Notes & Combos

I wanted to feature Exodia among the DLv. MAX 20-win decks. After a lot of testing, I eventually felt that the htrap heavy approach wasn't working. This deck is rogue by nature, and many of its losses come from the unavoidable brick nature of the deck, combined with htraps often not doing enough going second.

Because of that, I changed my approach and focused more on "silver bullet" cards that can either stop an opponent's turn by themselves, force a weaker end board, or help break established boards. I rearranged the htrap lineup and cut some of the ones that weren't doing that job consistently.

The main change was cutting the deck down to 50 cards. I wanted to see better overall hands, even though the brick chance technically increased a little. If you keep similar ratios, the proportions remain roughly the same. In this case, I replaced some cards with Illusion Gate, Forbidden Droplet, TTThrust, and a 2nd TTT to maximize chances going second.

On paper, adding more starters looks correct because it reduces brick chance, but in practice it means adding weaker or more situational cards. The ratios may stay similar, but the quality of the hands can drop, and I think hand quality matters a lot in the current format given how strong the meta decks are.

My opinion after testing is that even 1 Ankh is enough. To be honest, Exodia is not really the primary win condition of the deck. Going first, it's usually just part of your end board. Going second, it often serves as bait. Opponents can be focused on stopping an Exodia summon and Ankh searches, so they end up spending resources on the wrong threat, while the real plan is usually Fiendsmith closing the game through an OTK.

This approach ended up working well. Fiendsmith and Millennium complement each other well, turning extra bodies into real pressure and OTK potential, because both engines place monsters in the Spell/Trap Zone that can be used with Doomed Dragon.

Statistical Breakdown

• FS Starter (6 cards): 48.74%
• Exodia Starter: 84.68%
• 2 Exodia Starters: 47.61%
• Any 1 Starter: 94.40%
• Any 2 Starters: 70.85%
• 1 Htrap/boardbreaker: 94.40%
• 2 Htraps/boardbreaker: 70.85%
• 1 Brick (8 total bricks): 59.85%
• 2 Bricks (8 total bricks): 17.59%

Millennium has very little grind game, so I think it works best as an all-in strategy. Going second, you want to OTK that turn. Going first, you want disrupt opponent's turn and OTK on turn 3. Long resource games are rarely favorable for the deck.