Was Kaiba About To Defeat Yugi? [Clash in the Coliseum]

[@TGSAnime]

Misplay for me. Towards the end I mention Kaiba could have fused and made Ultimate Dragon to attack over Dark Magician, but fusion monsters can’t attack the turn they are summoned. Sorry about that.

[@tarikkash4282]

Your videos are awesome man! And I agree, Kaiba could've easily won if he brought back obelisk and sacrificed his remaining two blue eyes! Damn anime plot armor!!!!

[@mineninjathebest1]

When is yugioh profiles going to come back?

[@shelbybayer200]

@@mineninjathebest1 Most likely, after there are more characters to look into

[@ThomasTenma]

Please do the rules of the expert mode on the 1st duel disk from season 1 of DM. And try to demo match using those rules

[@gamingproject5601]

22:35 i guess both the reasonings were: if Kaiba deletes dark paladin, assuming yugi took something from the deck to help him defeat ultimate dragon, Red-eyes would have not been able to defeat his fusion monster. Yugi knowing this activates Magic formula to boost the attack to dark paladin to try and bait a response from kaiba, as he says "You cannot win with darkness and hatred in your heart" We can assume he knew Kaiba would've tried to get the final blow there, so if he uses a bait e would definetly use something in response. so now that yugi knows all his moves got wasted, he can safely use de-fusion. Yugi knows how Kaiba thinks: to achieve anything, you must win and in multiple occasions Kaiba tries to win by crushing the opponent, even at the start of the Duel he tried an otk to crush yugi

[@guslightyear9724]

I'm glad he made a note of how Yugi waited for Kaiba to walk back to his spot before activating exchange. The level of pettiness in that moment is hilarious

[@shadowdragon714]

Yugi made Kaiba do the walk of shame. LMAO

[@Random1567]

Lmao yeah that always made me laugh. Atem knows how to be savage sometimes.

[@spartanq7781]

Atem: "I'll wait for him to finish then and only then will I activate exchange." Kaiba: "f u."

[@heavydonkeykong5190]

Between that and the finisher where he destroys every Blue Eyes despite not needing too, Atem really does come across as wanting to just destroy his rivals whole career. 😂

[@TheKaosKilla16]

It's a mindgame and I love it.

[@Ethonra]

Gotta admit it. Kaiba walking all the way up to Yugi, talking smack, then walking all the way back to his side of the field just for Yugi to make him walk all the way back to him again as a kind of payback was gold. My only regret is we don't get to see Joey laughing his butt off about it.

[@dominicscreativefilms]

Almost as funny as it would have been for Joey to watch Red Eyes kill Blue Eyes.

[@Ethonra]

@@dominicscreativefilms I can already see Joey making that hyper realistic face and crying tears of joy.

[@heavydonkeykong5190]

If Joey were the one making the play, he's force Kaiba to walk all the way back, then start walking backwards to force Kaiba to keep walking further.

[@anthonym840]

I really wish the plot would throw my boi Joey a bone dueling Kaiba at least once. It would be nice to see him finally shut up and at least regard Joey as a capable duelist.

[@Ethonra]

@@anthonym840 To be fair, he actually does in their duel near the end of that arc. Sure, it is in his own Kaiba way, but he does acknowledge Joey isn't as worthless as he thought, mostly for his determination and guts. In Kaiba's words it would be something like: "You know what, Wheeler? You're right. I was wrong about you. You aren't a third rate duelist after all. You're second rate on your good days." (smug smirk and walks away) I think it was a great moment for them both.

[@PKSparkxxDH]

This series has quickly become favorite series you produce. And you produce a lot of banger content.

[@TGSAnime]

😁 Thank you so much!

[@heavydonkeykong5190]

It's like watching the duels themselves with insightful commentary.

[@dantemitsoyu977]

@@heavydonkeykong5190 and without all the talking and filler

[@MercuryA2000]

If I remember right, its the one that made me sub. I kept clicking and watching things when they were recommended, but this was what finally pushed me over.

[@boyankovachev7982]

I absolutely agree

[@AzureRoxe]

I love how, after the Gods clash and destroy each other, both Yugi and Kaiba begin using some of their original cards. Yugi goes straight into Dark Magician and Kaiba goes straight into Blue Eyes.

[@zaidkapadia6824]

Mortals* God isn't weak

[@elii6807]

​@@zaidkapadia6824🙄

[@zaidkapadia6824]

@@elii6807 Mortals* God isn't weak

[@elii6807]

@@zaidkapadia6824 🙄🙄🙄

[@Capt_Sunny]

@@elii6807lol

[@DeepVoiceEHoe]

My only argument for Kaiba doing what he did was to win with his Blue Eyes to prove that "his fate was NOT destined" as he did with ishizu. I know he wanted to beat Atem with his Obelisk versus Atem"s Slifer, I think the moment Obelisk got destroyed his first thought was, "Blue Eyes has my back."

[@joshuarobinson6011]

Plus it's just a good old fashioned callback for the show as they go from the gods to their ogs with blue eyes and dark magician. I guess in a way it shows that while they've grown as characters they're still the same people deep down plus blue eyes and dark magician have rarely let them down

[@Necfreon]

@@joshuarobinson6011it’s also a thing that consistently happens in the Japanese only season of 5ds where in the last duel against jack where after the tiebreaker with red nova dragon vs shooting star dragon ( awesome animation work with that mutual destruction by the way) to junk warrior finishing red nova off and in the last zone fight it goes from shooting quasar dragon evening the odds killing all the time lords at once and then shooting star spawning from the mutual destruction that occurred from that doing a direct attack and finishing with stardust dragon itself finishing off the ultimate time lord finishing the duel

[@Ismail-Ibrahim841]

No matter how many misplays there are in the duel, it'll always be my personal all time favourite duel. Six episodes of then just slugging with each back and fourth.

[@YumiYuna.]

My favorite too.

[@unpatitoRU]

the most epic Kuriboh ever

[@NoAliasisneeded]

Definitely my favorite. That back and forth with the God Cards was Epic af.

[@Woodenfan]

That attack/Life Point exchange against the God Cards in the third episode of the duel was insane. Then they get transported to Ancient Egypt!

[@Necfreon]

@@WoodenfanI will admit that was a good duel but there’s still a duel that has all of the strengths of this one you know the constant back and forth combat between both players but without the weaknesses of this one which is the amount of misplays to make the duel more entertaining to watch or something like that and the duel winner of today is the duelist kingdom Joey vs yugi duel it’s the ultimate culmination of what the both of them learned and every aspect of there deck is used Joey making first blood against Celtic guardian only for yugi to even the odds by killing joeys monster with Gaia the fierce knight then yugi fuision summons Gaia the dragon champion one of his best monsters then Joey has this devilish smile concocting his master plan to destroy the dragon champion by using grave robber to steal polimerization and gets yugis summoned skull to then fuision summon black skull dragon the very same beast that destroyed the gate gardian a few episodes ago it was a fantastic duel that could have gone either way it was awesome

[@legend3454]

"Lightforce Sword had a 25% chance of getting Obelisk and it paid off." Gonna be honest, I feel like Kaiba's grandstanding drastically increased those odds.

[@darknesswave100]

Yeah it was basically 100% given how much he was boasting about it

[@OneTrueNobody]

That was my read, too. It looked very much like Yugi waited for Kaiba to reveal which of his cards was Obelisk before targeting it.

[@gogogo123454321]

@@darknesswave100 The card that’s banished is random though, it’s not like Yugi got to choose even if he knew exactly which card was Obelisk.

[@exaltedfalcheon1793]

@@gogogo123454321 Yugi has the power of LUCK

[@FormerGovernmentHuman]

@@gogogo123454321 the millennium puzzle almost always guarantees he has good RNG when it matters most

[@kingblue2646]

I think Kaiba, being Kaiba, wanted Yugi to summon Slifer as destroying it would feel like a more complete victory, and he was so confident in his strategy that he allowed Yugi to make certain plays to allow this to happen.

[@rainierterucha8907]

Nahh we are in a handsight. We knew the cards the hold. But in an actual duel you would hesitate as well

[@masterofmythology]

At the end, Kaiba considered Obelisk as having served its purpose, thus his going back to his true fallback of the Blue Eyes.

[@LordSillyBottom]

As this duel is based on the manga, monsters cannot attack the turn they are revived from the GY. So reviving Obelisk would be useless as it'd just go back to the GY at the end of the turn. Hence why Ra's ''instant attack'' ability is a thing as it can attack the turn it's revived.

[@bobbbbEE]

@@LordSillyBottom But the purpose would be using the effect to burn 4000 damage, not attacking.

[@LordSillyBottom]

@@bobbbbEE That effect is considered an attack in the manga.

[@vahlen5281]

@@LordSillyBottom Man, those rules are really all over the place.

[@bmwjourdandunngoddess6024]

@@vahlen5281 Right? The rules are wild.

[@Gray429]

Part of why I love this duel so much is that it’s very character driven. Both Kaiba and Yami Yugi make bad oversights through the duel that they don’t tend to make with other opponents - there’s a lot riding on this duel for both of them, Kaiba had his mind and his pride utterly wiped by Yami Yugi and this entire tournament is about taking that back, Yami Yugi’s just seen his friends get utterly shafted by an evil magical egomaniac and he just wants to get past Kaiba so he can defeat Marik. There’s so much grand-standing ego bought out in this duel that they miss a lot of opportunities to win, and I actually like that 😂 goes to show you can be considered an amazing duellist but you’re just human in the end. Anyway, great analysis, I love these kinds of videos from this channel!

[@nicbentulan]

100th like

[@darksideofevil13]

Yeah but it's never addressed they misplayed.

[@GeteMachine]

I also liked how the duel emphasized them resorting to their classic cards at the end of it, becauseof who they are. They tried to stop each other from otk-ing with god card, then resort to Blue eyes ultimate vs. a Dark Magiciant variant. This and the duel with Marik are the two where Yugi actually seemed to sweat.

[@CountDVB]

@@darksideofevil13 I mean, why should it be?

[@CountDVB]

Yeah alot of people seem to forget that these characters are people too with their own wants, desires, personality quirks and so on. They’re naturally gonna make moves based on their approach to life and with what they have.

[@snowboundwhale6860]

It feels appropriate that they'd both have tunnel vision during this duel. They both have a significant amount of history with each other at this stage and the duel is high stakes for both of them, even if they consider different stakes to be the important ones. It makes a lot of sense they'd both get wrapped up in outthinking the other, overthinking their way past the available winning moves to find a strategy that wins in 3 turns or something, or otherwise generally overlooking ways to win now in favour of sticking to the way they'd planned to win going in to the duel. Being cautious and avoiding overextending only to underextend and misplay, missing the forest for the trees and all that. I was thinking about these breakdowns just yesterday rewatching V-Rains; It might not be an end-game/ super plot significant duel like most of the ones you've covered, but I'm curious how a breakdown of the Playmaker VS Ghost Girl duel in episodes 14-15 would go. Altergeists are a known rogue deck that's been relevant enough for long enough to achieve the highest praise any control strategy can get of making people groan when they realise they're matched up against it, and this was their anime debut. There's also a fair amount of talk from the duel's onlookers about how it's such a "high level duel" and "so complicated [they] can barely keep up", so while it's not the most important duel it seems like it might be an interesting one to examine like this.

[@Roken._.]

As a big lover of the vrains series I would love a breakdown of a vrains duel

[@Ahloveyafuhso]

One problem... . the deck wasn't fully completed nor upgraded at that point but was in it's beginning stages... I can see many people being able to fight a beginning stage Altergeist but later on.. .it would give trouble to most opponents .. personally I don't even wanna play against it.. it's too unfair.. in my opinion.

[@LucianDevine]

I think they also overlooked some of the more obvious winning opportunities, assuming that the other would have thought of that and prepared a counter for it. So they end up overthinking, never realizing that the simplest solution would in fact have been enough.

[@YumiYuna.]

Yea I think they both overthink in this duel. So i can understand some of missplay that happened. They both probably think he might counters my move.

[@mikekeller365]

Regarding Magic Formula play at the end, what I am assuming the writers are thinking, is that Absorb Spell could have absorbed the effect of De-Fusion, so by Kaiba wasting it here, by just being power greedy, he missed the chance to steal DeFusion and split up Dark Paladin. Yugi played Magic Formula first to try to lure Kaiba spell card, and it worked

[@gamificationoflife]

@Mister Perfection oh that’s interesting! See that’s what I’ve thought every time I’ve watched this duel, I was always like “as if kaiba didn’t just let magic formula activate, makes no difference in the end he still destroys yugis monster” but if absorb spell wouldn’t work on defusion, then that makes more sense. But it doesn’t explain all the other misplays 😆

[@emilymanson6892]

@Mister Perfection It still works if you consider that it was what Yugi was thinking rather than what the writers were thinking. Yugi couldn’t have known what specific card Kaiba had, but he could easily have guessed that Kaiba would have a card that would let him stop a spell/trap card and would want Kaiba to use it before he used defusion.

[@MrLakerfan2490]

Actually, Magic Formula could make the Dark Paladin beat Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, as it originally increases ATK by 700, not 500, thus Dark Paladin's 4600 > Blue-Eyes Ultimate's 4500. My personal theory is that they made it +500 because of the Atem-Bakura duel earlier; had Dark Magician Girl gained 700 ATK there, she would have wiped out Bakura's LP by destroying Dark Necrofear instead of him surviving with 150 LP. They just went with it after that lol

[@thattruegamernerd]

Actually for Kaiba that wouldn’t have even worked at all since Absorb Spell only absorbs the effects of Spells that increase Attack Points, so it was there if Yugi used something that could have made his cards stronger than BEUD, like a Pump Up or a later Magic Formula, and De-Fusion notably doesn’t change Attack Points but the state of monsters, so the effect would have just misfired had he tried anyway and we would still have the same end result. But for Yugi it was still the best move since who knows what sort of negation or removal Kaiba would have facedown, something that could have interrupted his De-Fusion…

[@firewolf950tfwgaming7]

I’m pretty sure the idea is that Kaiba believe Yugi would try to beat his Ultimate Dragon with some attack boosting spell because earlier Kaiba understands that Yugi relies on attack boosting cards so he chose absorb spell to counter any attempts by Yugi to get a decently strong monster and then close the gap with an equip spell. As for equip spells, Kaiba knows Yugi has magic formula and horn of the unicorn, so when Yugi sprung magic formula, it could be safe to assume that Kaiba expected Yugi to have also chosen Horn of the Unicorn so he sprung absorb spell to shut down that eventual plan, not knowing that his other set card wasn’t an equip card. On the topic of ultimate dragon, it’s fair to say that Kaiba chose to go with ultimate dragon because if he didn’t, he would have to contend with Yugi’s Buster blader which he knows Yugi has and would decimate him if he had gone with a blue eyes beat down strategy. So it’s safe to say that Kaiba saw past the obvious choice Yugi could have gone for in choosing Buster blader as one of his 3 cards as Yugi has 2 monsters to sacrifice for such a play.

[@derekjohnson8910]

All the misplays Kaiba made make sense. I knew plot dictated Yugi had to win, but all the missed opportunities really made sense in context: It wasn’t enough for Kaiba to win. He had to claim the perfect victory. An absolute domination. He was tunnel-visioned not on just beating Yugi, but proving his unquestioned superiority. He needed to win with Obelisk or his Blue-Eyes. And as we saw, he made a play for Slifer too. He wanted, no NEEDED, to make Yugi look as small as possible. If this were a mook or Marik? Basically anyone else other than Joey or Yugi? Kaiba would have just wanted to end the duel quickly. He has nothing to prove against anyone else. NOTE: I included Joey here because I feel he would take a similar win over Joey as Yugi, but for different reasons. Kaiba is personally insulted by Joey’s participation in HIS tournament. So yeah, he’d want to go for a similar sense of domination. But for Yugi? This is personal. And this tunnel-vision clouds his judgement. And it’s why Kaiba will never ever eke out a true win against Yugi. Yugi brings out the worst characteristics in Kaiba. Against Yugi? Kaiba is not logical, he’s temperamental. He’d totally forgo a sure thing in favor of the bigger win. Just look at Pyramid of Light. Had he just taken Blue Eyes Shining Dragon? He might have actually won! Kaiba had Yugi dead to rights. But he went the extra mile to take an additional card he didn’t NEED but would make the victory even more decisive: and this cost him. Kaiba will never play at his full potential against Yugi. He’ll misplay, he won’t take game if it’s not a devastating win. Against Yugi? Kaiba is inherently compromised.

[@AzureRoxe]

In Dark Side of Dimensions, it pretty much happens again, where Kaiba is seemingly so obsessed with dueling the Pharaoh that he refuses to believe Yugi is actually good and thinks he's mocking Kaiba from the cards he uses, which blinds him to the fact Yugi is beating the guy.

[@reaperthegrim5654]

Except there were multiply times Kaiba could have one with obelisk, so that excuse doesnt really make up for blatantly poor writing at all.

[@derekjohnson8910]

@@reaperthegrim5654 Which moments? Not trying to be a pill, just trying to see if there’s anything I missed.

[@unhingedgamin2706]

​@reaperthegrim5654 some of those moments yeah plot armor. But still doesn't mean crap about all the thousands of times he's lost to Atem man just misplays a lot when dueling Yugi. It's like Yugi plays mind games with him so bad that he forgets to read his own card while bragging how he's the best. It happens.

[@derekjohnson8910]

@@unhingedgamin2706 Funny thing? Yugi/Atem aren’t doing anything. Kaiba’s doing it all to himself. He’s his own worst enemy when he’s up against Yugi/Atem.

[@samwinchester9362]

Honestly, you mentioned Yugi having tunnel vision, but they really both do- it's why Kaiba didn't attack earlier- he was so incredibly focused on bringing out Tormentor. Most characters seem to have tunnel vision wrt their aces, but these two get it Really Badly the whole series.

[@fakeplaystore7991]

Watch any card game streamer and you'll eventually get into a "missed lethal" moment. I remember committing at least a couple when I played Magic Arena.

[@aceclover758]

Kaiba’s aren’t innocent errors They are due to his pride and ego

[@clownplayer7265]

Yugi is mildly justified. Kaiba has an Egyptian God which is way above the power of the usual monsters he faces on a regular basis and is well aware Kaiba would use it at any point if given the chance. Slifer was pretty much Yugi's main way to fend off Obelisk. Kaiba meanwhile was just flexing and focusing in demonstrating superiority over getting game. So it makes sense. Yugi's tunnel vision was admittedly being properly paranoid, Kaiba however has no such excuse. Keep in kind Yugi didn't use Slifer that often even after beating Strings so it's safe to assume he uses Slifer as an emergency weapon rather than a go to monster.

[@ninjacrafted]

On April fool's day you should do: "Was Sylvio about to defeat Zarc?"

[@tempo3352]

My boy "New Neo Super Giga Ultra Sawatari" could wipe the floor with the entire Arc V cast if he decides to use more than 1% of his full power

[@ninjacrafted]

@@tempo3352 that's actually true, he only lost to yuya and yugo from action cards, and yuya is the "strongest" arc v character

[@tempo3352]

@@ninjacrafted At first Action Cards were a really cool concept along with Action Duels in general... then we entered the Synchro Arc and Action Cards were nothing more than a huge plot device only used to save Yuya from every single OTK he had to face

[@ninjacrafted]

@@tempo3352 yep

[@zexalbrony4799]

@@tempo3352 To be fair, it wasn't just Yuya, a lot of people miss-used Action Cards, because a lot of Duelists in Arc V have no concept of having enough cards to draw cards or conserving resources. I mean look at how Kaiba and Yugi started their turns in this Duel: Yugi first turn summon one monster and set one card. Kaiba activates a spell, summons a monster, and set a card. They both still have plenty of cards in hand and resources at their disposal. Characters from Arc V first turns where you can't draw on the first turn so you only have five cards in hand: Pendlum users first turn, set the Pendulum to summon at least one or more monsters, Fusion users first turn activate Polymerization to bust out a Fusion Monster, Xyz users first turn like Shay spam the board with like three monsters to Xyz Summon, all of them use up over half their hand or their entire hand in their first turn so they have nothing left to work with for like protection so they spam Action Cards instead of just building more balanced Decks.

[@Kyzen_Wrell]

9:30 Actually, I think there could have been a misplay here. Yugi knows that Kaiba has Life Shaver and even debated wether or not that was the card on the field. If it was that card, it could have forced Yugi to drop a card and Slifer would have been destroyed. If Yugi played Pot of Greed at the start of his turn still expecting Life Shaver, Yugi theoretically would have only lost 1 card and still would out-gun XYZ had Life Shaver been the card face down.

[@bladersmosh]

When regarding the Enemy Controller play with X Head Cannon, that wouldn’t happen because if you remember, the anime effect just uses the opponent’s monster as tribute. This was brought up when you did the Joey vs Kaiba vid. So Yugi could’ve attacked and won the duel there.

[@mladen5140]

Thats true, but considering that Kaiba didnt attack when he totally couldve, its very easy for Yugi to assume that hes got something protecting him regardless, so even if it was Enemy Controller and he wouldve won the duel that way, it was defly understandable to choose to not attack that turn from Yugis pov

[@UhOh239]

Kaiba also misplayed by not using lullaby of obedience on the turn he used soul exchange if he did he wouldve summoned slifer since yugi didn’t set change of heart.

[@LucianDevine]

@@UhOh239 The anime rules are a bit fuzzy, likely anyway, but I think he couldn't do that. I think that Enemy Controller was only going to let him tribute X-Head in that exact moment. So when Yugi used Lifghtforce Sword and hit Obelisk, he had lost the ability to tribute it, because he didn't have something to tribute it for. Now he could/should, in theory, have done that before he went for Soul Exchange and used it to start the chain of events. I think that he just wanted to beat Yugi with Obelisk, and was only willing to use Slifer when that option was taken off the table, in addition to the possibility of Slifer being in Yugi's hand instead of his deck.

[@jinxtheunluckypony]

I feel like a lot of the problems with this duel could have been fixed by simply changing the order each player drew their cards in. The way it’s written both Yugi and Kaiba hold onto perfectly good cards for turns on end when they should be going all in for game.

[@francisharkins]

I mean it makes sense why they are overly cautious. Look at how they were both playing each other with spells and traps for this duel, its likely that neither wanted to risk their resources on a move that gets immediately countered and leaving them open... nothing to excuse the misplays though lol. Least it isn't like modern decks or else we'd be here for 10 years well they counter play each other with card effects, like Maxx C, and Ash Blossom. No offense to modern decks... but damn is it easy to brick your opponent in the first 3 turns with those types of cards and decks... Don't even get me started on Accesscode Decks and DPE Decks.

[@HelterSeltzer_the_one]

This tells me that the writers REALLY wanted to drag this duel long enough.

[@Roken._.]

Tbf, all dm duels we’re at least 4 or more episodes long, but I get what you mean

[@HelterSeltzer_the_one]

@@Roken._. I realise many duels have been written to drag out but the BIG duels really needed the characters to not make 2 turn kill moves LOL

[@ChouRaiyuki]

IIRC the manga version of the duel was shorter

[@Woodenfan]

@@ChouRaiyuki I agree, the back and forth against the god cards and such was a _lot_ shorter in the manga.

[@KrimzunFlare]

@@Woodenfan are you including the internal monologues?

[@ccyamato]

The Mystery cards: For Yugi, it was Beaver Warrior. noble and Reliable. For Kaiba, it was Hitosume Giant. Never build a deck without it

[@mathrider9400]

For Kaiba's, I think it's Saggi, he still use it even in DSOD

[@mrmumpscheese8391]

I think kaiba chose axe raider

[@cartoonistanonymous]

Nah, Gyakutenno Megami It's his gunk iller

[@TheLuthorri]

@@mrmumpscheese8391 more like Battle Ox

[@darthrevan5609]

Nah yugi had Mushroom Man

[@gauntsgeister9069]

Nice Video, one Duell i would like to see in this format is Yu-Gi-Oh GX Cyrus vs Hell Kaiser in season 2. I think that the duell is pretty interesting.

[@rashanmcrae9166]

Really brutal duel but Cyrus really put everything he had to beat his brother. Can't say anything hold him back only that he undermined what level of cruelty Kaiser would got to.

[@AKiwiBird]

You should do one of these in s1 where there like weren’t rules as a joke. CLEARLY IF KAIBA HAD MERELY SUMMONED KAISER SEA HORSE AND A VORSE RAIDER AT THE SANE TIME HE COULDVE DONE A SYNCHRONIZED ATTACK AND KEFT YUGI HELPLESS

[@purpleheartneptune6267]

Three duels later brave attack becomes a card

[@flamemustang6087]

April Fools video

[@AngryWindmill]

I know it's a joke but anyway, Kaiser sea horse didn't exist in s1 because the tribute summoning mechanic wasn't thing yet

[@AKiwiBird]

@@AngryWindmill neither did monster effects really. They were just like, oh this guys a moth and as we all know, moths have poisonous scales that corpse your monsters

[@cyrax9226]

@@AKiwiBird actually monster effects did exist in season 1. Man Eater Bug could destroy a monster when flip summoned, Reaper of the Cards could destroy a face down spell card and Relinquished could absorb the opponents monster

[@Modie]

I feel the point with Kaiba in particular always was that he doesn't just want to win. He wants to win in a way that lets no one ever think he maybe just won by luck. So it has to be a spectacle, which is why he made the whole Colosseum to begin with (don't forget that the duel was broadcasted). A one turn kill would be one of these ways. Or beating the Dark Magician (the monster people know Yugi for) with his Blue Eyes (the monster people know Kaiba for) showing that his Ace monster (aside from the god cards) is the stronger one where the battle of the gods concluded in a draw. The only problem I have with it that this is never actually really discussed in the content of the show aside from that one moment where Yugi talks about Kaiba's hate and I guess you can make a connection there. The only things that are a bit weird (like with most duels) is that they seem to not just set cards when they easily could. But I feel this is also done to make sure that the viewer/reader doesn't need to keep track of too many cards at the same time since we usually don't get an overview of the whole field and you could easily lose track of all the cards (as someone not super familiar with the game) during all the dialogue that happens in between. Might even be more of a problem that comes from the manga, considering that the anime typically adds longer and more shots which help in that regard. Though to be fair, this is usually balanced out by just giving the characters extremely powerful cards like "Power Balance", so I gues it's fine.

[@BrettsWorld13]

Can we just note that Atem dropped 5700 points of damage on one turn and proceeds to rip Kaibas entire personality? How savage😂

[@mattbartels]

It was a defeat Kaiba deserved with how selfish he was. Despite the damage Marik caused, the people he hurt and the threat he was posing to all of humanity all rich boy cared about was becoming number one again.

[@kawaki4441]

This is the best duel in the franchise for me. It was long, good written with constant back and forth and was in the making for the entirety of anime and manga. But my favorite part about it was Yugi and Kaiba's clashing ideals: one chasing his past, while the other tries to leave it behind.

[@iambrettiam2]

Totally agree.

[@samuelbattershell3413]

Well Atem is more trying to learn his past.

[@Fasty1811]

Not sure about the entire "franchise", but def the best duel for me in DM that's for sure.

[@heavydonkeykong5190]

My favorite part was Slifer VS Obelisk. It lasted multiple turns with a great deal of suspense as the attack points for each (especially Slifer) get messed around with throughout.

[@HotFootBunny]

Its a good duel monster Duel for me, but man I think the odd eyes Raging dragon Duel (the one against the two dimensional girls, I can't remember there names) is my favorite. But if where talking about Duel for Duel monsters, it's definitely Joey vs marik, love underdog characters and that is a great underdog duel

[@eldartaghiyev8422]

I think Yugi’s last card in the deck was magic cylinder and Kabia’s last card in the deck was shrink.

[@redxzone2439]

Magician’s Selection was an anime only card. In the manga, it was Magic Cylinder that Yugi used to redirect the attack to Lord of D. However the IRL magic cylinder was printed at this point and they chose to make an anime card (selection) to mimic the anime effect of cyclinder

[@eldartaghiyev8422]

@@redxzone2439this video is of the anime not the manga.

[@Invictus-Solaris]

Kaiba is like Vegeta: catching a bunch of Ls all because he isn’t the main character…

[@phillipdillard87]

One thing that i find interesting is that when Kaiba activated his card of demise, if he would have set final attack orders facedown before activating his card of demise, his 3rd card would have been the flute of summoning dragons. He could have brought out all 3 BEWD's along with lord of D crashed into dark magician, destroyed REBD, and attacked with Blue Eyes #3 for game. HUGE MISPLAY Kiaba!

[@Blazecap]

That’s literally what I thought. Also if he set poly facedown he could have drawn an extra card(we don’t know what it could have been since he actives final attack orders)

[@Amitlu]

@@Blazecap Yugi already had the traps set to block the attacks though, Magicians Selection and Spellbinding Circle. At best one BEWD would have survived and taken down REBD

[@phillipdillard87]

@@Amitlu youre one turn off. The turn he draws card of demise, yugi only has magic formula and spellbinding circle FD. He gets magicians selection on his next turn. so the play would have given kiaba the win

[@Amitlu]

​@@phillipdillard87 Ah then Kaiba is a victim of the manga's rule of only being able to set 1 Trap per turn and not wanting to commit to setting Final Attack Orders yet. Unfortunately the anime never used that rule and also did not adjust duels for it, making some players look like fools. (Thats the same reason why Yugi didnt just set Lifeshaver) Edit: In hindsight they should have just had Kaiba have a different card in his hand before activating Card of Demise. Like another Blue-Eyes maybe.

[@TotalEvo7]

​@@phillipdillard87 Wrong, he got Magician Selection in his hand after activating Card of Sanctity

[@humanoid251]

If I recall correctly, XYZ Dragon Cannon in the anime was considered to be a Union Monster much like Gate Guardian back during the Para and Dox duel. So yeah that attack gets a pass cuz it isn’t actually a fusion monster

[@fakeplaystore7991]

They literally gave origin to a whole new type of cancer- I mean, special summoning.

[@SirAthiro]

This is why I love this series. I never considered the possibility of Kaiba being able to win but as you pointed out, he very much could have.

[@roncerjani9063]

I always felt like Kaiba was forced to take dumb choices just for the sake of plot. Don't even look at misplays, the cards he plays prove it. What was he possibly thinking when he put Final Attack Orders in his deck and give Yugi easy access to his best cards, especially knowing he has a card created to counter dragons. And all he prepared to counter said card was a negate for boost spells?

[@blackchibisan8116]

I was never aware of how many misplays were in this duel. I guess they were both so stressed by how important they are to each other as opponents and by the stakes involved.

[@multi6439]

11:41 - 12:16 Question. It just hit me... Since Life Shaver was originally Yugi's Card that Kabia took through the effect of Exchange, if its sent to the graveyard and come back with Disgraceful charity should it technical return to Yugi's hand? 🤔

[@Kyzen_Wrell]

In irl rules, maybe, but in the anime, it goes to your GY until the end of the duel.

[@igorlopes8463]

Imagine Kaiba leaving too salty cause he lost that he forgets to give the card back to Yugi.

[@zexalbrony4799]

Actually, Battle City Rules state that the card goes to the Graveyard of the one who controls it, not the owner, so it returns to Kaiba's hand. It's the same reason Revival Jam kept getting revived on Yugi's field after he took control of it from Strings, Slifer's effect destroyed it and it was sent to Yugi's GY so it revived from there to his field with its effect.

[@Kyzen_Wrell]

@@zexalbrony4799 Literally what I said lol.

[@Skylerrelyks93]

@@Kyzen_Wrell cool but the other dude gave an example of it happening previously.

[@failure4452]

7:25 Actually, since that rule only applies to Fusion Summoned monsters, this is ok, since all of the A to Z fusion series are technically Special Summoned by their own effect, not Fusion Summoned, so it’s not illegal by technicality

[@failure4452]

@Zenith technically not, as he stated that it was a “bypass” like he was letting Kaiba off, however what I was saying was that Kaiba didn’t need an off in the first place, as what he did was totally legal

[@sungod9797]

Obelisk’s effect seems to count as simultaneous attacks, which is why Kuriboh was able to block the direct attack damage by being discarded. So, he probably wouldn’t be able to use Obelisk’s attack ability when he was revived, since the gods (or maybe monsters in general) seem to be unable to attack the turn they’re revived (with the exception of Ra, which is why its “Instant Attack” ability upon revival is supposed to be unique). So I don’t think that’s a misplay from Kaiba in his penultimate turn.

[@rickyl3819]

Monsters can definitely attack the turn they're revived. Yugi's gambit to defeat Strings sees him revive Buster Blader and attack with him in the same turn. Had Monster Reborn given Buster Blader summoning sickness, Yugi would have lost. Also, Atem's final plan to defeat Yugi in the finale was to revive Slifer the Sky Dragon. If Slifer wasn't able to attack the turn it was revived, it would have immediately gone to the Graveyard, since it Monster Reborn would have only worked on it for that turn. I think Instant Attack is unique because it allows attacking outside of the Battle Phase, and seems to be able to hit multiple targets.

[@TheCikoni]

That was insane, practically every turn there was a misplay by either one or both characters, amazing duel of course but it does feel abit soured now knowing how heavily they nerfed Kaiba for the plot to happen

[@kujikawathemeekmage3640]

I feel like it’s good that they both ended up misplaying, I think it’s better how they respect and know each other so much that they don’t settle for anything other than a perfect play they’ve tunnel visioned into

[@TheCikoni]

@@kujikawathemeekmage3640 Well the goal is to create an enteraining show first and formost and it is a great duel, I dunno if Kaiba would skip out on a chance to beat yugioh out of respect though, Yugi sure but for Kaiba it seems very out of character

[@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu]

@@kujikawathemeekmage3640 except those are suppose to be 2 candidates for King of Duels and apparently they barely know how to play the game

[@heavydonkeykong5190]

But it makes the duel ready fun to dissect!

[@TheCikoni]

@@heavydonkeykong5190 Agreed :)

[@mottmann2898]

The reason yugi used the other spell before de-fusion is because he wanted to bait out any negate effects kaiba would have had

[@fruitybluieblue098]

Exactly and Kaiba wanting the perfect victory of absolute domination is why Yugi knew Kaiba would fall for the bait. Its like Yugi said, Kaiba was blinded by his hatred and anger.

[@Horiobrine]

This is a bit late but something that Kaiba also missed was not setting Power Balance on his 1st turn. If he had done that, that would have lead to him winning on turn 4 or his second turn. Turn 1: Yami Yugi Yami Yugi draws "Big Shield Gardna". Yugi's hand contains "Lightforce Sword", "Magical Hats", "Collected Power", "Exchange", "Queen’s Knight" and "Big Shield Gardna". He then sets "Big Shield Gardna" (100/2600) in Defense Position. He then Sets a card ("Lightforce Sword"). Turn 2: Kaiba Kaiba draws "Obelisk the Tormentor". Kaiba's hand contains "Enemy Controller", "Spell Sanctuary", "X-Head Cannon", "Lullaby of Obedience", "Power Balance" and "Obelisk the Tormentor". He then Normal Summons "X-Head Cannon" (1800/1500) in Attack Position. Kaiba then activates "Spell Sanctuary" to allow both players to add a Spell Card from their Deck to their hands: Yugi selects "Change of Heart" while Seto selects "Soul Exchange". As long as "Spell Sanctuary" remains in play, both players can activate any kind of Spell Card during their opponent's turn, as long as it is face down. Kaiba then Sets 2 cards ("Enemy Controller" and "Power Balance"). Turn 3: Yami Yugi Yami Yugi draws "Alpha the Magnet Warrior". Yugi's hand contains "Magical Hats", "Collected Power", "Exchange", "Queen’s Knight", "Change of Heart", and "Alpha the Magnet Warrior". Seto activates his face-down "Power Balance" to force Yugi to discard half the cards in his hand and allow Seto to draw the same number of cards Yugi discarded. Yugi is currently holding six, so he discards "Magical Hats", "Collected Power", and "Alpha the Magnet Warrior". Yugi's hand now contains "Exchange", "Queen’s Knight", and "Change of Heart". Kaiba draws "Interdimensional Matter Transporter", "Y-Dragon Head" and "Z-Metal Tank". Kaiba’s hand contains "Interdimensional Matter Transporter", "Y-Dragon Head" and "Z-Metal Tank". Yami Yugi then sets "Queen’s Knight" (1500/1600) in Defense Position. He then Sets a card ("Change of Heart"). Turn 4: Kaiba Kaiba draws "Command Silencer". Kaiba's hand contains "Lullaby of Obedience", "Obelisk the Tormentor", "Soul Exchange", "Interdimensional Matter Transporter", "Y-Dragon Head", "Z-Metal Tank" and "Command Silencer". Kaiba activates "Soul Exchange" in order to allow himself to Tribute Yugi's monsters as if they were his monsters. Yugi activates his face-down "Change of Heart" to take control of Seto's "X-Head Cannon" until the end of the turn. Unclear if Yugi should have or even could have activated "Lightforce Sword first". Seto then activates his face-down "Enemy Controller" to pay 1000 Life Points (Seto 4000 → 3000) and take control of "X-Head Cannon". Yugi then activates his face-down "Lightforce Sword" to remove from play "Obelisk the Tormentor" from Seto's hand for three turns. Kaiba then activates "Lullaby of Obedience" to pay 1000 Life Points (Seto 3000 → 2000) and takes "Slifer the Sky Dragon" from Yugi's Deck and adds it to his hand. He then Tributes "Big Shield Gardna", "Queen's Knight", and "X-Head Cannon" in order to Tribute Summon "Slifer the Sky Dragon" (X000/X000) in Attack Position. Due to the effect of "Slifer the Sky Dragon", it gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each card in Kaiba's hand. He currently has four ("Slifer the Sky Dragon": 0 → 4000/0 → 4000). "Slifer the Sky Dragon" attacks Yugi directly (Yugi 4000 → 0).

[@xiaokong9920]

The last part, in which Kaiba should have had take obelisk instead of ultimate Dragon was because Kaiba thought that Yugi would prepare for obelisk and not ultimate. That why in the end, kaiba was surprised that Yugi predict Ultimate and had defusion

[@DollysplitBand]

Please continue to make more of these! As someone who doesn't play any yugioh but still has an understanding of the rules, this is the perfect way for me to enjoy the game. Love it!

[@bladersmosh]

Please do Revolver vs Soulburner please. That’s the best Vrains duel to me and deserves a video not just for who could’ve won but the meaning behind it and the character growth both characters made by the end of the series. If you do cover it in the future, I suggest doing the first duel as well where Revolver holds back yet his opening hand looks like he could’ve OTK’d Soulburner with Borrelsword.

[@dancostello4872]

Yeah Revolver's opening hand vs Soulburner R1 was literally the _perfect_ one for what his deck did - if he wanted to, he had multiple routes that all resulted in clapped cheeks.

[@aaa1e2r3]

Wasn't that duel a voluntary loss on Revolver's end considering he was trying to let soulburner get closure?

[@heavydonkeykong5190]

A Joey beating a Kaiba is still a bone chilling milestone.

[@b4history32]

Meh. Soulburner only won because of plot. In both his skills and his deck Soulburner doesn't even begin to match up with Revolver. Literally all he does is turbo out Heatleo every duel.

[@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu]

@@aaa1e2r3 I believe Revolver make misplays in various of the duels he played (in the duels he lost) so losing fairly against SB doesn't seem unbelievable

[@johnnysizemore5797]

I actually agree with you about Kaiba's options. Yeah, it wouldn't have been FUN to win without using Obilisk(he could've just activated Soul Exchange and swing for Game), but a Wins a Win. Kaiba-boy lost this due to both Arrogance and overrelying on a God card(honestly think Yugi did the same thing after getting Slifer, but that's just my opinion)...

[@-AirKat-]

tbf if I had a god in my pocket I’d wanna flex that too

[@johnnysizemore5797]

@@-AirKat- there's Flexing and then there's WINNING. Given what we know of (and seen of) Seto, he should've been more focused on winning the Duel. I can still see why you'd be tempted to use the God Cards, but you should never rely in just one game plan(plans and enemy contact an all)....

[@Kyzen_Wrell]

I don’t think Yugi did so as it wasn’t his immediate strategy to get Slifer out, but was prepared for it anyway.

[@ncr_ranger96]

Soul Exchange would not allow him to attack with the monsters he chose. They are only being tributed. He didn't even technically control them and their going over to his field was merely cinematic.

[@heavydonkeykong5190]

Personally, I feel like Kaiba was REALLY going overboard with that Final Attack Orders gambit. Who knows how the duel would have gone if he hadn't force himself and Yugi to shut down their own decks?

[@luispalacios8423]

Imagine if red eyes dark dragoon were in Yugi's deck. He already had the materials for it.

[@levievil9220]

It would’ve been cool Imma make a scenario Kaiba: ha you lose yugi Yugi: I activate polymerization Kaiba: what Yugi: by fusing red eyes black dragon with the dark magician i fusion summon red eyes dark dragoon Kaiba: noooooo Yugi: now dragoon attack Kaiba loses the duel

[@Teekayhuey_TK]

18:36 Obelisk: Don't fail me my child.

[@kelandraplays7374]

Great video! I had no idea there were so many misplays and opportunities in this duel, but I don't mind at all. Like you said this duel was about plot and spectacle, and it doesn't disappoint!

[@tsovinar2287]

13:55 Yugi playing Necromancy as a Quick-Play is legal, due to the second clause of Spell Sanctuary treating spells as Quick-Play on the respective opponent’s turn

[@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu]

But it was Yugi's turn, did the effect also applies in your turn?

[@tsovinar2287]

Considering Spell Sanctuary is the Continuous Spell counterpart of Temple of the Kings, the effect is also applicable during the respective player’s turn

[@lukedavis1436]

@@FranciscoRamirez-nb4uu yes. Spell sanctuary allows both players to go through their decks and select one spell card, then for the rest of the duel as long as spell sanctuary is still on the field, all spell cards can be activated during each other's turn as long as the spell card was placed face down first. Of course Kaiba doesn't say this in the dub when he activates it. Although I think he used it an earlier episode in which he did explain both effects. I think that would be a pretty fun card to play with even if It's broken as fuck.

[@UhOh239]

Yugi is allowed to play Necromancy because of Battle City Rules. Lmao

[@tsovinar2287]

@@UhOh239 Regardless, still a legal move xD

[@Xafren]

Kaiba didn't attack with X Head Cannon because it was under Yugi's control with change of Hearts. In Joey vs Kaiba we ruled that Enemy Controller doesn't take control of an enemy monster, it just allows you to use it as a tribute.

[@Cloud-dt6xb]

Weird how he convinently forgot about that I honestly think this is his worst episode of the series. He clearly has a bias for Kaiba in this duel.

[@roncerjani9063]

@@Cloud-dt6xb It's a little mistake that goes in favor of Yugi vs a bunch of misplays at Kaiba's cost. He's not being biased, even as a kid I'd ask myself why didn't kaiba play some cards earlier. This Duel was gloriously set up for Yami to win.

[@Cloud-dt6xb]

@@roncerjani9063 But your forgetting to factor in who Kaiba is as a person, when it comes to Yugi he get's serious tunnel vision and in this duel he's determined to utterly overpower Yugi to prove he's the better duelist. That mindset leads to mistakes he would'nt normally make, but his rage and arrogance made him incapable of seeing that during this duel. While Yugi remained calm and focused which allowed him to predict what Kaiba would do and how. This is not a sudden charachter flaw this was always an issue for him until this duel where he finally got a good smacking of humble pie. And if you want to talk about duels with Kaiba where the plot favored a duelist let's talk about how in both times Joey dueled Kaiba. Joey's suddenly made to look like a much worse duelist than he actually is. The second duel was much better than the first in this regard but it's still irritating that he's somehow the only duelist who does'nt know about Kaiba's crush card despite being present when Kaiba used it against Yugi.

[@roncerjani9063]

@@Cloud-dt6xb You are right, and you definitely are right about plot armor being a big factor in this game, still Kaiba in this Duel was straightout careless. He wanted like always to overwhelm Yugi in every possible way, but he didn't think half of its turns through. Especially near the end, he shoot himself in the foot playing Final Attack Orders and instead of using it in his characteristic fashion to mill ops deck or shut down the rest of his plays, he aids him even further. He also made no preparation for De-Fusion which even LK pointed out in the abridged version of this duel what a dumb missplay it was. And then he didn't use his Monster Reborn to revive obelisk and burn for 4k is so uncharacteristic, because he loved flexing his God card. Hell he even used it against a deadbeat random duelist in Battle City. The second half of this Duel was as if Kaiba suddenly forgot who was he fighting against.

[@riki5512]

21:07 In Battle City Egyptian Gods cannot attack when they are special summoned, except Ra with his instant attack ability

[@brucelston]

Didn't slifer attack bakura same turn?

[@LoneStarVII]

He means Obelisk's card effect

[@roncerjani9063]

This was only in the manga, not anime. Also, he did say to attack with the revived Obelisk, but to use him to inflict 4k damage which was by all means very much allowed.

[@thehidden6532]

Kaiba's final move, that cost him the game (hint: 4400 attack), seems logical if you consider his flaw suggested by Yugi. The flaw I am referring to is Kaiba's obsession for power. Kaiba did not know about Yugi's face down cards, but Yugi knows about his lust for power. So, Yugi bates Kaiba, and he takes the bate resulting in his defeat.

[@MiraiSaiyajin7]

13:58 you have forgotten about spell sanctuary which allows both players to activate spells as an quick play spells if I'm not mistaking

[@floodinmon14]

12:14 Another Kaiba misplay here: which effect of Obelisk Kaiba chooses to activate. Here, he could have tributed Blade Knight and Sword of Soul to increase Obelisk's ATK to infinity. Now, I know Yugi can reduce the damage to 0 with Kuriboh, But I'm pretty sure infinity beats 6000 and Slifer would have been destroyed by the Attack.

[@LucianDevine]

Anime Kuriboh also protects 1 monster from being destroyed by the same effect that was going to cause the life point damage. So he could have targeted Slifer, and we end up with the same result.

[@joshuab3918]

can't obelisk only do that if he tributes ra and slifer, or am i forgetting something

[@floodinmon14]

@@joshuab3918 no. It can be any two monsters. When Yugi duels Marik he tributes Egyptian god Slime to increase to infinity.

[@LucianDevine]

@@joshuab3918 No, each ability only requires 2 tributes. Kaiba uses the infinite attack one against his duel robot in the beginning of the season.

[@UhOh239]

Kaiba also misplayed by not using lullaby of obedience on the turn he used soul exchange if he did he wouldve summoned slifer since yugi didn’t set change of heart.

[@ChaosXeloc]

This duel is pretty hype, but it also annoyed me a lot for the number of strange plays and the blue-balling of the Egyptian Gods duking it out. It's also a bit difficult to ascertain when and if something is going to affect the Gods in the anime since the rulings are all over the place in general compared to the TCG in real life.

[@Nova_vant_harr]

6 episodes long. That was a month and a half of pure agony waiting to see how the duel would pan out

[@ManaLeak13]

20:15 The mystery card for Yugi could easily have been Mirror Force or Thousand Knives. As for Kaiba Shrink is the best option that comes to my mind.

[@autophobicdestruction1048]

8:00 XYZ Dragon Cannon didn't have that effect originally. Some cards, like Black Paladin, were changed to have their real life effect later in the show. Also, Valkyrion was a fusion monster in the manga so I guess the no attack rule never applied to contact fusions.

[@mesiagamer5217]

Both are fusion monsters however they're never fusion summoned they are special summoned.

[@M3G4T3RR4]

If I had to guess the no attacking rule probably doesn't refer to Fusion Monsters, but rather Fusion Summons. The anime card text for XYZ specifies that it's special summoned, not fusion summoned. It sounds like a semantic but there is a distinct difference between the two in the real card game, so I'm willing to believe this is the case.

[@UhOh239]

There was also a error when yugi used Necromancy Kaiba X-Head Cannon shouldn’t have return to the field because it gets banished when summoning the XYZ Dragon Cannon

[@mesiagamer5217]

@@UhOh239 does it get banished in the Anime?

[@UhOh239]

@@mesiagamer5217 when Kaiba summoned XYZ Dragon Cannon against Alister, All 3 monsters were banished.

[@christopherb501]

3:29 "Looks like he should have - *adopted* - a different strategy. _Eh?"_

[@ncr_ranger96]

Apparently.

[@duodecim3452]

22:10 when yugi decided which cards to keep, you could see how he had gilfer's demon in his deck, what he wanted to do was take 500 attack from blue eyes ultimate dragon with his effect and then increase another 500 with magic formula and thus defeat him and the one that yugi had played his magic formila first was not meaningless, he wanted to force kaiba to play the card that he drew, and so it was, already with all the cards played yugi played his de-fusion with total freedom

[@Favoris804]

Important fact to point out : Every normal spell cards that has been activated on the opponent's turn is not an illegal move. In the anime, Spell Sanctuary (continuous spell) has been activated at the beginning of the turn, allowing Seto Kaiba to add Soul Exchange that would make summoning Obelisk much easier while also making summoning Slifer much harder for Yugi, using 2 of his own monsters to summon his god. Yugi added Change of Heart. While Spell Sanctuary is face-up on the field, both players can play spell cards as quick-play.

[@josephjulianaslan923]

Right, but you can't play Quick-Play Spell Cards on your opponent's turn when it's in your hand and not on the field, you can only use QPS on your hand when it's your turn. Well except Spell Sanctuary bypasses this...

[@Waveboy24]

21:40 My take on this play: Kaiba attacks Red-Eyes to go for game, but Yugi activates magic formula as a bait. He figured Kaiba set something like absorb spell, and would jump at the opportunity to destroy Joey's monster while defeating Yugi. Kaiba takes the bait, and without absorb spell, Yugi is free to safely activate De-fusion

[@justinjones7411]

Personally it would make sense for Kaiba last card to be De fusion. He would first attack Yugi Strongest monster with Ultimate then wipe out Yugi's remaining defense's and life points with his last 3 BEWD.

[@kestrelraptorial689]

It would've been so badass for Kaiba to fusion summon Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and follow that up by immediately defusing it into three Blue-Eyes White Dragons for four powerful attacks as a frequent strategy in duels.

[@cameraredeye3115]

Except Yugi flipping De-Fusion first would have still stopped Kaiba dead in the water...

[@kestrelraptorial689]

@@cameraredeye3115 In the Battle City Final Duel, yes, but I was referring more to doing this as a common strategy during his duels. Of course, in order to believably do so, he'd have had to have had reliable ways to search out his three Blue-Eyes from his deck, and cards that searched other cards were extremely rare back in these first seasons.

[@trevorrose3769]

Here’s what I want to know: Was Joey about to defeat Zigfreid?

[@josepharmstrong1531]

Lol nope.

[@Long537]

because the anime never reveals Yuma's hand at any point, it is unknown when Yuma had the Mirror Mail trap card in his hand. If you assume Yuma had it in Turn 4, Yuma couldve set it and used it when Kite attacked with Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon on Utopia in Turn 5, destroying Photon Dragon and letting Yuma attack directly with Utopia on Turn 6 I just assume Yuma drew Mirror Mail on turn 6 so he lost

[@melodywawichi802]

@@trevorrose3769 you tell me "2 days ago (edited)" Trevor Rose

[@Funcrashmalej]

22:48 Its not the flex, but to deal the most emotional damage to Kaiba (since his 3 blue eyes white dragons are his favorite cards) and kinda pay back the second time for the 4th Blue eyes white dragon that was torn apart all the way back to the first episode of the series by the hands of Kaiba. Edit (6 months later): Based on real life Dark Paladin card - it would gain attack power from dragons even in graveyard. So technically: Yugi would have easily beaten Blue Eyes Ultimate dragon without defusion

[@symantares9171]

It's funny how Kaiba was so obsessed with using Obelisk, but then doesn't when it actually would have won him the game

[@BigDaddyRich69]

Lmao true

[@Thelnquisitor]

To be fair. Yugi made a lot of misplays too, and Kaiba’s arrogance is always his weak point which comes out especially hard against Yugi A longer explanation: Kaiba always has a plan. He LOVES out “playing” his opponent and USUALLY he does. He could have stuck too hard to a preconceived plan and didn’t play the best he could.

[@YarnLalms711]

Imagine if Dragoon was in this era and Yugi had Polymerization in his back row. Also, I feel like Kaiba and Yugi had copies of Mushroom Man

[@homebredpacman9715]

Man rewatching this and just how both Yugi and Kaiba planned to steal one another's Egyptian God cards, kind of makes me wonder how things would have gone had they succeeded. Yugi has Obelisk and Kaiba has Slifer

[@mario_veca]

In the italian dub they slightly changed it in a way that I think makes more sense: Yugi told Kaiba something like "I was expecting that you couldn't even wait untill the end of the duel to try and take my Slifer, so I prepared exactly for that" and then procedes to activate his exchange spell card

[@TotalEvo7]

Misplay on Dark Paladin's attack points by the creators of the episode. Dark Paladin gains 500 ATK for not only every dragon on the field, but for also every dragon in the graveyard, meaning DP would've had 5400 ATK. Even though Red Eyes and Ultimate Dragon were on the field, there are 3 BEWDs in the graveyard, due to all of them being used for fusion summon (confirmed in The Pyramid of Light). So Dark Paladin would've gotten over Ultimate Dragon, and Red Eyes would've attacked for game.

[@CharmCityGamer]

Ahh the very best core duel in my opinion of the original series outside of the final. Great choice pal! I will still patiently wait for my request!

[@davidcrijns7865]

7:30 XYZ Dragon Cannon attacking isn’t an illegal play, as you guessed. The text on XYZ Dragon Cannon states it must be special summoned (not fusion summoned as later contact fusions) by banishing its materials. So while it is a fusion monster, it’s not fusion summoned, and thus isn’t subject to the summoning sickness they suffer in Battle City rules.

[@TheJaredPunch]

Probably the best duel in the original series and possibly the Franchise.

[@thenahum3603]

My all time favorite duel

[@emperorjack8946]

Still holds up twenty years later. Easily the best duel in the franchise.

[@darknesswave100]

There are a couple duels I like better because of personal reasons but yeah this duel is peak in terms of entertainment. From an actual duel perspective its kinda bad given all the misplays and yugi wins cause of plot vibes but overall it's one of the best in the series

[@StupidWeb]

Yank vs Yugi is probably the most sound in the original series, but if we’re going by epic, yeah this is probably it chief

[@cliffwarden5934]

I think they kept misplaying because they were overthinking everything each other's strategies. They're arguably the best duelists either of them have faced and were swapping between being fixated on setting up their own play or stoping the other from doing the same that they lost the forest for the trees

[@grigorkupchyan5067]

Fun fact: Kaiba could’ve used lullaby of obedience after his obelisk got banished. Kaiba would’ve added slifer to his hand and summoned it that turn.

[@natedeanmaan2]

True, but Slifer would have 2000 attack points and could be less with the transporter in hand

[@WorldOfArtWorld]

Sick editing.

[@Blaze-te2do]

Absolutely fabulous video! I know this a year later, but I still to this day can’t figure out what’s the point of that magic spell book at the end. Even if yugi was like oh I need enough life points to activate diffusion wave, you still need to activate your own de-fusion to just keep dark paladin on the field! Seriously I was like what the heck are you doing yugi?! 😂

[@Tyr666Thor]

Was the second to last play Yugi seeing Kaiba attack his Dark paladin and desiding to bait out Kaiba's Spell Absorbtion to make sure de-fustion got through? Or does that make no sense? XD I can't remember Spell Absorbtion's effect in the anime.

[@igorlopes8463]

I think that was what he was going for, if Yugi used de-fusion first, Kaiba would have taken it's effect and de-fused Dark Paladin, leaving Yugi with no way of winning.

[@jacobwilliams1223]

Doesn't work anyway. If Kaiba committed to the attack he still goes over Dark Paladin. If he wanted to swing for game, he could've/should've attacked Red-Eyes. Wasting Soul Absorption on that Magic Formula was pointless.

[@darknesswave100]

@@jacobwilliams1223 the weird part about that was kaiba never declared which monster he was attacking. So if he said he was attacking red eyes yugi would have used defusion which then kaiba could have used absorb spell to use it on dark paladin therefore splitting it and winning the duel. The only way that whole exchange makes any sense (which from a dueling perspective makes zero sense) is that kaiba was attacking dark paladin so yugi used magic formula to bait out kaiba using absorb spell so he couldn't use defusion for himself. If kaiba had declared the attack on red eyes yugi would have used defusion regardless and won because of the dark paladin ability/diffusion wave motion combo

[@samurexatlas7373]

9:46 The Spell version lasts 4 turns. However, Yugi used the Trap version, which I bet lasts 3 turns. Little details to pay attention to.

[@rafaelcastor2089]

Nope. Trap version lasts until the 4th standby phase too

[@nomad_3373]

No, both versions last 4 turns.

[@heroesofthescape]

Not sure if mentioned below, but it made sense for Yugi to activate Magic Formula to bait out any potential card that could stop De-Fusion. It ended up not mattering since Absorb Spell only works on attack increase, but that was a smart move. It was good final trump card.

[@michaelnally2841]

Another potential misplay from Kaiba is he didn’t place polymerization and final attack order face down before is card of demise to reduce the cards in his hand to draw more.

[@abgaming7396]

That unknown card from card from sanctity was Buster Blader I think

[@crazeristicgamer7074]

Actually You Clarified Earlier In The Video That Normal Spells Can Be Used As Quick-Play Spells So Yugi Using Necromancy On Kaiba's Turn Wasn't An Illegal Play

[@kageseiryuu8675]

17:48 that's an illegal move though no? fusion monsters can't attack the turn they were summoned?

[@marjosonic]

Just came into the comments to mention that. Glad someone else caught it too.

[@TGSAnime]

You are right, a misplay play on my behalf.

[@cursedsummoner]

@@marjosonic you're not the only one :)

[@lilpotayto]

I like the idea that for all his cynicism Kaiba genuinely is a little superstitious when it comes to Blue Eyes. His blind faith in it saved him against Ishizu so maybe he felt compelled here again?

[@robrick9361]

"superstitious" is not the word I'd use.................."fetish" is more accurate.

[@limonbattery]

@@robrick9361 He did have some superstition for Blue Eyes in the sub. Obviously he dismisses most of the ancient Egyptian stuff as occult nonsense but he's much less stubborn than in the dub if he actually sees it himself.

[@tylereastbury375]

Man your duel analysis videos are some of my favourite videos on KZbin

[@tylereastbury375]

@@rob19ny Lol no maidens?

[@tylereastbury375]

@@rob19ny Bro really just unironically said “anime clown” 😭

[@smartboy201]

Y'know, in terms of "The Top 10 Moves in the Anime no player in the TCG would ever consider performing", I have to say, _"Setting Pot of Greed in the Spell Zone"_ might actually take the Number 1 spot.

[@mikeshepard3128]

Obviously the final cards that were unrevealed were Watapon and Saggi the Dark Clown (respectively); so obvious.

[@J.stag3]

I'm pretty sure it was mushroom man and mushroom man 2 (respectively)

[@LucianDevine]

@@J.stag3 Were such overpowered cards allowed in that tournament? Or wait, didn't Kaiba rip up all but the 1 mushroom man Yugi had in his deck?

[@MrUltiblood]

Would love to see the "Was Revolver about to beat Soulburner" video one day

[@welpris3238]

@Reginaldopedro Trevizan “it’s not about winning or losing, it’s about **flex**

[@LeeoJohnsonTV]

I stopped at 7 minutes to say: I love how you're calling out their misplays early on. However I think they're all intentional. Both Yugi and Kaiba had tunnel vision on summoning their God cards first instead of trusting in the rest of their decks (they'll come to realize this have way through the duel when they're shown the vision).

[@tridassenpaitrs233]

now that i saw again the video i think we have a missplay here. when kaiba activated card of demise what he COULD do is set final attack orders and polymerization facedown. then he would be able to draw 4 cards. obviously we dont know what cards he would draw except from flute of summoning dragon. but who knows?

[@rickyl3819]

I just realized that there's one more misplay that not only could have cost Kaiba the duel, it's also kind of out of character for him. After Yugi defuses Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Kaiba is still in his battle phase. If he attacked Red-Eyes Black Dragon with one of his Blue-Eyes, not only would he be giving a bit of a "Go to Hell" shot to Wheeler, but he'd also lower Yugi's Dark Paladin's attack points by 500 points. On top of that, Yugi's life points would have dropped below 1000, meaning he'd no longer be able to play Defusion Wave Motion to attack more than one of Kaiba's monsters. And with Dark Paladin at 4400 attack points, Yugi wouldn’t have been able to finish off Kaiba in that turn, as Kaiba has 1900 life points, which means Yugi's attack would have only brought Kaiba to 500 life points. This would also lower Dark Paladin's attack back to 3900. This might have still ended in Kaiba's loss, but we'd at least probably find out what the final cards both duelists picked were.

[@gamelab2221]

I always thought kaiba misplayed in the turn he activated soul exchange. yes yugi stopped him from summoning obelisk but kaiba had lullaby of obedience in his hand, so why didn't he just use lullaby to take slifer from yugi and summon it to his field. as yugi wouldn't have been able to stop him as yugis exchange spell was still in his hand at this point. so had kaiba done this he would have had slifer on his field and possibly even obelisk later in the duel.

[@sadrobot5501]

If he wouldnt have gone for the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon fusion, he probably would have won in that turn by attacking with all three Blue Eyes Whit Dragons individually. But makes sense for the character, that's the way Kaiba wants to win.

[@jacobwilliams1223]

The fact that neither Yugi or Kaiba set Life Shaver the second they got it in their hand make me question if these two really are meant to be the apex of duelists in this series.

[@lukedavis1436]

They probably would have just activated it earlier and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. They would have just used it as a substitute for whatever defense spell or trap they already used in the anime. At the pace they were going not many of their face Downs were going to be on the field for very long.

[@Amitlu]

In the manga you could only set 1 trap or spell card per turn. Kaiba used his next turn to set Interdimensional Matter Transporter instead, and Yugi had set Exchange and Lightforce Sword the turn before. (perhaps he also didnt draw Lifeshaver right away)

[@swampert564]

I always loved the extreme pettiness of Yami's Exchange timing. Even more so though the absolutely unneccesary flex of using of Diffusion Wave Motion on Dark Paladin is my favorite play in the entire franchise. It's so on brand for Yami to twist the knife on the already massive blow to Kaiba's ego that he is already doing by winning to also ensure that he destroys all three of Kaiba's favorite card in one attack. Yugi (and Yami) tend to take Kaiba's irl behavior in stride for the most part but he usually seems to go out of his way to salt the wound when they actually duel. It's a pretty great piece of character writing for both of them. Both of them are playing relatively sloppy games because they are both going for maximum dramatic effect. I love this duel, easily my favorite match in any of the shows.

[@Shenaniganz_z]

Wooooooww... What a duel. Mind blasting at the end. Absolutely roller coaster ride when Paladin was on the field. 😮😮

[@Frost1945-s7w]

Although it was written so you yugi would win, the entire duel did showed how peoples judgment could be clouded by their own ego/pride. Kaiba could have one with his god card but in the end he decided to go for it with his favorite card. If one applies this to a real life situation, one can understand how people could actually make mistakes

[@shuckyducky3471]

I feel like Atem flexing was in retaliation to Kaibas flex attempt. Like you said Kaiba could've easily won had he chose Obelisk to bring back with Monster Reborn and used his affect, yet he decided to flex by beating Yugi with a card he beat him with in their last match at Duelist Kingdom. Atem seeing through this decided to give Kaiba a taste of his own medicine.

[@MegaMachiOnline]

Only Ra can use its attack-effect on the turn it’s revived in battle city.

[@jacobwilliams1223]

@@MegaMachiOnline Doesn't matter, use Obelisk's effect Kaiba deals 4000 damage and wins. A massive misplay.

[@MegaMachiOnline]

@@jacobwilliams1223 Obelisk is an attack based effect, the same way monsters could be damaged in the DM Era.

[@jacobwilliams1223]

@@MegaMachiOnline "attack based effect" I'd love for you to tell me where in the series it says Obelisk can't use its effects being revived from the GY. Hell Yugi revived Slifer in his duel with Yugi intended to attack for game with it so Ra being the only one who can attack off a revival is questionable itself. People love to use headcanon to justify bad writing.

[@MegaMachiOnline]

@@jacobwilliams1223 The Ceremonial Duel is different from the Battle City Duel, but even then, Mirror Force was used against Gandora’s effect.

[@bladersmosh]

Is it blasphemous to say I don’t think this is the best DM duel or the entire series? I mean everyone has their opinion and I respect them and this duel is still brilliant. However, I think it’s a bit overrated and a predictable number 1 result on peoples top 10 best YGO duels. Me personally, I often find at least 1 duel from each series I believe better than what’s considered the fan favourite. Shows variety in the list if you know what I mean? DM-Joey vs Marik GX-Jaden vs Yubel 5DS-tied between Yusei vs Akiza R2 or Yusei vs Zone Zexal-Yuma vs Nasch Arc V- tied between Yuya vs Yuri and Yuya vs Serena and Ruri Vrains-Playmaker vs Akira or Soulburner vs Revolver (that’s considered the Vrains favourite and I definitely agree) Sevens-Yuga vs Luke R2

[@aceclover758]

Thank you ^^ I always said if Kaiba just destroyed Queens Knight and went for a victory instead of his “perfect” victory, he would’ve won. Majority of his skills and resources should’ve let him win.

[@extremelyvividcardgames7890]

The fact that Kaiba was able to attack with his XYZ dragon canon and Joey wasn't able to attack with his Thousand Dragon during their duel is just bullshit. Literally a screw the rules I have money moment.