As powerful as Exodia is, it’s just so hard to get all of the pieces in your hand at one time. Well I’m here to help with that, by offering some ideas for cards to add into your Exodia deck, so you can obliterate your opponents! The best strategy with the forbidden one is to include enough cards that give you draw power, while not leaving yourself entirely defenseless. This list will include a mix of cards that are great at drawing you more cards, and a few picks to help you keep your defenses up.
15. Royal Magical Library
This card gives a great sense of what the rest of this list is going to be: spells, spells, and more spells. The key to a great Exodia deck is packing it full of cards that give you draw power. If Pot Of Greed ever comes off the banlist (which I don’t think will ever happen) then you bet it’d be going straight into this deck. Royal Magical Library helps you build a bit more draw power, letting you draw an extra card for every 3 spell cards activated. There are two really neat features about this card: first, this isn’t once per turn. If you can get through enough of your deck to play 9 spell cards, then you can draw 3 cards in a single turn! And second, this doesn’t just apply to your spell cards. When your opponent plays spell cards, you get spell counters, and eventually get to draw from their spells too.
14. Shard of Greed
Well we aren’t allowed to have Pot of Greed, so we get the broken version in a discount sale. Shard of Greed is actually pretty similar to Royal Magical Library, allowing you to build up counters and draw cards because of it. Sadly, you actually have to destroy Shard of Greed to activate it. But given that it lets you draw for 2 cards, this adds some great value in any Exodia deck. You get more and more value with each copy of Shard of Greed you have active. If you’re playing 3 copies at once, you can put a counter on each one for every card you draw, allowing you to draw 6 cards! The only disadvantage is that this will take up 3 out of your 5 spell and trap card zones. So make sure you pull this strategy off before you set any trap cards.
13. Magical Mallet
Forget Mjolnir, this is the real magical hammer with power. Well, at least in Yu-Gi-Oh! With this spell you can shuffle away those cards in your hand that aren’t useful right now. The great thing about this is unlike other spells like Card Destruction, you’re not actually losing any resources! Magical Mallet is great if you’ve got a bunch of stall cards in your hand like Swords of Revealing Light, but you’re looking for more draw cards. Or if you’re just one piece away from Exodia and fancy a gamble.
12. Hand Destruction
Here’s one card with a similar vibe to Magical Mallet, but way better. You can use Hand Destruction in a passive way to cycle through your own cards, or in an aggressive way to force your opponent to change up their hand. If you know your opponent has a hand full of great cards, this forces them to sacrifice some of them. This is also a quick play spell, meaning you can do this during your opponent’s turn. Even combine this with something like Crush Card Virus so you can get a read of their hand before you play this, to make sure they’re discarding good stuff.
11. Heart of the Underdog
This is technically more of a deck in its own right, but Heart of the Underdog is powerful when your deck is designed with this in mind. For every normal monster you draw, you can draw an extra card. So the idea is if you just fill your deck with normal monsters plus Exodia, you’ll draw the full set in no time! I’d suggest making those monsters the generic 2000 defense monsters such as Giant Soldier of Stone or Mystical Elf. This is a high-risk high-reward strategy. For it to work, you’ve got to make sure you get to Heart of the Underdog quickly, or else you’ll just have a hand of normal monsters and will be picked off without a leg (of Exodia) to stand on.
10. Dark Factory of Mass Production
It’s well known in Yu-Gi-Oh that no matter how well designed your deck may be, something will definitely go wrong. Something about the best laid plans of Fluffal Mouse and men? Maybe you accidentally discarded a piece of Exodia with Hand Destruction, or maybe you’re in a pinch and had to set the Right Arm of the Forbidden One to prevent yourself from getting beat. Dark Factory of Mass Production returns 2 normal monsters from your graveyard to your hand. So it’s a great safety net to make sure those pieces stay in your hand no matter what. I’d recommend running 3 copies in an Exodia deck.
9. Pot of Duality
In a deck that doesn’t require special summoning (hell, it barely requires summoning at all), Pot of Duality is the perfect way of getting the exact cards you need, when you need them. You can look at the top 3 cards of your deck, pick one, and shuffle the rest back. Although you can’t special summon for the rest of the turn, that really won’t hold you back in an Exodia deck. And unlike other draw cards in this list, Pot of Duality actually lets you pick the card that’s helpful right then and there! The only reason this card isn’t higher up on the list is that it’s a hard once per turn. Meaning even if you draw another copy of Pot of Duality, you can’t play it again that same turn. Exodia decks have a lot of potential to draw your entire deck in one turn, so you’ll want draw spells that you can use again and again and again.
8. Gold Sarcophagus
This card is based off of the box containing Yugi Muto’s millennium puzzle, and boy does it look awesome. They even made a Mega tin based off of this card! The hype is well deserved, and in fact this card is still limited on the ban list. Gold Sarcophagus lets you search for the most valuable card of your deck, and adds it to your hand two turns later. The crazy thing is that it isn’t limited to spells or traps or monsters. You can just search whatever you want! It’s generally a good idea to search one of the Exodia pieces using this card. Just make sure your opponent doesn’t have a Mind Crush lurking… If you can’t be sure, then just add a good draw card. You’ll get the pieces eventually!
7. Upstart Goblin
In any other deck, giving your opponent life points is practically a death wish. Why on Earth would you make your opponent stronger? Well, Exodia decks don’t need to inflict any damage at all to win. So Upstart Goblin acts as a free draw for 1 card. Your opponent could have 15,000 life points and that still wouldn’t be enough to counter the mighty Exodia.
6. Solemn Judgment
I’ve talked a lot about cards that make you draw in the list. But half of the game with Exodia is actually staying alive long enough to draw all the pieces. Solemn Judgment is practically a big old “Nope” card. This guy negates any monster summon (special or normal), or any spell/trap activation. Sure, it costs half of your life points. But like I said before, Exodia decks really don’t care about life points. So you can really go nuts. This card will keep your opponent away from their biggest monsters, or from their strategies to stop you from drawing, giving you more time to summon the Forbidden one. Note: pretty much any of the Solemn cards will have some kind of negating effect (such as Solemn Strike or Solemn Warning) and are also fantastic options to keep your opponent from getting the advantage.
5. One Day of Peace
If you want to win with Exodia, you need to a) stall for time, and b) draw loads and loads of cards. So why not both at once? One Day of Peace lets you draw an extra card, and it prevents you from taking any damage for an entire turn. This means you pretty much don’t have to worry about what your opponent does on their turn. It’s not like they’re going to damage you. Maybe keep an eye out for some nasty spells or traps, but apart from that, you’re good. Sadly, this card has been nerfed in power since it got limited on the ban list. But one turn of protection still buys you loads of time to get all the pieces together.
4. Reckless Greed
Reckless Greed gives you more cards now at the cost of cards later. This may seem like a fair trade off, but we can exploit this generous wording to our advantage. If you activate multiple copies of Reckless Greed in one turn, you’ll draw a maximum of 6 cards. However, you’ll still only skip two draw phases! This means you’re essentially getting 4 extra draw phases. As this is a trap card, you’ll need to set all of them before activating. So the optimum strategy for Reckless Greed is to use all of your spell cards to draw as much as physically possible during your turn, and to keep your spell/trap zones clear. Then end the turn by setting 3 copies of Reckless Greed. A well-planned strategy for a reckless card.
3. Pot of Extravagance
In a deck that doesn’t require an extra deck, this is as close as we can get to Pot of Greed without breaking the Yu-Gi-Oh law. This pot lets you draw a card for every 3 cards randomly banished from the extra deck. So fill up your extra deck with whatever random Xyz, Synchro, or Fusion monsters you may have kicking about, then banish them and draw cards! I mean, where you really going to play that Gaia the Dragon Champion? But just note that once you’ve activated this, you can’t draw cards by any other means until the end of this turn. So make sure this card is the last thing you play, or else you’ll seriously limit your plays. I’d say this is probably the most powerful (legal) Pot card in the game. And would be a number 1 pick if it wasn’t for the whole “can’t draw any more this turn” drawback.
2. Mystic Mine
Being easily the best stalling card in the game, Mystic Mine has been the cause of many rage-quits in modern Yu-Gi-Oh (and I should know, I contributed to half of them). While you control fewer monsters than your opponent, they can’t activate monster effects or declare attacks. The only way to get around this is for your opponent to draw some spell or trap card that can destroy other spells/traps. Which is not so common in modern Yu-Gi-Oh. Putting your opponent on pause like this gives you all the time you need to draw all of the pieces of Exodia, while all they can do it sit back and watch. To maximize the potential of this card, include a few cards like Magic Jammer to protect it from destruction, or cards like Terraforming to search it out as quickly as you can.
1. Ledger of Legerdemain
Arguably the best card for an Exodia deck is the card that draws the best. And Ledger of Legerdemain hits the nail on the head. Released in Cybernetic Horizon, this is the best draw card for decks that can be patient. You can banish the top 3 cards of you deck and add them to your hand in 3 turns. Although this seems like a long time, you can partner this with cards like Swords of Revealing Light (which very conveniently protects you for 3 turns), and then you’d have protection for this long-term draw strategy! Combine Ledger with Mystic Mine (which can protect you for potentially the entire game), and that’s when this card delivers absolutely insane value. If Konami made a card that let you draw 3 straight-up it would be banned instantly. But for an Exodia deck where waiting isn’t a huge problem, Ledger of Legerdemain is certainly the next best thing.
