Okay, let's talk about the brawl itself first. This is because brawl matches are exclusive for those who join the guild that enter the brawl. Brawl is a guild battle where people will meet with the other people from another guild on the same tier that picking the same fray. There are a lot of fray available with different card edition allowed and max level cap different. What makes brawl even more special is that gladiator cards are allowed on the match (but you can only pick 1 except there is summoner that give more gladiator slot or the ruleset "are you not entertained" that also gives the +1 gladiator slot. This is a perfect place if you are really enjoy using the gladiators, especially when you play on modern league where the summoner that can bring gladiators are not available.

Don't Force Yourself to Always Use Gladiators

We know why Gladiators are loved by most players. It's because they got the bloodlust ability that allow them to grow stronger, faster, and tougher everytime they eliminate a monsters, and that is very valuable because their true value can grow much bigger than their mana cost compared to normal monsters without the bloodlust. For this reason, most people are obsessed to get the bloodlust and always try to put a gladiator whenever possible.

I personally would love to do it as well, but sometimes, you might face a condition wether it's the ruleset, mana cap, or the available splinters that cause gladiators are not very effective, and for that reason, I consider you to rethink about deploying the gladiators and try to make a strategy with normal monsters if it can be more effective.

Why ? Doesn't Stronger Monsters Deserved to Be On Battlefield ?

On Splinterlands, a monster stats or ability are not the only important thing. Since most of matches we can play 6 monsters, then the syncronize of the team and summoner is what matter most. Even average monsters can give massive impact if they support each other, and some strong monsters can't do well without any support or there are any disadvantage ruleset that prevent them to release their max potential.

Battle Example

Let's go to battle example, you can check the reply on https://splinterlands.com/battle/sm_XN50ZwJRQu3XpD6QrS8J

I will also give the explanation of the battle here.

Here is the formation and the ruleset for the match.
We got the heavy hitter which gives double damage to stunned monster and the reborn ruleset. The reborn ruleset is the most important rules here, especially with gladiators can freely join the battle. This is because the monster can back to battlefield with 1 health point after they got eliminated, and guess what ? The bloodlust may trigger for both elimination, so the potential of gladiator growth are doubled here !

Hmm, looks like gladiators have advantage here, why shouldn't we use them ? If we look at my enemy formation, then the gladiator with opportunity would likely to have easy dinner right ? He also put another gladiator as tanker since he use the summoner that gives extra gladiator slots.

Well it's depend on your strategy. It's true that reborn would give the double potential of gladiator growth, but one thing we should remember that despite the monster back with 1 health point, they have max armor back, so melee monsters would not be very effective if the enemies got many armor. The other consideration is my max summoners is the one who gives the melee and magic buff, and I chose to go with magic plan due to armor reason that I explained before.

But, I also making a prevention against the melee assasin by having 2 demoralize here, so their damage withh reduce by 2 points ! I also give protection against magic with a tank that have silence and sub tanker with void armor, followed with the magic reflect monster. I'm ready for melee and magic here ! Range would not favourable since even you got to bulk them with bloodlust, once they are on the front, they are just can't attack. I also have a healer for every monster that getting hurt to help them survive !

How the Battle Goes

After the ambush and 1st round, my team managed to take out 2 monster of my enemy team (even with the resurrection, that is easily eliminated again with magic no matter how many armor they got as long as there is no void armor). On the other side, my team still complete, thanks to the debuff which nerve enemies attack very effectively !

At second round, once again my team manage to eliminate 2 monsters of my enemy side. And thanks for the healing, nobody yet getting eliminated on my side.

It's all over on 3rd round with the win for my side.

Why it Worked and the Conclussion

The reason why it worked without any gladiators on my side against 2 gladiators on my enemy side is because :
#1. No matter how strong the gladiators could be, it's no point if they can't eliminating or even worst getting eliminated early (just like my enemy tank). The double demoralized help me to nerve the danger of enemies assasin gladiator. This could be a great strategy to prevent enemies gladiators getting big, because the first elimination would be so vital to grow and grow with more elimination.

#2. My monsters effectively eliminating enemies with the magic spam that go through armor and very effective against resurrected units with full armor.

#3. Syncronize of summoners that empower all magician on my side. If I force myself to get a gladiators with melee attack, it might not very effective since their damage can blocked by armor, and this mean I will waste an attack to front enemy. If I put it on the front, I might risk to lose it early. By put 5 magician on the back, I max out the buff effect of my Summoners to hurt every monsters that is on the front position.

So, having more gladiator would not guarantee of an easier to get a win. It's very important to keep in mind that syncronize of summoner and all monsters would give more impact than relying on some monsters only. Gladiators are not so harm if you can prevent them from get their bloodlust, and the debuff and heal can be a solution to help your team survive against them. The rest is just try to make a very effective attacking way, like spamming magic only on the front target .

Final Words