EVERY Yugioh Character Ranked Worst To Best! [Duel Monsters Tier List]

[@TGSAnime]

After watching some other Tier List Videos by creators like Swagkage, I thought I'd try my hand at Creating & Ranking All 100 Duelists From The Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Anime. If you would like to give this Tier List a try I have left a link for you to give it a go and submit it back to me on Twitter if you fancy. The Tier List: bit.ly/3YL37gv Send Your Rankings Here: twitter.com/TGSAnime

[@roninwarriorsfan]

Uh Sam...the first time Rebecca appers is season 1, season 2 doesn't start until Brainwashed Bandit Keith steals Yugi's Puzzle Edit: Also, Joey duels twice in season 5 against: Solomon Muto (and wins), and Zigfried Von Schroder (and loses)

[@thomas2082]

You should have put each character in once at their peek the way you did it makes no sense

[@austingomez9630]

Can we please get Syrus vs Makoto duel breakdown please

[@LifenKnight]

Pyramid of light, he doesn't throw the duel, because Anubis, stops him from destroying pyramid of light.

[@thomas2082]

Joey duled grandpa and zigfried in season 5

[@SpecsTube]

I hope you realise, Sam, you are going to have to and will be expected to do this for every series now - also love how the entire top tiers are just multiples of the main characters.

[@damoclesxiv2292]

One hundred percent requesting a GX one please Sam 🥳🤗

[@filipvadas7602]

I think he alredy figured that. Hence why he specified "Duel Monsters Tier List"* in the title

[@christopherb501]

888% requesting Sevens & Go Rush, please.

[@damoclesxiv2292]

@@christopherb501 might have more luck with 777% 👀🤣

[@kaiser9109]

And at the end all of them put together

[@genemaxwell4]

Some MINOR corrections. Joey is officially 2nd place in duelist kingdom. Not 3rd. Pegasus wasn't an actual participant in the tourney. And then Joey is officially 4th in Battle City. He loses the Battle for the Bronze. That goes to Kaiba

[@PluuusRyan]

Speaking of Joey, he does duel in Season 5 during the Grand Prix filler. Wins against Grandpa, loses against Siegfried.

[@StupidWeb]

​@@PluuusRyan I think Sam completely forgot about that filler arc

[@Spanluver]

Joey sucks he relies on OP luck based ccars

[@Spanluver]

Bro how did you make Tristan a C tier? He’s trash can his ace has like 1K atk cmon

[@MsKeylas]

​@@Spanluver Joey rocks. you dimbo

[@kyuubinaruto17]

About the only issue I have with this list is Odion's placement. Despite basically all of Marik's henchmen, and Marik himself, cheating, they all still lost. Odion played a fair duel, devastated Joey so hard he came within a hair of surrendering, and would have won easily if it wasn't for Marik forcing him to summon the fake Ra. He definitely deserved to be higher up, and I feel he just got dismissed. The only reason Joey won is plot armor, plain and simple, and Odion got robbed of both his rightful victory and a higher tier on this list.

[@mrthereddragon7622]

Completely agree, Odion got robbed here. Were it not for plot shenanigans, he would have rightfully beat Joey even with him using Jinzo which counters his entire trap focused strategy. I also love that part of the anime where he presents 12 locater cards to Marik, 6 for each of them to enter the finals, implying he smashed his way through so many others in the tournament, what a gigachad flex. I would put him at the top of A or possibly even S tier, somewhere around Raphael's level.

[@RobertAngel885]

This man spoke facts

[@mooncalf_4534]

The only reason Joey won anything was plot armour lmao he's useless.

[@cameraredeye3115]

Odion vs. Yami Marik would have been amazing to watch. If he had beaten Joey then the story would have changed, but arguably for the better. For instance, Mai would push Marik into a corner with Odion watching from the sideline alongside Yugi & Co. Marik tries to cheat, but Odion catches him in the act. Furious at this supposed betrayal, Marik tries to use his Millenium Rod to kill Odion, which causes the former's dark side (Yami Marik) to be released. Y. Marik forces Roland to allow the duel to continue, and also warns against any further interference from the sideline. Yugi tries to get involved, but Mai insists on finishing the duel herself. As in the anime, she executes her plan to steal and summon Ra, but is unable to recite the chant to release the god. Y. Marik invokes the chant and regains control of a 5400 ATK Ra, winning the duel. The semifinals would be Odion vs. Yami Marik (Odion's motivation is that he wishes to personally take responsibility for Y. Marik's release and save the original Marik to whom he dedicated his life), and Yugi vs. Kaiba. Odion would push Yami Marik into a corner just like Mai did, but would then get obliterated by The Winged Dragon of Ra despite his trap monsters and Mystical Beast of Serket. Just before he is banished to the Shadow Realm, Odion tells Yugi "you must save Marik, no matter the cost". What do you think?

[@customcardguy]

For sure. Odion is clearly superior to everyone in Tier B, and several folks in Tier A. People like to bring up "Joey would've beat Marik if not for plot armor", but you can say the same about Odion's loss to Joey.

[@coolbird9991]

Tea has a perfect W/L ratio with ZERO defeats, she deserves a tier of her own lol

[@StareachValcin]

Agreed. Téa Gardner is technically an undefeated duelist, and I love her for it.

[@KitsuNerezza]

Tea is the best duelist confirmed.

[@extremelyvividcardgames7890]

She's trash tier 🤣

[@manuelmarce2544]

100% win rate mothafuckas! The power of friendship compels you!

[@WillRennar]

Same with Serenity.

[@cesarsaldivar9127]

23:09 Tea being forced in a life and death situation based solely on her knowledge as a spectator is hilarious

[@adrianawilliams4810]

Literally, Tea is just sitting there like “so this is what I get for being a good friend and cheering them on😑”

[@XXMatt0040XX]

BUT SHE'S NEVER PLAYED DUEL MONSTERS!!! I forgot she won against Nap-- I mean Krump because of Abridged

[@Justaplebxd1998]

Dark side of dimension Yami yugi: -Show up for 1 min -Beat the final boss in 1 turn -refuses to elaborate further -leave truly an sss+ character

[@madeinmeme9688]

-draws the card he needed from it' own deck

[@scizoreon4068]

I think you underestimated Odion and overestimated Noah. Odion qualified for the Battle City finals twice over (he got the cards for Marik) then should have defeated Joey. Noah on the other hand needed use the Deck Master system, used shenanigans and doesn't appear to be the best at Deck building given his inconsistent strategy. Rafael should have gotten more credit for his insane draws (nearly on the level of Atem). No one playing Guardians should be able to do as well as he did.

[@amamiyaharuto8407]

>nearly on the level of Atem That's underestimate statment about Rafael draw luck, he's even more lucky then judai

[@bulbaa2241]

​@sakura san by that logic mai should be ahead of s4 joey and s1 mai above s1 Yugi since she was beating little yugi easily until atem showed up

[@cameraredeye3115]

@@bulbaa2241 S4 Mai was beating S4 Joey solidly until the latter magically got Claw of Hermos in their first duel (Mai never saw it coming then), and in the second she beat him despite CoH. Meanwhile S1 Yugi was barely trying against S1 Mai for much of the duel. Rafael is at LEAST on par with S4 Atem, with a W to prove as much.

[@bulbaa2241]

@@cameraredeye3115 Yugi was trying he just wasn't in the right mind set for that duel and was getting destroyed by mai and the atem showed up and said the anime lets me do this cheating move

[@adrianawilliams4810]

@@bulbaa2241 Well see that was kinda Atems fault . Yugi was (IMHO justifiably afraid ) if what would happen if he allowed Atem to duel and he didn’t want to put Mai or anyone else at risk , so he was having to spilt his consciousness and Focus between Mai and Atem .

[@Erablier]

Joey dueled twice in season 5 during that tournament at the start, and he actually had a real good play during his duel with Grandpa. Grandpa had a card that came back while he had a field spell up and Joey had Giant Trunade plus Premature Burial. So what he did was use Burial to revive Gilford, bounce all spells with Trunade, then use Burial again to revive Goblin Attack Force, crashed Gilford into the monster for mutual destruction then attacked direct with Goblin for game Not only was that a smart play it meant Joey knew the rulings of Burial returning to the hand which most duelist likely didn’t

[@thefonzpart]

And then the episode after Joey’s duel with Grandpa he doesn’t know how chain links work lol

[@tomato2517]

Season 5 is where they started to embrace the rules and begin to explain things more.

[@silvertongue.242_99]

I love to see joey growth as a duelist in the end of the series

[@silvertongue.242_99]

@@thefonzpart 😂😂😂 audience got to be taught somehow

[@filiplucic]

It's funny how a show that had basically no rulings for the game has suddenly started to explain design flaws in real life cards, and how to abuse them

[@buddyzilla4557]

You forget how much season 1 Yugi contributed to the Pegasus duel. Not only did he show massively imported conviction and emotional strength during the duel but he was the one setting up a good deal of the important plays and strategies to overcome the advantage the millennium eye gave Pegasus. The mind shuffle technique was his proposal, after-all and they would hace lost without it. He also was able to not only hold using own in plays separated by the Pharoah and synergies with the Pharoah's moves but even set the Pharoah up for sucess with his own. Yugi showed MASSIVE improvement by the end of this final duel for the season. He was still lesser than the pharaoh but this was a good glimpse of the effects the partnership was having on him.

[@thefonzpart]

In every arc of the manga, Yugi was INTEGRAL to Atem winning in the finale and couldn’t have done it without Yugi Duelist Kingdom was Yugi’s first step of surpassing Atem. Dungeon Dice Monsters was actually Yugi saving Atem after the puzzle was stolen Yugi was able to solve the issue with brainwashed Joey, something Atem had no idea how to achieve. This was shown when Kaiba and Atems ideals clashed, and Atem had no answer on how to fix it. But Kaiba said Yugi was able to give him the answer Against Marik, Atem was stumped on how to save Marik and beat Ra. Yugi reminded him that the player becomes a monster, so that could be his weakness. Even is Ra is a god, it’s still a monster

[@Sulidaire]

​@@thefonzpart Nice way of putting it. Enforces that Atem is Yugi's confidence while Yugi is Atem's heart and anchor to thinking things through.

[@MiruyaYT]

I love to see Season 5 Bakura in S-Tier. I feel like he gets easily overlooked by most people. I agree with most things on the list. Some things I would personally change a bit up would be Dartz to the bottom of SS-Tier. His Deck and Duel was just pure insanity. I would also put Ishizu, Marik, Paradox and Millennium Ring Diva on S-Tier with Pegasus, Noah and Rishid/Odion at the top of A-Tier. I feel like Rishid gets a bit underrated. But thats of course just my opinion. All in all an interesting and cool list!

[@alicepbg2042]

I would actually lower marik. he loses way too often. and then almost loses because of his overconfidence a couple times. he is not that good of a duelist overall. if he's serious from the start he would be, but he messes around way too much. also, ishizu is SS. she can see the future and builds her deck around her opponent with complete knowledge of how the match will go. she can only lose to some greater hax than what she had.

[@hamza361]

I would put Raphael at high S tier or even low SS tier. He is insanely good duelist and the only one to beat yami. Even in the second duel he got him down to 10 LP and only lost because he didn’t attack queens knight (so plot pretty much).

[@clorkmagnus]

Marik mostly relied on people who can’t read ancient Egyptian and hurt them using shadow games which are not very useful against other Millenium users. He is the worst millennium item user especially when the scepter isn’t even register him as the rightful owner. Unlike Pegasus and Ishizu or Yugi who can use the items without it’s trying to find its ex (Kaiba).

[@Deathmare235]

Normal Aigami should be SS tier with yami Aigami top of SS tier

[@17Master]

About Strings - The idea of Yugi's "strategy" was to trap Strings. He was not drawing until he decked out because "haha Slifer gets stronger", it was because Slifer's auto-attack effect forced him to keep to doing it.

[@cauanforte7274]

The point is that even though he is forced into this loop, he only realize it is a bad thing for him when he has no more deck, before that he was like "haha stronger"

[@sirfrancis8732]

you guys are out here debating whether or not Strings was aware of Slifer's crippling weakness while I'm still sitting here wondering whether he was an actual person or literally just a puppet for Marik to stay incognito

[@alicepbg2042]

@@sirfrancis8732 just a puppet. marik was in control the entire time.

[@ViroVeteruscy]

@@cauanforte7274 Marik realized the problem (since he was in control), but there was literally nothing he could about it.

[@crowhaveninc.2103]

@@sirfrancis8732 From what I've gathered, according to the manga, he was actual a murderer (I believe he killed his own parents or something), went catatonic because of the guild and that's why Marik can control him so easily. So yeah, he's basically just a puppet.

[@Gyroark]

The only change id make is promoting Paradox up to S tier probably somewhere next to Dartz. One thing to note is that not only was he going up against THREE godly protags (vaguely battle city Atem, post GX Jaden, final season Yusei) but he ALSO had a massive disadvantage with starting out with only 5 cards in comparison to their combined 15. He still managed to keep up very well with them. Honestly good on him XD

[@adrianawilliams4810]

Well he also got 3 turns for their one and he didn’t have to worry about not being able to place or trap card . This duel is such a good one 😊

[@ktooley]

I think the most accurate thing in this video was him saying “ he was doing pretty good, but he was playing against yugi”

[@igorlopes8463]

I think Marik should've been split into regular Marika and yami Marik. Regular one didn't know the full potential of Ra, and thanks to that his plan to use Ra was to summon it on the field, while Yami Marik, who knew about Ra's full powers, had a strategy summon it from the grave, and he even changed some cards from regular Marik's deck.

[@henri6207]

A couple things that are notable about Bakura In the Manga when he duels marik he only loses due to Marik top decking monster reborn Also in the Manga only he defeats Joey in a very quick duel inside the Millenium World

[@rainbowdragon168]

Atem had a great development from season one to the last season and that goes for the other characters like Joey, Seto but in my opinion Atem had a massive change out of the other characters. He went from dueling with a certain style to almost giving into darkness but then managed to change his ways again with help from his friends

[@Brycen950]

I find it so funny how when sam talks about season 4 he completely forgets the kc grand prix arc just after waking the dragon's lol, like the video lets get that gx video

[@Nameandaddresswithheld]

Already excited for the GX list Also, if I could impose a suggestion, you should do these in chronological order. Maybe not the best idea to cover yugi and Kaiba all the way through the series first, content wise.

[@Chronoflation]

Twist, Solomon is actually one of the best duelists so he purposefully makes unreasonably trash decks just to be able to keep increasing his power level like Goku training with weighted clothes. He thrives on the challenge of making trash decks seem almost viable

[@cameraredeye3115]

That is definitely a good way to boost your skill level. I've done that myself...

[@Deathmare235]

He’s like the professor Oak of the series

[@WoodstockProd]

Joey had two duels in season 5 during the grand championship arc, he beat Yugi’s grandpa and then he lost to the Zigfried. So he went 1-1 there

[@redlox2]

i think the SS and S tier totally makes sense. Even in canon Pegasus noted that Yugi (possibly referring to both Yugi and Atem), Seto and Joey were top three in his opinion in GX (which would watch the end of Yugioh DM). so it makes sense the various versions of the three of them would be most of SS and S-tiers.

[@tomato2517]

Yup, it was the way of the anime directly telling you the powerscaling of the characters The best trio of DM > the best of GX

[@hamza361]

I would put dartz and Raphael in low ss tier , they are so so good

[@gamerookie09]

The KC Grand Championship is part of season 5 as filler. So Joey actually does duel. He duels Solomon and Ziegfried. It didn’t seem like Joey’s desk changed much since waking the dragons, since the KC Grand Championships takes place immediately after.

[@peterattilaradivojevics5645]

Season 1 Yugi is the most OP duelist of all time. He was able to come up with hes own rules AGAINST THE CREATOR OF THE GAME! How do you do that?!

[@FLARE371]

When was he gonna make his own rules?

[@danielsettle3942]

Just gonna say it Kaiba only lost to people wit bs magical items. I would be interested to see how he would duel if he ever got the rod.

[@clorkmagnus]

Kaiba doesn’t need the rod, he made his own rod. You see, he is fine using his technology to cast magic but he won’t bother with the rod because “he” didn’t make it. 😂 And he has a guardian spirit with him, it does help him out of shadow power shenanigans like him vs Ishizu.

[@XXMatt0040XX]

​@@clorkmagnus What's helping him vs Ishizu is the Rod's loyalty acting as a conduit for the Blue Eyes Spirit. He doesn't need them though he is capable of literally pulling Obelisk from the ground and Obelisk was happy to help Kaiba during DSOD

[@louis-stephane1391]

Yugi never used his millenium item against Kaiba

[@sharkshrek4154]

​@@louis-stephane1391 What are you talking about, every time Yugi becomes Atem, he is using his millennium item

[@louis-stephane1391]

@@sharkshrek4154 What you are saying is correct. I was referring to the magical use of the item itself and not just the selection of the contestant. Yugi actively used the puzzle against Pegasus for instance

[@RedDragonForce2]

Note that Yugi’s timeline of events takes place over the course of roughly 3 years. The show would make you believe that these events happen over the course of weeks back to back to back, but not so. I would say at least a few months pass between the first virtual world arc and Battle City. And after Battle City, weeks pass before the Pyramid of Light events. I would say BBT takes place after Battle City Finals, but before Pyramid of Light. Either that or it takes place days before the Battle City Tournament officially Begins as there’s a small time jump between Serenity’s surgery and when she can take the bandages off, and we know Yugi/Yami has the BC Duel Disk during BBT, so it would explain the lack of God Cards. That or Yami never needed to summon them and it takes place after BC finals and before Pyramid of Light. Because it also features Pegasus, who’s recovered from losing his Millennium Eye but there’s no mention of Yugi’s friends, who were around for Pyramid of Light but not BBT. That’s my best guess at least. There’s also Yugi vs Jaden, which takes place after Orichalcos, but before Grand Championship or after Grand Championship and before the trip to Egypt. Remember, there are small time jumps between certain arcs, filler or otherwise. There has to be, otherwise it’s a huge time jump to Dark Side of Dimensions since they’re talking graduation and college and such. Thoughts?

[@Mrcool210]

Bonds beyond time yugi is after grand championship but before dawn of the duel

[@RedDragonForce2]

@@Mrcool210 okay, that works too. Thanks!

[@tomato2517]

@@Mrcool210that would make sense

[@1346528000]

"Yugi’s timeline of events takes place over the course of roughly 3 years" Believe it or not in the Japanese (both the anime AND the duel monsters manga), the entire series takes place over the course of 1 year. episode 1, then one week later Pegasus tournament which canonically lasts 2 days. One or two weeks virtual world, then unspecified period of time (but implied only a few months), battle city. The entirety of battle city including the virtual world and the finals takes place over the course of 6 days. Then immediately after that we have awaking the dragons arc, which lasts a week, then immediately after that we have the world tournament, lasts 2 days, and then immediately after that we have the final season which lasts a day. Then they go to Egypt on a cruise, and immediately have the final duel.

[@cameraredeye3115]

@@Mrcool210 Makes sense since he had cards to turbo out DM and DM Girl that he didn't have access to in prior seasons. Plus he saw no need to throw the God Cards into his deck when DM is his signature card (S5 tells you why)...

[@matthewgarawitz311]

You like Rex more cause he’s not actually a bad guy until s4 and even then he has an actual reason beyond pure revenge or power. Up till then he’s just got some attitude, but could have been a better character like a really knock off of kaibas character arc

[@brolytriplethreat]

Rex is a bit of a jerk in s1-3(think he may have had a cameo watching the Clash in the Colleseum). Which isn't much compared to Weevil's...everything. He doesn't cheat, he doesn't throw cards overboard, he just lays the insults on a little thick at times. Of course, by s4 he's Weevil's henchmen basically)

[@jayd.doubledubs]

Little did we know, Rick with his full dragon deck would go on to work for Konami and eventually design the Dragon Ruler cards

[@XanKreigor]

Most of which then end up on the Forbidden List.

[@cameraredeye3115]

@@XanKreigor They all got banned soon after being introduced and were banned for years after. Only Tempest has come back to tell the tale (for now)...

[@ItsASleepySheepy]

A lot of other people have said what I originally wanted to regarding some of the other characters, so I won't repeat too much, but I did want to chip in and confirm that yes, it's explicitly stated Bandit Keith did only start cheating after Pegasus humiliated him on national US television. Keith became a laughingstock among the DM community and was doing anything and everything to both get his prestige back and get revenge on Pegasus.

[@raymanLENG]

Kaiba DSOD did a Destiny Draw and succesfully call a "forever gone" Obelisk The Tormentor, that alone was just insane. I'd put him above S5 Yugi definitely.

[@Deathmare235]

Nah he only survived against Yugi and aigami cause of plot he could’ve been S tier

[@XXMatt0040XX]

For Obelisk to *willingly* aid Kaiba in that moment is just incredible when you think about how the Gods can be a bit... mean to those who disturb them. *A literal God respects Kaiba.* Plus he has the Divine Evolution design which has grown on me *a lot* since the release of the card.

[@Ramona122003]

@@XXMatt0040XX It is hinted that Atem allowed Kaiba to summon Obelisk to save him. Hint the whole Pharaoh's memories angle. Also helps that Kaiba is a reborn Pharaoh since he was Priest Seto.

[@janehrahan5116]

Obelisk respecting kaiba is even more insane when you remember kaiba sacrificed obelisk. Something that angered him greatly (why he basically screamed out of the card in pyramid of light. He was going for revenge)

[@theCHILLIntrovert]

People always sleep on Yugi (non Atem). He's a good duelist for that time period and the cards available at his disposal. Atem was basically just the confidence and self esteem, which Yugi had to grow into. I have to give you kudos for actually pretty much nailing his ranking (imo). It isn't a big thing but it is slightly annoying that of all the protagonists, he seems to not get enough credit.

[@Deathmare235]

Yugi is overrated he’s only good in the last season

[@theCHILLIntrovert]

@@Deathmare235 Nah, he's good for his time period, he just didn't have the confidence at the beginning. That's one of the reasons he was so good in the last season. It was never and issue of ability, it was always that he was the bullied loser that didn't have the self esteem to take the center stage, so Atem became something of a crutch for him to rely upon. Atem leaving is more about Yugi than anything, that was his graduation into his own. Outside of Kaiba, Yami Marik, Atem, Noah, and the Second Orichalcos duelist, there's not anyone else in the OG series up for that debate that's could even be considered a *definitively* (keyword) superior duelist than him a strategic standpoint (and tbh he's probably better than Noah and Orichalcos guy).

[@Woodenfan]

If you really want a great showcase of Joey as a duelist, read Yu-Gi-Oh! R! He gets some amazing matches in, including a rematch with someone you'd never expect to see. He also _takes out_ one of the God Card equivalents on his own *_and wins._* If you wanted to see Joey do a 100% run of his Battle City bouts, this is the series for you.

[@XXMatt0040XX]

I was a little kid watching as a saturday morning cartoon, so I've only really "read" the manga in small pieces like when I had to... find out what Mai's penalty game was... But I've *universally* seen praise for Yu-Gi-Oh R, and it's real life story isn't "nice" per-say but it's a wholesome one (For people who don't know, and I might have a few facts wrong. R's basically the fourth season, but for the manga. (no orichalcos, this plot was literally impossible in the anime lol its dark.) It wasn't fully made by the creator of the series because of health issues he was having at that point in time, so things got tricky and it simply wasn't in the original manga. He trusted another author with it and it genuinely sounds like the most respectful and faithful thing possible. Yu-Gi-Oh R's manga run finished after the main series')

[@Thelnquisitor]

Joey is interesting because he only seems to be a Great duelist when the moment calls for it. His luck aside his will to win when he needs to seems to be the biggest reason he’s really Great at dueling WHEN he’s great at dueling which isn’t all the time.

[@billykepner4938]

Don’t know if you realize this, but Odion had Joey season 2/3 beat, Joey won the duel because Marik forced Odion to play the fake Ra card and that caused the thunderstorm. Also fun fact, Magnum was 1 duel away from the battle city finals, had he beaten Mai, he’d have been in so he won 6 locater cards so he should theoretically be higher than each duelist who competed in battle city and lost.

[@1Masterevil1]

I wonder what would've happened if the first thing Mai did, once she stole Ra, was to rip the god card in apart? I'd love to have seen Marik's reaction xD

[@jsb6975.ah.crapbaskets]

Ra struck down Odion just for playing a counterfeit card. Mai would not have lived to be smug about Marik's reaction. Hell, Ra might've appeared and killed her before she even made the attempt.

[@cameraredeye3115]

Mai should be lucky Ra allowed her to summon it to the field as a giant sphere. It was a test for her to see if she was truly worthy of wielding it.... And obviously, she failed.

[@sharkshrek4154]

Honestly I always wondered why they didn't just rip the cards instead of hiding them away because as shown from kaiba in season 1, it's extremely easy to do so.

[@buddyzilla4557]

The problem with early Mai is that we don't really ever see her win, except in the Tea duel that she threw. She beat Rex offscreen, but it was when she was cheating. We know she beat other duelist offscreen before facing Joey but was also till cheating. After she started to go straight, she beat a bunch of duelist offscreen as well, but we don't know how many or what skill level they were. There is clearly some credit to her claim she is a good duelist beyond her parlor tricks and she proves this with knowlage of strategies beyond a good deal of other duelist at the time. She is very much a foil counterpart of bandit kieth. They both start off gebuinly competent duelist who still rely on cheating despite this. Keith however, has prestige but seeks vengeance using others as his pawns. Mai simply seeks prestige and feels the only way is to do so at first is independently. In kieths first duel, he uses Bones to do his dirty work against Joey but loses and decides he must go independent after that point. Mai first duels and loses to Joey on her own so does a reverse of Kieth and uses Rex as her stooge to get vengeance on Joey. Kieth only leans harder into his cheating by the semi-finals where Mai has learned to rely entirely on her own skills. Had Kieth not been conveniently disqualified so only the main characters plots needed to be focused on, he and Mia would ahvevhad to duel for third place in the Duel Kindom Tourney. Since Kieth was caught cheating but Mai lost in a legitimate duel, she rose above him and got the third place automatically (remember that Yugi came in first, Joey second and the Pegasus duel was a prize after the tournament, not a part of it.) The first season was less about Mai's Dueling skill/growth and more about her perosnal character growth that set her past Bandit Kieth as a duelist. Had she not had her interactions with the main cast and taken a positive from it, she would have also likly used her cheating methods at the semi-finals, gotten caught by Pegasus and ejected from the tourney. Since this character arch was really more the focus and everything on her actual skillset outside her duel with Yugi and Tea is implied, it is hard to Guage her. It's clear her duel with Tea was never serious despite her claims, and Tea was a newbie, so you can't use that. Her duel with Yugi was impressive, but it also was a single duel, which you can't truly use to estimate the general capabilities of someone.

[@toniyami]

I never realised the parallels between those two, this is amazing

[@anime4you355]

Mai had the best strategies in the whole first anime, like she always jad good duels when she jad them but she only dueled main protagonist so she had to loose

[@Platinum400]

This is such a good analysis. Thank you for this!

[@acebesttheiris134]

I just realized Tea and Serenity are the only ones here who are technically undefeated.

[@kaiser9109]

Took their wins and never chanced it again

[@championblackwolf3388]

It's unspoken, but I think Serenity was traumatized out of dueling. Think about it, every single duel she witnessed was near-deadly (Virtual World, Shadow games, Egyptian Gods' wrath, thankfully her eyes were covered during Joey's deathmatch against Yugi), as an outsider she's seen Mai sent to the Shadow Realm (or nearly killed), Joey almost drained out, Tristan stripped of his soul, and her only duel ever was a deathmatch. Late S2/S3 had normal duels, with normal stakes, but she missed them all. As a non-duelist, being thrown straight through the worst side of dueling would have broken anyone. She was once enthousiastic about learning how to duel to support Joey, but she was never seen again after Battle City and I really can't blame her.

[@1234andrewjacksmith]

I mean tea got her 7 wins since we know she dueled and beat joey 5 times but yeah she just never really got into it like everyone else did she prefers dancing

[@xXSlumpymanXx]

This was awesome! Saying yugi didn’t take Mai seriously in their duelist kingdom Duel made me crack up. My guy was going through a mental breakdown after almost killing kaiba lol

[@kyuubinaruto17]

That's in the English dub. I personally like it, as I think being willing to kill to win SHOULD cause some concerns. In the manga(and most likely the original japanese) little Yugi doesn't even factor into his issues during the Mai duel. His distraction is from being nervous about Pegasus, and he's not focused on the game because he just sees Mai as a speed bump to get there. Also dealing with one of his few loses and how he wasn't willing to accept defeat. Having just watched that duel again today I'm fairly sure they use shots from Yugi vs Pegasus for those "Let me help you." "No I can't trust you." moments.

[@xXSlumpymanXx]

That would make more sense I guess, frickin dub always changing things

[@tomato2517]

@@kyuubinaruto17thank you for being someone who enjoys the dub change to that duel. I loved it. It made more sense to me that Yugi would be fearful Atem and that’s why he would struggle rather than Atem just suddenly getting impatient & anxious when dueling for the first time ever. They have to edit over some parts to make the different interpretation work but I think it does. Yugi just witnessed how far Atem was willing to go for the first time (in the anime) and as a pure-hearted kid he wasn’t willing to kill another person even if it meant he may lose the chance to save his grandpa. Even if Atem was trying to help it still is a huge weight to put on Yugi’s conscious and I like that the dub didn’t just skip past that part. Their struggle gave them a good character development moment that happened in the manga before duelist kingdom but didn’t happen yet in the anime until the dub interpreted the story.

[@YuuSHiiiN]

Alister and Ziegfried are underrated imo. Alister used a mixed Pegasus Toon/his own deck in his first duel against Kaiba, managed to steal two of Kaiba's Blue Eyes with his Gorlag and temporarily turn the duel around in his favor after throwing off his Pegasus disguise. He even managed to force a draw after Kaiba magically got and used the "Fang of Critias". He even performed pretty well in their second duel using a slightly underpowered deck. On the other hand, Ziegfried beat both Weavil and Rex in one turn, beat Joey in a straight up legit duel, and went toe to toe with Kaiba until of course, the "3 Blue Eyes" plot armor( + Chaos Emperor Dragon) kicks in.

[@Thelnquisitor]

DSOD duels were really well put together. And Yugi does kind inhabit a transcendent level of dueling he just READS his opponents and pulls off an infinite loop combo.

[@hamza361]

I would put Raphael at high S tier or even low SS tier. He is insanely good duelist and the only one to beat yami. Even in the second duel he got him down to 10 LP and only lost because he didn’t attack queens knight (so plot pretty much).

[@JollyManJoel]

This is awesome! I would love to watch this type of video for the other Yugioh series as well!

[@supervegito8340]

The fact that you put Tèa in above Mai is really funny to me. I love it

[@hightidekraken]

Love the list! I think S5 Bakura was well placed especially after his duel with Yugi where Yugi only won cause of exactly Gandora. Bakura is also debatably the least reliant on his item though he does like using bakura as a human shield but id say compared to marik, yugi, ishizu, and pegasus he isnt nearly as bad. In the case of Marik he’s funky cause he can duel pretty solid but he screws around too much and can rely on the Ra technicality which especially in the Mai and Bakura duels as that isnt a skill its just him being able to either read a dead language or basically meta game over the opponent.

[@robertm5110]

Yeah I’d like a GX Tier list please. Although there are so many one off characters in that series.

[@ChaosAC24]

Great video! The effort to do this is why you’re one of my favorite KZbinrs. You did a good job on the rankings too. Minus a few character placements, I would of ranked them like this too. Hope you do rankings for the other series

[@RogueDuelist]

Was very interesting, definitely do one for GX !! I’d say dartz would be above yugi (POL) and rafael above joey (S4) maybe 🤔

[@hamza361]

Raphael was an absolute beast. Should be in high S or low SS. Dartz should be in Ss also.

[@GuyInHisOwnWorld]

Absolutely loved this tier list. I would love to see you do the other series if you decide to do them.

[@bukkij40]

I really enjoyed this video. You think we could get a dual analysis video of Tea vs. Krump as that's truly Teas one good duel

[@christopherb501]

Better still, ALL Big Five duels. That first one wouldn't be pretty...

[@bestintheworld5752]

Enjoyed the video a lot,but I'm baffled how no one is giving Battle City Bakura any credit. He came closer than anyone to beating Atem and had a very unique and interesting deck. Honestly I hardly remember any characters giving Atem such a hard time (except for Dartz, Raphael who are not canon and Kaiba ofc) Also it is heavily implied he lost to Marik because original Marik was not well informed about Ra's Special Abilities and came up with a faulty strategy.

[@silvertongue.242_99]

This is a great video idea and love the work you are pointing in. Good Yu-Gi-Oh content

[@EpicCrossovers]

I think you could have included non-possessed Marik. Based on how he played using Strings and Bandit Keith against Yugi. Also when he advised Bakura in the duel against yami Marik

[@lunch7213]

Was right there doing this whole tier list with you, and could preemptively give very similar if not the same rankings

[@Blackdragon5520]

This was a fun video! I'd love to see you do this again for GX and 5D's and so on

[@Onetruesikorsky]

Honestly I love every yugioh DM video you upload and I get giddy whenever I see a new one!

[@thelivest3010]

Odion should definitely be higher imo. He would have won against Joey completely clean if Marik didn’t force him to play Ra. Also Marik gave him the real Ra he would have won too. Odion knew the god card wouldn’t let him play it but Marik ordered him.

[@afroman5160]

True but he did pretty good considering. He had too do 100 characters.

[@thelivest3010]

@@afroman5160 of course and overall it’s a great list. I just love my boi Odion😤😤😤

[@chri6438]

You are such a Chad man. I know those videos take long to be recorded but we would love to see Tierlists on the other series as well

[@TheAnimeMegaFreak]

it also stated that Yugi would have lost to marik if kaiba didnt gave him Fiend Sanctuary. and the manga version stated the odds of yugi victory with or without the card are very low. even Seto would only have a 13% chance of victory when going up against Ra

[@cameraredeye3115]

Yeah, Marik went full Ra Turbo against Yugi and outplayed S2 Yami Bakura like a boss. Definitely worthy of S-tier.

[@perrytran9504]

The YGO writer's interpretation of the game is completely different from how it actually plays out, and that makes sense because the real card game wasn't fleshed out yet. If we look at Kaiba and Marik's decks in a vacuum, Kaiba definitely shouldn't have only a 13% chance to win when he has even more broken cards and Marik is so dependent on a single one to carry his deck.

[@marcus7984]

Can't wait for the GX one! Was a more fun watch here, then I first thought!

[@godsman00]

Seeing this for Zexal would be a treat, the different versions of Yuma are gonna be all over the tier list lmao.

[@redlox2]

15:03 i love the commentary where you admit it weird you want to classify Yugi Season 5 as S not SS despite him beating Atem lol.

[@XoxoKawaiiGirl]

If you didn't give Joey S tier I would have cried. And thank you so much for remarking Pegasus scene in GX. Everyone seems to forget that. Plus Joey has one of the best arcs through every Yu-gi-oh series, and by all right should have had the winged dragon of ra. I would have been happy with that plot twist, not to take away from yugis main story buy imagine if Joey became the third God card wielder and we got to see him really put Kaiba on the ropes, gain his respect as a true duelist who could wield a God, then watch yugi fight Kaiba in the end against both gods. Still could keep Kaiba skill over Joey valid, Yugi would still have a big reason to win the gods from Kaiba for his memories, and it would complete Joey's ultimate arc of going from one of the worst duelist to one of the greatest in such a short a time. Sorry for the rant but that's the end of battle city I would have loved to see. And the plot twist would have blown everyone away with Joey fainting and taking the win against battle city's main antagonist causing so much pain to everyone,, seeing Kaiba shit a brick 😂😂 and Yugi being elated with joy that Joey's soul wasn't taken by a God.

[@spicyboi544]

i dont know what that was so entertaining but it really was, great vid (also s4 joey should definitely be in S and above s4 mai because he lost the duel because he was fatigued from the seal)

[@RobertLydonReviews]

This video was awesome Sam and the amount of editing is crazy kudos. I hate being this commenter too but for season 5 there was the Grand Prix were Joey Kaiba and Yugi dueled

[@grizzlyv2.076]

I think you placed Yami (S5) and Yugi (S5) correctly at first. Yami vs anyone but Yugi will do better than Yugi would, imo. Yugi knows Yami so well that he was able to perform so well against him.

[@steffenermisch5548]

That is true. Atem built his deck first, Yugi knew what to expect and built his deck accourdingly. Under any other circumstance, I dont' see him winning.

[@silenthorus]

Atem had the puzzle boost, Dark Magician and God cards. Yugi still baptized him.

[@cameraredeye3115]

@@silenthorus Accurate description given how that duel ended 🤣

[@Ramona122003]

@@silenthorus Atem wasn't wearing the Puzzle in the final duel. It was literally in the Millennium Stone.

[@Ramona122003]

@@steffenermisch5548 Yugi build his deck first, and then Atem build his.

[@darknesswave100]

The biggest problem with Joey is that he relies so much on luck that if he wasn't a main character you know he would have lost damn near every duel. Especially in battle city. He had no business getting 4th

[@kaiser9109]

He improves a lot yeah but yeah luck cards are not for anyone but him

[@MsKeylas]

you have no clue,do you?

[@cameraredeye3115]

Or, at the very least, he'd lose closer to half the duels he won, since those gamble cards are often played with the game on the line...

[@CMW003]

Commenting during the joeys so you might answer by the end but I love this video format and would love to see you do this for the rest of the yugiohs (or at least through vrains since sevens is so different) and if so it'd be interesting to see if you do separate tier lists or gradually make a massive combined one

[@Revanxbone]

This was sooo fun and interesting. Hope you keep doing more of these

[@Revanxbone]

Also very well argued

[@wallywest9257]

I mean there's a solid argument Darts should be the top of S-tier. In pure duelling he did 1v2 Yugi & Kaiba at the same time, defeating Kaiba, and would've defeated Yugi if not for Kaiba's help. So the fact that Joey S4/5 is above Darts is pretty crazy. I mean can you imagine Joey duelling Darts alone instead of Yugi & Kaiba, bro would've got slammed 100 times out of 100 times.

[@RashFaustinho]

I suggest doing this for the other serieses as well!

[@cerebralassassin221]

That feeling when you think you'll see Tea in SS tier. Not cause she'll beat Atem in a duel but cause they'll surrender and give her the win.

[@cameraredeye3115]

Nah, Atem would do like he did against Vivian in late S4. A friendly thrashing, but a thrashing nonetheless.

[@ayushpatel2274]

Imagine a tier list with every single character from every yugioh. That would be like a 7 hour video

[@SasukeTurkey]

I think Atem at the end is still the greatest duelist of all time. Yugi is very powerful, but I think even though he won that duel, I think Atem was still more powerful.

[@filiplucic]

A great list, except for a few of them. First off, as many have mentioned, Odion should have placed higher. Second, at some points during the video, you mentioned Kaiba and Joey not dueling at all during the season 5, which does contain the filler Grand Championship arc, where they both went against Sigfried, and Joey has even dueled Grandpa, who could have also placed higher, as it was established that he was sort of a game master during his prime. We just didn't have many opportunities to see him duel.

[@boaowov8779]

Yess bro, do this for all series

[@Tomouryu]

DSOD Kaiba should definitely be in the top ranks. His blue-eyes deck is pretty modern.

[@dangerzone423]

Zigfried is the European National Champion, OTKed Weevil and Rex at the same time, beat S5 Joey quite easily and would've beaten him sooner if Joey Luck was not so high and was ok against S5 Kaiba so I don't know why he is below S5 Joey since his deck is also pretty nutty.

[@ivakichan5724]

Overall pretty good tierlist, I have little complaints for some duelists deserving lower tiers, but for most I have similar or the same opinion as you. Great job!

[@REALmikegordan]

I'm kind of surprised that you didn't include Mokuba, since he dueled in the anime. That would have been your 64 right there.

[@GrandCaptainSpeedyDashGames]

A few things, though some shenanigans Diva did back Kaiba into a corner and was ready to win till Kaiba pulled a god, so I think Diva deserves at least S for getting peak Kaiba so close to losing. Odion, deserves to be higher then Joey S2/3 as if it wasn't for Marik demanding Odion to play Ra then Odion would of won.

[@Domesthenes]

POINT OF ORDER! Joey came in SECOND in Duelist Kingdom, as the duel with Pegasus was Yugi's victory prize.

[@TGSAnime]

2nd You are correct!

[@jewelkemerena7]

Unfortunately, he also came 4th in Battle City, not third. Kaiba beat him. I think it balances out.

[@Domesthenes]

@@jewelkemerena7 a fair point.

[@420mralucard]

@@jewelkemerena7 He also almost beat Yugi and Kaiba in those duels, he was keeping them on their toes the entire time and only lost because of one play at the end both times.

[@kyuubinaruto17]

@@420mralucard Also Yugi be hypocritical. Turn 1 summons Celtic Guardian, 1400 attack with no backrow, then after Joey summons a bigger monster and destroys it Yugi claims it was a weak move despite it being the exact move Yugi just did.

[@ioanhouse4873]

Yes, more of this please! (Also why in the name of gods is paradox so low he literally took on three protagonists at once and pushed them to the limit)

[@thomkennedy6985]

Even though I’m in agreement with your overall placement of the Duel Computer, if we’re only taking the S2 Duel into consideration it would’ve beaten Kaiba had it not been for his “Fusion monsters can’t attack the same turn” stipulation. Granted, it was more or less a showcase for Obelisk’s introduction and there were there fair share of misplays, but with how advanced it was in DSoD and made Kaiba sweat a bit with modern rules is an impressive feat.

[@Xray19]

Pyramid of Light take places after Season 3 and before Season 4. In Season 4, Tristain did say the last time they saw him, he was less weird.

[@sergytregy]

Next time you should do a stream and let us participate. Also, Pegasus WITHOUT the millennium eye defeated crowler and the other schmuck.

[@mday979]

Tristan only talked like he was a solid duelist, but in reality, he was never that good to begin with tea on the other hand has a little bit more of an understanding of the game I'd flipped her and Tristan

[@daraghokane4236]

Tea beat joey episode one because he didn't have magic or trap cards, then she beat the penguin guy. Tristan never won

[@GorgeousGirlGenius]

Its okay to see DSOD Kaiba being below S5 Pharaoh. Cuz you forgot to mention that Kaiba's been obsessed in dueling Pharaoh that he always trains with a simulation of Pharoah but says that a simulation will never come close to the real deal.

[@Anonymityfan]

One thing I love about S1 Yugi is jis ingenuity of the mind switch strategy to stop his thoughts being seen by Pegasus.

[@tygir5096]

On Rebecca "She's the only person in the Yugioh anime to learn the card game." LOVE the shade! Hahaha

[@phengvang5856]

About the bonds beyond time yugi, I think that's the yugi from before battle city started since he didn't have the God cards and pegasus was promoting new cards before the tournament (or at least i think he was doing that. Been a long time so cant remember the deals of the PR). It would make the most sense, I think.

[@thegreatscribbles960]

I've always thought about stuff like this mostly because power scaling yugioh is not really talked about I would say this list in generally is just weird because season 1 yugioh was just a completely different game like comparing monopoly to magic the gathering

[@VixYW]

That's really fun, definitively want to see you doing it for GX too. But narrow it down a little, I don't think a version of a character needs to be there if it didn't dueled at all.

[@isamelzorrilla5639]

Hi TGS Anime I love this and I hope you have a good day and you are awesome

[@theironarmada1308]

Ishizu vs Pegasis with them both having there items, Seeing all Cards and Strategies vs Future Sight would be some insane shit

[@cameraredeye3115]

Deck wise, it'd be CaRtOoNz with Foresight vs. Uno Reverse 101. Yeah, that shit would go either way 🤣

[@selfdog8565]

Legit hoping you do more of this on the other series!

[@nebbynetwork2089]

Oh boy I can't wait until you get to the newer series like vrains and sevens

[@GhostintheMachine25]

I cant wait to see the GX, 5D’s, Zexal, Arc 5, and Vrains lists

[@cameraredeye3115]

Question: would the GX list include Yugi/Atem? If so, that one is definitely top tier along with S4 Judai and Darkness.

[@Hornswroggle]

23:40 Man can you imagine Tea showing up in a Mini-Arc as a Teacher at Duelist academy where she'd whoop someone's a** with a really cool deck of her own? Now THAT would have been cool.

[@cameraredeye3115]

A really good 5D's Tier List would be fantastic to see. Yusei would be a constant A-tier to S-tier throughout the series (I would put him at SS but he gets a lot of lucky breaks due to plot, the most noteworthy of which is against Team Unicorn when his deck was at zero). Others in this tier would include S2 Rudger, S2 Rex, and S4 Antinomy. Z-one is arguably the only SS-tier duelist in the series since he demolished Aporia (an A-plus-tier duelist that even Yusei struggled against) with only 2 Timelords and played perfectly against Yusei until the last turn. If he had attacked with Gabrion then Sephylon at that point, Yusei would lose no matter what he did, since Sephylon's anime effect to summon Timelords does not negate their effects. A-tier duelists would include Sherry, Aki, Jack, and Crow. S3 Sherry could arguably be S-tier since she matched Yusei play-for-play in their Riding Duel.

[@cammydavies4901]

I saw this on my recommended and thought it would be the one of the AI President ranking videos. I wasn't disappointed even still 👀