Marvel Snap: Best Gladiator Decks

Marvel Snap’s weekly card addition continues on, with Gladiator being introduced on November 14. Gladiator is a Series 5 card and has a 6,000 Token cost in the Token Shop. Players can also unlock this new card using Spotlight Keys, as it will be in the Spotlight Caches, alongside Mirage and Loki, from November 14 to November 21.

Gladiator’s On Reveal Ability can make him tough to fit into a deck. It’s more of a downside than a boon, but it can still be used pretty effectively in the right scenarios. Gladiator will likely not change the game’s meta, but it may come in handy in future seasons when a higher number of low-Power cards are prevalent.

Best Gladiator Decks

Gladiator’s On Reveal Ability states, “Add a card from your opponent’s deck to their side of this location. If it has less Power, destroy it.” Destroying an enemy card may sound like a great effect, but this will likely work against you more often than not. The chances of Gladiator’s Ability pulling an opponent’s card that has 7 or more Power is not low, which means you can easily give your opponent a boost with a free card if not careful. This can be mitigated in a few different ways, and the decks below will emphasize how.

On Reveal: Add a card from your opponent’s deck to their side of this location. If it has less Power, destroy it.

Gladiator Silver Surfer Deck

This deck is a classic Silver Surfer deck with a few modifications to fit Gladiator’s needs. Here, cards like Cosmo and Zero can be used to eliminate Gladiator’s On Reveal, making him a purely positive card. When in a pinch, cards like Ebony Maw and Maximus can also utilize Cosmo and Zero, as their Abilities are also more harmful than helpful.

There are a few movement cards, like Polaris, Spider-Man, and Werewolf By Night, present as well which means you can often get a cheap Miles Morales added to the board as well. The ideal play in this deck is to cover the board in as many 3-Cost cards as you can and end your game with Silver Surfer to boost all of their Power even higher.

Deck Contents:

• Gladiator
• Ebony Maw
• Zero
• Brood
• Cosmo
• Polaris
• Maximus
• Silver Surfer
• Spider-Man
• Werewolf By Night
• Miles Morales Spider-Man
• Sera

Gladiator Darkhawk Deck

Gladiator works decently well in a Darkhawk deck. Cards like Korg and Rockslide will throw Rocks into the opponent’s deck, increasing the chance of Gladiator pulling one of those cards when played. If Gladiator does pull a +7-Power card, Shang-Chi can usually follow up to destroy it.

Cards like Master Mold and Black Widow can also be used to clog up your enemy’s hand making it tougher for them to play out their strategy. Ms. Marvel servers as a way to boost the power of your lanes and can be very effective if players make sure to not place two cards with the same Cost in a lane together. Onslaught can come in handy too, boosting the effects of Ongiong cards like Ms. Marvel or Darkhawk.

Deck Contents:

• Gladiator
• Korg
• Black Widow
• Zabu
• Master Mold
• Green Goblin
• Rockslide
• Darkhawk
• Ms. Marvel
• Shang-Chi
• Doctor Doom
• Onslaught

Gladiator Shuri Deck

One of Gladiator‘s biggest downsides is the potential for him to draw a high-Power card from your enemy’s deck and place it on the board. Not only can he not destroy cards that have higher Power than him (and there are a lot that do), but this scenario also gives the opponent a free card placement. A Shuri deck can help alleviate this. Shuri can double the Power of the next card played. This includes Gladiator, which means he will destroy any card with 14-Power or less, making him a tough act to beat.

In this deck, Shuri can also be used on Red Skull, Typhoid Mary, Vision, or Black Panther to get a massive card on the board. This can be made even more effective if followed up by Arnim Zola to spread that card to other lanes as well. Taskmaster can also be used as a follow-up to a high-Power card. Cosmo and Enchantress can be used in a pinch with this deck, as they can eliminate/negate the negative Abilities of cards like Typhoid Mary, Red Skull, and Gladiator.

Deck Contents:

• Gladiator
• Psylocke
• Zabu
• Cosmo
• Enchantress
• Shuri
• Typhoid Mary
• Black Panther
• Red Skull
• Taskmaster
• Vision
• Arnim Zola

Best Gladiator Counters

Gladiator may not have any obvious counters, but there are plenty of cards that make his ability a real pain. Basically, any card above 6-Power will be trouble for the players using Gladiator. The list of cards that fall under this category is a bit too long to include here, but there are a few cards that are really painful to see when Gladiator pulls a card from your enemy’s deck.

• Black Bolt – On Reveal: Discard the lowest-cost card from your opponent’s hand.
  • Black Bolt will discard the lowest-cost card in your hand when he’s drawn by Gladiator. This can really disrupt a strategy and is mostly unavoidable, aside from the intervention of cards like Forge or Shuri boosting Gladiator’s Power.
• Gamora – On Reveal: If your opponent played a card here this turn, +5 Power.
  • Gamora is the last card you want to see pulled by Gladiator’s Ability. Not only does she have high enough Power to avoid Gladiator’s On Reveal, she will also get a boost from being played, bringing her up to a 12-Power card. The only real way to combat this is to throw a Shang-Chi down after Gladiator to finish Gamora off.
• Spider-Woman – On Reveal: Afflict all enemy cards here with -1 Power.
  • Spider-Woman is a pain for obvious reasons. She avoids Gladiator’s On Reveal ability and will lower his, and other cards in this lane, Power by -1. There isn’t a way to avoid this either as the On Reveal will happen on placement and Shang-Chi will not destroy Spider-Woman because of her less than 10-Power.
• Hulk – “HULK SMASH!”
  • Hulk doesn’t have an ability that hurts, but his Power is so high that his placement can really upset things. Other cards that fall under this category would be Abomination, The Infinaut, and others that have very high-Power. Cards like these are why Shang-Chi is a great failsafe to have in a deck so they can be taken care of.

There is a much longer list of cards that will be painful to see when playing Gladiator, but the ones listed above are especially annoying.

Best Gladiator Synergies

Gladiator synergizes pretty well with other cards, but his synergies don’t have a lot of variety. Their Abilities revolve around either boosting Gladiator’s Power, so he can destroy a wider range of the opponents’ cards, or eliminating his Ability altogether, giving you the benefit of a 3-Cost, 7-Power card without the drawbacks of his On Reveal. Cards that boost Gladiator’s Power, like Forge or Shuri, should be played just prior to Gladiator to maximize their effectiveness. A longer list of synergies, with card name, card Ability, and synergy info, can be found below.