Toki Challenge: Exodia Mage

Hey everyone! For HSTD’s first event, we were supposed to create a Standard deck surrounding a specific Wild legendary that Toki, Time-Tinker  would generate. For this challenge, I decided to use Aviana as the Wild legendary that Toki would generate. From this, we can create an Exodia Mage that would definitely be very satisfying to pull off!

All Cards and Their Purposes

Mirror Image – Early game barrier, and is a good way to start generating Fireballs once you get the full combo down.

Arcanologist – Even though there’s only one Secret in this deck, a 2 mana 2/3 is still good, and even better if you manage to draw the Secret as well.

Doomsayer – Good anti-Aggro card, and a very good draw for Witchwood Piper anyways.

Primordial Glyph – Good way to pull out a useful spell for you in a situation, and another good way to start off the Antonidas Fireball chain.

Sorcerer's Apprentice – Essential part of the combo in order to guarantee infinite Fireballs.

Arcane Intellect – Good way to draw cards for your combo and also in general very good for thinning out your deck.

Frost Nova – Good way to stall a turn from minions on the other side of the board.

Ice Barrier – Even with one copy, it still allows 8 more health, and that could mean the difference in some matchups.

Simulacrum – Essential in copying Sorcerer’s Apprentice in order for Leyline Manipulator to discount for the combo.

Gnomish Inventor – A minion that allows you to draw a card, possibly the most “useless” card in the deck.

Leyline Manipulator – Essential in discounting the Aviana that is pulled out from Toki and also one Sorcerer’s Apprentice from Simulacrum.

Molten Reflection – Essential in copying Sorcerer’s Apprentice in order to cheat out 0 cost Fireballs.

Sandbinder – Good way to tutor draw out Leyline Manipulator, as that’s a very essential part in setting up the combo.

Witchwood Piper – Most of the time, will draw either Doomsayer or Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and even an Arcanologist isn’t even that bad.

Blizzard – Good stall tool and also freezes/damages the board.

Toki, Time-Tinker – The challenge revolves around Toki, of course this card is in here! Otherwise pulling out Aviana wouldn’t work either.

Archmage Antonidas – Wouldn’t be an Exodia Mage deck without Antonidas.

Setting Up The Combo

So what does the combo look like anyways? First of all, let’s go through the prerequisites before even talking about the combo in the first place.

Before the combo is possible, you need to:

1. Play Toki, Time Tinker in order to get Aviana
2. Play one Simulacrum while ensuring that Sorcerer's Apprentice is the lowest cost card in your hand.
3. Play two Leyline Manipulators to reduce Aviana to 5 mana and the one Simulacrum’d Sorcerer’s Apprentice to 0 mana.

From here, the combo is possible. You need to ensure that you have the following 6 cards in your hand though.

1. Aviana (reduced to 5 mana)
2. Simulacrum’d Sorcerer’s Apprentice (reduce to 0 mana)
3. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice you had in hand in the first place
4. 2 Molten Reflection
5. And Archmage Antonidas

HERE ARE THE STEPS! This is very important, as one small wrong move can undo all of your hard work.

1. Play the SIMULACRUM’D SORCERER’S APPRENTICE FIRST. If you play Aviana first, it would become 1 mana instead of 0.
2. Play Aviana second (used up 5 mana at this point)
3. Play the one Sorcerer’s Apprentice (now discounted to 1 mana) in your hand (used up 6 mana at this point)
4. Play the first Molten Reflection (now costs 2 thanks to the two Sorcerer’s Apprentice on board) on one of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. (used up 8 mana at this point)
5. Play the second Molten Reflection (now costs 1) on one of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. (used up 9 mana at this point)
6. Play Archmage Antonidas (used up all 10 mana at this point)
7. Play a spell from your hand (please make sure you have a spell that can cost 0 with all 4 Apprentices before starting this combo!)

And from there, it’s an easy win! I know this deck is really weird, but it was fun being able to work out Exodia Mage if you know you can get Aviana from Toki. Enjoy this guide!