While many Duelists are flocking over to the newest Decks made viable by The Shining Darkness, including X-Sabers and Infernities, others have instead chosen to re-innovate with older Decks that can defeat them. Roy St. Clair, the first player ever to make it to the Top 4 of a championship level tournament with X-Sabers, has now switched over to Gladiator Beasts, just as X-Sabers are seeing the most play. St. Clair knows that Duelists will be less prepared to play against Gladiator Beasts, now that X-Sabers are more popular, and he plans to use that to his advantage.

Monsters: 16

3 Test Tiger

2 D.D. Crow

2 Gladiator Beast Laquari

2 Gladiator Beast Equeste

1 Gladiator Best Bestiari

1 Gladiator Beast Darius

1 Gladiator Beast Murmillo

1 Gladiator Beast Retiari

1 Gladiator Beast Samnite

1 Gladiator Best Secutor

1 Rescue Cat

Spells: 9

3 Book of Moon

2 Gladiator Proving Ground

2 Shrink

1 Dimensional Fissure

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 16

1 Solemn Judgment

1 Mirror Force

1 Starlight Road

3 Waboku

1 Defensive Tactics

2 Dust Tornado

2 Trap Stun

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

3 Gladiator Beast War Chariot

St. Clair’s Gladiator Beast Deck is built unlike any other, and is specifically designed to counter the most popular Decks being used today. He has a standard Gladiator Beast lineup that gives him access to a variety of effects whenever a monster is tagged in. This includes the ability to destroy a face-up monster, remove a card from his opponent’s Graveyard, add a Gladiator Beast Card from his Graveyard to his hand, Special Summon a Gladiator Beast from his Graveyard, and destroy his opponent’s Set Spell and Trap Cards. The key ability of a Gladiator Beast Deck is to use whichever of these abilities they need at the time. All they need to do is attack first, and have their monster survive.

St. Clair’s Deck is well-built to handle whatever his opponents may throw at him. But the Gladiator Beast most crucial to his Deck’s success may be the smallest one of them all: Gladiator Beast Secutor. When St. Clair manages to tag in a Gladiator Beast Secutor and send it into a battle it will survive, he can recruit 2 more Gladiator Beasts from his Deck, while keeping Secutor on the field. Taking Gladiator Beast Laquari and another Gladiator Beast from his Deck allows him to fuse all 3 of his monsters together to Fusion Summon Gladiator Beast Heraklinos. Once Heraklinos hits the field, St. Clair can negate all of his opponent’s Spell and Trap Cards. Combined with the power of Gladiator Beast War Chariot to negate his opponent’s monster effects, St. Clair can render his opponent incapable of making any successful plays. St. Clair uses Book of Moon in his Deck to enable his tagged in Secutor to make attacks and survive, as well as Waboku and Defensive Tactics to protect it in battle on either player’s turn. This lets him trigger Secutor’s effect much more easily than most other Gladiator Beast Duelists.

Speaking of Gladiator Beast War Chariot, St. Clair is running 3 copies to negate his opponent’s monster effects. This is a powerful card against all of the top Decks, including Infernity, X-Saber, Herald, and Quickdraw Decks. By recycling it with Gladiator Beast Equeste, St. Clair can control a Duel early on. Against X-Saber Decks, for instance, St. Clair can attack his opponent’s XX-Saber Emmersblade or XX-Saber Darksoul with a Gladiator Beast and negate its effect with Chariot. Then he can tag-out for Gladiator Beast Equeste, return the Chariot to his hand, and Set it to the field to lock down his opponent’s plays. This is an easy opening for St. Clair to pull off, and allows him to deny all of his opponents the opportunity to set up their Decks’ biggest plays. Gladiator Beast War Chariot can also take down Herald of Perfection without a hitch, whenever it activates its effect. Since Gladiator Beast War Chariot is a counter trap, Herald of Perfection can’t negate it. Chariot also negates Dandylion, Drill Warrior, Synchron Explorer, and other crucial monster effects in Quickdraw Decks.

But a lot of what makes St. Clair’s Deck stand out are the non-Gladiator Beast cards that he’s running. He’s Main Decking 2 copies of D.D. Crow to stop Infernity Duelists from activating the effects of Infernity Mirage or Infernity Launcher, as well as X-Saber Duelists using Gottoms’ Emergency Call and XX-Saber Faultroll. If St. Clair’s opponent tries to Special Summon 2 Infernities from the Graveyard with Infernity Mirage or Infernity Launcher and he chains D.D. Crow to remove one of them, his opponent will still be able to Special Summon the other one, but often remain unable to pull off any combos with just 1 monster.

When St. Clair chains D.D. Crow to one of his opponent’s targets for Gottoms’ Emergency Call, Gottoms’ Emergency Call isn’t able to resolve, and won’t Special Summon any X-Sabers at all. This can be a powerful move that changes the tide of a Duel. Removing a Tuner like XX-Saber Fulhelmknight or X-Saber Airbellum from the Graveyard when his opponent tries to bring it back with XX-Saber Faultroll can also disrupt the flow of his opponent’s turn and leave his opponent with no Tuners to help capitalize on a field full of monsters.

St. Clair is also using 1 copy of Dimensional Fissure in his Deck. St. Clair’s Deck doesn’t depend on Dimensional Fissure, but drawing it can really shut down his opponents’ options. As long as Dimensional Fissure is on the field, his opponent can’t build up a Graveyard to use with Infernity Launcher, Infernity Mirage, Gottoms’ Emergency Call, or XX-Saber Faultroll. He also can’t activate the effects of cards like Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow, Rescue Cat, and Honest. By running just a single copy, St. Clair doesn’t run the risk of drawing multiples while he only needs to keep one on the field.

Other cards in St. Clair’s Spell lineup include 3 copies of Book of Moon and 2 copies of Shrink, which protect his Gladiator Beasts from his opponent’s attacks, or lead his Gladiators into winning battles so they can tag out. He’s also running 2 copies of Gladiator Proving Ground, which lets him search his Deck for any Gladiator Beast monster he needs in a pinch, including an 1800 ATK Laquari or a Gladiator Beast Bestiari he can use to fuse with another Gladiator Beast to Summon Gladiator Beast Gyzarus. With 3 copies of Waboku and even a copy of Defensive Tactics in his Deck, St. Clair has no trouble keeping a Gladiator Beast on the field at the start of each turn. This easily lets him Summon a second Gladiator Beast, which sets him up to quickly fuse for Gyzarus, even without running Elemental Hero Prisma in his Deck.

St. Clair is also running 2 copies of Bottomless Trap Hole and a copy of Mirror Force to protect his monsters, as well as Dust Tornado, Trap Stun, and Mystical Space Typhoon to negate or destroy his opponent’s Spell and Trap Cards. Solemn Judgment and Starlight Road give St. Clair extra protection from whatever his other cards can’t handle.

St. Clair also chose to include Rescue Cat in his Gladiator Beast Deck, a card that some Gladiator Beast players don’t use. He can Tribute Rescue Cat to Special Summon Test Tiger and Gladiator Beast Samnite from his Deck. Then, he can Tribute Test Tiger to send Samnite back to his Deck and tag in any Gladiator Beast monster in its place. This includes the Gladiator Beast Secutor that this Deck so heavily relies on.

St. Clair’s Deck was specifically designed to take down all of the Decks rising fastest in popularity, and he’s well equipped to defeat them all. “I just hope I don’t play against a lot of Blackwing Decks,” St. Clair said. He built his Deck with the top Decks in mind, and chose to sacrifice some of his strength in the Blackwing matchup to do so. These are the tough Deck building decisions that must be made to succeed in high-level tournaments. Soon, we’ll see if St. Clair’s gamble will pay off.