Instant Win Deck

An Exodia Deck relies upon helping you to:


 * Either obtain all 5 pieces of Exodia the Forbidden One to declare an instant win;
 * Send all pieces of Exodia the Forbidden One to the Graveyard so Exodia Necross can be summoned; or
 * Summon Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord and use its effect to send all 5 pieces of Exodia the Forbidden One to the Graveyard to declare an instant win.

Instant Win
This option can be used with cards such as Witch of the Black Forest, Sangan, Deep Diver and Emissary of the Afterlife to add the pieces to your hand. Toon Table of Contents, Thunder Dragon, Graceful Charity, and Pot of Greed provide deck thinning. Monster Reincarnation, Backup Soldier, Dark Factory of Mass Production and Pot of Avarice can be used to retrieve pieces from the Graveyard.

Thanks to the March 2009 Banlist, Gold Sarcophagus is now Semi-Limited, meaning you can have 2 of it in your deck now.

The cards Level Limit - Area B, Messenger of Peace, Gravity Bind, Threatening Roar, Waboku, Swords of Revealing Light, Wall of Revealing Light, Spirit Reaper, Arcana Force 0 - The Fool and Marshmallon can be used to stall while you gather the pieces. Recruiter monsters, such as Bubonic Vermin and Troop Dragon can both stall and thin the deck.

Spell Stall
Use Disenchanter, Swords of Revealing Light or Nightmare's Steelcage, and Royal Magical Library and another spell counter holding card, to maintain an infinite attack stall while drawing cards slightly faster. Use multiple copies of Disenchanter to gain 3 or more spell counters each turn. By sacrificing a spell counter from your second spell counter card, you would keep adding counters to your library and would draw 2 cards every turn.

Appropriate Exodia
A combo that can be used to get almost limitless cards involves Destiny Hero - Defender, The Bistro Butcher, Chainsaw Insect, and Appropriate. Because of Destiny Hero - Defender, your opponent draws 1 card each of their standby phases, and if you inflict damage to your opponent with The Bistro Butcher, your opponent must draw 2 cards, so if you activate the effect of Appropriate, you can draw two each time your opponent draws. For each Appropriate out you would draw 2 cards per Destiny Hero - Defender, Chainsaw Insect, or The Bistro Butcher on the field, which can total up to 6 cards for each of these monsters if you have 3 Appropriates on the field! Dark Bribe, Dark World Dealings, and Infinite Cards would also help, as well as A Cat of Ill Omen to search out Appropriate. Cup of Ace and Second Coin Toss can also be used here effectively, because even if it causes your opponent to draw 2 cards, Appropriate will allow you to draw cards as well. NOTE: No matter how many cards your opponent draws from a single effect, you only get to draw 2 cards. Some people think they get to draw 2 cards for every card the opponent drew, but they're wrong. Also when your opponent draws and you just activated Appropriate, you cannot draw for that effect. You must wait until he/she draws again before you can draw your 2 cards. This is because when Appropriate was first activated, the opponent had already drawn card(s), therefore Missing the Timing. Another reasonably effective card would be Morphing Jar, which coupled with Appropriate will allow you to draw seven brand new cards. As an additional safeguard, you may also want to include Solemn Wishes to continually increase your life points while Appropriate does it's thing.

Some other cards that are great for an Appropriate Exodia deck, as well as any Exodia deck, are Cyber Valley, which are great for stalling for one turn by ending the battle phase as well as being able to put a piece of Exodia from your graveyard on to the top of your deck by removing it from play as well as any card in your hand. They also can allow you to draw 2 cards by removing it from play with another one of your monsters. Just remember you can only use one of the effects, not all 3. Reckless Greed is also another great card to use. It allows you to draw 2 cards as long as you skip your next 2 draw phases, this card is great to use if you have more than one, therefore you can draw 2,4,or even 6 cards at once and only not draw for 2 turns. The monster Emissary of the Afterlife is also great it allows you to get a piece of Exodia from your deck when it is sent from the field to the graveyard. It only lets you get normal monsters with 1500 or less attack, so you are limited to just the arms and legs of Exodia, but 4 out of 5 isn't bad. The card Hand Destruction is also very good with Appropriate, because it allows you and your opponent to discard 2 cards than draw 2 cards from your deck, therefore with Appropriate you are allowed to draw 4 cards instead of 2. The new Gold Sarcophagus allows you to search your deck for a card, and during your second stand-by phase, it returns to your hand. This gives you a free Exodia piece in 2 turns or an Appropriate if you need it. Some other great stall cards include Gravity Bind, Level Limit - Area B, as well as Swords of Revealing Light. Another good draw card is Upstart Goblin, which allows you to draw 1 card from your deck but your opponents life points increase by 1000. Also use Dark World Dealings, because with Appropriate you draw 3 cards instead of 1, and with Cup of Ace, you automatically draw 2 cards if Appropriate is on the field. Also, Dark Bribe can be handy if your opponent tries to destroy Appropriate, you can stop them and then draw 2 cards. Finally, Magical Mallet allows you to pick and choose cards from your hand and reshuffle them into your deck. You then draw the same number of cards that were just placed into the deck. This is great if Appropriate is used to draw many cards. Then, the cards you don't need can go back into the deck and you can draw for cards that you do need, such as the Exodia pieces as well as draw cards. If these cards are used properly you can go through your entire deck and win in 2 turns!

Loops
Loops to continually draw cards in the same turn can be used to draw all five pieces:

Butterfly Dagger - Elma Loop
Continually equip Gearfried the Iron Knight with Butterfly Dagger - Elma while Royal Magical Library is on your side of the field. This allows you to continually draw cards until you draw all five pieces.
 * This is only available in the Traditional Format due to the banning of Butterfly Dagger - Elma.

Manticore of Darkness Loop
To draw all five pieces of Exodia in the one turn continually tribute a Manticore of Darkness to revive another using their effect, while Card of Safe Return is active. This allows you to continually draw cards until your draw all five pieces. Try it out! Some cards that go great with this loop are Foolish Burial and Infinite Cards. Foolish Burial gets one of the Manticore of Darkness to the grave yard and Infinite Cards makes you not have to discard when you draw.

The Wicked Worm Beast Loop
Use Rescue Cat to summon 2 The Wicked Worm Beasts, then play Card of Safe Return and Dark World Grimoire and make sure you have 5 cards in your hand (or 6 if you have only 1 Worm Beast) due cards like Thunder Dragon. In the end of turn, the Worm Beasts will return to your hand and because of the hand size limit you must discard one card. Discard the Worm and special summon it thanks to the grimoire. Then you are able to draw because of Card of Safe Return. This will repeat until you have all the Exodia pieces.

Heart of the Underdog / Reload Loop
Fill your deck with the five pieces of Exodia, one, two or three copies of Heart of the Underdog and fill it to 40 cards with the rest as NORMAL > Level 4 2000+ DEF monsters. Keep setting your 2000 def monsters until you draw Heart of the Underdog. On your next draw, if you draw a normal monster, you can draw again with the effect of Heart of the Underdog. Keep drawing until you have all five pieces. (You may have to wait two turns to draw all pieces, because Exodia the Forbidden One is an effect monster. Also you may want to throw in 2 or 3 Reloads to give you a brand new hand if you don't have a Heart of the Underdog. Reload is used to get a new hand during the Draw Phase because it is a Quick-Play Spell. However, be wise to when to use Reload, as you do not want to dump back 4 pieces just to get rid of one bad card. Magical Mallet would work just as fine in this situation.

Because this deck is comprised almost entirely of stall monsters, it will have trouble dealing with beatdown monsters with 4 stars and 2100+ ATK, or ones with effects that destroy Defense position monsters. Thus, Gene-Warped Warwolf will come in handy, as its 2000ATK can serve well as a defender, or destroy any unwanted monsters on the field, such as a Goblin Attack Force or Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke, both of which can dispose of your 2000 defenders very easily. Gene-Warped Warwolf stands out due to being a normal monster as well as having 2000 ATK, allowing it to survive all attacks just as well as any 2000DEF monster, which common 1900 Attackers cannot do. Being a normal monster, it can be used with Heart of the Underdog.

Recommended Cards:


 * Soul Tiger
 * Battle Footballer
 * Renge, Gatekeeper of Dark World
 * Charcoal Inpachi
 * Gene-Warped Warwolf
 * Reload
 * Heart of the Underdog

Cyber Valley Loop
With the release of Cyber Valley, a new strategy can be used. Summon Cyber Valley and activate Machine Duplication to summon other two. Activate Spell Economics, remove 2 Cyber Valley from play to draw 2 cards, activate Dimension Fusion to get them back, activate the effect to get Dimension Fusion back, remove two to draw cards, activate Dimension Fusion and repeat until you get all pieces.

Or

Have Dark Magician of Chaos, 3 Cyber Valley, Spell Economics and Dimension Fusion. Have the 3 Cyber Valley and the DMoC removed from play. Have Spell Economics on the field. Activate Dimension Fusion to bring back DMoC and the 3 Valleys. Use DMoC's effect to bring Dimension Fusion back to your hand. Activate the 3 Cyber Valleys effects (For the 3rd Valley use DMoC as the tribute for Valley's second effect)to draw 4 cards. Use Dimension Fusion's effect again and so on and so forth


 * This loop no longer works in Advanced Format due to the banning of Dimension Fusion and Dark Magician of Chaos.

Departed Wanghu Loop
This Loop uses the following cards:¨
 * Destiny Hero - Departed
 * King Tiger Wanghu
 * Card of Safe Return
 * Imperial Iron Wall

During your Standby Phase have King Tiger Wanghu and Card of Safe Return face-up on your side of the field and Destiny Hero - Departed in your Graveyard. Departed is special summoned to our opponents side of the field and you can draw one card by the effect of Card of Safe Return. Then Departed is destroyed by the effect of wanghu but special summons again during the same Standby Phase. This will cause an infinite loop because Card of Safe Return will add an effect, allowing the loop to continue. Repeat this until you gett all the 5 Pieces of Exodia in your hand!

Spear Cretin Loop
The Loop uses the following cards:
 * Spear Cretin (one on the field and one in your graveyard)
 * All-Out Attacks
 * Card of Safe Return
 * Spirit Barrier (not neccesary for the loop but good if your opponent has a high ATK monster and you do not have enough Life Points)
 * one monster on your opponents side of the field with an ATK of 500 or more

Flip Summon Spear Cretin and attack your opponents monster with it.(you can also use The Shallow Grave if both Spear Cretin are in your Graveyard and the Special Summoned monster still attacks due to the effect of All-Out Attacks). Special Summon the other Spear Cretin from your Graveyard and draw one card from Card of Safe Return. The Special Summoned monster is changed to Attack Position due to All-Out Attacks effect and attacks the opponents monster. This will work even if your opponent has a 500 ATK monster and Special Summons it in face-down Defense Position, because it will be shifted to Attack Position by All-Out Attacks. You draw your entire deck and win when you get the 5 pieces in your hand.

Red Ogre Loop
The Loop uses the following cards:
 * Red Ogre
 * Precious Cards from Beyond
 * Ultimate Offering
 * Samsara Kaiser (recommended at least one at the beginning of the loop, you can start even without it, but will be impossible to continue if you don't draw it)
 * Mysterious Puppeteer (not neccesary to start the loop but essentialy to draw it soon, as it will make any Summon costless)

Activate Ultimate Offering and Precious Cards from Beyond then Summon 2 monsters(preferably 1 Samsara Kaiser). Tribute them to Summon Red Ogre. Draw 2 cards from Precious Cards from Beyond, then discard one to return Red Ogre to your hand. Continue this until you get all the pieces in your hand. Essentialy for this loop is to draw soon the second Samsara Kaiser (so that you won't have to tribute other monsters) and Mysterious Puppeteer, to make any Summon by Ultimate Offering costless. Both being Warriors they can be searched by Reinforcement of the Army. If you must discard or use for a Tribute a Piece of Exodia at the stat of the loop, use Monster Reincarnation or Dark Factory of Mass Production to bring it back. Once you can repeat this loop 2/3 times, there will be no problem to finish it. Try it out!

Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins Loop
This loop contains in reusing Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins's 4th effect, while returning it to the hand with Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary. Make sure you have at least 3 Crystal Beasts in your Spell and Trap Card Zone, then Summon Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, placing your 4th Crystal Beast in your Spell and Trap Card Zone. Activate Emergency Teleport and tune Krebons and Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus to summon Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary. Play Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins and activate its 4th effect to draw one card. Use Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary's effect to return the Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins back to your hand and continue this until you draw your entire deck. Note that you need 5 cards in your hand for this loop to work, which is very improbably, so keep in your Deck Dark Factory of Mass Production, as it will make the essentialy +1 in your hand. You can also use Backup Soldier and returrn the pices during your opponents Draw Phase.
 * Note that this loop only works in the OCG, since Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary was not yet released in the TCG.

Archfiend's Oath Loop
This loop contains in reusing Archfiend's Oath's effect, while you have Convulsion of Nature and returning it to the hand with Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary. Summon a Level 4 Tuner and Special Summon a Quillbolt Hedgehog from you Graveyard, then Synchro Summon Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary. Play Archfiend's Oath and Convulsion of Nature and use the effect of Archfiend's Oath to add the top card to your hand. Use Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary's effect to return the Archfiend's Oath back to your hand and continue this until you add entire deck to your hand. Note that the 8000 Life Points will only allow you to draw a maximum of 15 cards, so keep Spell Absorption and Spell Economics in your deck. Also you will lose at least 3 cards from your hand so keep in your deck cards that increase your hand advantage like Thunder Dragon or Ojamagic (Ojamagic works very good, since its effect activates when discarded for Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary giving a +3 in this case). Also use Dark Factory of Mass Production and Backup Soldier if you must discard any of the pieces of Exodia.
 * Note that this loop only works in the OCG, since Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Boundary was not yet released in the TCG.

Frog Rejuvenation Loop
For this Loop you will need:
 * Substitoad
 * DNA Surgery or D. Tribe
 * Super Rejuvenation
 * Any other monster, or a card that can give you a monster to tribute
 * And of course, many Frogs in the Deck

Summon Substitoad, then play any card that can give you a tribute for Substitoad (ex. Brain Control, Instant Fusion, Fiend's Sanctuary, Stronghold the Moving Fortress). Play DNA Surgery (selecting Dragon) or D. Tribe and begin to continually tribute monsters to Special Summon Frogs from your Deck with the effect of Substitoad until the number of tributed monsters is equal to the number of remaining cards in your Deck. Play Super Rejuvenation and draw your entire Deck including the five pieces of Exodia!

Tuner Loop
For this loop you will need:
 * Card of Safe Return
 * Quillbolt Hedgehog
 * Imperial Iron Wall
 * King Tiger Wanghu
 * any tuner monster. Shiba-Warrior Taro recommended.

Summon the tuner monster before summoning King Tiger Wanghu unless it has 1500 or more ATK. Once all the other four cards are face-up and active, summon Quillbolt Hedgehog. It will be destroyed right away, but you can bring it back right away because of the tuner monster. Then you will draw a card for Card of Safe Return. As soon as that happens, it will go back to the graveyard instead of getting removed because of Imperial Iron Wall. Thus, the process will start over again and repeat infinitely until you draw the 5 pieces of Exodia.
 * There is a nearly identical strategy does not require Quillbolt Hedgehog at all, but instead, a second Card of Safe Return and Plaguespreader Zombie as the required tuner monster. This strategy is arguably harder to engage, because the minimum required quantity of Plaguespreader Zombie and Card of Safe Return to be at your disposal and in-use is equal to the maximum quantity allowed in your deck. The only advantages to this strategy are that Plaguespreader Zombie can be searched and summoned by more cards, you need two monsters instead of three, and you can summon the zombie before King Tiger Wanghu even though it is vulnerable to its effect because that's the idea.

Exodia Necross
This option can be used with cards such as Painful Choice, Foolish Burial, and Witch of the Black Forest. Needless to say, Exodia Necross and Contract with Exodia are needed.

The main goal, though is to thin your Deck to make it easier and faster to draw all five pieces. Deck thinners like the Gadget Monsters, Gold Sarcophagus and Different Dimension Capsule are good ideas.

Cards like Necrovalley, The End of Anubis and Imperial Iron Wall are also good options to make the Exodia's parts stay on the Graveyard.Use Spirit Barrier with Exodia Necross so you take no damage.

Along with the release of Phantom Darkness cards like Armageddon Knight, Veil of Darkness, and Dark Grepher can make this deck extremely quick at getting what it needs into the grave

Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord
The recent release of this card creates a completely new Exodia strategy. To summon it you have to return all monsters in your graveyard to your deck. Its attack is equal to the number of normal monster cards in your graveyard times 1000. If you send 5 different cards with "the forbidden one" to the graveyard you win the duel. A possible deck idea could be using Heart of the Underdog and the Ultimate Forbidden Lord. "Mirage of Nightmare" or "Painful Choice" can be used to send many normal monsters to the Graveyard and increase Exodius' attack points but the five pieces of Exodia have to be sent to the Graveyard using Exodius's effect to trigger the instant win.

Another Exodius strategy involves these Cards:
 * Exodius, of course.
 * Nimble Musasabi
 * Level Limit - Area A
 * Ojama Trio
 * Diffusion Wave-Motion
 * Spell Economics (should your Life Points be lower than 1000)

Here is how the strategy works:
 * Deliberately attack a stronger Monster your opponent controls with "Nimble Musasabi" and destroy it. With that Effect, you can Summon two more of the same Monster from your Deck to his side of the Field.
 * When your opponent has three empty Monster Card Zones, play "Ojama Trio" to Summon the Ojama Trio Tokens. This will lock down your opponent's summoning abilities.
 * Activate "Level Limit - Area A" to switch all your opponent's Monsters to Attack Position (since all the Monsters you Summoned are Level 3 or below).
 * Finally, Summon "Exodius" and activate the Spells "Diffusion Wave-Motion" and "Spell Economics" (See above tip).  Since Exodius' effect requires a Monster to be sent from your hand or Deck to the Graveyard, Diffusion Wave-Motion will allow Exodius to attack all your opponent's Monsters in one turn.  Using this card, attack the Musasabis and Ojama Trio Tokens with Exodius.  Send all five Exodia cards to the Graveyard and destroy all the Monsters you Summoned to your opponent's Field for an Exodius OTK.
 * However, there are quite a few things that may go wrong with this method. Any card that destroys the monsters of the player that uses them can still destroy the "Nimble Musasabi" and tokens. (ie. Torrential Tribute) Also, the card effects say they cannot be tributed for a Tribute Summon, but they can still be tributed.

A similar effect that doesn't rely upon your opponent keeping the Ojama Trio Tokens and Musasabis on the field involves these cards:


 * Exodius
 * Waboku
 * Heavy Storm or Giant Trunade (optional)
 * Diffusion Wave-Motion
 * Spell Economics (should your Life Points be lower than 1000)

The strategy works like this:
 * Wait until your opponent has a full field. If necessary, force the situation, using card effects that summon monsters to the opponent's side of the field.
 * At some point during the turn, activate Waboku.
 * If desired, clear the field of spells and traps using Heavy Storm or Giant Trunade, to eliminate the possiblity of traps that activate when a monster is summoned or an attack is declared. If so, remember to activate Waboku before it leaves the field.
 * The rest works the same way as above. Summon Exodius, activate Diffusion Wave-Motion and attack your opponent's monsters.
 * The advantage that this variation has over the use of Ojama Trio is that it doesn't require your opponent to keep the tokens on the field, and the strategy doesn't break down if your opponent swarms the field with monsters before you can pull Ojama Trio from your deck. Instead of relying on your opponent to still have tokens or other weak monsters on the field, the use of Waboku prevents both the destruction of Exodius from battle, and any battle damage you may receive from attacking.