On The Spot: Gladiator Review, Guide, and Best Decks

Do not index

Welcome to another installment of “On The Spot”, the series where we review the cards available in this week’s Spotlight Cache.

Today we’ll be breaking down the stats, synergies, and decks with Gladiator, a Series 4 card that is available in Spotlight Caches right now alongside Marvel SNAP’s newest card, Makkari, and X-23.

So, is Gladiator worthy of your Spotlight Keys? Let’s find out.

We’ll be ranking Gladiator based on the following set of parameters:

We’ll be looking at Gladiator’s performance in Vibranium, Omega, Galactic ranks (70-99), including a special mention of the Top 50% of the Infinite Rank to get a solid idea of how it performs.

We’ll be considering Gladiator’s overall win percentage in these ranks, but also its average cubes and popularity.

Finally, we will also take a quick look at how the archetype the card best fits performs in the current meta.

WHO IS GLADIATOR?

Kallark, known as Gladiator, soars through the Marvel cosmos with unmatched strength and duty. Leading the Shi'ar Imperial Guard, he wields immeasurable power and an unbreakable sense of honor, making him a formidable defender of his empire.

In Marvel SNAP, Gladiator costs 3 energy and has 8 power. It has the effect: "On Reveal: Add a card from your opponent's deck to their side of this location. If it has less Power, destroy it."

As a Series 4 card, Gladiator can be purchased for 3k Collector’s Tokens from the Token Shop if you ultimately decide to not use your Spotlight Keys this week.

THE STATS

Gladiator is currently in Tier B with a +0.24 average cube rate which is quite remarkable. It sneaks down to a meager +0.10 average cube rate inside of the Top 50% of Infinite.

We see a similar story when studying Gladiator’s winrate, managing roughly 53.4% on ranks 70-99 and 50.7% in high Infinite. That may seem impressive if the card was slightly more popular, but for a card being played by 8.1% of eligible players, we’re looking to see it get closer to the 54.4% winrate of Elsa Bloodstone or the +0.30 average cube rate of X-23 before we start raving about it.

For now, Gladiator is sitting with similar statistics to Blade, Cosmo, and Deathlok, which indicates that it’s a solid enough card that has a place in the meta.

Remember that these stats may change over time, so make sure you revisit the card stats in our Card Tier List to see where Gladiator lands in terms of power level and popularity.

BEST DECKS WITH GLADIATOR

Looking at over 650,000 games played at Ranks 70-99 with the Untapped.gg Companion since the latest OTA patch on June 13, we’ve got a great selection of decks to choose from if you’re looking to find a home for your freshly opened Gladiator. Let’s take a look at some of the best-performing options:

Baron Zemo Deck

Silver Surfer Deck

The standout amongst the 650k games played at Ranks 70-99 is this Silver Surfer deck. The deck frequently plays cards like Forge and Wong, which have great synergy with Gladiator. Don’t worry if you are missing any of these cards though, you can always find a deck tailored to your collection on our Marvel SNAP decks page.

Final Thoughts

So, is Gladiator worth your Keys or Tokens? As we’ve mentioned at the beginning of this article, the analysis revolves around two dimensions, Gladiator’s power level and how strong its decks are in the current Marvel SNAP meta.

Raw data indicates that Gladiator has been a strong enough card to make a moderate impact on the meta. Gladiator seems to fit mostly in Silver Surfer and Baron Zemo decks currently, which are both competitive archetypes. If that’s a style of play you like, then Gladiator would probably be a good addition to your collection!

But what do you think? Would you be happy with opening Gladiator? Let us know your thoughts over at @UntappedSNAP on Twitter/X, or come chat with the wider Marvel SNAP community in our Discord Server. Don’t forget to check out our recent article with early stats and decks for Makkari.