This is a continuation of the previous article detailing this concept in Yu-Gi-Oh!. Here, we move on to Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. As a reminder, this is only the Japanese version, which you’ll want to keep in mind when we get to some of the “what is this doing here?” examples.
You may have noticed that there were no examples for Yugi himself in the previous article. That would be because his hand shots often show cards he’s previously played. Judai (Jaden) is much the same in that vein, though I have tracked down a few examples.
In episode 123, he Dueled ZOMBIE NURSE!!! Here, his hand contains Re-Fusion, a card that you’d expect him to have played previously by now. He never did, nor does he he play it here or ever play it again.
Now we flash forward to Judai’s time as the Supreme King. In episode 138, the card he discards to activate Super Polymerization is Fake Hero. Subtle, huh?
Naturally, we move to Manjoume (Chazz) next. His initial Deck used Chthonian cards (episode 2). In Japan, these cards were literally “Hell” cards (they were pronounced with the word “Hell” in English). He plays Chthonian Soldier (Hell Soldier) and Mefist the Infernal General (Hell General Mephisto). In his hand we can see Helpoemer (Hell Poet – Hellpoemer) and Pandemonium Watchbear. The latter is a bit more complicated. Though the card name doesn’t contain “Hell” in English, it does in Japanese (Jigoku), resulting in Hell’s Watchbear. So yeah, that’s why he randomly had an Archfiend-related card in his hand.
Once Manjoume starts using his Armed Dragons (episode 25), we get another nice pick. He sends Flying Kamakiri #1 to the Graveyard via one of the Dragons’ effects once. This fits perfectly – the card could be used to bring out Armed Dragon LV3 when its destroyed.
Anyone recall Bastion Misawa’s Carboneddon?. Very odd effect – it had to have ten cards piled on top of it int he Graveyard to use its effect – which would compress the carbon and let Hyozanryu (Diamond Dragon) be Summoned. The ten cards are shown – all of the were ones in he played in that Duel (episodes 21-22) except for Ring of Destruction, which means that’s the card he sent to the Graveyard with the effect of his Mathematician.
Asuka (Alexis) gets a few examples in her first Duel (episode 3). She’s shown with Mind on Air in her hand (which fits in with the rest of her monsters and their sports theme to an extent), Raregold Armor (because why not, I guess) and Fusion Gate, the card Judai would later use to beat her.
In episode 7, we got a look into Sho’s (Syrus’) psyche as well as his hand. Judai comments he could have won had he played Power Bond. A look at his hand reveals he had another option too – Limiter Removal, which would have had the same result. The shot also shows Weapon Change.
Chronos de Medici (Dr. Crowler) focused almost exclusively on Ancient Gear Golem. In episode 1, his hand also has Emes the Infinity in it. Had he Summoned that instead of Ancient Gear Golem, he actually would have won his Duel against Judai – Emes’ ATK would have risen high enough by the end of the Duel to defeat Flame Wingman, even with Skyscraper. The card is similar in appearance to the Ancient Gears as well.
With Amon’s (Adrian’s) bid for power in the Spirit World, we see a pretty awesome Exodia Deck, with back-up plans galore in episode 150. When he activates Fog Castle, he discards Magical Mallet, certainly a valid choice for such a Deck. Near the end of the Duel he even Sets Backup Soldier and would have won had he gotten the chance to activate it on his next turn. Along with these, we get a weird pick – Destruction Cloud, which fits in with this old Deck. Now, that card’s effect was generic, it didn’t need Cloudians to activate, but it still seems odd, no?
Fubuki (Atticus) took Jonouchi’s (Joey’s) Red-Eyes cards and expanded the theme. In episode 159, he Summoned Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon (which had a very different effect compared to its TCG version). Using its effect, he discarded Cave Dragon and in episode 173 he was forced to send A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon to the Graveyard because of Clear Phantom. Both cards make a degree of sense here.
Rei Saotome (Blair Flannigan) used an odd Deck with the Maiden in Love cards in episode 20. Her hand was odder, with Outstanding Dog Marron, Monster Reincarnation, Beckoning Light and Pikeru’s Circle of Enchantment. I suppose they were mostly going for “cute” cards here.
In episode 33, Judai Dueled against the one vampire I know of in fiction that managed to be both scary and sexy, as opposed to only one of those. Her Genesis Crisis card let her add Zombies to her hand. She uses it grab Ryu Kokki and Despair from the Dark and then proceeds not to use either for any purpose.
Professor Cobra (Viper) was Yubel’s first pawn. His Venom Deck was pretty unique, its a pity we never saw more of it. What we did see was him discarding Serpentine Princess with Snake Rain.
One of Yubel’s other pawns was Brron, Mad King of Dark World. When he uses Dark Corridor to search his Deck, we can see a shot featuring Scarr and Beige as well as Dark World Dealings and The Forces of Darkness.
Though not hand shots per-say, Kaiser (Zane) has some interesting cards shown when he searches his Deck with Future Fusion. First we see Metallizing Parasite – Lunatite, which I’d consider useless even in anime land. He also has Machine Duplication, which is useless given the other monsters he’s played. We also see a few copies of Final Fusion, the card Judai uses to tie the Duel, as well as Rare Metalmorph.
In episode 65, he searches his Deck when he Summons Chimeratech Overdragon (which was odd, given that he takes it from his Deck, bringing up the implication that he stores his Fusions in his Main Deck and never draws them). Among the cards shown are Cyber Soldier of the Darkworld (which isn’t even technically a “Cyber” card), Kaiser Glider (a reference to his nickname for sure), Lunatite again and finally Heavy Mech Support Platform.
Kaiser’s opponent in that same Duel played a Slime Deck. When he uses Card Destruction, we see him discard Jam Defender, DNA Surgery and Jam Breeding Machine.
In the fourth season of GX (never dubbed in English), during Trueman’s attack, Trueman eventually copies Sorano’s Horus Deck. In episode 172, he plays Magical Stone Excavation, resulting in his discarding both Level Modulation and Level Down.
Pegasus’ appearance in episode 92 showed us an alternative to Toon World in the form of Toon Kingdom, which lets him remove the top card of his Deck form play to negate attacks. He only does this once and the card is Gorgan’s Eye, which is of course a reference to when he used it in DM.
Dr. Zweinstein (Dr. Eisenstein) was convinced he’s be able to beat Judai’s fusion strategy, but didn’t count on Contact Fusion. Because of this assumption, he returned Non-Fusion Area back into his Deck after drawing it (via Schrödinger’s Cat), as he thought Judai had no means to fuse at that point.
Judai’s Duel against Jinzo was the one series’ oddest one-shots. Even odder was Jinzo adding Thousand-Eyes Idol to his hand with the effect of Emissary of the Afterlife and never doing anything with it. Still can’t figure that one out….
Kaibaman played a version of Kaiba’s own Deck. When he searches his Deck with Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands to grab White Dragon Ritual, we get a glimpse of a load of classic Kaiba cards – Fiend’s Sanctuary, Kaiser Sea Horse, Different Dimension Dragon, Cost Down, Swordstalker, Crusth Card Virus and Lord of D.
Ikkaku Tachibana (Lucien Grimley) had that Slash Draw card, a pretty cool OTK strategy. The way it worked made most of his Deck superfluous though. We see him get rid of Big Eye, Des Feral Imp, Mystic Tomato, Book of Moon, Magical Stone Excavation, Reload and Exchange of the Spirit with Slash Draw. The whole Grim Reaper motif fits with those DARK monsters, while we also see him use Spell Reproduction to get Slash Draw back – Magical Stone Excavation could have served the same purpose of course. Exchange of the Spirit could have been useful to recycle his Deck and try Slash Draw yet again, while Reload could have stood in for the Reaper’s powers before he made his deal. When he’s defeated, we see more of his Deck fly through the air – Sasuke Samurai #4, Fairy Meteor Crush, Megamorph, and Meteorain. Finally, he discards Book of Taiyou and Monster Reincarnation to activate Spell Reproduction. All in all, some odd choices, but some do make sense.
