MTG Arena Community Spotlight: Gladiator Event Guide and Decklists
Table of Contents
- Event Details
- Gladiator Decklists
- Budget Gladiator Starter Decklists
- Budget Azorius Flash – Gladiator Starter Deck
- Budget Bant Enchantress – Gladiator Starter Deck
- Budget Boros Blitz – Gladiator Starter Deck
- Budget Esper Reanimator – Gladiator Starter Deck
- Budget Golgari Graveyard – Gladiator Starter Deck
- Budget Gruul Midrange – Gladiator Starter Deck
- Budget Gruul Ramp – Gladiator Starter Deck
- Budget Izzet Tempo – Gladiator Starter Deck
- Budget Mono White Midrange – Gladiator Starter Deck
- Budget Orzhov Sacrifice – Gladiator Starter Deck
- Budget Rakdos Sacrifice – Gladiator Starter Deck
- Budget Selesnya Tokens – Gladiator Starter Deck
Hello everyone! Today we’re going over the first Community Spotlight Event of Gladiator! Gladiator is a relatively popular format that is extremely similar to Historic Brawl, but it’s sans Commander and a Best of Three (Bo3) format! This adds the variance that Historic Brawl/Commander provides without the extreme reliance on the Commander themselves.
Although the format itself is relatively competitive, this event is completely free to enter and you can play as much as you want until the queue expires!
Event Details
Welcome to the first MTG Arena Community Spotlight! In this event, we’re taking a look at a fan-made format that’s different from anything on MTG Arena. It’s called Gladiator, and if you’re looking for an experience full of card variety, interesting choices, and back-and-forth matches, then it’s got you covered!
Gladiator was established in mid-2020, and its fans have been playing and growing this format for years with frequent discussion and regular tournaments. There’s a lot to enjoy about it, so let’s learn more!
- Duration: August 11, 2022 at 8:00 AM PST – August 15, 2022 at 8:00 AM PST
- Format: Gladiator
- Entry Fee: Free
- Ends After: Play as much as you want
- Match Structure: Best-of-three matches (BO3)
Rewards
| Wins | Reward |
|---|---|
| 1 Win | 1 Rare Individual Card Reward (ICR) |
| 2 Wins | 1 Rare Individual Card Reward (ICR) |
Format Details
The rules of Gladiator are:
- Decks must contain no fewer than 100 cards and no sideboards, with a maximum of one copy of each card other than basic lands (similar to the Singleton format), or cards with no deck limit, like Persistent Petitioners.
- Matches are best two-out-of-three (but without sideboarding between games).
- All cards available on MTG Arena are legal in their original versions, except for the following banned cards:
An oversized deck with a Singleton limit means you’ll need a robust game plan that can adapt to many different circumstances, while the multiple-game matches mean you’ll see a lot more of both your own deck and your opponent’s deck.
To hear even more about Gladiator directly from the folks who love it, tune into the Weekly MTG Twitch stream on Thursday, August 11, at 2:30 p.m. PT, or visit the Gladiator Discord.
Spotlight Deck Folder
To show off what’s possible in Gladiator, and to give folks who are new to the format a jumping-off point, the Gladiator community has provided some decklists for MTG Arena players to try out. Look these up in the client while the event is active!
- Azorius Control – SupremePhantom (He/Him)
- Belzenlok Combo – JokerBoney (They/Them)
- Boros Control – Aiamethyst (She/Her)
- Esper Reanimator – ElleMNOP (She/Her)
- Gruul Monsters – Wooormy (He/Him)
- Jund Sacrifice – BenjaminWheeler (He/Him)
- Mono-Blue Skies – BenjaminWheeler (He/Him)
- Mono-Red Aggro – DwaginFodder (She/Her)
- Mono-White Aggro – Rootpotato (They/Them)
- Rakdos Midrange – Blightning (They/Them)
When choosing a deck for the event, or even just while in the Decks tab of the client, scroll to the bottom of your decks collection to find the “Community Spotlight: Gladiator” deck folder:
- You can submit a deck directly from this folder to the event if you have collected all the cards in the decklist.
- You can copy the community deck to your collection of decks and craft the remaining cards to complete the deck.
- You can copy the community deck to your collection and modify the deck as you see fit.
Gladiator Decklists
While there will be 10 premade decks you can also check out, I’m giving you 8 more potential options to look at! There are also some starter decks by JokerBoney further below you can take a look at that do not require any rare or mythic rare Wildcard commitment and some are built with only free cards you get from the MTG Arena starter decks!
For a complete list of decks, you can check out all Gladiator decks in our database as we add more throughout the event, and even have a look at the Historic Brawl and Singleton for more inspiration.
(G) Mono White Aggro
by DoggertQBones
Historic
best of 3
8 mythic
18 rare
29 uncommon
45 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (47)
Instants (8)
Sorceries (1)
Lands (35)
100 Cards
$140.21
You may be wondering why I did a Mono White deck when there’s going to be a premade one. Well I had 7 already, wanted to get it to an even number, and what is a DoggertQBones event guide without Mono White!? With a fantastic curve and some strong interaction, Mono White seems like a great choice in a format that’ll likely have the propensity to be slower.
(G) Mono Green Stompy
by DoggertQBones
Historic
best of 3
13 mythic
37 rare
12 uncommon
38 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (6)
Creatures (49)
Instants (5)
Artifacts (1)
Enchantments (1)
Lands (36)
100 Cards
$183.62
Giving up a little bit of speed compared to something like Mono White or Mono Red, Mono Green trades it for raw power and threat density to overwhelm the opponent with higher quality threats.
(G) Dimir Control
by DoggertQBones
Historic
best of 3
5 mythic
16 rare
30 uncommon
49 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (1)
Creatures (11)
Instants (29)
Sorceries (13)
Lands (40)
100 Cards
$137.26
Looking to dictate the pace of the game? Dimir Control will allow you to always have an aswer to whatever ails you while working towards your win conditions.
(G) Izzet Tempo
by DoggertQBones
Historic
best of 3
5 mythic
31 rare
26 uncommon
38 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (27)
Instants (26)
Sorceries (9)
Enchantments (1)
Lands (35)
100 Cards
$183.28
If you love being fast and interactive, Izzet is the perfect color combination to get the job done between cheap threats, burn, and counterspells.
(G) Rakdos Artifacts
by DoggertQBones
Historic
best of 3
17 mythic
43 rare
11 uncommon
29 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Commander
Planeswalkers (4)
Creatures (32)
Instants (8)
Sorceries (7)
Artifacts (7)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (38)
100 Cards
$391.61
A mix of a powerful midrange deck and an artifact matters strategy, Rakdos is packed with many power and synergy pieces to always have something impactful to do.
(G) Selesnya Enchantments
by DoggertQBones
Historic
best of 3
5 mythic
42 rare
21 uncommon
32 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (23)
Instants (1)
Sorceries (4)
Enchantments (34)
Lands (36)
100 Cards
$269.72
Based off of the popular Historic deck, Selesnya Enchantments is as the name implies – all enchantments and payoffs for playing them!
(G) Grixis Control
by DoggertQBones
Historic
best of 3
18 mythic
45 rare
17 uncommon
20 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (10)
Creatures (6)
Instants (16)
Sorceries (22)
Artifacts (4)
Enchantments (6)
Lands (36)
100 Cards
$427.06
One of the most beloved archetypes in Magic’s history, Grixis Control gets the best interaction from being three colors as well as a bevy of powerful and fun threats!
(G) Sultai Reanimator
by DoggertQBones
Historic
best of 3
10 mythic
37 rare
33 uncommon
20 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (1)
Creatures (33)
Instants (10)
Sorceries (11)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (39)
100 Cards
$360.12
Using functionally every self mill and reanimate spell we can, Sultai will be extremely effective at cheating in a huge threat well ahead of time.
Budget Gladiator Starter Decklists
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DoggertQBones
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