Hey readers, this week we’re going to start off by taking a look at Joe Gonzales’s T.G. Deck.
Monsters (16)
T.g. striker x1
T.g. werewolf x2
T.g. rush Rhino x3
Wind-up rabbit x3
Beast king Barbaros x3
Thunder king rhino x2
Malefic cyber end x2
Spells (11)
Shrink x3
Necrovalley x3
Pot of duality x2
Fire Formation - Tenki x3
Traps (16)
Bottomless trap hole x2
Solemn warning x1
Compulsory escape device x3
Dark bribe x2
Horn of the phantom beast x3
Solemn judgement x1
Starlight road x1
Skill drain x3
Ok, I’m a little biased; I am definitely a fan of this kind of deck. Joe gives us an interesting take on the TG engine, opting to also run Necrovallies, and Malefic Cyber End Dragons. Our first goal is going to be getting this deck down to 40 cards, then from there we can make some changes.
The easiest cut I see in the deck are the 3 copies of Compulsory Escape Device. The only card they have synergy with in the deck is your Wind-up Rabbits, and they’re pretty much dead cards when you either have Wind-up Rabbit, or Skill Drain up (another conflict we’ll have to resolve later.) That brings us down to 40 cards.
Next, I’m going to cut the Tenkis and Rabbits. I love Wind-Up Rabbit just as much as the next guy, but we need to decide what we’re trying to do. Either we go with Wind-Up Rabbits, and cut the Skill Drain package, or we cut the Skill Drain package and keep in the Rabbits/Tenkis. I felt that cutting the rabbits helps maintain the personality of your build more than cutting all of the cards required to cut Skill Drain.
I hated running Thunder King in this deck back during plant format, and during plant format Thunder King was a MUCH better card than he is now. You usually have something you’d rather be doing with your turn than summoning Thunder King, and as much as you don’t think it will matter, Thunder King shutting off your searches actually matters a lot.
I’d never liked running the full 3 copies of Barbaros, speaking just from experience with the deck, you really only need 2.
I’m also going to cut the 3 copies of Shrink, there are better cards to run in this slot. Shrink leaves a lot to be desired, especially with the deck playing small creatures like T.G. Warwolf. I understand the synergy with Horn of the Phantom Beast, but I’d rather run Mirror Forces of Dimensional Prisons.
Cuts in summary(15):
-3 Wind-up Rabbit
-3 Fire Formation Tenki
-2 Thunder King Rai-oh
-1 Beastking Barbaros
-3 Shrink
-3 Compulsory Escape Device
Ok, so what was a lot of cuts, but that included knocking the deck down to 40 cards, so we have 12 additions to make. The first one is just going to be a 3rd copy of T.G. Warwolf, anything to get the chain of T.G. monsters going should be played. Back when Striker was at 3, I never understood why people were only playing 2 copies. It was a free summon that let you get your searches started, so what if you rarely synchroed? Warwolf is the same way, often it won’t cost you your normal summon, and it doesn’t cost a card to save you some life, and search for either Striker or Rhino, depending on what you need. Running out of search targets is actually a pretty serious issue in this deck as well, playing 3 helps with that.
I’m also going to add 3 copies of Photon Sabre Tiger to the monsters. If you have Skill Drain, then he’s a Gene Warped Warwolf. If you don’t, he’s a gadget who threatens to become a Gene-Warped Warwolf. Both are good for a deck aiming to grind the opponent down with value creatures.
Ok, so we have 8 slots left, Let’s add some traps, as you’re missing a lot of good stuff here. The obvious additions are the two copies each of Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute. Then I’m adding 2 copies of Call of the Haunted, which combines well with our TG monsters in response to an MST in order to get a search, or you can use it to bring back Barbaros, who comes back at his full 3000 attack. Two copies of Dimensional Prison will round out the traps.
The additions in summary:
+1 T.G. Warwolf
+3 Photon Sabre Tiger
+2 Mirror Force
+2 Torrential Tribute
+2 Call of the Haunted
+2 Dimensional Prison
In sideboarded games you get access to some powerful tools specific to this deck. Versus decks relying on big boss monsters, you can side in TG1-EM1 to steal them. Versus decks like Darkworld and Agents, Liberty At Last! Was my favorite card in the board when I ran this deck, sending back Venus and Gachi to the deck after they attack over your T.G. monster always felt so unfair. The only problem with it is that you need to have two targets to be able to activate it, so there are a few matchups where it’s terrible.
Next up we have Matthew Lenihan’s Gladiator Beast Fire Fist hybrid.
monsters: 12
3 fire fist bear
1 fire fist gorilla
3 gb laquari
2 gb darius
1 gb bestiari
2 reborn tengu
spells: 14
3 tenki
1 tensu
2 proving ground
2 forbidden lance
2 mst
1 dark hole
1 heavy storm
1 monster reborn
1 book of moon
traps: 16
2 threatening roar
2 bottomless
2 mirror force
2 torrential
2 compulsory
2 fiendish chain
1 solemn warning
1 solemn judgement
1 starlight road
1 tensen
extra deck:
2 tiger king
1 gyzarus
1 stardust dragon
1 diamond dire
1 vylon disigma
1 gem knight pearl
1 steelswarm roach
1 utopia
1 cowboy
1 shock master
1 black ship
1 abyss dweller
1 maestroke
1 photon papilloperative
Ever since Fire Fists were announced, I thought this was an interesting combination. Having Tenki be able to search up a smashing ground in Bear, or a Gladiator to take advantage of an open field seems huge. The main problem I see here is that 99 out of 100 times, you’d rather just search up a bear with Tenki, as you don’t really play any cards that let your gladiators take advantage of an open field, and just searching up another Tenki with Bear is much better than tagging into a Laquari. The other big-picture issue I have with the deck is that you’re trying to splash GBs into Fire Fists, rather than the other way around. GBs require a lot of maindeck space to make all of your tags optimal, and your Gyzarus plays consistent. Most of my changes are going to be towards making the deck more focused on the Gladiator Beasts, while still leaving you with incredibly powerful monsters to abuse like Bear.
The most obvious cut to me was the two copies of Reborn Tengu, this card was amazing at 3, and was amazing with synchro monsters, and was amazing with Horn of the Phantom Beast. You aren’t doing any of those things in this deck, and I don’t really see it filling a role. You don’t really need a 3rd Laquari either, it would be better to just run a 3rd Proving Ground.
Your major goal isn’t to be running the Tenki chains into multiple Bears and Gorilla anymore, so I’m going to cut two of the Bears. The idea here is that the only time you ever want to summon a Bear, you would be better off summoning a Gladiator Beast monster, except it leaves the option to Tenki into a Smashing Ground with legs open. The main reason to play bear in this deck is just to expand your options, however playing multiple bears clogs and takes away from the focus of the deck.
Next I’m cutting the two Threatening Roars, which don’t seem to do very much; if your plan is to grind the game down with Bears and Gladiators, preventing opposing battle phases at the cost of a card isn’t really where you want to be. If anything, this slot should be using a Waboku, but even then it isn’t worth it with how few Gladiators you’re trying to run.
We’re also going to give the axe to the Tensen, I don’t like that card in dedicated Fire Fist lists, and you aren’t even playing Dragon to make that card remotely worthwhile. Seems like a very easy cut. I’m also going to cut the Fiendish Chains, not because the card is bad, but that it’s the next worst trap in the deck and we’re going to need some space.
Your goal in this deck isn’t really going to be one for one exchanges, you want to take over the field with Laquaris, and eventually a Heraklinos. Torrential Tribute doesn’t really help you with your goal here. You want to protect your setups with your backrow, not destroy them.
Cuts in summary:
-2 Reborn Tengu
-1 Gladiator Beast Laquari
-2 Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear
-2 Threatening Roar
-2 Fiendish Chain
-1 Fire Formation - Tensen
-2 Torrential Tribute
Now we get to add cards. Most of these additions are going to be towards making the GB portion of the deck more solid. To begin, we’re going to expand on the GB engine by adding a Murmillo and an Equeste, these are two of the more important utility tags the Gladiator deck has access to. In the side, feel free to run Retiari as well for Darkworld or other decks that Retiari interacts favorably with.
In the Monsters, I’d also like to add 2 copies of Elemental Hero – Prisma, and 3 copies of Test Tiger, the combination of Prisma-Tiger is still as brutal as ever, and neither card is terrible alone. Prisma can act as another GPG for Bestiari while you have a Gladiator on field. Tiger tagging a Gladiator into a Murmillo to clear the field, or into a Darius to go along with a Bestiari already graved is a big deal as well.
The 3rd copy of Forbidden Lance seems like an obvious addition. The card helps your Gladiators tag, and lets your Fire Fists get off their effects. Protecting your Gyzaruses from Bottomless Trap Hole is also a big reason to play this card. If any deck can really capitalize on Forbidden Lance’s benefits, it’s definitely this.
I’d also like to add 2 copies of Gladiator Beast’s War Chariot. This card is one of the biggest attractions to running Gladiator Beasts. With Equeste recurring it, you can easily lock your opponent out of monster effects. It is also a great method of covering up Herak’s weaknesses, as he can’t negate monster effects.
Additions in summary:
+1 Gladiator Beast Murmillo
+1 Gladiator Beast Equeste
+2 Elemental Hero – Prisma
+3 Test Tiger
+1 Forbidden Lance
+2 Gladiator Beast’s War Chariot
Subtracted 12 cards, added 10 in order to cut the deck down to 40. Some other things to play around with would be Rescue Rabbits for Andals, which combos with Test Tiger to make a quick Gyzarus. Onslaught of the Fire Kings can search for Laquari, then you can use GPG or Prisma to get a Bestiari and make an easy Gyzarus that way as well. A Hero Lives is also an interesting card in this deck, as it’s a way to special summon, effectively, a Bestiari from your deck while also sending the Bestiari to the grave for Darius later on, half your life is a fairly steep cost though.
Lastly though, we need to do something about this extra deck you have. I’m just going to scrap it and start over:
2 Gladiator Beast Gyzarus
1 Gladiator Beast Heraklinos
1 Gladiator Beast Essedarii
1 Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Number 32: Shock Master
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1 Blackship of Corn
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Diamond Dire Wolf
1 Leviar the Sea Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Photon Papiloperative
You really don’t need multiple Tiger Kings with how small we’ve made the Fire Fist lineup, and without Rabbit it isn’t even all that often you want to be summoning him. Gyzarus and Heraklinos are the biggest reasons to consider running Gladiator Beasts, so you definitely want to have those. Remember that if you Prisma + Tiger, you can end on a Heraklinos by tagging your Gyzarus into Darius + Laquari.
If you would like to get your deck Doctored by either Johnny or Myself, submit your decklist by sending a message to the ARG Deck Doctor page located here: https://www.facebook.com/ArgDeckDoctor
Until next time guys, remember to Play Hard or Go Home!
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