Gladiator Beast Gistel – #SUDA-EN017
At the end of the Battle Phase, if this card battled: You can shuffle this card into the Deck; Special Summon 1 “Gladiator Beast” monster from your Deck, except “Gladiator Beast Gistel”. You can only use each of the following effects of “Gladiator Beast Gistel” once per turn. You can reveal this card and 1 “Gladiator Beast” monster in your hand; Special Summon both. If this card is Special Summoned by the effect of a “Gladiator Beast” monster: You can add 1 “Gladiator” Spell/Trap from your Deck to your hand.
Date Reviewed: March 10th, 2025
Rating: 4.0
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
Crunch$G
This week is some legacy support for one of the earliest competitive archetypes in this game, Gladiator Beasts, which I’ve loved since their release 18 years ago (feeling old, yet?). This week, We’ll start with a new way to trigger your Gladiator Beast effects and get bodies on the field: Gladiator Beast Gistel.
Gistel is a Level 3 EARTH Beast with 1200 ATK and 2000 DEF. Fine stats for a Level 3 monster, EARTH is solid, and Beast gives the Deck a new Gladiator Beast target for Rescue Cat that isn’t named Samnite. The first effect is the old Gladiator Beast effect we are used to, where if this card battled this turn, then during the end of the Battle Phase you get to shuffle this back into the Deck to summon a Gladiator Beast from your Deck that isn’t another copy of itself, which is good that this remains after so long for theming sake. The remaining effects are each a HOPT since this is a modern card. The first effect lets you reveal this card and another Gladiator Beast monster in your hand to Special Summon both. Instant 2 bodies on the field and most to all the Gladiator Beasts have effects that trigger when you summon them off the effect of Gladiator Beast monsters, so this will trigger those effects without specifically having to rely on the Battle Phase effect. The other effect triggers if this is summoned by the effect of a Gladiator Beast monster, which does include itself, letting you search for any Gladiator Spell/Trap from the Deck. Cool to have a searchable way for cards like Gladiator Proving Ground and Gladiator Rejection now as well as more ways to get to Gladiator Beast War Chariot, Gladiator Beast Charge, and Gladiator Beast’s Comeback. You also got a new Field Spell this card can search, so that’s another positive. It’s a modern Gladiator Beast for sure, the Battle Phase stuff is still there, but its no longer the only way to summon Gladiator Beasts via the effects of other Gladiator Beasts. The effect this gets for summoning it via a Gladiator Beast effect is great as well, especially considering it can trigger that effect by itself as long as you have another Gladiator Beast in your hand. Great support piece.
Advanced Rating: 4/5
Art: 4/5 Actually looks like he’s wearing an army outfit.
Mighty
Vee
Last set’s blast from the past was Merlantean, and this set’s blast from the past is none other than Gladiator Beast, which serves as our first non-anime week for Supreme Darkness. Though it was before my time, Gladiator Beast was a fan-favorite archetype, and while it hasn’t quite had the same smashing success, it’s nice to see it get some love again. Gladiator Beast Gistel is up first, a level 3 EARTH Beast monster– pretty normal for a Gladiator Beast. There’s no end of ways to access Gistel, but the main ways you’ll want to get to it are Gladiator Proving Ground or Test Panther, plus another card we’ll get to later this week, Flavian – Colosseum of the Gladiator Beasts. Depressingly, it doesn’t have the best attack stat, with only 1200 attack, though at least it has a much more impressive 2000 defense (not that it’ll matter).
Gistel comes with a whopping 3 effects, with the first one not being once per turn while the other 2 are hard once per turn. The first effect triggers at the end of the Battle Phase if it battled, letting you shuffle it into the deck to Special Summon any Gladiator Beast from your deck, except another Gistel of course. You’d think this would be decent considering Gladiator Beast’s gimmick, but with Gistel’s horrid attack stat for battling, you probably won’t be seeing this too often, plus Gladiator Beast already has ample combo potential. That brings us to Gistel’s other 2 effects, which are both considerably more useful. Gistel’s second effect lets you reveal it and any other Gladiator Beast in your hand and Special Summon both of them. This alone makes Gistel a great 2 card combo piece, since you’ll be able to immediately go into Test Panther. Speaking of Test, that also is a tragic downside to this card, as it does mean you have to plan combo routes around Test Bear and Test Tiger. Why is Gladiator Beast like this? On a brighter note, Gistel’s final effect is its obligatory effect that triggers when summoned by a Gladiator Beast monster’s effect (including, of course, itself!), simply searching any Gladiator Beast Spell or Trap. If you didn’t already use it to search Gistel, you’ll almost always be searching Flavian, because it’ll search another Gladiator Beast and get you more disruption later down the line. Otherwise, you’ll probably be searching Gladiator Beast’s Comeback for another extender or either of their disruptive Traps (Gladiator Beast Charge or Gladiator Beast War Chariot) since both are very good and Flavian can only access one of them, after all. Fantastic monster for Gladiator Beast overall; it’s only really held back by the weird intricacies of Gladiator Beast itself, but even then it’s absolutely worth running at 3.
+Excellent 2 card combo starter that accesses powerful backrow
+Versatile as a combo piece thanks to Gladiator Beast’s aggressive searching
-Not as good if you don’t open another Gladiator Beast
-Battle effect is almost never relevant
Advanced: 4/5
Art: 3/5 Well, I give it credit for looking like an OG Gladiator Beast monster, but it still looks like an OG Gladiator Beast monster…
King of
Lullaby
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