Who knew when Gladiator Beasts were first released that they would be the deck to break the back of Dark Armed Dragon? While it’s true that the mid-format Advanced list changes had a lot to do with it, there’s no doubt that Gladiator Beasts have been improved consistently since Gladiator’s Assault, as newer sets have introduced much better support. Gladiator Beast Darius in Phantom Darkness and Gladiator Beast Gyzarus only recently in Light of Destruction are the cards that have pushed this deck over the top. Today I’m going to introduce two new support cards for Gladiator Beasts. You’ll be able to get them at your local Sneak Preview for The Duelist Genesis.

If you keep up with the Japanese metagame you’ll already know what my two preview cards do. If you don’t know what Gladiator Beast Equeste and Gladiator Beast War Chariot do yet, get ready to be amazed:

Gladiator Beast Equeste

Winged Beast / Effect
Wind Level 4
1600 / 1200

When this card is special summoned by the effect of a "Gladiator Beast" monster, take a "Gladiator Beast" card from your graveyard to your hand. At the end of the battle phase, if this card attacked or was attacked, you can return it to the deck to special summon a "Gladiator Beast" monster from your deck, except "Gladiator Beast Equeste".

So Gladiator Beasts have basically been given the answer to everything scary in the current format in the form of Gladiator Beast War Chariot. In addition, they’ve also been given an easy means to return the War Chariot to your hand in Gladiator Beast Equeste. Yes that’s right: Equeste’s effect is not limited to monster retrieval only. Any card that says "Gladiator Beast" in its name is fair game.

That opens up a lot of possibilities for new ways to build and play Gladiator Beasts. The equip spells Gladiator Beasts have to offer aren’t bad, and Gladiator Beast Spartacus is pretty cool. Gladiator Beast's Respite can take care of those times when you draw Spartacus and can always be made playable thanks to Equeste. Grabbing up a fallen Gladiator Beast Murmillo or previously used Gladiator Beast’s Respite will let you return those cards to your deck, trading them for more cards in the process.

Gladiator Beast’s Respite may really see a rise in competitive play. Drawing copies of Gladiator Beast Murmillo and Gladiator Beast Secutor without Test Tiger makes it much harder to make safe plays (not to mention the fact that Secutor in particular needs to be special summoned from the deck since it can’t tag out from the field). Respite is a good way to refresh your hand and turn bad cards into better cards. Equeste makes it playable.

Gladiator Beast Equeste is amazingly good. For a long time Gladiator Beast Laquari was without a good tag-out buddy. Unless your opponent had a set spell or trap card that he or she couldn’t activate for some reason, swapping Laquari out for anyone else just gave your opponent the means to destroy the new monster in battle. Now you’ve got something to tag out for. Equeste can be dropped any time you’ve got a Gladiator Beast card in your graveyard. Early game you can feed the graveyard with fallen monsters or discarded Gladiator Beast cards. You probably want to keep copies of Laquari and Bestiari in your graveyard for Darius to return, but Murmillo and Secutor aren’t of much use there.

But the grand prize is returning Gladiator Beast War Chariot. The War Chariot is going to tear through the current metagame like a sword through cloth. The entire game is based around monster effects and negating them with your response cards. Pretty much all of your deck is designed to take advantage of your own Gladiator Beast Heraklinos and Gladiator Beast Gyzarus while stopping your opponent’s Dark Armed Dragon, Judgment Dragon, or Gladiator Beast Fusions.

Think about everything that the War Chariot does for Gladiator Beasts. After big turns, Gladiators are always left with either Gladiator Beast Heraklinos or some combination of Gladiators on the field, usually two pumped-up copies of Gladiator Beast Laquari. The only really good way to tackle this field is with monster effects, namely Dark Armed Dragon, Destiny Hero - Plasma, Judgment Dragon, Celestia, Lightsworn Angel, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, Test Tiger, Rescue Cat, and Prime Material Dragon. That’s a short list of the top decks’ best answer cards to your field. Each one is stopped and destroyed with the Chariot, just one simple trap card.

Now consider what this means for the deck. Your opponent was just stopped in his or her tracks and you’ve got two copies of Laquari. So you swing with both next turn and special summon a pair of Equeste cards, returning Gladiator Beast War Chariot and Gladiator Beast Bestiari to your hand. Now you’re set up to stop your opponent’s monster next turn and you’ve got Gyzarus ready to go once your turn rolls around.

That’s just one of many possible devastating scenarios this deck can now create. The War Chariot is only going to add to the list of annoyingly strong traps this deck plays, and it gives an added amount of safety for playing Gladiator Beast Heraklinos to boot. At the same time, it’s the Gladiator Beasts’ best answer for Heraklinos. The spell speed 3 factor means that the only real answer to War Chariot is Solemn Judgment. But forcing your opponent to play Solemn first allows you to negate his or her Solemn with your own, on your turn, meaning that you can cause damage and hopefully win the game. Being spell speed 3 also comes in handy because your opponent can’t chain Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and other such tricky cards to take away your Gladiator Beast.

Everyone is going to want to get their hands on Gladiator Beast War Chariot and Gladiator Beast Equeste as soon as they come out at the Sneak Previews, and for good reason.  This type of support is going to make Gladiator Beasts that much harder to stop.