Gladiator - Card Preview
The newest card to Marvel Snap is Gladiator. Confidence in him seems pretty divided. Let's dive into the character and the card to see if it's worth opening spotlight caches for, spending 6,000 collector’s tokens, or passing all together.
Who is Gladiator?
Gladiator is an alien from the Shi’ar Empire, and the leader of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard.
He's a member of a race called Strontians and his name is Kallark. If it seems suspicious that a character that looks a bit like Superman and has essentially the same powers is suspicious you're right! He is an intentional Superman clone. Dave Cockrum and Chris Claremont intended the Shi’ar Imperial Guard as a tribute to DC comics’ Legion of Superheroes with each Superguardian corresponding to a Legionnaires. Gladiator is the Superboy character.
In his initial appearances in the Claremont X-Men run, he wasn't a particularly well fleshed out character. His most interesting characteristic was added later: his abilities increase or decrease based on his confidence! This is likely the flavor inspiration for his card design. He is confident he can solo anyone from your opponent’s deck. He has been featured more prominently in the comics in the past couple decades as Marvel has embraced the intergalactic with characters and storylines like Guardians of the Galaxy, Annihilation, Infinity, and Cosmic Ghost Rider. Gladiator had a memorable and meme-able appearance in the X-Men cartoon where he chucks Juggernaut across a sea and then gets yeeted into outer space by the Phoenix.
The Card
Gladiator is a 3-cost, 7-power On Reveal card that adds a card from your opponent's deck to their side of this location. If it has less Power, the card is destroyed.
Initial Thoughts
Gladiator has potential because he has very efficient stats for his cost. Seven power for three energy is good. In fact, it's been highly played in the past.
Maximus plummeted in play rate after the introduction of Loki. Giving your opponent extra cards seems like an unacceptable downside these days. Gladiator could fill the gap left by Maximus in Surfer decks or midrange decks that are fighting for priority. Cards that are over-statted for their cost have a history of doing very well in this game.
I believe the single most important thing to understand about Gladiator is this:
His effect is a downside, not an advantage.
Gladiator’s effect is the reason the card is generously statted. Maximus and Typhoid Mary have great stats because they come with a harsh drawback. The same is true of Gladiator. You might pull a card that is 7 power or more like Vision, Redskull, Darkhawk, Devil Dinosaur, or Thanos, thus giving your opponent a powerful card for free. You may pull a powerful on-reveal card that still helps your opponent even if destroyed like Dr. Doom, Shuri, White Tiger, or an Infinity Stone. It is also a downside because you are thinning a card from your opponent's deck. At least as often as you destroy an important card that hurts your opponent you'll help them draw a card that helps them beat you. You do get a very small information advantage, but that's not enough of an upside to make up for the downsides. However, Gladiator is not just “big Yondu.” Yondu has normal stats for his cost. He's more like a 1/4 Yondu with extra risk. You're playing him for his stats, not for his ability.
As with Maximus, there are a few ways we can leverage the downside to our advantage. Maximus’ downside has synergy with Ronan and it is good against some specific cards, like Dracula. We can also avoid the downside. With Maximus we can play it behind Cosmo, play it after Zero, or play it on the final turn when the card draw usually doesn't help the opponent.
Here are some of the ways we can leverage or mitigate Gladiator’s ability. They vary in their power and reliability
- Play Gladiator in a lane with Cosmo’s ongoing effect
- Play opposite an opponent’s full lane
- Play Gladiator after Zero
- Play alongside Knull and/or Death
- Put rocks into the opponent's deck for a higher chance to pull a rock.
- Play alongside tech cards like Shang Chi and Enchantress
Also, just as Maximus can be pushed out of the meta if cards like Loki and Devil Dinosaur are popular, the acceptability of Gladiator’s downside can wax or wane depending on the meta environment he exists in. In a meta where people are playing decks with a lot of huge cards or cards with powerful on-reveal effects, he will be worse. Decks like this would include Shuri-Redskull, Lockjaw, Loki, and Hela. In a meta where the cards are smaller and have fewer on reveals that will punish us, he will be better. Decks like this include the Small Movers decks, Zoo Decks, and Cerebro decks.
ScoSco’s Day 1 Gladiator decks:
There are obviously a lot of different ways you can build a Surfer deck with Gladiator. I've opted here for pure power. The nerf to Shang Chi means Gladiator and Maximus duck Shang even with a Surfer buff. Other cards to experiment with here are Wave (good stats, occasional chance of getting Sera down early), and Swordmaster.
If you play Gladiator opposite a full opponent lane, he's pure upside. Ghost-Spider, Shang-Chi, Shadow King, and Spider-Woman can help if we pull the wrong thing with him, and Dr. Octopus in combination with Gladiator can simply leave our opponent without options.
Gladiator can discount Death, pump Knull, and makes an excellent snack for Venom. This is a greedy deck, so play greedy. Occasionally you'll have a line to destroy X-23 in a way that allows you to play Lady Deathstrike on four, Knull on five, and Zola on six.
Move your Wolf around the board while disrupting your opponent. Doesn't Darkhawk have anti-synergy with Darkhawk? It does but they're both synergistic with Korg and Rockslide. You don't always have to play both, sometimes both will be good; this deck takes some piloting skill. Also, if you want to lean fully into disruption you could put Spider-Ham in over Nico.
Galactus certainly won't care if Gladiator pulls a powerful card for your opponent. That's just one less resource he'll have to worry about in his lane and he represents a chance at snatching priority. There are several ways here we can get Galactus to go off despite his change to 5 power.
Zero, Cosmo, and Shuri are all ways to mitigate Gladiator's downside. He's obviously not your main plan in this deck, but this is a deck that has always loved extra low-cost value cards. Can we really run Shuri Red Skull without Armor? It's a modern world. Try tucking Taskmaster in behind Invisible Woman on turn 5. He'll copy your last card played on turn 6, and that card can still get buffed from a turn 4 Shuri.
Variants
Final thoughts
Should you spend your hard-earned resources on Gladiator? The spotlights this week are so strong that you should consider it. If you are missing both Loki and Mirage, I'd definitely recommend opening your caches this week. However, Gladiator is a bit of a niche card and unlikely to be irreplaceable in any particular list. Don't spend 6000 tokens on him and don't open caches just for him unless you're a devoted Silver Surfer player that wants every possible arrow in your 3-cost quiver.
