What If...... Gladiator Beasts 2010 (in 2022)

 Welcome to our first post regarding our Series What If.....

Lets set up some ground rules, we are going to pretend that Yu-Gi-Oh maintained the standard rules of 2010 Edison.

No XYZ's and beyond, no real dependence on Hand Traps and minor ability to over extend to create unbreakable boards.

We will also take some liberties with the Ban Lists, please take all these builds with a grain of salt.

We would love any thoughts and feedback, with the intention to create multiple decks from these era's to eventually battle them out to see how they work.

Here is the first build.

Before you over analyze, remember that we are avoiding newer game mechanics, No Links. 

Lets put some focus on what the deck does, and how it does it.

Back in 2011 Bestiari was limited to 1, because of the overwhelming power of Gyzarus. 

In this build we also focus out attention on Gyzarus, not just to pop 2 cards but to tag out into 2 level 5 or higher GB's to Contact Fusion into Tamer Editor. 

Elemental Hero Prisma puts in tons of work in this deck, it combos with Test Tiger like in the past, but now we have a Monster Reborn (Gladiator Beast's Comeback) which when played after Prisma Dumps Bestiari into the Grave to create Gyzarus.

Gladiator Beast United is a card I am obsessed with and wish worked in Modern Yu-Gi-Oh but it is a little too slow and specific however in the past having a Quick Play fusion summon that utilized the grave would have been insane, combo again with Prisma to Dump Bestiari enter the battle phase swing, chain, or just go into Pop-2. 

2 more points to focus on, Fusion Deployment which again I wish worked in Modern Yu-Gi-Oh, but locking you into only Fusion Monsters is a real drag, however in this deck it doesn't matter Over Extensions aren't a priority and we can combo Deployment with Gladiator Rejection to special summon our Friend Bestiari and another GB to make Gyzarus or if we are feeling fun we can bring out 1 of our level 8's with Deployment and the other level 5 or higher off Rejection to go straight into Tamer Editor. 

The plays are endless, for our last discussion lets put some focus on Gladiator Beast Noxious our only "Hand Trap", this card works kind of like Gorz, Trag and Battle Fader when and opponent declares a direct attack you can special summon this card and force that opponents monster to attack Noxious, Noxious cannot be destroyed by that battle and when he is special summoned by any GB effect including his own he dumps a GB to grave. At the end of the battle he is going to tag like any other GB, and if you dumped Bestiari into the grave, you guessed it, we are bring out Darius in the end phase to contact on our turn and make our opponent very sad.

Hopefully this made some sense, and as we continue to establish guardrails and decks I would love to begin to see them in action and play some old school Yu-Gi-Oh once again.

If you have any feedback on the deck, and thoughts on how to improve it, we are all ears.

Thanks!

What If...... & Full Power

 Welcome Back, or should you be welcoming me back.

Either way I am super excited to present you with an idea I have been noodling for quite sometime. 

In this series we will be taking top tier decks from the past, introducing newer cards back to the archetype staying true to how the deck would have been played during this timeframe. 

Where this idea started was my constant obsession of Gladiator Beasts, I feel like they have been able to survive as the game has progressed but their heyday is in the past, but maybe it doesn't have to be.

We will approach this series in multiple intervals, talk about combos, expectations and rulesets for these decks.

The second series will revolve around maximizing decks new and old, leveraging Limited/Banned cards to open up the full potential of these decks that have completely fallen off or had to evolve to be more current day Yu-Gi-Oh. 

When I truly think about the game it has evolved to a point of massive first turns, that create potentially unbreakable boards, to 1 card combo's that net infinite advantage. 

The game is still fun, the game is still fundamentally Yu-Gi-Oh, but us "Yugi-Boomers" miss the older, slower pace of the original aspect of the game.

Hope you stick around for the ride, and hope we can explore some unique ideas together.

Thanks,