The true reason the “Golbez Deck” is so good

There has been a lot of talk about Golbez from the day the game launched. A lot of players saw the potential in his ability to fill the board with 2-drops and take over the game that way.

It took the a Japanese deck containing no backups to become THE “Golbez Deck” and crown him the King of the (japanese) Meta-Game.



Decklist on FFTCGDB.com

But what if I told you, that the reason the deck is working out so well is not Golbez himself? Or that thinking it was a “Golbez Deck” can even hurt your play?

Why does this deck win tournaments?

In order to understand why this deck is winning so much and is popping up in a lot of international Top-8s, you must consider the tournament-format in which it is played: Best-of-One.

This is a hot button topic for a lot of local communities and there is a lot of debating going on if the respective scenes shall diverge from the official format and play Best-of-Three instead.

But it does not matter what your personal preference is – there is no denying that the main factor the format is influencing is deck building.

A deck played in a Best-of-One environment has to feature more of a “bottom up” than a “top down” design. This means it has to present a more broader gameplan, instead of focusing on a single card or strategy, and going deep on that.

“But isn’t playing Golbez exactly that?” You may ask. And you are completely correct.

And you may have noticed people in your playgroup playing this list and complaining how it does not work. Mostly losing to cards like 5-Yuna, Leviathan, Bahamut and Unblockables.

Those are the cards that are really punishing Golbez. You can easily see how the top-down-design would hurt the deck in a Best-of-One format, with no way in reacting to those counters.

So why does this deck win than? Because it is a bottom-up-designed Gilgamesh Tempo-Deck.

How Gilgamesh makes this deck work

If I would have to name the deck, I would not name it a “Golbez Deck”. In it’s core it is a Gilgamesh brew – to be even more precise, it is maybe the best Strongest Sword deck that has been created to far.

Strongest Sword is an amazing ability. For the low cost of just discarding a Gilgamesh (which this deck runs 9 of) and dulling your praetorian, you break any opposing forward. The drawback? You have to reveal and remove the top card of your deck and if you do not reveal a forward, you only deal 3000 damage to the target.

If your deck is running only 2 non-forward cards, the success rate of Strongest Sword climbs to a breaking 96%. And with 9 cards of your deck being Gilgamesh-characters, you are set to draw one to activate Strongest Sword ever 1.5th Draw Step.

So if you think turn-1 Golbez is scary, think about Strongest Sword coming down instead (also costing 2CP less to resolve, which keeping one more card in hand).

This puts you in a really tough spot. If you were only able to play 1 forward per turn, you may never catch up on the board. While Gilgamesh is able to swing in for damage each turn due to being Brave, he is additionally able to break your guy with a mind boggling chance.

But that’s not the end of that.

The other 2 versions of Gilgamesh perfectly cover some unfavorable match-ups. Morphing Time blocks all of the otherwise unblockable forwards of Opus 1 while presenting the opponent with 2 potential damage each turn due to the high amount of Gilgamesh-cards in the deck.

Divider allows the player to play the same tempo-game as Strongest Sword. The price and conditions for it to work are a little tougher (at least in this deck), but as an upside it takes care of cards like Leviathan.

Because this deck need as much cards a possible to be forwards, you get access to a lot of other outstanding tempo-based card like Lightning and Cait Sith.

How Gilgamesh makes this deck work

With the plan to include as many great forwards in the deck as possible it is pretty hard to limit yourself to only one or even two elements. This is where Golbez comes into play. He allows the deck to play otherwise almost unplayable threads like Zidane or blockers like 2-Warrior of Light.

The way Golbez’s auto ability synergizes with Strongest Sword and Divider is a big bonus. Being able to break Golbez at instant speed during the opponents turn makes him even more scarier. Even more so, since you also are threatening to take one of the opponents forwards instead.

Golbez also serves as a combo-like finisher after you have won the early and mid game with your Gilgamesh. Breaking him revealing 2-Tifa and 2-Onion Knight can bring the game to a quick end.

TL;DR

If you have the feeling the all-forward Golbez-deck is lacking, stop playing it like a Golbez-deck, and play it the way it was designed to play: Like a tempo-based Gilgamesh-Deck.

All-outing yourself with a Golbez is a big risk that can be punished by a lot of strategies. Use Gilgamesh to win the early and mid game, closing the game out with Golbez.

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Author Bio:

Prinny first dipped his toe into the pond of TCGs in 2002 when Yu-Gi-Oh! made it’s way to Europe. He has been taken the part of TO, judge and tournament player in several games. Mainly focusing on Magic: The Gathering and the World of Warcraft TCG.