They say his arrival heralded by a fanfare of brass instruments.
Exodia Mage is a Mage Combo deck whose win condition uses Archmage Antonidas, four Sorcerer's Apprentices, and any spell to gain a Fireball off of Antonidas, creating an infinite loop of 0-mana Fireballs to achieve a one-turn-kill combo.
This combo has existed before the Standard year, but was much more difficult to achieve. The old method required two copies of Sorcerer's Apprentice and two copies of Echo of Medivh for the first step, followed by Emperor Thaurissan reducing the cost of all five combo pieces. Exodia Mage returned to Standard format with Open the Waygate and Molten Reflection, which created a significantly easier way to achieve the combo. Kobolds and Catacombs created a new variation of a questless Exodia Mage, with the addition of Leyline Manipulator and Simulacrum from the previous expansion. Another version of Exodia Mage that was made available with Luna's Pocket Galaxy, where its only requirement is to play it with Antonidas in your deck, creating much more room for other cards in your deck.
Starting from the Year of the Dragon, no reliable combos on Standard exist at the moment. The quest version of Exodia Mage remains popular in Wild due to being able to easily complete its quest with Mana Cyclone, as well as being able to take two extra turns with Archmage Vargoth. The deck's ability to create significant tempo pressure has even caused some Quest Mage decks to forego Antonidas as the prime win condition for giants instead.
Its name comes from the Yu-Gi-Oh! card Exodia the Forbidden One, an iconic alternate win condition card that, like Exodia Mage, requires five pieces—the original Exodia requires the head and four limbs, while Exodia Mage requires Antonidas and four Sorcerer's Apprentices.
How To[]
Exodia Mage comes in two versions: Quest version and questless version.
Quest Mage requires the following steps:
- Complete Open the Waygate and get Time Warp.
- Put 4 Sorcerer's Apprentices on the board. Extra copies can be created with Molten Reflection or Simulacrum.
- Play Time Warp and end your turn. It should cost 1 mana after discounts.
- Play Archmage Antonidas then any spell to gain a Fireball.
- Play Fireballs until your opponent dies (or you run out of time).
- While Antonidas is the favored win condition against Armor-stacking opponents, taking 3 turns in a row by using Time Warp with Archmage Vargoth with an Arcane Giant or two is often enough to win the game.
Questless Exodia Mage requires the following steps:
- Create two copies of Sorcerer's Apprentice with Simulacrum. You are free to use the other original copy of Sorcerer's Apprentice.
- Play Leyline Manipulator to reduce the copied Sorcerer's Apprentices' mana cost to 0.
- Play three Sorcerer's Apprentices and Archmage Antonidas.
- Play Molten Reflection on a Sorcerer's Apprentice.
- Play Fireballs until your opponent dies (or you run out of time).
Alternatively, play Luna's Pocket Galaxy before you draw Antonidas and play him with 2 Sorcerer's Apprentices and 2 Molten Reflections or Simulacrum-copied Apprentices.
Common cards[]
Wild cards that fit well into this deck type: The following cards are usually in the deck.
Core cards[]
The following cards are played in most or all versions of the deck:
Quest build[]
The following cards are commonly played in the quest version:
Questless exodia build[]
The following cards are commonly played in the version without quest:
Optional cards[]
The following cards are played more than occasionally, but not always:
