Why has nobody been able to summon Exodia before Yugi?


In the first episode of _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ , Yugi manages to assemble all five pieces
of Exodia, to which Kaiba says in shock:

> Exodia! It’s not possible! Nobody has ever been able to call him!

<https://youtu.be/RfqNH3FoGi0>

Why was it so tough to assemble Exodia, to the point where nobody had _ever_
been able to summon him? I mean, we see a Rare Hunter do it in the Battle City
arc, without really using the new rules Kaiba created. And given the number of
people playing Duel Monsters, I would think _somebody_ would have tried and
succeeded before, despite the odds.

So why has nobody been able to summon Exodia before Yugi?




Two reasons: Rarity and plot.

Exodia is supposedly the strongest monster and summoning him means you win. In
normal circumstances, summoning Exodia is very hard, and decks that can are
hard to pull it off: You draw a starting hand of 5 cards out of a minimum deck
of 40 cards. This means you need to draw 5 specific cards in the entire deck,
which is roughly 0,00000152 or a 0,000152% chance to pull it off in the
starting hand.

Decks that can achieve win safely by turn 1 need to resort in some sort of
tutoring and drawing out those 5 pieces. Cards that used to help were Pot of
Greed and Graceful Charity, the first drawing 2 cards (a 2:1 ratio) and the
second drawing 3 but forcing you to discard 2 (1:1 ratio), yet they were both
way too powerful and eventually got banned, forcing Exodia to be a random
winning condition for certain rare decks.

And that's only if you actually OWN those 5 pieces. The Rare hunter owns
counterfeits, and the other owners of the cards opt for other ways to use
them, such as Exodia Necross.

The difficulty alone is why Yugi was most likely the first person in the
future world known for summoning Exodia.

The other fact is that it is a plot point. Yugi needs to become notorious in
the card game community by being essentially a rising star that is strong
enough of a challenge for many. This draws more people towards Yugi, like Seto
Kaiba (who was considered the strongest duelist), Pegasus and pretty much
everyone else that challenges him in the series.




Two reasons: Rarity and plot.

Exodia is supposedly the strongest monster and summoning him means you win. In
normal circumstances, summoning Exodia is very hard, and decks that can are
hard to pull it off: You draw a starting hand of 5 cards out of a minimum deck
of 40 cards. This means you need to draw 5 specific cards in the entire deck,
which is roughly 0,00000152 or a 0,000152% chance to pull it off in the
starting hand.

Decks that can achieve win safely by turn 1 need to resort in some sort of
tutoring and drawing out those 5 pieces. Cards that used to help were Pot of
Greed and Graceful Charity, the first drawing 2 cards (a 2:1 ratio) and the
second drawing 3 but forcing you to discard 2 (1:1 ratio), yet they were both
way too powerful and eventually got banned, forcing Exodia to be a random
winning condition for certain rare decks.

And that's only if you actually OWN those 5 pieces. The Rare hunter owns
counterfeits, and the other owners of the cards opt for other ways to use
them, such as Exodia Necross.

The difficulty alone is why Yugi was most likely the first person in the
future world known for summoning Exodia.

The other fact is that it is a plot point. Yugi needs to become notorious in
the card game community by being essentially a rising star that is strong
enough of a challenge for many. This draws more people towards Yugi, like Seto
Kaiba (who was considered the strongest duelist), Pegasus and pretty much
everyone else that challenges him in the series.

