Forbidden One
"Forbidden One", known as "Sealed" (
"Exodia the Forbidden One" is one of the first five Effect Monsters ever to be released and the first card to have an alternative victory condition. The "Forbidden One" cards are some of the most iconic cards in the franchise, being well known for their automatic win condition and Yugi's usage of them during Yami Yugi and Seto Kaiba's first Duel in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and anime.
The archetype received their first support in the form of "Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord" as a Weekly Shōnen Jump promotional card in 2007. While many people refer to the "Forbidden One" cards as "Exodia" cards, the "Exodia" archetype is a separate but related archetype, and the only "Forbidden One" card to be a part of it is "Exodia the Forbidden One".
The "Forbidden One" cards were the only monsters ever specifically mentioned in the rulebooks (other than as an example), due to "Exodia the Forbidden One" being the only card with an alternative victory condition at the time. "Exodia the Forbidden One" is no longer mentioned in the rulebook, as its card text suffices to clarify its effect.
Originally, the complete "Forbidden One" set was extremely hard to obtain, with all five pieces being Ultra Rare; they have since been reprinted in lesser rarities, making a complete set easy to obtain. Often "Exodia the Forbidden One" is printed as an Ultra Rare and the limbs as Commons. Yugi's Legendary Decks prints all five pieces as Ultra Rares, but as a pre-constructed Deck its contents are fixed, meaning that any player that buys the product receives a full set.
Contents
Lore[edit]
"Exodia" was, at first, a beast of such incalculable and intimidating might that he was split up into five distinctive parts, each one of them chained and sealed away by magic from all the other monsters (hence "the Forbidden One"). This way, his power was prevented from ever being used again.
As a result, in the Yu-Gi-Oh card game, there are five distinct "Forbidden One" cards, each one symbolizing a part of the complete "Exodia". In order for "Exodia" to be Summoned, the player must gather all the five parts into their hand. This brings the parts of the "Forbidden One" together, allowing "Exodia" to come forth, his strength being so great that he guarantees the player an automatic win, regardless of the situation.
The effect of "Exodia" makes it one of the most unusual monsters in Duel Monsters; its effect doesn't rely on ATK and DEF or even being on the field at all in order to activate, instead causing an immediate victory when all five cards are assembled in the hand.
In the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and anime, Shimon used Exodia against Zorc Necrophades, against whom he was equal; however, "Exodia" was defeated because he drew his power from Shimon, a single mortal man, whereas Zorc had his own power source.
Origin[edit]
Exodia's backstory and pharaoh-like appearance likely references the Egyptian legend of Osiris, god of death, rebirth, and judgment. In the legend, Osiris was the god Egyptians believed brought them civilization, such as the knowledge of architecture, farming, and establishing the line of pharaohs. However, Osiris was betrayed by his jealous brother Set and was cut into several pieces, which were then scattered across Egypt. Osiris' wife Isis recovered the pieces and brought Osiris back to life long enough for them to bear a son, Horus, before Osiris departed to the Land of the Dead where he became its ruler.
"Exodia" cards[edit]
While the primary purpose of "Exodia" is to declare an automatic win through having all five "Forbidden One" monsters, there have been other methods to using those pieces. The first of these was "Exodia Necross", which must be summoned via the effect of "Contract with Exodia", which possesses the near-invulnerability of the anime version of "Exodia" as long as the actual "Forbidden One" pieces remain in the Graveyard. It gains 500 ATK during each of the player's Standby Phases and cannot be destroyed by battle or by Spell and Trap Card effects. If any of the five "Forbidden One" monsters are not in the Graveyard, it is automatically destroyed. Due to its near-invincibility and increasing strength, it serves as either a trump card that cannot be defeated, or as a backup plan if too many "Forbidden One" monsters end up in the Graveyard.
The next such incarnation was "Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord", which provided an alternate victory condition with "Exodia". "Exodius" can only be Summoned by returning all monsters in the Graveyard to the Deck. When it attacks, a monster must be sent from either the hand or Deck to the Graveyard and it gains 1000 ATK for each Normal Monster in the Graveyard. Should all five "Forbidden One" monsters be sent to the Graveyard via the effect of "Exodius", the player automatically wins the Duel. Since the "Forbidden One" limbs are Normal Monsters, they power up "Exodius" when sent to the Graveyard by its effect, allowing field presence to be maintained, while also contributing to the possibility of an automatic victory. Since its Summoning condition puts monsters from the Graveyard back into the Deck, it allows the possibility of an automatic win even if "Forbidden One" monsters are sent to the Graveyard, and in fact makes it beneficial to send them there again.
In addition, there is "Exxod, Master of The Guard" which greatly resembles "Exodia", though without an automatic win effect. In the same vein as "Necross" being the Zombie counterpart of "Exodia", "Exxod" resembles a completed, though still sealed, "Exodia".
Finally, "True Exodia" provides an alternate win condition for its controller's opponent, as long as the only monsters on the field are itself and 1 each of the 4 "Forbidden One" Normal Monsters.
Anime[edit]
Yu-Gi-Oh![edit]
Duelist Kingdom arc[edit]
In the second anime series, the "Exodia" cards were notable for never successfully being played until Yami Yugi was able to assemble all five pieces during his Duel against Seto Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh! episode 1: "The Heart of the Cards". Afterwards, "Exodia" appeared on the field and launched an attack powerful enough to simultaneously wipe out all of Kaiba's "Blue-Eyes White Dragons", allowing Yugi to win the Duel.
However, in Yu-Gi-Oh! episode 3: "Journey to the Duelist Kingdom", during Yugi Muto's boat trip to Duelist Kingdom, Weevil Underwood threw them overboard to ensure that Yugi couldn't use them for the tournament; despite the best efforts of Joey Wheeler, only two pieces were recovered, but Yugi has never used the "Exodia" cards again.
Battle City arc[edit]
Before the beginning of Kaiba's Battle City tournament, Seeker of the Rare Hunters used "Exodia" to defeat Joey Wheeler and take his "Red-Eyes Black Dragon". In the Duel against Yami Yugi that followed the beginning of the tournament, Seeker was about to draw the "Left Arm of the Forbidden One" when Yugi prevented his draw by using "Time Seal" Later, Seeker was defeated when Yugi destroyed every copy of "Exodia the Forbidden One" in his Deck using "Chain Destruction." Following that, Yugi ripped up the "Forbidden One" cards as they were counterfeits (in the English dub, he did that since the "Forbidden One" cards were marked with invisible ink so the Rare Hunter knew when he would draw one).
Virtual World arc[edit]
Gozaburo Kaiba used an Exodia Deck against Seto Kaiba, and believed that since Yugi had defeated Kaiba with "Exodia", Kaiba would fear it. Instead of collecting the various "Forbidden One" monsters in his hand, Gozaburo sent them to his Graveyard so he could Summon "Exodia Necross"; however, Kaiba was able to overcome his fears and saw the weakness in "Exodia Necross", and so he banished the "Forbidden One" monsters in the Graveyard using "Soul Demolition", and thus rendered "Exodia Necross" powerless.
"Exodia Necross'" effect was marginally different in the anime. It gained a different effect for each "Exodia" piece in the Graveyard. It became immune to Spell and Trap Card effects when the "Left Leg" and "Right Leg" were each in the Graveyard; it became immune to Monster Card effects if the "Left Arm" was in the Graveyard; it gained 1000 ATK during damage calculation if the "Right Arm" was in the Graveyard; and it couldn't be destroyed by battle if "Exodia the Forbidden One" was in the Graveyard.
Dawn of the Duel arc[edit]
Exodia makes one final appearance in Yu-Gi-Oh! episode 216: "The Dark One Cometh - Part 2" as the Ka spirit of Shimon Muran. Shimon had sealed "Exodia" a long time ago away due to its godly strength, but released him to engage in battle with Zorc Necrophades. Despite a strong effort, "Exodia" was defeated by Zorc, because "Exodia" drew his power from Shimon, while Zorc used the power of the darkness. Initially, both of them seemed imperishable, but as "Exodia's" life force was drawn from Shimon, any damage caused to "Exodia" was also caused to Shimon himself, and Shimon, a sole mortal, wasn't able to stand up to the power of Zorc. This allowed the demon to easily cleave "Exodia" in half, killing Shimon in the process.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX[edit]
During the third season of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime, "Exodia" was used by two separate Duelists.
The first was Marcel Bonaparte, who was possessed by the spirit of Yubel, which he used during his Duel against Adrian Gecko. Using the effect of "Mad Reloader", he drew the "Forbidden One" Normal Monsters. He intended to the effect of two "Break the Seal" to send them to the Graveyard and add "Exodia the Forbidden One" to his hand, but at that time, the Sacred Beasts awakened, forcing them to end the Duel.
Later in the season, Adrian discovered the seal of "Exodia" in the third alternate dimension and realized that he must sacrifice the Duel Energy of someone close to him in order to free "Exodia". Adrian decided to sacrifice Echo, whom he loved, but was opposed by Aster Phoenix. The two Dueled and Aster was able to block Adrian from achieving the victory condition of "Exodia" using "Force of Four." Adrian, however, made a comeback using "Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord". Echo willingly sacrificed herself to release "Exodia", and despite Aster coming close to victory, Adrian was able to Summon "Exodia" by using the victory condition of "Exodius".
Adrian later used his Exodia Deck against Jesse Anderson (possessed by Yubel) in order to become the king of the third alternate dimension. Adrian was defeated when his opponent Summoned "Yubel", whose effect defeated him as she attacked "Torch Golem". Adrian would have won during his next turn, as he had four different "Forbidden One" monsters in his hand and was about to draw the fifth, which was placed on top of his Deck by using "A Feather of the Phoenix".
In the anime, the effect of "Exodius" effect was marginally different. It needed be Summoned via "Ritual of the Ultimate Forbidden Lord" and was immune to card effects controlled by the player's opponent. Rather than gaining ATK for Normal Monsters in the Graveyard, it gained ATK only for "Forbidden One" monsters in the Graveyard, and it could only send "Forbidden One" monsters from the Deck or hand to the Graveyard when it attacked.
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's[edit]
In the English dubbed version of the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's anime, Yusei Fudo compared the "Earthbound Immortals" to "Exodia", though he was likely using the size and similar body shapes of "Exodia" and "Earthbound Immortal Ccapac Apu" as his main comparison.
Video games[edit]
Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monster Coliseum[edit]
In Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monster Coliseum, the player could fuse the five pieces of "Exodia" to Summon "The Legendary Exodia Incarnate", the complete Exodia, (but it will be only like a normal fusion piece) with an ability to cause massive damage on the monsters that was in range, that was known by "Obliterate".
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses[edit]
In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses, "Summoned Lord Exodia" could be unlocked in the Library when the player successfully Summoned Exodia, but it was impossible to see him in 3D, and the only available statuses were his Type, which is Spellcaster, and his Attribute, which is DARK.
Recommended cards[edit]
Official Decks[edit]
Changsha Local Tournament Exodia Official Deck (1st Place)
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Changsha Local Tournament Exodia Official Side Deck (1st Place)
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“Silent Magician” + “Exodia” Deck
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Trivia[edit]
- The chance of drawing all 5 pieces of Exodia in the first five cards out of a 40 card deck is 1/658008, if there is 1 of each piece, as there is (5/40 * 4/39 * 3/38 * 2/37 * 1/36 = 1.52*10^-6 or 0.000152%).
- In the TCG artwork, the pentagram seal behind the "Forbidden One" monsters are replaced by "Spellbinding Circle".
