Culdscience 1 - Meet Executor and Gladiator

[Ben-Ra]

1.1
Here at the Culdscience Institute our goal is to push the boundaries of what's possible and what's understood about Culdcept. In this first installment, I'm going to take a look at some creature cards that are great at attack, but questionable on defense. Before diving in, I'm going to identify a few terms and abbreviations:

shot = killed by Magic Blast or Evil Blast
MB = Magic Blast
EB = Evil Blast
MDS = Mass Damage Spell (Tempest, Catastrophe, color-killers, Insect Swarm)
DR = discard requirement
LR = land requirement
LL = land limit
LB = Land Bonus
FA = First Attack

Let's take a look at Executor.

Executor st:70 hp:20 cost:60g+discard Item limit: xWeapon

He's a pretty simple creature, no specials abilities or weaknesses. No LL, which is always good. No LR, which is even better. 60g isn't too high, although the DR means you might want to watch putting him in decks with too many other cards with DR. But let's get to the main event: his 70 ST. Only three other cards have a printed ST of 70, and they all cost at least twice as much g, and two have double LRs. On the surface, Executor appears to one of the best attackers in the game. 70 ST is good, but it's pretty easy to get to 80 HP between LBs and items. Unfortunately, he can't use weapons. On the plus side, he can use accessories. So, if you want to use Executor, be sure to pack a reasonable amount of offensive accessories in your deck, the best ones for him being Fire Amulet, Heart Fibula, Hourglass, and Power Bracelet.

However, with one exception, I wouldn't recommend Executor at all. Why? His HP makes him unsuitable for holding land. He's relatively easy to kill in combat, although he can use armor and accessories to help out. Even so, he's very vulnerable to penetration or item destruction. That's bad enough, but the worst is that he can be shot or killed by most MDSs. If you know your opponent has no direct-damage spells (like some story opponents), then Executor becomes a better card. But in a setting where you don't know what the opponent has, he's a severe liability. Also, he's generally weak to creatures with FA.

So what's the exception in which I recommend Executor? Support decks, which is another topic entirely.

In part 2 of this column I'll take a look at Gladiator, another red creature with great offense but questionable defense.

[Ben-Ra]

1.2
In part one I got down to brass tacks with Executor, now let's look at a guy in a similar boat, Gladiator.

Gladiator st:40 hp:40 cost:70g Item limit: xArmor xAccessory xScroll
text:critical hit to red, blue, green, yellow creature.

No LL, LR, or DR, and a reasonable g cost. Good so far. Mid-range stats, good. Critical hit to all colored creatures is the highlight, he does 60 unassisted to anyone who's not neutral, and he can use weapons too. With a decent weapon he can kill almost anyone in the game. Pretty great so far. Uh oh, there's that pesky item limit again. No armor? Or accessories? Not even scroll (I guess Gladiators can't read). So Gladiator kills whoever he attacks, but once he's settled down, he's pretty vulnerable to getting the crap kicked out of him when someone comes a-knockin'. Fortunately he doesn't share Executor's weakness to being shot.

So, how to keep the illiterate, non-clothes-and-jewelry-wearing bad boy alive? Weapons that give either HP or FA are the best bet. Sword of the Falcon is the only weapon that gives first strike, and with it big G will do 90 to a colored creature, not too shabby. As far as weapons which add HP go, Catapult and Prismatic Wand are good. Keep in mind that they cost 90 and 80g respectively, and also that Prismatic Wand won't work against other red creatures (who the opponent will probably attack with if you're on a red land). Overall, Gladiator isn't a great defender but isn't as bad as Executor, but you have to use specific weapons in the deck for him to survive very long. The problem with guys who are great on attack but weak on defense is that they're kind of bad in the early game when there's not a lot of attacking, and if you draw them, you can either hold them for a long time, or put them on an unoccupied land, which makes them vulnerable. Also, in the case of these two specific cards, you shouldn't have both in a deck, since they can't use the same items at all (which they both desperately need).

[Scamp]

I'd like to add something to the discussion on Gladiator. Since his defense is so questionable and it'd be such a pain to keep him alive, whenever I use him in a deck I don't focus on keeping him alive. Instead I stock up on things like telegnosis or chariot to keep him attacking or to switch him out for a more defensive-minded creature. Even without cards it only takes a lap until you pass by him again to replace him. It's a good gamble that your opponent(s) won't hit that square in that time.

First attacking weapons are a good idea but weapons giving him HP IMO are not. Unless you have other creatures that also need similar items often times the HP boost isn't enough. This is important to note because if your Gladiator isn't in a leveled-up land, then your opponent probably won't attack you and just pay the toll unless he's got an easy victory. If your Gladiator IS in a leveled-up land.....get something else on there, quickly!

[imagineer]

Using Heart Fibula to defeat the opponent can give Executor another 20MHP, which makes it a good defencer.

[manji]

heya, 1st post...been lurking a while, and getting fairly deep into the game.

One quick note on Gladiator:
He's been extremely handy in Willow decks...I'll typically drop him in a red area and move him from space to space, taking out any opposing creatures while hunting for my tree o' stoppage.
If my opponent is lucky enough to actually land on him, the +10 (red land) bonus at least gives him some chance to live, or (worst case) draw out an opponent's item, giving him one less to use against the Willow.
When the Willow *does* appear, the Gladiator is usually the one who gets swapped out (live to fight another day, etc etc).

To be honest, a lot of good considerations have been brought up concerning the Gladiator...but I don't think they outweigh his usefulness. The ability to take out an opponent's creature is key in most decks, and this is something he does extremely well. Add the ability to live through either shot and Scamp's point about usually having the opportunity to swap him out for a better defense creature, and I think he ends up being a fairly viable option.

[someguy]

I beg to differ. Gladiator isn't fairly viable...he flat-out rocks. As mentioned, he can't be instakilled by any targeting direct-damage spells (Evil Blast, Magic Bolt), gets 40/50 on defense when on a red land, and when used with Territory -> Move Creature, he makes a great street sweeper. Especially if you have Telegnosis and Boomerang, which let you constantly move him and deal 90 dmg crits to colored critters.

It took me forever to get my first Old Willow and my first Kelpie, but somehow, I ended up with 4 Gladiators(!). I put them to good use, because they're just awesome.