Gouki Extra Link (June 2018) | The History of Yu-Gi-Oh!

[@Dramatic_Gaming]

I feel like Cimo's Heart of the Cards hands really undersell just how oppressive Gouki U-Link was. This was the format that basically calcified YGO's reputation as the 'go-first-or-lose combofest' game and has pretty much never shaken it off since (not that Konami's design policy has helped much in that departmant).

[@homerman76]

At least we get to see why the decks Cimoo was playing actually stood a chance if things go right

[@Ray_SB]

MBT also played this pretty bad but yeah

[@TheTrueFool]

I remember I was just getting back into Yugioh in summer of 2018 and I downloaded YGOPro. One of the first games I played against was Gouki U-Link. I was so confused.

[@BloodfelX]

@@TheTrueFool Dude! Same here! I was just happy learning about all the cards I'd missed in my years of absence, I particularly took to Igknights for some reason and still have a fondness for them as a "Special Summon my hand" engine.

[@nbassasin8092]

my Boi really is Jaden Yuki in pog, and f""ing Yami Yugi in history of yugioh when it comes to his draws

[@Billy-ot8mk]

The fact that Soul Charge was still legal at this point in the timeline is insane.

[@zdelrod829]

The fact that Knightmare Mermaid was even printed is insane.

[@brycelutz6196]

Both happened, both were nuts.

[@MegaKmon]

@@zdelrod829 The fact that Knightmare Goblin was printed and just adds itself to decks not running it is insane

[@Carlet_S]

at this point? IT STILL HAS ONE MORE YEAR BEFORE IT GETS BANNED

[@IrrelevantOaf]

The fact half of these links exist is insane.

[@Cvit]

The fact that yugioh didn’t die from the formats of 2018 and intact had record setting attendance has me convinced that yugioh could probably survive nuclear fallout like a cockroach and still be played for years to come

[@ryuuohdeltaplus7936]

Pro players love degenerate strategies, that's why they sand by the "YCS attendance is high, yugioh isnt dead!"narrative when locals suffer because of it

[@michaelkeha]

The numbers are always rather telling the YCS and higher level tournaments did well but many a local died a death

[@michaelkeha]

@@ryuuohdeltaplus7936 In most games I wouldn't say it's the pros but rather the wanna bees that will never actually be good enough but can pilot meta to good level (ie the usually pilled out idiots that the good players bulldoze on their way to their next tournament win) that love chokeout strats like this since it means they don't have to think they can just memorize combo lines they got off their youtube

[@ryuuohdeltaplus7936]

Something I learned in the months after commenting here is that while the TCG had record-breaking YCS attendances at this point in time, Yugioh in the OCG almost died because a significant amout of players dropped the game to the point that OCG's profits dropped by almost 50%.

[@michaelkeha]

@@ryuuohdeltaplus7936 ha

[@playapiano666]

I think they should keep playing these formats until MBT is actually able to win one with Gouki.

[@Azkadaz]

MBT had full U-link Game 3, he just forgot to go through Summon Sorc

[@midn8588]

This is fair because holy hell is that card insane and also its lifespan was not particularly long

[@charlesfort6602]

​@@midn8588he also forgot to summon iblee to cimoo field xD

[@infiniteshay8660]

I love how the opening of this episode was "Topologic Gumblar Dragon. In this series both MBT and myself..." because what else needs to be said? That card defined a format.

[@johnnickfanaccount3492]

"i dont have targets for shizuku" >Afterburners

[@zeke7076]

I love that of the new cards shown, 3 of the 4 are cards you never want to see cause you know your opponent is up to something degenerate

[@LazyLee]

This was the first time in my many years of playing I genuinely believed that Yugioh might actually die

[@RisingJericho]

Having watched every single episode up to this point... is it safe to say 2018 might be one of the single worst years in Yugioh's history?

[@Jhawk2711]

1000% and it’s really not even close. The only close comparison is probably when DAD priced people out of the game and 2020 because of Covid and because of the decks that were good online.

[@lozdbzmario]

it was absolute dogshit. just pure torture

[@nerfirelia8235]

Yep pretty much

[@BanishforCost]

2018 is when I got serious about playing YGO, and honestly, I felt the opposite. I adored pretty much every format from 2018 to present day.

[@MsMiDC]

I dont think 2020 was that terrible of a year for yugioh as a whole to be fair@@Jhawk2711

[@35ether]

Wait, if MBT didn't forget to summon the Iblee on Cimo's side during his combo, maybe game 3 would have been more difficult for Cimo to come back, no ? He would have been forced to make his own Mermaid in the EMZ to free his main zones, but then finding a way to remove his own Mermaid should put him in a really bad spot with only Candina and maybe Engage (if not used to make a Kagari) in hand. :0 Or maybe I'm missing something, if so my bad ! Plus, I don't know if it really matters but the fact MBT also forgot to gain the 1000LP from Upstart against the burn deck is kinda ironic aha

[@raizen4597]

Alex: "lets kick joseph ass" Me: Alex wasnt lying

[@subarashifoundation]

I suggest if people want to see just how ridiculous the U-link is, just search any YCS feature matches in 2018 and you will see the pros combo off into unbreakable boards turn 1. Understandably it's hard to get them off with minimal practice on history here, but you can still see just how ridiculous it can get in G3.

[@metalmario1231]

...im no ycs pro....far from it but like.....even i could have made the u link....but thats just me being cocky

[@nsiderultimaseth]

I love how both Gouki episodes have Joseph lose the roll and Cimo open the absolute nuts. I feel like we really haven't gotten to see how stupid that deck was.

[@ianr.navahuber2195]

0:51 MBT's Deck: Gouki Extra Link 4:13 Cimoooo's Deck: Trickstar Sky Striker Huh, it's basically a VRAINS episode. With Go Onizuka VS Blue Angel after they defeated Revolver / Varis and Playmaker & Ai and took their ace monsters as spoils 7:21 Game 1 14:22 Game 2 18:18 Game 3 22:25 The dragon, the myth, the legend, is finally here

[@ShlomoChoina]

Sky Strikers is and has been an extremely competent control archetype

[@nickschoenherr2238]

I was hoping Alex after game 2 shows MBT Evenly and MBT would of been shocked

[@gqAlysanne]

MBT decided to make Gouki look like a fair deck lol, imagine having one of the strongest links 3 ever printed and not summoning it once

[@glitchmakerygo]

For those who don't know, this Gumblar is NERFED The anime version does all cards

[@aredjayc2858]

And destroys rather than discards

[@michaelgrey1503]

​@@aredjayc2858depending on the matchup, that's potentially worse for the Gumblar player, but not by much.

[@BloodfelX]

@@michaelgrey1503 Discarding your opponent's hand against Dark World though? That sounds disastrous, sure Dinosaur may be able to pop off but Gumblar versus Dark World sounds like self-ownage. ^_^"

[@michaelgrey1503]

@@BloodfelX sure, but destroying your opponent's hand of ships against Kozmo? Sounds pretty disastrous .

[@aredjayc2858]

@@michaelgrey1503 yeah vs dinos it's bad. But just thought I'd add that it's another change

[@NickGNight]

Put this video on in bed last night, and the last thing I remember is Joseph summoning Firewall Dragon before passing out immediately then. What a cool format to live through ...

[@randomprotag9329]

It still surprises me that gumblar even got printed. it was a card that if it did anything would ruin games at best and an entire format at worst. its the kind of card that should have been anime exclusive

[@sakuyabestgirl3418]

Fun fact: it was MORE broken in the anime!

[@MiguelMartinon]

It was nerfed from the anime. If this card is link summoned, co-linked and the extra link is established, send all cards in your opponent’s hand to the Graveyard and inflict 3000 damage. This effect cannot be negated. While this monster is on the field co-linked cards you control cannot be destroyed by card effects.

[@nnnp634]

I haven't played or watched the game during that period so I really don't see why it was considered broken. It sounds fair when I read it (even with talking into an account that you might discard Phoenix Blades) it looked really tame in Cross Banlist Cup, and it looked tame in this match (granted I'm almost sure MBT could've done things differently to win). Maybe if I saw it in something more powerful than Gouki (in absolute terms, not for its time) I would've been convinced.

[@randomprotag9329]

@@nnnp634 Its very simple. its an extra deck monster that handrips 4 cards in an already good deck. for context on why putting an effect on a extra deck monster makes it so much better cowboy was so good that there are very few generic burn extra deck monster. thats with burn a weak effect while hand ripping is broken on main deck cards.

[@munchrai6396]

Hand ripping cards in general are some the worst effects in the series. Even something as weak as Appointer of the Red Lotus is far more disruptive than any boss monster, negate or most floodgates could ever hope to be. I can't believe the new Illusion fusion got one

[@imsrchris2052]

Cimo is going to be running 2 yugioh masochist series this point

[@MarioLopez-xs3vc]

If Trickstar Reincarnation wasn't such a dumb handlooping card that it deserves to stay at 1 forever(fun fact: Labrynth can actually loop this atrocity), there's actually modern tools that potentially make this sort of madness usable to this day, most notably the new Sky Stiker Link-2s and Spright Engine stuff to make pivoting between stategies a lot easier. I'd probably stick to plain Spright Striker by the time Camelia comes out though, assuming they don't butcher Spright even more by then.

[@meetRS268]

i was always a huge trickstar hater, but trickstar skystriker felt like such a well oiled machine at the time. With pure trickstar i always felt like you were at the mercy of your opponent and hoping you drew disruption, the engine itself often times only lead to the equivalent of a set reload for disruption, which is pretty dang bad. But the sky striker engine fixed every single issue, in engine link fodder, and draws to actually dig for hand traps, as well as actually disruption in widow anchor. It felt like the first iteration of heatsoul control, where the engine has a tiny bit of disruption, but a ton of ability to dig for hand traps. we also didnt see it here, but everyone at that time was cheesed by 2+ drones since for some reason you can chain them to each other, and if u went kagari first it was just another free monster. kagari add drones, summon drones, link for knightmare pheonix, pop, activate the 2nd drones, link for unicorn, was so common at that time. boards were torn apart, and its easy to see why drone got limited so quickly. Trickstar sky striker imo was the first brickless inevitability, no equips, no scales, no mandatory 2 card combos, you either drew engine or disruption.

[@janjan-xr2qi]

You cannot comprehend the joy I felt seeing Gouki lose those games

[@sterlingholben7990]

As someone who knows nothing about this format it was an absolute heart attack seeing MARAUDING CAPTAIN in Gouki.

[@nakofan]

Well there was a misplay on turn 2could have done chain link 1 add from bear the bat, chain link 2 add scorpio woth isollde. Even if cimo were to ash the sp summon from isolde could get bat on the field and get rematch, link to summon sorc and continue combo

[@lilsunny7399]

Gumblar: "I am one of the most bs cards in the history of the game, nobody likes me and i'm almost unstoppable going first!" Cimo: haha. Mecha Waifus go brrr

[@whateverdot]

He had full combo and follow up but by now we all knew he was gonna miss some steps. Crazy format tho

[@cascada5200]

00:55 Deck List / Breakdown 08:45 Duels

[@whambamduel]

I'll never forget how expensive ash used to be for such a powerful card. Even after the Soulburner structure where it got printed, it was still expensive.

[@yungcobalt]

How much was Ash at it's peak in 2018?

[@ipodtouch470]

@@yungcobalt 80 bucks

[@munchrai6396]

You know I was going to talk about how we finally get to see all 4 horsemen of the ruin of MR4, but Cimooo is apparently just way too good at Yugioh for that to even matter. It's really great to see just how flexible full power Sky Striker is to be able to accommodate a maindeck focused deck like Trickstars and it does make me wish that the newer support wasn't so focused on playing the deck pure to get your best extension. Do still love running Sky Striker as a backup to any giant extra deck bungus in decks like Lyrilusc, but this is some premium deckbuilding right here. Regardless, I do think that MR4 has a decent idea at its core of funneling extra deck summons to a single zone, but Konami just could not help themselves and kept pushing the envelope with these 4 incredibly powerful Link monsters in Firewall Dragon, Knightmare Goblin, Summon Sorceress and Topologic Gumblar Dragon. This was made even worse by how hard Firewall Dragon caught Konami off guard because it was the protagonist's ace monster, it made it needlessly difficult to ban the card. This made it would stick around for way longer than most cards of its ilk.

[@kibainuzuka6650]

Gouki is one of my most favorite archetypes which I still play to this day, super fun deck and awesome looking cards!

[@midn8588]

In game 2 they totally forgot that magical midbreaker field has text on it

[@alexYu-gi-oh]

How?

[@SN27671]

I assume xou talk about ash? Midbreaker doesn’t stop ash cause it’s not targeting

[@Dungpie64]

I think he meant the last effect which prevent whoever activated Magical Mid-field from activating field spells

[@UrshifuYaoi69]

This was the format I first played when I got into yugioh. I remember my all my matches at locals getting extra linked game one and two. Every match. I don't know why I stuck with the game after that, but I'm glad I did.

[@MasterQuestMaster]

11:35 Hello? Afterburner?

[@MasterQuestMaster]

I still love these, no matter if the format is bad.

[@squiddy699]

Didn’t MBT forget Iblee in Game 3?

[@michaelaburns734]

Game 1 7:22 Game 2 14:22 Game 3 18:17

[@dbzsongoku1]

Apperantly Shizuku Cant search After Burners

[@MarioLopez-xs3vc]

You can choose not to search, but there's no reason not to(even if it's a brick in the face of midbreaker field, that's one less brick to draw for next turn). You're not allowed to say you have no search targets when you do though, that's a misrepresentation.

[@babykangarootribbiani2766]

cimo really came back that game 3😯

[@frankyquilavafireblast895]

I was expecting that to be more of a bloodbath, but even still, that was, in fact, a game or two

[@MonosEx]

"I fucking hate this game" "I fucking love this game" The duality of man

[@brendanreamer4507]

am I insane or was there a sudden shift in audio quality between the stinger describing the set and the actual intro???

[@yuseifudo6075]

TOSS is getting closer and closer

[@tonyquesnell3401]

This honestly just made it look like Gouki wasn't even that much of a problem

[@nbonasoro]

I'm just happy to see marauding captain in 2018

[@Issala_]

Question: every episode MBT mentions his deck being "comprehensive". What does he mean by that?

[@christopherb501]

I can't believe these words are exiting my brain, but...I can't wait for 2020...

[@BloodfelX]

As a Trickstar simp, really happy to have seen them walk with this game. When I returned to Yu-Gi-Oh randomly in Link format after dropping off at the end of 5Ds, Trickstar and Gren Maju were my favourite decks.

[@thepinms]

Does not matter how broken the deck is when you are facing Cimo.

[@frankwest5388]

2018 is arguably the worst year to play YGO ever and many people speculate that TOSS is only remembered fondly because it followed 2018 and was not as bad, even if it is arguably worse than any format after Halqifiberax got banned in 2021

[@zeemasters7376]

I remember getting my Nats invite with gamblar using hero kid

[@aksshaggy2100]

MBT will literally just shotgun Extenders for no reason, thats great.

[@stiffeification]

Cimo you had a target for Shizuku….

[@itsfort2098]

So was there a reason Joe never used Iblee game 3

[@SpainLord]

i remember getting burned to death by dark room of nightmare+double reincarnation at regionals and then losing to droll reincarnation fun times!

[@NickWuebker]

Watching History these last two weeks has been very interesting and I’m surprised that Isolde has never gotten banned. It may be one of the most bonkers Link-2 monsters in the game. Topologic Gumblar Dragon is also a card that probably should’ve stayed anime exclusive. And the Anime version was even nastier than the version that was printed!

[@nigerianprinceajani]

Without Phoenix Blade there aren't any equips you'd want to run with Isolde that are good in the GYso it really isn't a problem on its own (especially compared to the other broken Link-2s we got during this era).

[@btcfrontier1133]

This is so weird to watch while remembering that gouki was more than 50% of top cuts at this time. All competitive players would tell you it's the only thing worth playing in this format. In these events, gouki really felt unbeatable when playing anything else.

[@marcuscallender6781]

Now THIS is when I started... good times (kinda)

[@11wildy63]

Borreload beats Linkuriboh regardless, because it can activate for -500 on attack declaration FIRST and Linkuriboh isn't allowed to chain. Didn't even need Reincarnation for it :p

[@Carlet_S]

Honestly that extra drones on game 2 was unnecessary. Even if you survive with 200 LP and draw any gouki, the two Lycoris are just holding you at gunpoint, waiting for you to add any card to your hand. Everything kills you, engage, gouki floating, phoenix blade recycling, Isolde on summon, or even just passing.

[@verbalengine95]

Before Runick was banishing your engine requirements Reincarnation hoping they bricked was the play

[@DoctorFalchion]

Could Joseph not have gotten further in game 3 through Summon Sorc?

[@zerozeus3267]

cimo really had the mandate of heaven in this one

[@jcprofit]

We’re so close to toss format Just a few more Gumblar loops and we’ll be there

[@andleepfarooqui7874]

Why didn’t cimo grab afterburners with Shizuku?

[@zacharymoran538]

2018: The living embodiment of go first or lose... unless your Alex Cimo where you just have everything you need to stop that.

[@Omojuze41]

Oh no, we made it to Gouki era.

[@Pikatwig16]

Let's go, Trickstars!

[@iAmFr33man]

bro the iblee bro the summon sorc

[@EddieintheLoop]

I genuinely can't wait for the Tear mirrors and how that will play out, though i know that both MBT and Cimo played a decent amount of tear so i think we'll actually get very good games unlike the first nekroz episode 😂😂

[@stevenashley27]

As a Nekroz lover who played it forever at full power and at Nats that year, that episode PAINED me to watch. They were misplaying so badly. Never played around Trish by doing the Valk + Emeral play. It was tilting to watch

[@salvadorcardenas9317]

Man they're gonna have to practice alot to not dissapoint that episode. Bc I got to say I'm normally really understanding with them not playing particularly well bc theyre busy with other formats and videos, life etc, but Tear is a deck they HAVE to be on their A-game for to showcase why people actually love the format.

[@EddieintheLoop]

@@salvadorcardenas9317 yeah as someone who got my invite to this year's nationals with tear, I will be especially notating everything they do wrong 🤣🤣🤣 if they don't execute at least 1 mill 11 play in the episode when the line is very much in their hands ready to go, then I'll be disappointed. That mill 11 play won me so many games before people really knew of it

[@screamordie1000]

Im still wondering why we never banned Isodle, she heavily enabled a lot of degeneracy around this time. Somehow never touched 🤔 I don't know if its just me.

[@ragedrock5945]

After watching so much history of yugioh it feels so weird that its now gotten to the format I started playing the game in, I had the goki extra link deck.

[@RepMetal]

I remember bringing Gouki to locals and my 1st round opponent was playing BA. They won the die roll and let me go first. U-linked them with Iblee and then they just sat there. Wondering what they were supposed to do. Game 2 they go first because now they see what I can do. Dante set card pass. Drop Mid-breaker Field and do it again. OTK.

[@jacobcoates7987]

So how do these gouki combo's lead to fish learning to synchro summin?

[@Yugiohdeckmaster41]

in game 3 didnt you use iblee if so did i miss how it was taken off of cimooooooooo field and if it was why was it

[@diogopires9000]

11:45- Afterburner can be added

[@s07561277]

Are they playing under two different ban lists? When Trick Striker was a deck, Gouki played invoker/goblin. After they got banned was when proxy dragon was played, but at that time hornet drones had been limited.

[@LDRTrejo]

Shoutout to my one interaction with cimo in June 2018 IRL being me extra-linking him and looping while he watched as his handtraps couldn't save him :) YUGIOHHHHHH

[@FlamingBeefCat]

I like how mbt instant fused to a non link zone

[@Gamemaster13000]

This is why we call him Alex "Heart Of The Cards" Cimoooooooo

[@Benevolent710]

This is a weird episode because Alex’s deck is from June/July WCQ and Joseph’s deck is from the Fall around the 200th YCS. It’s weird because there was banlist in there.

[@charlottespcplayground]

Anyone noticed the F on Infinite impermanence Maybe means final as stops card effects

[@BadCompany1497]

Yeah thats how Sky Trickstar worked, high roll the sh** out of games

[@xthexpunisherx]

I got back into Yu-Gi-Oh during this time and one of my first matches at locals i got reincarnation/Droll'd and I almost quit the game again immediately

[@charlottespcplayground]

At least heroes got looked in another top deck again It's funny how often a hero monster is often used in decks for one reason or another I guess there's a hero anywhere lol

[@dario_gi_08]

thats the Time i started to learn meta.I stoped after a couple of games

[@Tokumastu1]

You can feel the soul leave both of their bodies during this era.

[@23jewfan]

I remember players would just show each other their hands like it was poker and if one person had full combo and the other had no hand traps, they’d just go to game 2.

[@cNogz3]

Ran a rank 4 spam rogue deck at the time I was like 14 heard about master rule four quit after one local with the new rules glad to hear I didn’t miss much while I was away

[@MegaKmon]

Did anyone else notice Knightmare Goblin wasn't in Josephs side deck or extra deck during the profile but he summoned it game 3?

[@cheshirewise942]

😂😂😂

[@silversalamence10]

Joseph's pronunciation of Isolde makes me wanna puke.

[@bongjutsu3489]

I both hated and loved this format while the gameplay was terrible the card art around this time was pretty good you got tough wrestlers cute waifus crazy looking thunder dragons and then there is the whole world legacy set of archtypes while the format was in a bad place almost everyones decks looked amazing.

[@Dwerynith]

only the 3rd ftk of the year Pog

[@kingbushybeard6543]

throw in a lvl one earth tuner to summon off summon sorc and you can also make nat beast with the tuner and suprex

[@MARKNIGHTMAR3]

I hated this deck and the first time I played against it at a locals I was playing cydra, after fusing off his extra link zones and dropping cyber eltanin he called a judge because eltanin sends doesn’t destroy then stormed out when he lost after machine downing me 3 times

[@derekreyes78]

😂😂😂 typical Gouki player in 2018 nice deck doe Cydra w Eltanin is based af

[@MARKNIGHTMAR3]

@@derekreyes78 I was just getting back into the competitive scene and all I had was my cydra deck and blue eyes, and I remember thinking how funny it would be to do that, and I did at my first tournament back

[@derekreyes78]

@@MARKNIGHTMAR3 I woulda love to see that go down, my buddies and I always played rogue or tier 2 type decks in tourneys so we hated tryhards lmao. Between my friends and I we’ve been all sharked at least twice lol

[@EasyCakeMuffin]

Wow Gouki is such a... strong deck

[@metalmario1231]

Wouldnt want to bore people with yugioh history on a series called history of yugioh

[@metalmario1231]

I want to see the gouki variant that uses the codebreaker monsters and powerload ogre