Gladiator Beast Gyzarus – #RA03-EN198
“Gladiator Beast Bestiari” + 1 “Gladiator Beast” monster
Must first be Special Summoned (from your Extra Deck) by shuffling the above cards you control into the Deck. (You do not use “Polymerization”.) When this card is Special Summoned: You can target up to 2 cards on the field; destroy those targets. At the end of the Battle Phase, if this card battled: You can return it to the Extra Deck; Special Summon 2 “Gladiator Beast” monsters from your Deck, except “Gladiator Beast Bestiari”.
Date Reviewed: March 13th, 2025
Rating: 3.92
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 Gyzarus is our Throwback Thursday and was the main reason why this archetype was in the World Championships back in the day.
The second of GB Fusions to appear for the archetype, Gyzarus needed Bestiari and any other GB monster. Test Tiger with any GB into Secutor alongside Waboku was a drawn-out combo that worked to get two more GB out and could grant you Gyzarus or Heraklinos. You’d naturally cycle back a GB with Test Tiger back then and summon out Bestiari, pop a Spell/Trap, then contact into Gyzarus to clear up to two cards on the field. You’d likely get rid of the Mirror Force with Besti, then the monsters with Gyzarus before battling and then contacting into two different GB’s, which would hopefully leave you with another GB from a Darius off your Gyzarus and then go into Herk.
TLDR: Gyzarus was even back then easy to summon and was tremendous at getting advantage for Gladiator Beast players. Also, if you Special Summoned Gyzarus correctly the first time and it hit the graveyard, it then can be Special Summoned from there and activate its double pop effect. There are more ways to do that other than Monster Reborn. Alongside Tamer Editor, you can cheat it out with tomorrow’s CoTD: Gladiator Beast Claudius without needing any of its materials, and it is now interruption against your opponent because Claudius can happen on your opponent’s turn.
Gladiator Beasts were an okay archetype that needed support. They got it in Gyzarus and a few other cards and they did a lot with it. Variations popped up like one using Andal and Rescue Rabbit or Fire Formation variants, but it is nice to see them get some clear-cut, solid support. I think the game is too fast for them to ever be as good as they once were, but the right combination of tech and archetype support could yield a Tier 1 appearance again.
Advanced- 4/5 Art- 4/5
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby
Crunch$G
Throwback Thursday this week brings us to the card that made Gladiator Beasts one of the best Decks in the game back in 2008 and still has a place in the modern Deck: Gladiator Beast Gyzarus.
Gyzarus is a Level 6 DARK Winged Beast Fusion with 2400 ATK and 1500 DEF. Solid stats for a Level 6, DARK is great, and Winged Beast is pretty good. The Fusion Materials are Gladiator Beast Bestiari along with any other Gladiator Beast monster, which is still doable for the Deck, and this is probably why Bestiari went to 1 back in the day. It must first be Special Summoned from the Extra Deck by shuffling the above materials from your field into the Deck, no need for Polymerization, which Gladiator Beasts can still accomplish if you want to summon this properly. When this card is Special Summoned, you can target up to 2 cards on the field and destroy them. Double removal was great in 2008, and it’s still good to this very day. You’ll more likely summon this with Tamer Editor on your turn and Claudius on the opponent’s turn now than using the Fusion Materials, which is easier and will still give you the pop 2. However, it’s still worth noting that summoning this properly can let you revive it and still get the pops for reviving it. At the end of the Battle Phase where this battled, you can return it to the Extra Deck to summon 2 Gladiator Beasts from your Deck, besides Bestiari, mostly so you don’t just get the materials to summon another Gyzarus. Considering the Fusions required more resources to summon, its good when their shuffle-back effects summon more than a single Gladiator Beast. Gyzarus still has a place in the Deck, but likely not to summon it with its actual Fusion Materials. You can still do that, but you now have Fusions that can cheat this out, and even better now you can do it on the opponent’s turn. It should still have a spot in the Extra Deck for sure, destroying 2 cards will always be good.
Advanced Rating: 4/5
Art: 5/5 I always liked Bestiari in this armor.
Mighty
Vee
Throwback Thursday graces us with a classic Gladiator Beast Fusion, Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, a level 6 DARK Winged Beast Fusion monster. It’ll take the formerly Limited Gladiator Beast Bestiari and any Gladiator Beast, summoned with the typical Gladiator Beast contact Fusion by shuffling the materials into the deck. Gyzarus’s stats are pretty standard for a level 6 Fusion, with 2400 attack and 1500 defense, but if you traveled back in time, you’d quickly find out the stats will be the least of your worries.
As with most Gladiator Beast Fusions, Gyzarus must first be summoned through its own contact Fusion, though that is now much easier thanks to Gladiator Beast Tamer Editor. Gyzarus comes with two non-once per turn effects, though that wasn’t why it was considered a menace; the first effect triggers if it’s Special Summoned, simply letting you target and destroy any 2 cards on the field. In modern times, this is already a decent boardbreaker, and the new Gladiator Beast boss monster can even turn it into a disruption. In ancient times, a double pop that took comparatively low investment was incredibly strong (after all, Dark Armed Dragon was still considered an infamous card) considering all you needed to do was field Bestiari and any other Gladiator Beast. The cherry on top is Gyzarus’s other effect, triggering at the end of the Battle Phase if Gyzarus battled to let you return it to the Extra Deck and Special Summon any 2 Gladiator Beast monsters from your Extra Deck except Bestiari, which frankly would’ve driven people even more bananas than Gyzarus already did. This effect would be able to field Gladiator Beast Lacqueri and help set up the summon of Gladiator Beast Heraklinos for the opponent’s turn, so not only would they likely lose 2 cards, they’d also have to deal with a backrow negate afterward, stopping boardbreakers that would otherwise turn the tide. While Gyzarus was never directly hit, Bestiari would instead take the fall and be Limited for 6 years, oddly enough, long after Gladiator Beast’s prime. Nowadays, Gyzarus is more comparable to monsters like Destiny HERO Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer as a constant pop that can be summoned over and over again– cards that are much more lethal in slower formats, but end up being par for course in the modern age. It’s still seeing play though! As mentioned, the deck’s new boss monster can cheat it out during your opponent’s turn as a disruption if you don’t need any other Gladiator Beast bosses, and you can still make it the old fashioned way as a boardbreaker. A true mark of a timeless card, you’ll still play 1.
+Strong double pop that can be used for boardbreaking or disruption
+Can help set up follow-up plays after tagging out
-Competes with other Gladiator Beast Fusions for being cheated out by Gladiator Beast Claudius
-Tag out effect is less relevant with stronger combo tools
Advanced: 3.75/5
Art: 3.5/5 Way better than the original Bestiari art, though it’s definitely a product of its time. It almost looks like the “mom says it’s my turn on the Xbox” meme.
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