Gladiator Beast Claudius – #SUDA-EN038
5 “Gladiator Beast” monsters
Must first be Special Summoned (from your Extra Deck) by shuffling the above cards from your field and/or GY into the Deck/Extra Deck. If Summoned this way: You can conduct your next Battle Phase twice. Once per turn, if your opponent activates a monster effect (except during the Damage Step): You can activate the following effect depending on whose turn it is;
● Yours: Special Summon 1 “Gladiator Beast” monster from your Deck.
● Opponent’s: Special Summon 1 Level 11 or lower “Gladiator Beast” monster from your Extra Deck, ignoring its Summoning conditions.
Date Reviewed: March 14th, 2025
Rating: 4.13
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,
Gladiator Beast Claudius is the newest Fusion Monster for the Gladiator Beast archetype and wraps up our look at the old archetype.
Contact Fusion like all Gladiator Beast Fusion Monsters, except Claudius will cycle them from the field or the grave back to the Deck or Extra Deck. Needing five is a high price, especially for an archetype that cycles back to the Deck, but you have Link Monsters now that are useful to the archetype as well as two dedicated Link Monsters.
When you summon Claudius he will give you a second Battle Phase, and with 3700ATK and potential for a direct attack, Claudius is going to deal some good damage. While it won’t get the double Battle Phase after that, its effect to Special Summon a Gladiator Beast in response to a monster effect activation makes up for that.
As for that effect, it happens in response to a monster effect. It won’t negate or destroy the monster activating the effect (a negative), but depending on the turn, it can be a tremendous advantage for you. If it is your turn, you get another Gladiator Beast monster from the Deck. In this scenario you can recoup a loss or get in another attack. When summoned, it is summoned by a Gladiator Beast effect, which triggers their effect if they have one. Murmillo, Bestiari come to mind, Darius can get back something from the grave, Secutor will be able to summon two Gladiator Beast monsters if you can land a direct attack with him, and Sagittarii can do its discard to draw two. Maintaining field presence is key for GB’s and getting a fresh attacker will only help to get more GB’s to the field.
If it is your opponent’s turn it is arguably better. Special Summoning a Level 11 or lower GB Fusion is amazing. Ignoring the summoning requirements only adds to the advantage you’ll gain. Gyzarus will take out two cards off of Claudius summoning it, but even more you can summon Tamer Editor to Special Summon another GB Fusion Monster (ignoring the Summoning Conditions like Claudius does), or summon Domitianus for a big attacker that also has monster negation and destruction each turn. If your opponent takes away resources then Gyzarus may be the best choice, but most of the time you’ll activate Claudius off the first monster effect your opponent activates to bring out Domitianus for negation and have a 3700ATK Claudius and 3200ATK Domitianus on board. It is great that Claudius can help you play through hand traps on your turn or recoup after something on field may take away a GB of yours.
Arguably the Fusion Summon is best, especially if you went first and ended on Claudius. Being able to have an extra way to get out a GB helps push for more damage which then leads to more Gladiator Beasts. Easier to summon than Tamer Editor who needs your Level 5 or higher GB’s, but does the same thing Tamer Editor can do. GB’s needed a Fusion Monster that could grant them advantage on every turn and while there’s no negation or destruction power, Claudius can get you those monsters that can do that.
Advanced- 4/5 Art- 4.5/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
We end this week off with the new ultimate boss monster of the Gladiator Beast archetype: Gladiator Beast Claudius.
Claudius is a Level 12 DARK Beast Fusion with 3700 ATK and 2600 DEF. Strong stats, DARK is great, and Beast is good. The Fusion Materials are 5 Gladiator Beast monsters and must first be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck by shuffling the above materials from your field and/or graveyard into the Deck or Extra Deck. Thankfully this lets you use your graveyard for the materials to summon this because otherwise 5 Gladiator Beasts monsters on the field you’d want to use to summon this will rarely happen. If summoned that way, you can conduct your next Battle Phase twice, which might be the first relevant card to do this, though it’ll likely be overkill if you get to summon this after a modern Gladiator Beast combo. Once per turn, if the opponent activates a monster effect, you can activate an effect based on whose turn it is with your turn letting you summon any Gladiator Beast from your Deck and the opponent’s turn letting you summon a Level 11 or lower Gladiator Beast from your Extra Deck, ignoring summoning conditions. The option for your turn can be useful to help remove some of the opponent’s cards by summoning Bestiari or Murmillo or potentially get more combo going with other names like Equeste or Darius. The effect on the opponent’s turn can get you Domitianus for a monster effect negate or Heraklinos for some Spell/Trap negation based on the number of cards in your hand. Thankfully this should activate on a new chain after the opponent’s effect resolved, so you can avoid Gyzarus missing the timing as well. It’s certainly a boss monster for Gladiator Beasts. It doesn’t have a negate itself, mostly due to other Gladiator Beast Fusions having the negates on them. It’d be nice if it had protection, but you shouldn’t lose much since you can use your graveyard to get to this. You can also use other copies of itself to summon itself, so 2 is basically an infinite loop as long as you can keep providing 4 other Gladiator Beasts. A strong modern boss monster for the Deck to have.
Advanced Rating: 4/5
Art: 4/5 Can you spot a piece of your favorite Gladiator Beast?
Mighty
Vee
Only vaguely related to a certain blonde Roman emperor, our final card of the week is the new boss monster of the Gladiator Beast archetype, Gladiator Beast Claudius. It’s a level 12 DARK Beast Fusion monster and requires a hefty 5 Gladiator Beast monsters as material, though thankfully it’s much easier to summon than it looks. Fitting for a new final boss monster, Claudius comes with an excellent stat spread of 3700 attack and 2600 defense, eclipsing many fellow boss monsters.
Claudius is yet another monster joining the Graveyard Fusion train– it must first be Special Summoned through its own condition, requiring you to shuffle the materials from among your field like other Gladiator Beast Fusions, but Claudius can also shuffle from the Graveyard. With Gladiator Beast’s incredible combo tools, it’s not too difficult to end with 5 Gladiator Beasts in your Graveyard, especially as you continuously use them as Link fodder and send them to the Graveyard with Gladiator Beast Noxious and Gladiator Beast Attorix. After being summoned through its own condition, Claudius’s first effect triggers, letting you conduct your next Battle Phase twice. It ties neatly into the Gladiator Beast gimmick and helps set up some funny plays (like taking advantage of Gladiator Beast Gistel’s otherwise mediocre battle effect), but more the most part this will almost guarantee an OTK when your turn rolls back around between Claudius and your other boss monsters’ amazing attack stats. Claudius’s other effect is soft once per turn and is its main meat (as well as its main downfall), triggering when your opponent activates a monster effect to do 1 of 2 things, depending on whose turn it is. On your turn, it’ll let you Special Summon any Gladiator Beast from your deck, while on your opponent’s turn, it’ll instead let you Special Summon a level 11 or lower Gladiator Beast Fusion monster (so not another Claudius) from your Extra Deck, once again ignoring summoning conditions. The effect on your turn is fine enough, but not super relevant outside of meme plays with cards like Ken the Warrior Dragon; by the time you summon Claudius, your combo should be just about wrapped up, so it won’t do too much other than get another body, though at least Gladiator Beast Augustus is another monster with high stats you can plop on the board if your opponent decides to trigger Claudius at the end of your combo for some reason. On the flipside, your opponent will likely think twice about using a monster effect on their turn; between Gladiator Beast Dominatus and Heraklinos, they’ll be stuck between a rock and a hard place, even moreso if your endboard is flanked by Gladiator Beast War Chariot. Plus, like we mentioned yesterday, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus can provide a double pop, as if you didn’t need enough with Gladiator Beast Charge. That brings us to just about Claudius’s only weakness: being quite weak to boardbreakers, an awfully common trend among newer boss monsters. Ideally you’d summon Heraklinos during your own turn to save Claudius’s cheat for Dominatus or Gyzarus, but in a jam, I’d prioritize Heraklinos for the backrow negate. Overall, Claudius is still an excellent monster to summon at the end of your combo to recycle resources and get a big body with some additional disruption.
+Excellent stats and provides versatile disruption through either negates or destruction
+Deceptively easy to summon and recycles resources
-Reliant on your opponent using monster effects to be useful
-Difficult to take advantage of the effect on your turn
Advanced: 4.25/5
Art: 3.5/5 I like a fusion of every Gladiator Beast in concept, though in practice it’s a bit funky…
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