Gladiator Beast Essedarii isn’t just a run-of-the-mill 2500 ATK monster without an effect. It’s much more than that. Essedarii will shape the way Gladiator Beast Decks are built from now on, and will forever alter plays that Gladiator Beast Duelists can make.

Every Gladiator Beast Duelist knows what it feels like to draw a Gladiator that he doesn’t want. Since Gladiator Beast monsters activate their effects when they’re tagged in from the Deck, once you draw one of them, you can’t use that monster’s tag-in effect. Gary Garcia, a Gladiator Beast Duelist who made it to the Top 16 at YCS Anaheim before Essedarii was released, went so far as to run 2 copies of Gladiator Beast Murmillo so that he can be sure there’s always a copy in his Deck when he needs it. He also Side Decked a second copy ofGladiator Beast Retiari for the same reason.

Now, Gladiator Beast Duelists can rejoice. Thanks to Gladiator Beast Essedarii, there’s no need to ever again run more than 1 copy of the Gladiators you don’t want to draw.

Gladiator Beast Essedarii lets you send 2 Gladiator Beasts on your field back to your Deck to Summon it from your Extra Deck. Are you stuck with Gladiator Beast Secutor or Murmillo? Don’t worry – you can Summon it to the field and fuse it with another Gladiator Beast in order to bring out Essedarii.

Best of all, you can now use Gladiator Beast Darius to rescue your 1-of Gladiator Beasts from the Graveyard and send them right back into your Deck.

Let’s say that your only copy of Murmillo is in the Graveyard. Before Essedarii was released, getting Murmillo back into your Deck was tough. You’d usually need to return it to your hand with the effect of Gladiator Beast Equeste, and then Summon it to the field and hope for a successful tag-out that will put it back into your Deck.

Now that Gladiator Beast Essedarii is in the picture, it’s easier than ever to rescue a Gladiator Beast like Murmillo from your Graveyard. You can tag out any of your Gladiator Beasts to Summon Darius from your Deck, and use Darius’s effect to revive your lone copy of Murmillo. Then, by fusing Murmillo with Darius, you can Summon Gladiator Beast Essedarii while sending both of your Gladiators back to the Deck, where they’re ready to be called on again.

When it comes to Deckbuilding, this means that Gladiator Beast Duelists can confidently run just a single copy of some of their most important monsters. They no longer need to worry about their Gladiator Beasts getting stuck in the Graveyard, because Darius can easily rescue them and send them back to the Deck.

The release of Essedarii also makes Gladiator Beast Darius more important than ever before. If your only copy of Darius gets trapped in the Graveyard, it’ll be a lot tougher to get any of your fallen Gladiators back into your Deck. That’s why it’s now a good idea to use 2 copies of Darius. This way, if one of them gets trapped in your Graveyard, the other copy of Darius can Special Summon it to the field for Essedarii to put back into your Deck.

Gladiator Beast Essedarii gives a huge boost to Gladiator Beast Decks. Use Essedarii in your Gladiator Beast Deck, and build your Deck with Essedarii in mind. You won’t regret it.