Alright so we know that basically everyone cheats in Yugioh right? Everyone has discussed that topic to death already so I want to mix things up a little.
For all of this I am only using the Anime, and not including Season 0, as it is all I have experience with. I also have moderate competitive and casual experience with the real game.
For the Duelist Kingdom Arc, I am acknowledging the Duelist Kingdom Rules, and any made up rule for the show, as the official rules had not been established up until a later point.
For any situation where rules are not specified, I will be addressing the official tournament rules, and I will also try to assume the best case scenario from a competitive standpoint.
Let’s start by establishing that Kaiba is the rank #1 player in the country. It is never mentioned what country they are exactly in. Bandit Keith is clearly American, and Pegasus is also American. Otherwise the series is localised as Japan or America, and for instances where the dub disagrees with the source material, its best to follow the original series. So we have to say that any cast, unless stated, is Japanese, or more importantly, the events are set in Japan.
So Kaiba is the #1 Japanese player, and favourite to win Nationals, when the series starts, which states that he is quite a strong player.
For this article, I want to focus on each of the major players in the Duelist Kingdom tournament, and a couple that aren’t actually competing.
1. Joey Wheeler – Random Schoolchild who wasn’t even invited to the tournament.
2. Weevil Underwood – The National Champion.
3. Rex Raptor – 2nd place at Nationals.
4. Mako Tsunami – 3rd place at Nationals.
5. Mai Valentine – No name player.
6. Bandit Keith – 2nd place at major US Championship.
7. Bonz – No name child working for Bandit Keith.
8. Yugi Muto – Random Schoolchild with magic powers.
9. Maximillion Pegasus – Creator of Duel Monsters and winner of major US Championship. – Not an entrant.
10. PaniK – An Eliminator hired to eliminate players. – Not an entrant.
11. Seto Kaiba – Supposed #1 Player in Japan – Not an entrant.
12. Tea Gardner – Random Schoolchild – Not an entrant.
13. Bakura Ryou – Random Schoolchild – Not an entrant.
There were 40 players invited to the Duelist Kingdom tournament, its impossible to determine if this includes Kaiba, but Joey and Bandit Keith did also join without an invite.
So you would assume that a mind reading billionaire with magic egyptian demon powers, would pick the 40 greatest players in Japan/The World. So lets assume that 100% of the players invited are absolutely top notch players. We can assume that Pegasus and Bandit Keith are also strong players with their US tournament history. Realistically, Joey is the only competitor who has no place in the tournament.
I’m also ignoring Para and Dox because they only tag duel, and their Labyrinth game is more of a gag duel than a real duel. I am also ignoring the ghost of Kaiba duel because it’s basically just Kaiba again.
1. Joey Wheeler
Joey is seen losing to Yugi as soon as the series starts, but Yugi is supposed to be a top notch player, so losing to him isn’t awful. But when Yugi looks at Joey’s deck, it is literally 100% monster cards. Whats worse is his highest atk and def stats are both 1800.
On the boat, Joey trades for Salamandra, Kunai with Chain, Baby Dragon and Shield and Sword. We don’t know what he gave up for these 4 cards, but as long as he didn’t give up any monsters with 1800 or more atk, it wasn’t a bad trade for him. Yugi then also gives Joey Time Wizard, which Joey uses to win 2 of his games.
Kunai with Chain is probably Joey’s most clutch card, and Sword and Shield single handedly wins his duel with Bonz. These two cards and Baby Dragon were good deals for Joey, as they paid off.
In the 32 cards we see Joey use, 8 of them are 1700+ without a drawback. 6 of them are below 1000 with no effect or combo. Only 5 are spell/trap cards.
Copycat is one of Joey’s strongest cards, but it, Red Eyes and Time Wizard are not enough to make his deck good. Joey has a poor understanding of the game basics and loses to Tea Gardner repeatedly.
His deck is horrifically underpowered with minimal synergy. He runs Salamandra with literally 2 targets in his entire deck. His entire strategy basically revolves around Time Wizard or bust and theres a very good reason he was never invited to this tournament. Not sure how he gets Chasm of Spikes or Graverobber later.
With how easily Joey traded for Salamandra, Kunai with Chain, Baby Dragon and Sword and Shield, we should assume that any player on this island has access to these cards.
2. Weevil Underwood
We only see about 12 of Weevil’s cards, although unlike Joey, his equip spells can target any monster in the deck. Why he runs Basic Insect is beyond me, but every other monster is at least playable. Killer Needle is nothing special, but at least it has a relevant base atk for first gen Yugioh, and would be a greater target for all of Weevil’s insect buff cards.
With such a small number of monsters and the fact that none of them are above average, its reasonable to assume that he would run duplicates of his low powered insects. Weevil has an aggressive playstyle, not using spells or traps except to buff his slightly below par Insect monsters. With his strongest summonable Insect having just 1500 atk, its hard to believe that Weevil beat anyone, let alone won the National championship.
The Great Moth/Cocoon of evolution line is absolutely awful in the real game, but with the power buff it has in the anime, where destroying it lets you play whatever form it was up to, is enough to make it playable. On top of that, you can also equip cocoon of evolution to Larve Moth, and his awful summon restriction is gone. It also seems to be quicker to upgrade the Moth in the anime. But this isn’t much compared to the unrestricted power of Blue-eyes and other monsters that fit into that 2500+ category.
Weevil appears to be a better player than Joey, and his deck has more Synergy, but Joey’s cards are just genuinely stronger. Makes you really question Weevil as a player when a nobody like Joey can play such stronger cards. Kunai with Chain would have worked extremely well in Weevils deck, and considering that 8 of his monsters have higher def than atk, Sword and Shield would not have gone astray with his swarming strategy.
3. Rex Raptor
Of the 8 monsters seen in Rex Raptors deck, only 2 of them are less than 1600 atk. Rex isn’t seen playing a single spell or trap on Duelist Island, and based on his boneheaded attitude, its not farfetched to assume that his entire deck consists of just monsters. When two of those are Red Eyes and Serpent Night Dragon, it’s difficult to believe he lost to Weevil. Rex’s weakest seen monster, is stronger than most of Weevil’s deck.
Its hard to base Rex’s skill off of 8 cards, but he is absolutely better than Weevil. Kunai with Chain would have gone wonderfully in his deck, although I feel like it would have improved literally every deck on Duelist Kingdom, being able to stop an attack AND buff a guy.
As far as boss monsters go, Red Eyes and Serpent Night Dragon are fine at Duelist Kingdom, but losing his Red Eyes is kind of a blessing come Battle City.
4. Mako Tsunami
Mako has a really good strategy for Duelist Kingdom to abuse the rules. We only see 3 of his cards, but he makes the most of them at all times, losing only to Yugi’s bullshittery. His cards aren’t strong by any means, but he has a solid strategy.
Being unattackable is good, especially against the low tier players Duelist Kingdom has shown so far. However this strategy only would have gotten him to the final 4.
5. Mai Valentine
Mai isn’t really a bad player per se, her deck is solid and she has really strong cards. She simply lost to Time Wizard against Joey, she scooped to Tea out of pitty and I don’t remember the Yugi duel too well, but she was kicking his ass and then scooped because Black Luster Soldier was too strong. Apparently 3k attack is broken when nobody plays removal.
Mai doesn’t seem to make bad plays or terrible card choices, she was the first player to play an Archetype and is easily better than the duelists I have looked at so far. Kunai with Chain would not have gone astray.
6. Bandit Keith
Bandit Keith plays a lot of high attack monsters, and with that ridiculous Duelist Kingdom rule saying that Machines are immune to non physical attacks, Machines might just be the strongest deck in the game.
Obviously Keith wasn’t chosen because he is a cheat and Pegasus views him as a low class player, but Joey wasn’t invited either. I guess it says something for this tournament that two uninvited players made top 4, but more on that later.
So Keith is quite established as one of the best players on the Island, and despite not actually playing a game (unless you count playing for his goons), he actually deserved to be in the top 4. Keith is a great example of everything wrong with this arc, but again, that needs to explained later.
Sword and Shield and Kunai with Chain would have done wonders in his deck, he absolutely should have beat Joey but plot armour is a funny thing.
7. Bonz
This guy is a great example of how bad the players in the Duelist Kingdom tournament were.
He didn’t even play his own fucking deck, he basically told Keith to make him a zombie deck, and then sat back as Keith told him how to play it.
Coaching is cheating, Bonz has no place in this tournament, as his deck had a strong strategy, clearly designed by Keith, but Bonz was too garbage to abuse it. Thank god Call of the Haunted isn’t actually that powerful. Bonz’ deck could have been improved by him not being a retard.
8. Yugi Muto
Lets ignore the fact that he appears to be playing over 40 cards. He does tell Weevil that it is his Grandpas deck, so you would assume the only change from duelling Kaiba to Duelist Kingdom is the 5 Exodia cards he left in the ocean. I can’t help but assume Yugi changed the deck, and tried to focus it on the Exodia cards. Then after losing Exodia, he made no effort to trade so maybe he didn’t think his deck needed adjusting with those 5 cards removed.
In episode 1, he is seen using Blackland Fire Dragon, maybe he didn’t draw it for the entire Duelist Kingdom Arc, but I feel like he wasn’t playing it. There are 8 monsters in Yugi’s deck, that have no support or alternative play, that are weaker than Blackland Fire Dragon, why would he not play this card?
Why does Sangan not make an appearance, it’s obviously part of his Grandpa’s Exodia strategy, but even without Exodia, the card is insane in such a low powered deck.
Is he a good player? Sure, he does really well in all of his games, but he is clearly garbage at deck building and his card choices are clearly more based on what he likes, rather than what is actually good.
Giving up his Time Wizard seems strange, especially since he clearly planned to use it with Dark Magician to make Dark Sage. The only question I have is, do Dark Sage, Metalzoa and Red Eyes Metal Dragon count as monster cards in the deck like they do in the real game? Or are they some kind of special side card that can only be played when conditions are met? Are they even a card?
And why play cards with only 1 target like Multiply and Makiu?
Again, Kunai with Chain and Sword and Shield would have improved his deck greatly. Also, why was he playing 2 different ritual monsters? Black Luster Soldier makes sense because of its 3k atk that some players in this tournament literally cannot out.
9. Maximillion Pegasus
The creator of Duel Monsters and magic man who can read minds, this is a strong player. He doesn’t even need to be good at the game when he can create the best cards for himself and read opponents minds. Where is his Monster Reborn? Why even bother with Toon Aligator and Dark Rabbit? He should have every powerhouse card in the game, yeah his Toon and Relinquished strategies are strong, especially with his custom rules in place. But you’d expect more Machines because he clearly made them broken. Barrel Dragon is insanely strong, and Toon Barrel Dragon exists in the real game. I feel like that card alone would be near unstoppable.
Yugi turned off his mind reading ability with his own millennium item, and that seems to have been a solid plan, since Pegasus became dependent on that ability. Still, reading minds and using create-a-cards must have made him the strongest player in the game, so losing to Yugi is still hard to believe.
10. PaniK
This was an interesting concept, because Pegasus sucks at basic maths, he hired players like PaniK to eliminate players who weren’t Yugi. Essentially the story is that Pegasus gave out 80/40 Star Chips and these Eliminators were supposed to stop those 40 other Star Chips getting a 5th player into the Castle.
PaniK was able to beat Mai off screen (off screen games barely count since they ignore player skill entirely for plot convenience), however, his strategy of running monsters with abstract attack points wasn’t atrocious. His abuse of the Castle of Dark Illusions having like 3k def and it making his relatively strong monsters unkillable was basically unbeatable. As already established, 3k atk is a benchmark no deck can get over, 3k def is no different.
This loss purely comes down to Yugi’s cheese strats. PaniK was obviously hired for a good reason, and probably would have eliminated anyone other than Bandit Keith and Yugi. Again, this tournament is clearly garbage when Pegasus has either not included, or just hired, the best players, so only garbage like Weevil and Rex (apparently the national champions) could enter. I know his plan was all about stealing the Millennium Puzzle from Yugi, but still.
11. Seto Kaiba
Seto Kaiba is a great player, he absolutely backs his title as the national champion. Working for Kaiba corp, the richest and most powerful card distributor in the world, you would think his deck would be the best, bar Pegasus. Why does he run shit cards like Hitotsu-me Giant and Grappler? He clearly has access to better cards as seen every time he opens his fucking briefcase of cards.
From this briefcase alone, we can improve his deck. Lets pretend he doesn’t know the rule of Fusion Monsters being able to be summoned as regular cards for the sake of kindness. Cards that are cut off, I recognise as Cyber Soldier, Millennium Golem, B Dragon Jungle King and Athrosaurus. Anthrosaurus is garbage and Cyber Soldier is nothing special (except being a machine that Kaiba wouldn’t know was broken).
B. Dragon Jungle King, Launcher Spider, and anything else in that picture with a 2k+ atk stat, would greatly improve his deck. Kaiba does not need to run 1200 atk shit when the game has no tribute summon rules. Remember, this is only the top row, there are many more cards under those cards.
Saggi and Ancient Lamp both have a use, as does La Jinn, but there’s absolutely no reason that Kaiba of all people should be running any other card below 2k atk.
Mystic Horseman and Battle Ox makes for a cool fusion, but its only in there for an alternative Poly target, and Poly is only in for Blue-Eyes Ultimate, which honestly sucks, if 3k is unbeatable, does he really need 4500 atk that costs him 3 3k monsters?
Its clearly in there for the same reason any player runs Blue Eyes Ultimate, he likes it.
12. Tea Gardner
Magician of Faith is great, Woboku is better than most cards seen in this show at this point. Tea’s deck is otherwise absolutely trash which speaks wonders for Joey losing to her. She is on par with Weevil and could have been a decent friend and lent her 2 copies of Magician of Faith to Yugi so he could re-use Monster reborn and whatnot. Joey could have benefited from having Woboku. Tea is a shit player and a shitter friend.
13. Bakura Ryou
Ah finally, not only is this the last player, but he may be the best player.
2 copies of Morphing Jar? Absolutely necessary. White Magical Hat? Its got a nice effect, as does Electric Lizard. Man Eater Bug is monster removal, so goodbye 3k cards that cannot be removed. Change of Heart is straight broken, how Bakura is the only player with one is beyond me.
Now onto the most powerful card on the island.
Like seriously, this is why his 2 Morphing Jar are great, to help him find this card. Electric Lizard also helps stall for this card.
Just Desserts.
Like seriously, they have 2k life points. Having 4 monsters in this game makes you vulnerable to a straight loss to this card. Not to mention the damage and finishing power he can get with Change of Heart. Bakura absolutely would have beat any player in this tournament because this card IS PURELY INSANE. I’m sure this card alone is why Kaiba moved to 4k life points for Battle City.
There are other things to address with Duelist Kingdom, Yugioh was originally released while Ebay and internet sales were relatively new territory, so it’s fair to assume that cards had to be gotten the old fashioned way through packs and trades.
But you put all these players on an island with no reasonable security, and you’re going to get people like Bandit Keith assaulting others for their star chips. He literally bashed 3 guys for their Star Chips, whats to stop Joey and Tristan from belting Weevil or Rex for their chips?
There’s nothing to stop people cheating, which is why they all cheat, and even knowing that everyone cheats, Pegasus doesn’t care that they do, because all he wants is Yugi to give up his Millennium Puzzle, he doesn’t even care that the Millennium Ring is on his island. The Puzzle doesn’t even have anything special about it, the Eye lets you read minds, the Ring seeks other items, the Rod controls minds, they Key lets you invade peoples minds or some weird shit and the Necklace poorly looks into the future.
The Puzzle doesn’t actually do anything that the other items don’t do. Other than give you the spirit of Atem to duel for you. Which wouldn’t matter if you had the abilities and access to cards that Pegasus has.
So of everyone on the island, and 80+ Star Chips, we have room for a top 8, and we can include everyone except Pegasus since they should have been participants anyway, and save Pegasus as that final boss like he is in the anime.
The top 8 on the Island are (in no particular order)
1. Bakura – He would beat any other player here since his deck is broken in this format.
2. Bandit Keith – Immunity to random parts of the game? On top of literally hiding cards up his sleeve? Yeah he has a good shot.
3. PaniK – His wall strat is only countered by Bakura, Yugi and Kaiba, and even then its not well.
4. Mako Tsunami – His near unbeatable strategy wouldn’t work inside Pegasus’ Castle and he would lose game 1 with his otherwise garbage deck.
5. Mai Valentine – Shes good, undoubtedly, but cannot get over 3k monsters and would struggle against this top 8.
6. Yugi Muto – Yugi isn’t awful, he just has an awful deck. He couldn’t beat Bakura or Bandit Keith in this tournament, he shouldn’t be able to beat Kaiba either.
7. Seto Kaiba – Bakura and Bandit Keith are his only threats here.
8. Literally any side character ever. The dude in the Black and Yellow outfit even.
This guy. I know nothing about him except that he lost to Mai, and he is already the 8th best player on the island when you don’t include Pegasus.
Although he mustn’t be too good if Pegasus invited him to this tournament knowing he couldn’t eliminate Yugi.
Yugi was always set to win it, not just because he is the main character, but cause Pegasus wanted him to win, and failed to include anyone who could actually beat him, such as Kaiba or Bandit Keith.
So there you go, Bakura Ryou is the best duelist in season 1. Join me next time when I review Battle City, have these players improved? Are the new players worth a damn? Unlike Pegasus, Kaiba actually wanted good players in this tournament, so surely its run better than Duelist Kingdom right?
Artificial Stories 