
It doesn't brick too terribly. It consistently goes on 5-10 win streaks for me currently in Diamond 1.
As for hand traps, it really depends on what you draw. Psy-framegear Gamma can protect Artilliery Catapult turtle since Turtle's search is chainable only after tribute, and all the other search tech are spells you play before you summon. Crossout helps stop ash + maxx c + gamma + d.d. crow which are all the more dangerous hand traps. You can always opt to rebalance the cards to slot in CBTG depending on personal preference as well if you really want an out to ash+maxx+veiler+shifter.
I should add this deck is built around going 2nd as well, so depending on the match-up and your draw luck it can go either way. It can reliably play through Swordsoul Tenyi depending on how they both built their deck and pilot it, and as with most going 2nd deck versus going 2nd decks that are popular in meta it's really down to who draws the out first and who wins the coin flip.

Sounds awesome, kinda want to get blaster blader but Gaia caught my attention since I'm a former Duel Links player, and also the fact that I don't really like playing floodgates. Glad to hear Gaia is Diamond I worthy

It can hit Diamond 1 but you'll have to be ready to accept grinding for it, and it's fairly expensive due to all the staple UR tech. The Extra Deck can honestly be whatever you want it to be. I built the ED around getting to use psy-framegear gamma as material.
The Gaia Link ED is purely there for Ojama tokens. It's rare, but it's happened once and it paid off lol.