Exchange of the Spirit OTK
The gist of an Exchange of the Spirit OTK Deck is to quickly get as many cards into your Graveyard as possible, before your opponent can fill up theirs, before activating Exchange of the Spirit, and switching both players' Decks with their Graveyards. This decktype is often combined with the Lightsworn-Archetype. Ideally, the opponent will have no cards in their Graveyard when Exchange of the Spirit is activated, so he/she will lose from a Deck Out during their next turn, thus causing a One Turn Kill, though technically, this strategy is viable as long as you have at least one more card than them and don't mill your Deck for more cards (as, by the time you draw your last card, they would've drawn theirs last turn, and will lose during their next turn). Also, Fiber Jar and Penguin Knight work perfectly with this kind of deck, for 2 reasons. The first is because you can put your Deck and Graveyard together after Exchange of the Spirit and acquire a complete Deck. The second being is that if you flick your foe's Graveyard with their Deck, Exchange of the Spirit shall empty their Deck for a Deck Out. This deck is only available for the Traditional Format, since Exchange of the Spirit is banned in advanced format. There are many builds for this deck, but the following are some of the more popular cards used:
Recommended Cards
Monster Cards
- A Cat of Ill Omen
- Fiber Jar (in Traditional Format)
- Morphing Jar
- Magical Merchant
- Makyura the Destructor (in Traditional Format)
- Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
- Chaos Necromancer
- Tsukuyomi (in Traditional Format)
- Destiny Hero - Defender
- Necroface
- Armageddon Knight
Spell Cards
- Book of Moon
- Book of Taiyou
- Emergency Provisions
- Soul Release
- Card Destruction
- Foolish Burial
- Painful Choice (in Traditional Format)
- Reasoning
- The Cheerful Coffin
- Temple of the Kings (in Traditional Format)
- Pot of Generosity
Trap Cards
- Exchange of the Spirit (in Traditional Format)
- Good Goblin Housekeeping
- Sixth Sense
- Legacy of Yata-Garasu
- Fiend Comedian
- Needlebug Nest
Similar to the OTK, the Exchange of the Spirit FTK involves getting 15 cards in your graveyard then activating Exchange of the Spirit on your first turn, and typically using the following cards:
- Exchange of the Spirit
- Reasoning/Monster Gate
- Makyura the Destructor
- The Cheerful Coffin
- Reckless Greed
- And a Deck mostly filled with Spell/Trap Cards.
First, activate Reasoning. This will burn through your Deck and possibly send 15 cards to the Graveyard. Then, activate The Cheerful Coffin and discard Makyura the Destructor. Finally, activate Exchange of the Spirit. Your opponent has no Graveyard, so they are left with no cards in their Deck, and thus they will Deck Out next turn.
In addition to the aforementioned combination, you can also use Future Fusion to summon Chimeratech Overdragon by sending Cyber Dragon and at least 14 other machine-type monsters to the graveyard,thus fulfilling the condition.And at the start of your opponent's turn activate exchange of the spirit.
As an alternative, you can replace Makyura the Destructor and The Cheerful Coffin with Cathedral of Nobles in the OCG. This First Turn Kill also makes use of many Deck thinning cards. Examples include:
- Toon Table of Contents
- Gather Your Mind
- Good Goblin Housekeeping
- Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
- Legacy of Yata-Garasu
- Thunder Dragon
As another alternative, you can replace Makyura the Destructor and The Cheerful Coffin with Tsukuyomi and Sixth Sense. One of the best cards to use in a Deck with Exchange of the Spirit, however, is Necroface, so on the off-chance that your opponent can skip his/her Draw Phases or has a full Graveyard, they shall lose some cards from their Deck and finally Deck Out easily.
Another, but slightly slower, alternative is to use a slightly modified Deep Draw Dragon Exodia OTK deck. Instead of the five pieces of Exodia, plus possible specifics like Dark Eruptions or Monster Reincarnation, run Needle Worm, Exchange of the Spirit, The Shallow Grave and some other similar Deck Out cards. With luck, you can pull this off second turn, by drawing through your Deck quickly, and then Exchanging when your opponent has 3 to 9 cards in their Graveyard, depending on how many Dark World Dealings and Hand Destructions you run.
The best part of running the Deck this way, is that if you already own a Deep Draw Dragon Exodia Deck, you only need to modify a few things to make this work.