Deck Article of X #7: Exodia Automatic Win Deck

Some cards Yu-Gi-Oh!are sooo powerful that you normally win during the turn you activate them; examples include [Return from the Different Dimension] and [Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End]. Some cards, however, don't even need to activate to make you win! [Exodia the Forbidden One] is one of these.

Exodia the Forbidden One

Effect Monster (Spellcaster / DARK / 3 Stars / ATK 1000 / DEF 1000)

When you have "Right Leg of the Forbidden One", "Left Leg of the Forbidden One", "Right Arm of the Forbidden One" and "Left Arm of the Forbidden One" in addition to this card in your hand, you win the Duel.

... and here are the other pieces:

Left Arm of the Forbidden One

Normal Monster (Spellcaster / DARK / 1 Star / ATK 200 / DEF 300)

A forbidden left arm sealed by magic. Whosoever breaks this seal will know infinite power.

Left Leg of the Forbidden One

Normal Monster (Spellcaster / DARK / 1 Star / ATK 200 / DEF 300)

A forbidden left leg sealed by magic. Whosoever breaks this seal will know infinite power.

Right Arm of the Forbidden One

Normal Monster (Spellcaster / DARK / 1 Star / ATK 200 / DEF 300)

A forbidden right arm sealed by magic. Whosoever breaks this seal will know infinite power.

Right Leg of the Forbidden One

Normal Monster (Spellcaster / DARK / 1 Star / ATK 200 / DEF 300)

A forbidden right leg sealed by magic. Whosoever breaks this seal will know infinite power.

Technically, based on his name alone, this guy should be on the forbidden list. That aside, this is the single most powerful effect in Yu-Gi-Oh! Worse than [Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End], worse than [Fiber Jar], worse then [Black Lust Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning]. Why? Because as soon as you have 1 of each of the above-mentioned cards in your hand you win. No life points; no drawing cards; you just win. Outright. The damn thing doesn't even activate!

You're probably asking yourself: "why don't I see this played more?" Well, the answer is threefold; firstly, each of the above cards is Restricted (1-per-deck); secondly, it's a lot more hard to get the pieces into your hand than you'd think at first; thirdly, and most importantly, they cannot be splashed into a deck because, by themselves, they have very few uses other than minor defence and discard costs.

That means you need to build a deck around it, and that' what I'm going to try and show you now (I haven't played Exodia since before the Ban List came in...)

As always, I'll start with the monsters.

Searching for the Forbidden One

The monsters of an Exodia deck are all about finding the pieces and getting them into your hand. I'll start by analysing the pieces:

Attribute: DARK (all)

Type: Effect Monster (1) or Normal Monster (4)

Sub-Type: Spellcaster (all)

Level: 3 (1) or 1 (4)

ATK: 1000 (1) or 200 (4)

DEF: 1000 (1) or 300 (4)

So, we need to search out 5 spellcasters, all with ATK and DEF less than or equal to 1000, all 3-Star or less, all DARK, 1 Effect and 4 Normal. We also need these effects to add the monsters to our hand rather than our field.

We'll start with 1 of the best searches in the game:

Sangan

Effect Monster (Fiend / DARK / 3 Stars / ATK 1000 / DEF 600)

When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, select 1 monster with an ATK of 1500 or less from your Deck, show it to your opponent, and add it to your hand. Then shuffle your Deck.

When sent from the field to the graveyard for any reason (effect, battle, tributed, anything) you may add 1 of the pieces of Exodia from your deck to your hand. He's restricted with this in mind, but ideally you'll be bringing him back a few times.

Emissary of the Afterlife

Effect Monster (Fiend / DARK / 4 Stars / ATK 1600 / DEF 600)

When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard, each player selects 1 Level 3 or lower Normal Monster from their Deck, and adds it to their hand after showing it to the opponent. The Decks are then shuffled.

A little less useful than Sangan, but we're still going to run 3. The only part this monster cannot search out is [Exodia the Forbidden One] himself.

Now that the searchers are done, I'll add a little more general speed to the deck:

Des Lacooda

Effect Monster (Zombie / EARTH / 3 Stars / ATK 500 / DEF 600)

You can flip this card into face-down Defense Position once per turn during your Main Phase. When this card is Flip Summoned, you draw 1 card from your Deck.

[Des Lacooda] is a reusable version of [Dekoich the Battlechanted Locomotive], but he requires a flip-summon; protect him for as long as possible.

Spirit Reaper

Effect Monster (Zombie / DARK / 3 Stars / ATK 300 / DEF 200)

This card is not destroyed as a result of battle. Destroy this card when it is targeted by the effect of a Spell, Trap, or Effect Monster. If this card successfully attacks your opponent's Life Points directly, your opponent discards 1 card randomly from his/her hand.

Just like in ever other deck, 3 copies of this guy can be something to hide behind while getting the pieces (or, at least, force your opponent's monster removal cards).

... and we've got:

1x Exodia the Forbidden One

1x Left Arm of the Forbidden One

1x Left Leg of the Forbidden One

1x Right Arm of the Forbidden One

1x Right Leg of the Forbidden One

1x Sangan

3x Emissary of the Afterlife

2x Des Lacooda

3x Spirit Reaper

Total: 14

Arcane Powers of the Forbidden One

... or, as they're more commonly known, Spells. These, like the monsters, are designed to speed up the deck and help get the pieces quickly.

Magical Mallet

Normal Spell

Add any number of cards from your hand to the Deck and shuffle it. Then draw the same number of cards you added to the Deck.

Not got all 5 pieces on the first turn? Have another go! It's that simple. I love this card and currently own 3 (which aren't for trade ^_^).

Just so you know, there is a card similar to this called [Reload]. I am purposely not using this because it shuffles your entire hand back into your deck where there may be some cards you want to keep.

Upstart Goblin

Normal Spell

Draw 1 card from your Deck. Increase your opponent's Life Points by 1000 Life Points.

You're going for an Automatic Victory. To paraphrase a certain Wrestling Star (who's currently spending too much time making movies):

The Rock: "Igor, how many life points have you got?"

Igor: "Well, I've got-"

The Rock: "It Doesn't MATTER How Many Life Points you've Got! Because The Rock has all 5 pieces of Exodia in his hand!"

Erm, yeah... it's semi-restricted so I'll run 2.

Dark Factory of Mass Production

Normal Spell

Select 2 Normal Monsters from your Graveyard and add them to your hand.

Older Exodia decks, like mine, ran multiple copies of a trap called [Backup Soldier], which had some problems and, more importantly, had to be set for a turn (like every other trap). This is faster and I'm running 2 (you'll hopefully get them to your hand quicker).

Monster Reincarnation

Normal Spell

Discard 1 card from your hand. Add 1 Monster Card from your Graveyard to your hand.

If [Exodia the Forbidden One] goes to the graveyard, this is the only means of getting him back. Although I'm hoping it won't happen, it probably will and you need to be ready.

The rest of the spell line-up is going to be copied (quite secretly... darn -_-) from the Burn Deck I did last week (you don't need anything different really).

So you get:

1x Graceful Charity

3x Magical Mallet

2x Upstart Goblin

2x Dark Factory of Mass Production

2x Monster Reincarnation

1x Level Limit - Area B

1x Swords of Revealing Light

2x Messenger of Peace

2x Nightmare Steel Cage

1x Premature Burial

Total: 17

[Premature Burial] has been added becaues your [Sangan] and [Emmissary of the Afterlife]s don't care how they die, as long as they do.

Protection of the Forbidden One

We've got 10 slots left for the traps, and, again, it's going to share similarities to last week's burn deck (I swear I gave a lot of thought to the monsters, honest!).

2x Gravity Bind

3x Threatening Roar

2x Thunder of Ruler

1x Torrential Tribute

1x Call of the Haunted

[Thunder of Ruler] is basically 2 more copies of [Threatening Roar] which restrict it's activation to your opponent's battle phase. [Torrential Tribute] has been added because you want your [Sangan] and multiples of [Emissary of the Afterlife] to die. [Call of the Haunted] makes sure they come back for more.

The final version is:

Monsters: 14

1x Exodia the Forbidden One

1x Left Arm of the Forbidden One

1x Left Leg of the Forbidden One

1x Right Arm of the Forbidden One

1x Right Leg of the Forbidden One

1x Sangan

3x Emissary of the Afterlife

2x Des Lacooda

3x Spirit Reaper

Spells: 17

1x Graceful Charity

3x Magical Mallet

2x Upstart Goblin

2x Dark Factory of Mass Production

2x Monster Reincarnation

1x Level Limit - Area B

1x Swords of Revealing Light

2x Messenger of Peace

2x Nightmare Steel Cage

1x Premature Burial

Traps: 9

2x Gravity Bind

3x Threatening Roar

2x Thunder of Ruler

1x Torrential Tribute

1x Call of the Haunted

Not that bad, if I do say so myself. This deck is basically designed to stall until you end up with all 5 pieces of Exodia in your hand (as almost every Exodia deck is) but here's the fun part.

If you:

- 1x Exodia the Forbidden One

- 1x Left Arm of the Forbidden One

- 1x Left Leg of the Forbidden One

- 1x Right Arm of the Forbidden One

- 1x Right Leg of the Forbidden One

- 3x Emissary of the Afterlife

- 3x Magical Mallet

- 2x Dark Factory of Mass Production

- 2x Monster Reincarnation

+ 2x Lava Golem

+ 2x Des Koala

+ 3x Stealth Bird

+ 3x Solar Flare Dragon

+ 1x Magician of Faith

+ 3x Wave-Motion Cannon

+ 1x Ojama Trio

... then you just turn Exodia into a burn deck; as the basic priniciple is the same (stall until you win by effect) and this means you can side-deck into a variation on the basic theme. You can also choose to start with Burn for a tourny and side-deck into Exodia instead. Since your opponent will probably side-deck in their anti-burn cards after the first duel this could end up being a better choice.

Side Deck: 15

2x Lava Golem

2x Des Koala

3x Stealth Bird

3x Solar Flare Dragon

1x Magician of Faith

3x Wave-Motion Cannon

1x Ojama Trio

... and there you have it: an Exodia/Burn Deck. I'll see you next time, ta-ra!