Exodia

The ultimate goal of any Exodia strategy is assembling all five Forbidden One pieces — Exodia the Forbidden One alongside its four limbs — simultaneously in hand, which triggers an immediate victory regardless of the board state. Because this condition demands five specific cards rather than dealing damage or establishing locks, the deck concerns itself almost entirely with drawing and recycling rather than combat.

Several alternate routes exist for duelists who cannot rely on the hand-assembly condition alone. Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord offers a parallel path by attacking repeatedly while sending Forbidden One monsters from hand or Deck to the Graveyard; once all five have been deposited there by its own effect, the duel ends immediately. The Legendary Exodia Incarnate bridges the graveyard and hand by returning a Forbidden One monster each End Phase and can snowball its own ATK as pieces accumulate below. The Unstoppable Exodia Incarnate, a Fusion requiring all five Forbidden One monsters as material, brings a disruptive package of spell and trap negation and sets Exxod or Obliterate!!! cards each End Phase, letting the deck threaten both a board-control game and a combo finish. Obliterate!!! itself acts as an engine piece, shipping Forbidden One monsters to the Graveyard while bouncing opposing threats.

Going first is generally preferable, as the deck needs multiple draw steps to assemble its pieces and is poorly served by early aggression. The four limb cards are Normal Monsters with no effects, meaning hands dominated by them before the combo resolves are largely inert, making consistency tools and recyclers such as Exxod Fires of Rage — which retrieves Forbidden One monsters from Deck or Graveyard — essential to keeping the engine moving.