What if Weevil had never thrown the Exodia cards overboard? How would that have changed Yugi’s Duels throughout the course of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series? When all is said and done, the results of those Duels likely wouldn’t have changed at all, but the evolution of the Deck Yugi received from his grandfather might have gone down an entirely different route…

In this version of history, Yugi gives the Rare Hunter a taste of his own medicine with The Legendary Exodia Incarnate and Obliterate!!! – two brand new cards you’ll only find in Legendary Decks II. Obliterate!!! is a Continuous Trap that lets you bounce a monster on the field back to the hand each turn by sending “Exodia” cards or “Forbidden One” monsters from your hand or Deck to the Graveyard. If Obliterate!!! is sent from the Spell & Trap Zone to the Graveyard, you get to retrieve a “Forbidden One” monster or “Exodia” card from your Graveyard to your hand. You can’t use both effects in the same turn, however, so a genius Duelist like Kaiba could probably find a way to circumvent these effects and strand Exodia pieces in the Graveyard… or rather, he could if The Legendary Exodia Incarnate couldn’t get them back!

The Legendary Exodia Incarnate is Summoned by Tributing 1 “Forbidden One” monster, and it returns a “Forbidden One” monster from your Graveyard to your hand during the End Phase of each of your turns. Its ATK is 1000 times the number of “Forbidden One” monsters in your Graveyard, kind of like a morbid Slifer. While it’s very tempting to simply run it over in battle with a huge monster, you’d better make sure doing so wins you the game because otherwise you might find yourself facing the wrath of Exodia! When The Legendary Exodia Incarnate is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard, you can reveal any number of “Forbidden One” monsters from your hand and draw that many cards. The closer you are to assembling all 5 pieces of Exodia, the more chances you get to draw the pieces that you’re missing, making The Legendary Exodia Incarnate one of the most terrifying monsters ever created!

The presence of Exodia the Forbidden One changes Yugi’s Deck to be more of a lockdown oriented Deck. Swords of Revealing Light was just the beginning, Messenger of Peace and Gravity Bind follow. Dark Magician still plays a big role in the Deck as an oppressive force that enables devastating Spell Card attacks. This Yugi gives in to the Pharaoh’s inner darkness a little more, regularly employing cards like Thousand Knives and Dark Magic Attack, and attempting to suppress his opponent’s Spell Cards with Secret Village of the Spellcasters.

Even with this new dual-threat approach to Dueling, the Pharaoh still loses to Yugi in the end. Fittingly, Yugi’s Silent Magician cards are even better against the Exodia/Dark Magic hybrid version of the Pharaoh’s Deck, as it draws cards more often powering up the Magician more quickly. Unaffected by enemy Spell Cards, Silent Magician LV 8 is able to burn through cards like Swords of Revealing Light to deliver the coup de grace.

They say that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and what is Exodia the Forbidden One if not the manifestation of absolute power? It may be that Weevil throwing those cards overboard was the best thing ever to happen to Yugi and Pharaoh, but none can say for sure.  On October 7^th, you can experience a darker evolution of Yugi’s most famous strategies as part of Legendary Decks II!