Episode 31: Brutal Heavy Metal Deck

Yugi is announced the winner of his duel with Mai, and the gang all cheers. Even Pegasus applauds Yugi's victory, but Yugi only glares at him, thinking soon he'll beat him and win his Grandpa back.

Croquet announces the next semi-final: Bandit Keith vs Joey Wheeler. Joey's a little freaked, not having expecting to have to duel so soon. (Cut from the US version is a short bit where Honda tells Jounouchi to be calm, advising him to write "human" three times on his palm to relax himself. An excited Jounouchi tells him he's only making him more nervous, and smacks him.)

Bakura and Téa reassure him that he'll do fine.Tristan isn't quite so reassuring, reminding Joey that it's the Intercontinental Champion he's going up against. (In the Japanese, Honda is reiterating his advice to write on his palm to calm himself, while Jounouchi tells him to just shut up!)

Yugi leaves the dueling arena, slumping in relief. Then he sees Joey in the anteroom, who reminds him that if he wins his duel, the two of them will have to face each other in the final. Yugi isn't worried, saying that if that happens, they'll have an honorable duel, and the two agree that they'll stay friends, no matter what.

Joey enters the arena main floor. But where's Keith? Joey's infuriated to see him still on the sidelines, lounging on a sofa. Croquet asks them to show their tournament entry cards, and Bandit Keith displays the Glory of the King's Hand card he stole from Joey. (I don't have a clue what Jounouchi's really supposed to be saying here, but the subtitles have it as "Look at your dick face.")

Joey reaches into his pocket for his card, but it isn't there. Frantically, he searches all his jacket pockets, to no avail.

Croquet informs Joey of the time limit—he has five minutes to find his card, or he'll be disqualified. Joey rushes back to his room to search for his card. Bandit Keith leans back on the sofa and laughs—until Croquet tells him he has to be in the arena in five minutes, too, or he'll be disqualified also. Grumbling, Keith gets up to head down to the dueling floor.

Joey tears his room apart. Yugi reflects that he'd give Joey his Glory of the King's Opposite Hand card to duel with, but then he wouldn't be able to challenge Pegasus for his Grandpa's soul. Bandit Keith suggests that Joey is afraid to face him, and lost his card deliberately.

Joey runs back out into the hall, devastated. He falls to his knees, pounding the floor in frustration, apologizing to his sister for letting her down. Tears fall onto his hand.

Then Mai appears, telling him to stand up and stop crying. He insists he's not crying—he just has something in his eye. (Japanese Jounouchi says "It's just snivel.") Mai hands him her handkerchief, telling him she knows the story about his little sister. (In the Japanese, Jounouchi notices that Mai's handkerchief is damp.) Then she heads off. Joey opens the handkerchief, and finds Mai's Glory of the King's Hand card. He calls after her, asking, are we friends now? But she only tells him to hurry up, he has a duel to fight. He runs off, as she says to herself, Dork. Of course we're friends.

Joey enters the arena, triumphantly showing his card, just as the clock ticks over five minutes.

And the duel begins. Keith goes first, playing a monster face-down in defense. Joey's friends encourage him, and he makes his move, also playing a monster in defense.

Bandit Keith flips his monster into attack mode, revealing the Pendulum Machine, a powerful macine monster with 1750 attack points. He attacks Joey's defense monster, destroying it.

Next, Joey summons Giltia the Knight, with an attack of 1850, and attacks the Pendulum Machine. But the attack fails! Bandit Keith says his machines are invulnerable to all monsters that use magic attacks. (No, there is no such rule in the real game.) He summons another machine monster, Launcher Spider, with an attack of 2200, and destroys Giltia, taking 350 of Joey's life points. Yugi and friends wonder what Joey can do to combat Keith's machines.

Joey plays a card face-down, and sets a monster in defense. Bandit Keith thinks he has to draw Joey out to attack him, so he plays a card face-down, then "accidentally" drops a monster card on the field, letting Joey see that it's not a machine monster, before picking it up and playing a monster in defense.

Joey recognizes the monster Keith dropped as Zoa, and thinks his Flame Swordsman can destroy it easily. Yugi and Bakura aren't so sure—they saw that Zoa's defense points were lower than its attack, so there was no point playing it in defense, unless Keith was deliberately trying to lure Joey into attacking. But Joey summons Flame Swordsman, powering it up with Salamandra to 2500 attack points, and attacks.

Then Bandit Keith plays his trap card, Magic Metal Force (I think this is really Metalmorph), which "metalizes" Zoa, increasing its attack and defense by 400 points each, as well as deflecting metal attacks back where they came from. Joey's Flame Swordsman is destroyed, and Joey loses another 500 life points.

Bandit Keith has a good laugh at Joey's expense, then plays Stop Defense to force Joey's defense monster, Axe Raider, into attack mode, and attacks it with Metal Zoa.

But Joey plays his trap card, the Chasm of Spikes, which destroys Metal Zoa, and hits Bandit Keith's life points for one quarter of Metal Zoa's attack strength. Now it's Joey's turn to gloat.

Yugi thinks Joey might have discovered the key to battling Keith's machine monsters—instead of attacking them head on, he's using his traps to destroy them. Joey plays a card face down, telling Keith it's a trap so he'd better watch out, then switches his Axe Raider to defense, and summons Garoozis to destroy the Pendulum Machine.

Bandit Keith attacks Garoozis with Launcher Spider, thinking Joey's face-down card is a bluff—but it's not. Joey plays Kunai with Chain, which raises Garoozis' attack by 500 points, allowing it to destroy the Launcher Spider. Now Joey's got a slight lead in the duel, and Bandit Keith is infuriated. But then Keith laughs. Joey's traps can't last forever, and then he'll really bring out the big guns! Nobody beats Bandit Keith! (In the Japanese, this episode ends with a confident Jounouchi telling Bandit Keith he's the one going to hell!)

To Be Continued