Gladiators

## Overview

*In the ancient colosseum, strong slaves would fight everyday for the entertainment of the bloodthirsty crowds. As they join Smash up, gladiators have honed their skills in order to fight the best they can, with many bonus effects to bolster themselves upon victory or during combat. They will also allow the capturing of foes through combat to show off their diverse nature. Be forewarned: Gladiators do not take kindly to cowards who would use their duel actions to running away...*

### Details

#### General

* Name: Gladiators
* Author: Geek13579
* Complexity: 3/5
* Version: 1.3
* Last updated: July 25, 2023

#### Mechanics

* +1 Power Counters
* Dueling
* Card Thieving

### Breakdown

This faction has the standard 10 minions and 10 actions. It has the standard 30 total minion power or an average minion power of 3, but an unusual distribution of 5 elites and 5 recruits. Among their actions, the have:

* 2 play-on-base actions: 2x White Sand
* 1 play-on-minion action: Rudis of Freedom
* 7 standard actions, 6 of which directly affect one or minions (in **bold**): **2x Net Tossing, Are you not Entertained, Feint Counter, Foreign Technique, Thumbs Down,** Servant's Market.

### Minions (10)

* **1x Dimachaerus (4):** This minion may duel another player's minion here. The winner draws a card and the loser discards a card. Ongoing: While this minion duels, you may select and play up to 2 actions instead of one.
* **1x Retiarus (4):** This minion may duel another player's minion here. The loser discards a card. Ongoing: When this minion wins a duel, take a random card from the loser's hand OR the top card of the loser's discard pile.
* **1x Murmillo (4):** This minion may duel another player's minion here. The winner draws a card. Ongoing: When this minion wins a duel, give another of your minions here 2 +1 power counters.
* **1x Thrax (4):** This minion may duel another player's minion here. The winner draws a card. Ongoing: When this minion wins a duel, reveal the top 2 cards of the loser's deck and add any actions to your hand, then shuffle the rest back into their owner's decks.
* **1x Provocator (4):** This minion may duel another player's minion here. The loser discards a card. Ongoing: After this minion wins a duel, you may return a minion here to its owner's hand. If it was one of your minions, you may play it on a different base as an extra minion.
* **1x Naïve Emperor (2):** One of your other minions here duels the opponent's highest-powered minion here. The winner adds the loser's minion to their hand.
* **2x Lanista (2):** One of your other minions here duels against the opponent's highest-powered minion here. The winner may search their deck for an action and add it to their hand.
* **2x Wild Crowds (2):** Ongoing: After you win a duel on this base, give your minions here +1 power until the end of the turn. After you lose a duel on this base, play an extra minion of power 3 or less.

### Actions (10)

* **2x White Sand:** Play on a base. Ongoing: Minions may not move off of this base. After a player loses a duel on this base, they must destroy their dueling minion. Talent: Move one of your minions to this base to make it duel another player's minion here.
* **2x Net Tossing:** Give a minion -2 power until the end of the turn. Add a standard action from your discard to your hand.
* **1x Are you not Entertained?:** Give a minion +2 power until the end of the turn, and it may not be affected by other player's actions this turn. If this card was played in a duel, you may place it on the top of your deck instead of your discard.
* **1x Feint:** Set one of your minions to 0 power until the start of your turn to draw 2 cards. Special: If this card was played in a duel, cancel any action(s) your opponent played instead.
* **1x Foreign Technique:** Give one of your minions +3 power until the end of the turn OR reveal any number of cards you do not own to give one of your minions +2 power until the end of the turn for each card revealed.
* **1x Servant's Market:** Choose up to 3 cards from an opponent's discard. That player selects one card to add to the top of their deck, the other 2 are added to your hand.
* **1x Rudis of Freedom:** Play on a minion. Ongoing: This minion gains +1 power. If you do not own this minion, gain 1 VP when it goes to the discard pile.
* **1x Thumbs Down:** Destroy one of your minions. Add a minion from your discard to your hand. Special: You may play this card if your opponent played a card that did not increase their power in a duel. Instead, destroy their dueling minion, and you are considered the winner of that duel.

### Bases

* **(20) Circus Maximus (4 2 0):** Minions on this base only gain power the first time they would every turn.
* **(16) Gladiator Training School (2 0 0):** Once during your turn, you may discard a card to have your lowest-powered minion here duel the highest-powered opponent’s minion here. If the turn player won, they gain 1 VP.

## Clarifications

**Dimachaerus:** You may still select minions amongst your 2 chosen cards as bluffs, which are returned to your hand after the duel as per usual.

**Retiarus:** The duel's actions fully resolve and go to the discard before determining the winner, thus taking the top card of the discard will usually mean taking the action the opponent played during the duel.

**Naïve Emperor, Lanista:** You may select the highest-powered minion in the case of a tie.

**White Sand:** The duel has no additional reward or consequence than the destruction of the loser's minion provided by the card's own ongoing ability.

**Feint, Thumbs Down:** "Instead" on the card replace both of their primary effects when played under the specified circumstances

## Strategy

### General

Gladiators have many cards to start up duels, but will burn through their actions which guarantee dueling victories if played carelessly. They also allow many opportunities for opponents to play actions outside of their turn, which can lead to unexpected advantage. There will also be some gladiators which will be unlikely to trigger their ongoing effects outside of entry, which means choosing which gladiator will be on a base with relevant duels is important to plan in advance. This faction will easily trounce linear factions with limited ways to increase power but is surprisingly tame against those which have power increases or extra action plays since their power increases are for the most part tame. They get ironically destroyed in a head-to-head matchup against their official counterparts of cowboys without deputies as fallback plan to duels.

Their duels are only deadly once they are properly in the arena, which can entail saving up the extra duels of Lanistas or the on-play effects of gladiators until that card is drawn. The potentially most important gladiator to keep in play would be the Provocator, who can make many of the on-play duelers trigger their abilities again, so saving the Feints and Thumbs down is a very good strategy, or throwing him in once the actions that can run away or win duels are used up is very much advised. While the sands are not in play, the crowds can be used for their losing effects to spread out or play additional minions if the partner faction offers solid draw power. To help yourself lose, the net tossing can be aimed at the player's own gladiators, or Are you not entertained can even target an opposing minion, although it will make the card unavailable for the rest of the turn.

### Partner Suggestions

Gladiators have below average drawing power and are likely to play more than one action per turn due to the frequent duels. They can also lose duels if up against a faction that has too many numerous power increases of move cards, which are only countered by feint or thumbs down. However, they offer a unique power structure with more numerous 4-powered minions, and play well with factions that like to stretch out long control games through depleting opponents of resources with discards and destruction.

#### Published

* Vigilantes appreciate the consistency of more Elite-tier minions, and have hard removal with effects that shuffle in the deck to stall out the bigger threats that cannot be easily defeated in duels. In addition, they have protection from destruction to make for safer gambles and even more consistency than merely **Stoneford** with the **Lanistas** to attempt an uncontested **Let's finish this** play or search **Are you not entertained** early on. However, the lack of power 3 minions may make the wild crowds have no targets to play.
* Time Travelers appreciate having a way to search **Time walk** with the **Lanistas**, and **do-overs** can make opponents unexpectedly waste power-granting actions by playing them in a duel and repeating the duel against another minion. **Provocator** can accelerate the arrival of the **time box** and the **Repeater perfect** can consistently retrieve thumbs down to give the opponent a miserable time if few or none of their actions increase power permanently.
* Wreck-it Ralph, unlike other Disney factions, does not provide insane draw power, but does give an incredible card in the form of **Fix-it Felix Jr.** to remove your own **White Sands** and move off **sugar rush racers** or **Vanellope** at the most optimal time. In addition, **Escape pod** to keep **Provocator** for longer is a great way to gain on-board advantage.
* Obviously, picking Cowboys means the opponent won't have them, which is very hard in a snake draft, but does mean you are practically guaranteed to win almost every duel and absolutely bully certain combinations who lack the tools to avoid your duels' resolutions, which is even harder with **Pecos Bill** if using Titans.

## Author Notes

One of my early factions which puts dueling at the forefront while giving opponents a chance to strike back and punishing the opponents abusing free duel actions rather than attempting to win duels. This faction fulfills my wish for more diverse rewards and consequences, as well as caring which minion participates in a duel rather than a potentially repetitive ways they can play out in the official game. Gladiators require considerably more thoughts than having the strongest minion duel the opponent's weakest one and hoping the duel does not get unresolved through their varied toolset, all the while portraying different fighting style by having each of the gladiators have different dueling effects.

I am aware that the **Thumbs Down** action is historically inaccurate: Romans would put their thumbs up to give approval of a gladiator finishing up their opponent, but I decided to use the name and image to reflect how it has been often portrayed in pop culture.