st Miami Regional Qualifier it was, as my friend Andre Correa puts it, "Lightsworn City." And whatever happened to Zombies? Mezuki should be a blessing to the archetype despite Card of Safe Return being Semi-Limited. That may have been an under-representation issue as well. Future events may show otherwise. The next event we have to look forward to is SJC Tulsa. I’m eagerly anticipating the results.
Until next time, remember to stay focused and have fun!
—Bryan Camareno