Gouki The Giant Ogre is my new favourite card. It has been the bane of my YGOPro opponents for the last week. Keeping in mind the simplistic, strange choices of deck-builders on YGOPro and its casual status by and large – when I’ve summoned Gouki The Giant Ogre I’ve won all but two games.

It might not be an insane advantage engine or a bonkers boss monster with crazy effects, but what it does for Gouki and what it does against monster-heavy formats is well worth a conversation.

So let’s have a look at the main man himself and just what you can do with him in the deck after his release in Cybernetic Horizon this July in the TCG.

GOUKI THE GIANT OGRE

EARTH/Warrior / Link / Effect

Link Arrows Left LM, Bottom-Left, Bottom Left, Bottom Right, Right

ATK / LINK 3000 / 4

Materials: 3+ “Gouki” monsters

Cannot be destroyed by battle. Unaffected by activated effects from an opponent’s monster whose ATK is equal to or lower than this card’s ATK. When your opponent activates a card or effect that targets this card and/or a monster(s) it points to (Quick Effect): You can make this card lose exactly 500 ATK, and if you do, negate the activation. Once per turn, if this card’s current ATK is different from its original ATK (Quick Effect): You can make this card gain 1000 ATK until the end of this turn.

It’s important to not sleep on Gouki with Giant Ogre after CYHO because in a monster heavy meta our beloved Giant will tank a lot of things and flat out stop the rest. Giant Ogre is a behemoth once it sticks to the field. Master Peace, the True Dracoslaying King can’t remove it nor can the True Draco traps. ABC-Dragon Buster can’t banish it. It glues itself against 60-card decks as their only relevant removal will more than likely be in the side-deck. It is unaffected by the activated effects of anything smaller than it. Don’t target him and don’t try to run him over in battle. It’s just not going to work out for you.

If a monster is bigger than Giant Ogre, you can make it lose 500 attack to negate a targeting effect (I wish it negated and destroyed instead of just negating, but it is Gouki so what can you do.), then you can make it gain 1000 attack if it’s ever at an amount that’s different than its original attack. I’ve gotten it to 5200 with Missus Radiant and Jet Ogre effect and that’ll terrify most people.

Finally – it can’t be destroyed by battle. It once tanked an Ancient Gear Chaos Giant and the following turn I linked it away to make Gouki The Great Ogre to beat over the top of it.

If you can’t get rid of it with non-targeting effects then it’s staying on the field. I’ve had one Giant Ogre live for 10 turns as the opponent desperately tried every effect he could think of to remove it with the options in his Vampire deck.

Mirror Force cards, Dark Hole, Raigeki, Interrupted Kaiju Slumber, Torrential Tribute or monsters with non-targeting removal that have an attack larger than Giant Ogre at the time (relevant because of his last effect) can get rid of it. You need to tribute it off or work around it with generic spell/trap removal to find a way past him.

Considering the difficulties the deck has gone through up until now – as a completely irrelevant force in competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, that’s the kind of potent, versatile Gouki boss monster we needed.

Every other Gouki Link – except for the extremely necessary Link 2s – are fairly irrelevant in the deck now that this has been released. I’ve kept Great Ogre and Thunder Ogre for some niche plays in later turns, but Master Ogre and Destroy Ogre are completely dead to me. Everything is designed around making Giant Ogre and making it fast.

But how do you get it out? Here’s the best of the summoning combos for Giant Ogre and it’s the same as the basic Link-4 plays the deck did before it had Link 4s worth summoning.

Gouki Suprex plus any other Gouki in hand (preferably a floating Gouki)

Normal summon Suprex, special summon the other Gouki

Link 2 into Gouki Jet Ogre

With the two Gouki searches you need Gouki Rematch then grab anything else for follow up (Face Turn, Trainer, etc)

Activate Gouki Rematch, bring the two Gouki back

Link 4 into Gouki The Giant Ogre

That’s not bad for a two-card combo. You still have three cards out of your starting hand to set back-row or have a hand-trap waiting for your opponent and you have a follow up play with Gouki Trainer or Face Turn to revive Giant Ogre. That bit of back-row or a well timed Ash Blossom and Joyous Spring might be enough to win as Giant Ogre and another layer of protection is fairly powerful after all.

You can also go to three-card combos with Headbatt, a discard and a normal summon like Gouki Twistcobra or Gouki Riscorpio but those are less optimal and cost too much in the long haul for you to be in the best position. The release of Gouki Octostretch and Face Turn in FLOD will help dramatically as well as it makes Isolde’s last effect viable with Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade.

But let’s have a look at where I’m at with my Giant Ogre deck and why I wish it was. I’m playing Jet Ogre as I wish we had it in the TCG (maybe Relentless Revenge?)

I don’t believe this pushes Gouki anywhere near meta-relevance but I can see this surprising people in the Tier 2/3 range and potentially stealing locals and possibly a regional. This isn’t as good as the Gouki Troymare deck doing the laps of the OCG either, but I really like Giant Ogre and playing the Troymares all but stops you from getting to them. If you want to splash the Troymares with Giant Ogre it would require some significant deck-building changes such as Junk Forward, Photon Thrasher or Galaxy Worm and a completely different extra deck.

Considering someone just managed a top eight with pre-FLOD Gouki at a 400-man regional, it’s well worth knowing how this deck works. It floats and it beats down the opposition, and there’s every chance with two more seasons of VRAINS left that Go Onizuka will receive some more insane support. It might be wort keeping an eye on Gouki and maybe even throwing a spare five bucks at picking up a core.

The Giant Ogre is just that good after all. Give him a go and see.