Overview
Gouki is an archetype that made its Duel Links debut with the release of the Flames of the Heart mini-BOX on May 28th, 2020. In the few months since its release, the deck has been optimised by top players and continues to be a valid meta contender to this day. Although Goukis remain a deck with low representation in tournaments so far, its players make it into the top cut fairly often, making its conversion rate higher than some other decks on the tier list.
The Gouki archetype is composed of EARTH Warrior monsters with the shared ability to add a differently-named Gouki card from your deck to your hand upon being sent from the field to the graveyard, resulting in an impressive ability to maintain resources while dwindling your opponents'. The commonly used Gouki monsters can be normal summoned. In tandem with their ability to search for one another makes them very consistent as they don’t run the risk of bricking with unsummonable monsters. Over time the backrow-heavy control/stun version of Gouki has prevailed in Tournaments and Clan Wars, showing impressive synergy with Loading... and Loading... as the Gouki monsters replenish themselves when tributed. With that said, Goukis can interrupt the opponents plays on their turn and swing for lethal using Loading... once the opponent's board has been cleared through multiple attacks and precisely timed spells/traps. Apart from the backrow-heavy version there are currently 2 non-competitive versions of the deck being run: Loading... , a synchro focused version.
About the Authors
Welcome to the guide. My name is King_Fayo and I’m the main author for this guide. Even though my favorite archetype is Six Samurai, with the release of Goukis I was brimming with excitement. The deck is very exciting to play and to watch as well. This warrior archetype should not be scoffed over and should actually capture the eyes of many as it continues to be fully optimised. With me today I brought 2 experts on the deck: Riqu and Dylligraphy. With their help I will show you the way to becoming the best Gouki player!
Hey I’m Riqu and I’m honored to help write the guide on Goukis. I’ve loved playing control-focused decks since I started playing the TCG many years ago. The release of Goukis into Duel Links has brought a solid core which I immediately fell in love with and I’m here to help you become very successful with them!
Greetings! I’m Dylligraphy and I’ve greatly enjoyed piloting Goukis in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Upon first hearing of their arrival to Duel Links I was brimming with excitement about all the various ways they might be utilized to enrich the game’s competitive landscape. Indeed, they’ve proven remarkably versatile as well competitively viable from their inception. To see and hear of innovations and successes that Gouki players have had and to share them with you is something I am passionate about, so it felt natural that I should help contribute to this guide that I thank you for reading and hope you utilize to crush opponents with Goukis!
Skills
Main Skills
These skills are frequently used in competitive backrow-heavy Gouki decks.
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Balance
This skill will give you a guaranteed monster, spell and trap in your opening hand. It will only activate if there is a combination of at least ⅓ monsters, ⅓ spells and ⅓ traps though, so for example if you run a 20 card deck you would require at least 6 of each card to trigger the skill(most players run 8 monsters, 6 spells and 6 traps). The skill guarantees at least 2 disruption cards if you go first as well as providing a chance to draw Loading... to start locking your opponent out of graveyard-relient plays early on or drawing any of the other tech spells. Loading... and Loading... should be core cards if you choose to play Balance . You will never brick with those cards by not having a tributable monster in your opening hand because of the guaranteed monster this skill provides.
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Endless Trap Hell
What’s better than having self-replenishing monsters? How about having both self-replenishing monsters and replenishing traps? In backrow-heavy Gouki decks, Endless Trap Hell allows you to add a random trap from your graveyard to your hand and shuffle the remaining ones into your deck if you have 3 or more trap cards in your graveyard. This skill has risen in popularity after the 1st Stage KC Grand Tournament as multiple players have been getting positive results with this skill as it provides an additional layer of resiliency that will make your deck hell to play against while taking advantage of the natural synergy that Goukis have with all the traps they tend to play. Most Decks utilizing Endless Trap Hell play at least 10 traps to increase the odds of opening multiple traps and to decrease the chance of opening more than 2 monsters.
Other Skills
These skills are mostly only used in Gouki decks going for KoG.
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Sealed Tombs
Sealed Tombs , much like Loading... can be played without any downside in Gouki decks. You don’t need to play any cards that Sealed Tombs would restrict, making this a one-sided graveyard lockdown. Indeed, the decks capable of out-resourcing Goukis mainly do so by utilizing resources from the graveyard, making Sealed Tombs a natural fit for Goukis to level the playing field against any decks. You’ll want to play cards such as Loading... and Loading... to help trigger this skill. The main reason this skill currently isn’t played in competitive Gouki decks is because Loading... alone usually is enough to lock the opponent's graveyard for the needed turns to win the game. The added benefits by playing Balance or Endless Trap Hell by always being able to start with playable hands or replenishing traps outshine Sealed Tombs at the moment.
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The Tie that Binds
A very generic and all-purpose skill, The Tie that Binds boosts the current board of monsters by x100 ATK for every monster on your side of the field. This can be an important factor in Gouki decks to help clinch lethal damage, as a Loading... tributing itself to boost the ATK of Loading... or vice-versa will otherwise result in 3900 ATK. The Tie that Binds could also be used with Loading... to swing over often-played monsters like Loading... or Loading... or in the case of Loading... to swing over Loading... .