Forum:Deck Guide/Exodia

Exodia Guide

By Lappyzard

Although technically they are "Forbidden One" cards, and not "Exodia" cards, most people know them simply as "the pieces of Exodia". As one the oldest Archetypes in the game, Exodia decks have been around forever.

Strengths

Exodia Decks don't care about Life Points, because they use an Alternate Win Condition. This allows them to be reckless with their card choices and not have to focus on what the opponent does. Regardless of what you are playing against, the goal remains the same: assemble all five pieces of Exodia and declare yourself the winner. Exodia decks have more draw power than any other type of deck, and are often FTK decks.

Weaknesses

Exodia decks typically have no defense, leaving them wide open to opponent's OTKs. They rely a great deal on luck and usually have no way to recover if an Exodia piece is Banished, leaving them with no way to win. They also lack consistency.

Card Choices

I'm going to do this section a little differently from my other guides due to the vast number of Exodia decks that one can make. Deck-specific cards will be listed and discussed in their appropriate sections.

Meet the Archetype

• Exodia the Forbidden One Commonly referred to as the "head", this card was one of the first effect monsters, as well as the first to grant an alternate win condition.
• Right Arm of the Forbidden One Exodia's right-hand man, this is one of the 5 pieces you have to assemble.
• Left Arm of the Forbidden One Exodia's other arm, this is another of the pieces Exodia demands.
• Right Leg of the Forbidden One Yep, Exodia needs legs, too. Another piece of Exodia.
• Left Leg of the Forbidden One I'd be pretty unhappy if I was missing an arm or a leg. Make sure you have all five pieces!

Exodia's Library FTK

This deck uses Royal Magical Library and a ton of draw spells to try and draw out the entire deck in one turn.

• Royal Magical Library This is the most important card in Exodia's Library decks. by accumulating 3 Spell Counters on the Library, you can remove them to draw one additional card.
• Summoner Monk You can Summon this card and discard a Spell Card to get the Library more consistently. Beware: you can't use Pot of Duality and this card in the same turn.
• Magical Citadel of Endymion This card is used to hold additional Spell Counters for the Library. This deck tries to draw out in one turn, and the Citadel is once per turn, so use it and replace it as soon as possible.
• Terraforming It's a Spell Card for the Library and it searches the Citadel, thinning the deck.
• Pot of Duality Only run one of this, because it can only be used once per turn. Otherwise, it's great for getting to the card you need.
• Toon Table of Contents Use this card to search itself twice. It gives plenty of counters to the Library.
• Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon This card can optionally be used at the end of the run of Toon Tables of Contents. Get it, and ditch it with Trade-In.
• Trade-In It works with Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon and the level 8 Destiny Heroes.
• Destiny HERO - Plasma / Destiny HERO - Dogma Optionally use these cards with Destiny Draw and Trade-In.
• Destiny Draw Optionally use these cards with the Destiny Heroes and Trade-In.
• Broken Bamboo Sword and Golden Bamboo Sword The Broken Sword is a Spell Counter for the Library, and the Golden Sword becomes a Pot of Greed.
• Upstart Goblin It decreases the size of the deck and gives counters to the Library. Your opponent's Life Points don't matter.
• Momentary Truce Again, you're going to FTK. You don't care if your opponent draws, and this will stop all damage even if they do get a turn, giving you another chance at victory.
• Spell Power Grasp You can only use one per turn, so use it, get the other one, and ditch it as a cost.
• Reload and Magical Mallet Use this to throw cards you need to search instead of draw back to the deck. Don't "hang on" to any cards, just return your entire hand.
• Hand Destruction and Dark World Dealings Ditch cards that you don't need anymore or can't use.
• Double Summon Get an extra Library out to draw more cards.
• Other Draw Spells Remember that the objective is to draw your entire deck in one turn. Anything that can't be used first turn or makes you wait, leave out.

Exodia's Library
Monster Cards 3 Royal Magical Library The five pieces of Exodia Spell Cards 3 Magical Citadel of Endymion 1-3 Terraforming Any other Draw Spells Trap Cards None. Do NOT run Traps in this deck.

Dragon's Library FTK

Similar to Exodia's Library, this deck includes Dragon-Type monsters for more Draw Power. In addition to the cards listed under Exodia's Library:

• Blue-Eyes White Dragon Use this with Trade-In and search it via White Stone of Legend.
• White Stone of Legend Use it with Cards of Consonance and search for Blue-Eyes.
• Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon Use it with Toon Table of Contents and Trade-In.
• Flamvell Guard Use this with Cards of Consonance or as an emergency wall if the FTK fails.
• Trade-In Use it with both Blue-Eyes.
• Cards of Consonance Use it with White Stone and Flamvell Guard.
• Super Rejuvenation The key card of Dragon's Library, this card lets you draw one for each Dragon you discarded or Tributed that turn. If you draw another copy in the End Phase, you can play it to draw right away.

Dragon's Library
Monster Cards 3 Royal Magical Library The five pieces of Exodia 3 Blue-Eyes White Dragon 1 Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon 3 White Stone of Legend 1-2 Flamvell Guard Spell Cards 0-3 Magical Citadel of Endymion 3 Trade-In 3 Cards of Consonance 3 Super Rejuvenation Any other Draw Spells Trap Cards None. Do NOT run Traps in this deck.

The Search For Exodia

This deck focuses on searching the pieces of Exodia to ensure you get them to your hand instead of drawing them.

• Emissary of the Afterlife This card lets you add a level 3 or below Normal Monster to your hand when it's sent to the Graveyard.
• Sangan This card can search any of the Exodia pieces.
• Tour Guide From the Underworld This card is like running 4 Sangans.
• Mist Valley Falcon By bouncing Call of the Haunted or Limit Reverse, you can get a search with Sangan and then set it again.
• Gold Sarcophagus Use this card to search for Exodia pieces quickly, or get Sangan if you need it.
• Dark Eruption Retrieve Sangan or a lost Exodia piece.
• Foolish Burial Send Sangan to your Graveyard early to start searching.
• Magic Planter By sending Limit Reverse to the Graveyard, you can draw 2 and search with Sangan.
• Call of the Haunted Use this to revive Sangan or an Emissary, then bounce it with Falcon to get a search.
• Limit Reverse An unlimited Call of the Haunted that works with Sangan.
• Gravity Bind A Continuous Trap, so it works with Magic Planter. It lets you stall.

Exodia's Veiled Heart

This deck uses Heart of the Underdog and Veil of Darkness along with DARK Normal Monsters to draw Exodia as fast as possible.

• Heart of the Underdog The key card in this strategy, it lets you draw out massive portions of your deck in a single turn.
• Veil of Darkness It functions similarly to Heart of the Underdog, but requires you to discard the monster instead of revealing it, and the monster has to be DARK. Still, having another Draw Spell adds consistency.
• Reload Helps get the Heart to your hand faster, and it's a Quick-Play Spell so you can use it during your Draw Phase if the Heart gets interrupted.
• Hand Destruction Useful for the same reasons as Reload.

Exodia's Veiled Heart
Monster Cards The five pieces of Exodia Lots of level 4 or below DARK Normal Monsters with high ATK or DEF Spell Cards 3 Heart of the Underdog 3 Veil of Darkness 3 Reload 3 Hand Destruction

Appropriately Forbidden

This deck uses Appropriate as a draw engine to get to Exodia.

• Chainsaw Insect A 2400 beater that allows your opponent to draw, triggering Appropriate's effect.
• The Bistro Butcher A less effective version of Chainsaw Insect, but still useful for the purpose nonetheless.
• Destiny HERO - Defender With a very high DEF of 2700, this card is a wall that triggers Appropriate.
• Naturia Ragweed A one-time monster version of Appropriate.
• Dark World Dealings With Appropriate out, this lets you draw quite a few cards.
• Hand Destruction Useful for the same reasons as Dark World Dealings.
• Cup of Ace Regardless of the coin toss result, you draw 2. More if you have multiple Appropriates.
• Appropriate The most important card in this deck, it lets you draw 2 cards any time that your opponent draws by an effect, his or yours.
• Dark Bribe Excellent negation that triggers Appropriate.

Appropriately Forbidden
Monster Cards 3 Chainsaw Insect 0-3 The Bistro Butcher 3 Destiny HERO - Defender The five pieces of Exodia Spell Cards 3 Cup of Ace Trap Cards 3 Appropriate 3 Dark Bribe

Worm/Machine Exodia

This deck relies on Future Fusion to send a vast number of Worms or Machines to summon Worm Zero / Chimeratech Overdragon. The Worm deck also uses Worm Linx and W Nebula Meteorite for additional Draw power.

• Future Fusion Rarely do you see a single card with the ability to thin your deck by so much. Since Zero and Chimeratech have unlimited number of Fusion Material, this card can let you thin your deck by 30+ cards in one turn.
• Gold Sarcophagus To search Future Fusion.
• Worm Linx While it stays face-up, you draw a card during each player's End Phase. Worm Deck only.
• Worm Cartaros To search for Linx. Worm Deck only.
• W Nebula Meteorite This card lets you draw a lot of cards and thin your deck by quite a bit. Worm Deck only.

Deus Ex Machina
Monster Cards 3 Cyber Dragon 3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive The five pieces of Exodia A lot of Machine Type monsters 3 Chimeratech Overdragon Spell Cards 1 Future Fusion 3 Gold Sarcophagus

Worm Exodia
Monster Cards 3 Worm Linx 3 Worm Cartaros The five pieces of Exodia A lot of Worm monsters 3 Worm Zero Spell Cards 1 Future Fusion 3 Gold Sarcophagus Trap Cards 3 W Nebula Meteorite

Infinite Draw Loop

There are a number of Draw loops that can be done. For a near-complete listing, see Exodia OTK. There are too many to list here, so for an idea of how to build a Loop Deck, check out BobaFett2's Loop Guide.