Episode 21: Black Demons Dragon

The Paradox brothers have just sent their Gate Guardian to attack Joey's Flame Swordsman. Joey thinks his Flame Swordsman is toast, and tells Yugi if he has any bright ideas, now's the time! At the last moment, Yugi plays a trap card, Mirror Force, which reflects the Gate Guardian's attack back on itself. The Gate Guardian repels the attack and deflects it onto the brothers' Monster Tamer. (In the real game, Mirror Force would have destroyed Gate Guardian, as well as any other monsters the brothers had in attack position.) Joey's Flame Swordsman is saved.

Meanwhile, back at the dungeon, Pegasus's goons are searching for Kaiba. They can't find him, but decide to stand guard over Mokuba's cell, knowing Kaiba will show up there eventually. Kaiba leaps down from the high shelf in the wall where he's been hiding, and takes off.

It's Joey's turn, and he's about to make his move when Yugi stops him, telling him to look closely at the Gate Guardian. It's composed of three different monsters, he says, and that might be the way to defeat it. Joey sends his Flame Swordsman to attack the midsection of the Gate Guardian, but his attack is stopped by the other sections defending it.

Dox calls on the Gate Guardian's water elemental to attack by flooding the labyrinth. Joey's Flame Swordsman is washed away in the surging waters. Yugi sets a card face-down, and plays Summoned Skull (Demon Summon), whose electrical attack charges the floodwaters and reaches the Gate Guardian from across the labyrinth. Dox is about to activate the Gate Guardian's defenses, when Yugi shows him a trap card, Spellbinding Circle (Hexagram Curse), which he says was activated when the Gate Guardian's tidal surge attack reached Yugi's Magical Hats. (Okay, if Spellbinding Circle had been activated by the Gate Guardian's previous attack, the Flame Swordsman wouldn't have been destroyed....) Anyway, Spellbinding Circle immobilizes the Gate Guardian, leaving it powerless to defend against Summoned Skull's attack. The water elemental, Suijin, is destroyed, and the flood waters dry up.

Para plays the magic card Remove Trap, and destroys the Spellbinding Circle. Then Joey summons his Red-Eyes Black Dragon, and Yugi plays Polymerization to combine the Red-Eyes with his Summoned Skull, forming the Black Skull Dragon (Black Demons Dragon).

But the Paradox brothers suddenly come up with a rule they hadn't gotten around to mentioning before: the labyrinth is a no-flying zone. And since Black Skull Dragon can only move by flying, it's trapped on the other side of the maze where it can't reach the Gate Guardian. Yugi says not to worry, he has a plan. (In the Japanese, Jounouchi freaks a bit more, saying "I made a mistake! What do we do?" and Yugi says, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it." Jounouchi is quite relieved, and thanks Yugi.)

Dox plays Ryoku (Force), a magic card which allows him to take half of his opponents' life points and add them to his creature's attack points. (The real card allows a player to give half of one monster's attack points to another monster for one turn.) Using this card ends his turn.

Yugi reassures Joey that he still has his plan. He brings his Dark Magician out of the Magical Hats and back into the maze, moving him seven spaces forward (six in the Japanese, although Black Magician is a Level 7 monster) and out of the labyrinth. Joey's a little worried, but Yugi says to trust him. Then, he plays Reborn the Monster (Raise Dead).

Para uses Gate Guardian to attack the Dark Magician without waiting to see what monster Yugi has revived (or for Yugi to end his turn, for that matter, which is not only rude but against the rules). Turns out Yugi has resurrected Suijin, using its tidal shield to protect the Dark Magician.

It's Joey's turn, and he draws Copycat, a monster that copies one of the opponent's cards. Quite pleased with himself, he uses it to copy Ryoku, and steals half of the brothers' life points to power up the Black Skull Dragon. (The real Copycat copies the attack and defense points of one of the opponent's monsters. Its own attack and defense are zero, not zero and 100 as shown on the card, and its level is 1, not 5. It hasn't been released in the US, but I have one in my deck on my GameBoy Advance, and it's one of my favorite monsters.)

Dox attacks Suijin with the Gate Guardian. Suijin's tidal wave defense saves it once, but the Gate Guardian attacks separately with each of its sections, and the second attack destroys Suijin. Yugi says he planned all along for them to destroy Suijin, to distract them while he uses his Monster Replace magic card to switch the Dark Magician with the Black Skull Dragon. Now the Black Skull Dragon is in place and powered up enough to destroy the Gate Guardian, and win the duel! With this victory, Yugi and Joey both have the ten Star Chips they need to enter Pegasus's castle.

But they haven't escaped from the labyrinth just yet....

Back in the dungeon, Kaiba gets the drop on Pegasus's goons, and finally reaches Mokuba's cell. The brothers share a happy reunion moment, then Mokuba tries to reach Kaiba, only to be stopped by his chains. Kaiba tells Mokuba to stay still while he picks the locks (in the Japanese, Kaiba had snatched the cell keys from one of the goons), but before he can open the cell door, Pegasus arrives, applauding Kaiba's efforts to rescue his brother.

Para and Dox remind Yugi and Joey that they still must choose a door to get out of the labyrinth. Yugi asks them which one of them is guarding the door that leads out of the tunnels, and they both say that theirs is the one.

Yugi holds up two coins, each marked with the kanji for one of the doors. He holds one coin in each hand, and says that the coin he keeps in his fist will be the door that he chooses. Then he opens one hand, and shows the coin with Dox's door marked on it. Thinking that he's chosen Para's door, the brothers laugh, saying it was Dox's door all along.

But Yugi says the brothers can change which door leads to which path, insuring that they'll choose the wrong one. He shows them the coin in his other hand, also marked with Dox's symbol. He's pulled a switch on them, marking the second coin with both symbols, so he couldn't lose. And the gang is free.

Back in the dungeon, Kaiba is threatening Pegasus, who tells him not to be ridiculous—he's the only one who makes threats in his own dungeon. He activates his Millennium Eye, and steals Mokuba's soul, leaving only an empty shell. He shows Kaiba the soul card with Mokuba's picture now on it. (The writing on the card in the Japanese version says Tamashii no Rougoku, the Soul's Prison.)

Pegasus says that in order to win Mokuba back, Kaiba must beat him in a duel. But first, he must earn the privilege by beating Yugi in a duel. If Kaiba can't beat Yugi, Mokuba's soul will remain imprisoned forever!