Test Bear – #SUDA-EN018
If you control a “Gladiator Beast” monster Special Summoned from the Deck/Extra Deck, you can Special Summon this card (from your hand). You can only Special Summon “Test Bear” once per turn this way. You can Tribute this card, then shuffle 1 “Gladiator Beast” monster from your hand or face-up field into the Deck/Extra Deck; Special Summon up to 2 “Gladiator Beast” monsters from your Deck. (This is treated as a Special Summon by a “Gladiator Beast” monster’s effect.) You can only use this effect of “Test Bear” once per turn.
Date Reviewed: March 11th, 2025
Rating: 3.83
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is awful. 3 is average. 5 is excellent.
Reviews Below:
King of
Lullaby
Hello Pojo Fans,
Test Bear is attempting to power creep Test Tiger out of the GB archetype.
Like Test Tiger, Test Bear can Special Summon itself if you control a Gladiator Beast, however, that GB needs to be summoned from the Deck or Extra Deck. A little less convenient than Test Tiger, but its effect one-ups Test Tiger to even things out. Tribute Test Bear and shuffle back your GB on-field or in hand for a double GB summon from the Deck. In hand helps swap back GB’s that aren’t useful at the moment or puts back one you want to summon (Bestiari) On top of that, you can cycle back a GB that is being negated for one that isn’t.
Test Bear with a GB in hand is an auto-Gyzarus, either of your GB Link Monsters, or Heraklinos (if Darius can summon from the grave). Sagittarii off of Test Bear will discard a GB card to draw two for you, Attorix Foolish Burial’s a GB monster which sets up Darius, Gistel is your GB Spell/Trap search off Test Bear (getting War Chariot, Comeback, Charge, or Proving Ground or Flavian). While Test Tiger allowed you to summon a GB from hand and trade it for something better, Test Bear does more with the new support as long as you can get something from the Deck or Extra Deck in the same turn.
Speed was lacking in the Gladiator Beast archetype, and for an archetype that depended on attacking the opponent, that hurt them as the card pool grew. With quicker ways to get to their bigger monsters, as well as a way to cheat their best two monsters out, speed isn’t the biggest concern now for Gladiator Beasts. Test Bear does power creep out Test Tiger…happens to the best of cards.
Advanced- 4/5 Art- 4/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
We had Test Tiger from the initial release of Gladiator Beasts, legacy support from 2019 gave us Test Panther, and now we have Test Bear.
Test Bear is a Level 4 EARTH Beast with 900 ATK and 600 DEF. Low stats for a Level 4, but an EARTH Beast is good. If you control a Gladiator Beast that was Special Summoned from the Deck or Extra Deck, you can Special Summon this from the hand. So you’d have to rely on the Battle Phase effects of Gladiator Beasts for a monster summoned from the Deck, or you have the old Test Tiger. The Deck at least has enough extension options to get bodies on the field for their Fusions or Links, so that’ll likely be easier to accomplish turn 1. You can only summon it once per turn this way, of course. You can also tribute this card and shuffle a Gladiator Beast from your hand or face-up field into the Deck or Extra Deck to summon up to 2 Gladiator Beasts from the Deck that’ll be treated as if they were summoned by the effect of a Gladiator Beast. The last part being there is for sure needed so you can use the effects of your Gladiator Beasts. Equeste gives solid recovery, Darius can revive a monster, Attorix is basically an E-HERO Prisma on summon, and you still got removal with Bestiari and Murmillo, not to mention Gistel from yesterday. HOPT on this effect as well, to prevent the swarming of too many Gladiator Beasts. Test Bear is weaker than Tiger with his Special Summon from hand effect, but better since it can summon 2 Gladiator Beasts instead of a single one. It’s a fine Normal Summon to get the effect if you can’t Special Summon it and have a Gladiator Beast in hand, but not being a Gladiator Beast makes it a bit of a brick when you want to draw Gistel and another name. Still a staple for the Deck at least.
Advanced Rating: 3.75/5
Art: 4/5 It’s a bear with the classic Roman Colosseum getup, so it’s on theme.
Mighty
Vee
The Test mini-series gets yet another monster with Test Bear, a level 4 EARTH Beast monster. It has the same unfortunate circumstances as the other Test monsters, as not being a Gladiator Beast by name makes it practically unsearchable unless you do something silly with Tri-Brigade or Melffy hybrids. Test Bear has an uncomfortably low stat spread of only 600 attack and 900 defense, though unlike Gladiator Beast Gistel, it’s a Test monster so I wouldn’t expect it to be battling anyway.
Following in the footsteps of Test Tiger, Test Bear can Special Summon itself from your hand once per turn as long as you control a Gladiator Beast Special Summoned from the deck or Extra Deck. This is part of the reason why new builds are cutting Tiger and playing the Primite engine for access to Gladiator Beast Andal– you really want to summon Test Bear for free to save your Normal Summon. It’s a bit more restrictive than Test Tiger, but its other effect is absolutely worth it. On a hard once per turn, you can tribute Test Bear and shuffle a Gladiator Beast from your hand or field into the deck to Special Summon 2 Gladiator Beasts from your deck, naturally treating it as a Special Summon by a Gladiator Beast effect. There’s no shortage of excellent Gladiator Beast monsters to choose from, so just pick what you need for the combo; it’s hard to go wrong with Gladiator Beast Darius and Attorix. As a bonus, this’ll put one-of Gladiator Beasts that you don’t want in your hand back in the deck (like, say, Darius), or in some combo lines put Gladiator Beast Tamer Editor back in the Extra Deck to use its soft once per turn effect again later. Test Bear is a great card, but like Gistel, is strongest as a 2-card combo starter, which means you’re encouraged to run more Gladiator Beast names and less Test Tigers. I’d still recommend playing 3!
+Incredible extender that can fix combos
+Puts unwanted Gladiator Beasts back into the deck
-Can be a brick in some hands
-Unsearchable due to lacking the Gladiator Beast name
Advanced: 3.75/5
Art: 3/5 Well, at least the Gladiator Beast jewels are fairly obvious.
Visit the Card of the Day Archive! Click here to read over 5,000 more Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards of the Day!
We would love more volunteers to help us with our YuGiOh Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We would be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
