Episode 18: Shield in the Right Hand, Sword in the Left Hand

Bonz's three zombified monsters are stacked up against Joey's Flame Swordsman. Joey summons Garoozis and attacks the Zombie Clown, destroying it—but it promptly comes back to life, even more powerful than before, thanks to Bonz's magic card, Call of the Haunted. (Okay, he's calling it a magic card, but it has the kanji for "Trap" and the red background of a trap card, which is what the real "Call of the Haunted" is. In the Japanese, the card has the green background and kanji of a magic card.)

Now the Zombie Clown is powerful enough to destroy Garoozis, and take a bite off Joey's life points. The Zombie Clown's throwing knives are turned into shiny glowy things in the US version.

Tristan, Yugi, and Téa are running through the cave tunnels. But when they stop to catch their breath, they realize Bakura isn't with them. They hear a scream! And Bakura comes running towards them, with a skeleton hanging onto his back! Everyone runs madly down the tunnels! And once again, it's up to Tristan to pull it off poor little Bakura and smash it.

They've reached a "Y" in the tunnels, and don't know which way to go. (Japanese Honda says that Jounouchi "doesn't have any resistance to this kind of thing," referring to Jounouchi's fear of ghosts, something that comes up quite a bit in the manga, but doesn't get much mention in the anime.) Bakura accidentally steps on some sort of switch, and they hear something coming from one of the tunnels... It's a huge boulder, rolling towards them! They run like mad, but Bakura trips and falls, and the boulder rolls over him! The others are horrified, but can only keep running. Until they reach the end of the tunnel. With nothing left to do, Tristan decides to stand and fight! He punches the boulder—and it deflates. It was nothing but a giant balloon, with a speaker inside. They find Bakura, whimpering in terror but safe, on the other side.

Honda turns quite fearsome in the Japanese episode, furious with Pegasus for toying with them. His little explosion of veins and fangs is cut out of the US version.

Meanwhile, Joey still doesn't know how to fight Bonz's zombies. If he loses, he'll be out of the tournament, but he remembers his crushing defeat at Kaiba's hands, and wonders if he should just give up. He pulls himself together and vows to keep fighting. He's in luck—he draws his Time Wizard! Joey activates the Time Wizard's time roulette, while Bonz prays for Joey to lose—and he does. The Time Wizard's spinner lands on a skull, and it self-destructs, taking Joey's Flame Swordsman with it, and a big chunk of Joey's life points.

Joey plays a monster in defense. Bonz is about to attack, when Bandit Keith suggests he should beef up his attack so he can really humiliate Joey. Bonz thinks that's a pretty good idea, so he summons Pumpking, the King of Ghosts, with special ability of Ectoplasmic Fortification! It powers up Bonz's other monsters even more, and they destroy Joey's defense monster, along with the next three defense monsters Joey plays.

Joey's getting desperate. If only Yugi were here, he'd know what to do! Just then, Yugi and the others finally arrive. They want to know what Joey's doing dueling in a graveyard, and he tells them he was forced into it. Tristan attacks Zigor and Sid, intending to stop the duel, but they knock him down. Joey's about to rush to Tristan's defense, but Bandit Keith tells him if he leaves the arena, he forfeits the game and his Star Chips. So Tristan tells him he'll just have to win, and tosses him his wallet with the picture of Serenity.

Now Joey finally gets around to asking Bandit Keith who he is, and he tells them his name. Yugi tells the others that Bandit Keith's the Intercontinental Champion—he's only lost one challenge, and that's to Pegasus. (Japanese Yugi says that Bandit Keith was a professional cardplayer prior to his loss to Pegasus.)

Joey plays another defense monster, planning to stall until he can come up with a winning card. But Bonz draws Stop Defense (this time calling it a trap card, when in fact it's a magic card), which will force all the monsters Joey plays into attack mode. He plays it face-down, planning to use it next turn.

Joey summons his Red Eyes Black Dragon, and attacks Pumpking, destroying it. Bonz can't revive it, since it was already a ghost to begin with. But Bonz's Dragon Zombie is still powerful enough to take out Joey's Red Eyes, and Joey's down to 150 life points.

It looks pretty desperate. The only monster Joey has left is Battle Warrior, a weak monster with an attack of only 700. Téa asks Yugi if there's any way Joey can win, and he suddenly realizes Joey has a magic card that can turn the whole duel around! He tells Joey he can still win. Joey has to trust in his cards....

And Joey draws Shield and Sword (Shield in the Right Hand, Sword in the Left Hand), a magic card that can switch the Attack and Defense points of all the monsters on the field. He plays Battle Warrior in attack mode, then plays Shield and Sword. Now all the zombies have zero attack strength, making them easy prey for Joey's Battle Warrior. They're all destroyed, and can't come back to life with their attack points at zero. Joey wins!

Bandit Keith takes his cronies and leaves, tossing off a last few insults as he goes. Joey apologizes for dragging the gang into this mess, and they tell him it's okay, since he won his duel. (Japanese Honda tells Jounouchi the worry nearly killed Bakura!) Joey's got eight Star Chips now, and only needs two more to get into the finals.

They head out of the tunnels. But just as they hurry toward the exit, Bandit Keith's gang block it with a huge boulder. Then Bandit Keith steals his lackeys' Star Chips and heads off towards Pegasus's castle, leaving Yugi and the others trapped in the caves.