Nostalgia Part 1: Break The Seal!

This article is not beer-related, sorry Q_Q

Now that we have covered the most important Game Mechanics, it's time to relax a little and take a look what truly takes the spotlight in a Card game: The Cards themselves. In further articles, we'll be discussing some Cards, both new and old, mostly talking about their rulings rather than a strategic sense.

With all the legacy support and Duelist Pack: Kaiba on the horizon, it really brings back memories of some really old Cards who never lose their luster for veteran players like yours truly. And what better way to start with one of the oldest and most powerful Cards of the game? I'm speaking, of course, about the Forbidden One, the unstoppable and never-forgotten Exodia. Even when its first anime episode was somewhat cheesy, the image of Exodia blasting away the three massive Blue-Eyes White Dragon, supposedly the most powerful monsters at the time, is a scene anyone recalls and probably praises. After that, Exodia has reincarnated in several forms, mostly with lame consequences -_-

Exodia the Forbidden One itself is a really mediocre Effect Monster. But like its other parts mention, whosoever breaks the seal will know infinite power. This infinite power they speak of is no other than that of a Win Condition, one of the rarest Mechanics in the game, which as its name mentions, grants an instant victory in the current Duel.

The rulings for the Forbidden One are pretty straightforward:

1) The only case in which you can hold all five pieces of Exodia and still remain within the Duel is when you adquire the last pieces during the resolution of an effect that isn't over yet. The most common example is drawing 3 Cards with Graceful Charity, with some of them being the final pieces, but you still have to discard two Cards to complete the resolution of Graceful Charity. If you discard some Exodia pieces, you will not win the Duel. Again, this is the only case in which this happens, as you will see in a minute:

2) If you draw Exodia within a chain, then the Duel is over, ignoring every remaining chain link. For example, if you have very few Life Points, and your opponent activates Ring of Destruction, you can chain Reckless Greed, draw into the final pieces of Exodia, and win the Duel. Even if Ring of Destruction would cause you to lose, the chain stops before Ring resolves.

3) If there are pending Continuous Effects, Exodia is applied before them. For example, if you activate a Counter Trap Card while controlling two copies of Bountiful Artemis, and you only have one Card left in your Deck, you will draw a Card, fulfill Exodia's Win Condition, and win the Duel before the second Bountiful Artemis applies its effect.

4) If there is a lingering effect, Exodia is STILL applied before it. For example, if Deck Devastation Virus will destroy any Exodia pieces you draw into, if you complete Exodia, you will win the Duel before the Virus has a chance to destroy the drawn piece.


Oh yeah. The Forbidden One doesn't care about your fancy rules on how to properly resolve chains Q_Q


There are some more rulings about this mighty behemoth:

5) Exodia the Forbidden One has no effect, despite being an Effect Monster. Its Win Condition cannot be negated by anything. Divine Wrath can't do anything since Win Conditions don't use the chain (and they are not effects!), so not even a deity can face Exodia. Similarly, declaring "Exodia the Forbidden One", or any of its parts with Prohibition won't stop you from declaring a victory, so not even the power of a sign on a pole can face Exodia, no matter how strong you wave it.

6) If both players gather the five pieces at the same time, the Duel ends in a draw. Just because only Exodia matches Exodia. One day it may even have its list of facts. This also means that Exodia doesn't even care about turn player priority. Scary, huh?

In general, Exodia isn't too complicated, despite holding so much power.  The main things you should remember is the "don'ts" rather than the "dos". You do not Summon Exodia to the Field in order to Win, and of course, you do not need any free Monster Card Zones to do so. You do not attack any monsters or players with it, and it doesn't magically gain infinite ATK or DEF. Since Exodia doesn't have an effect, let alone Spell Speed, you do not chain to the declaration of victory, and you definately do not say something like "Exodia is a Spell Speed 4 effect". These may sound silly to some, but they were all common questions when Exodia was more popular, specially with little kids who were often familiar with the fake Exodia Cards that show a complete Level 12 Exodia with infinite ATK/DEF.

Stay tuned for the next part of the Nostalgia article, for some more classic Cards, while we are waiting for Kaiba's Cards. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an e-mail at ness00[at]gmail[dot]com.