16:00 The reason it didn't work is because in the actual game, Flame Wingman can't be special summoned any way except fusion summoning. That's the difference between the anime and the real life game. Anime, Flame Wingman can be special summoned other ways, Actual game, it cannot.

These "Was X About To Defeat Y?" videos will never get dull for me. I could listen/watch them all day. Always so enjoyable.

I remember this duel being mind blowing as a kid. Not only were they using the same cards, but I never considered the same cards could fuse to a different monster. It’s simple but it made this duel feel different from any gx duel to this point.

Funfact: Aster Phoenix is the only duelist in the entire series who beat both zane and jaden

The main reason Aster/Edo commits so many "misplays" is exactly because he's styling on Jaden/Judai. In the manga, it's explained the difference between a Pro Player and a simple duelist, any other duelist would look to achieve victory as quick as possible, but a Pro has a public to entertain. You need to keep the duel interesting and dramatic. Keeping your opponent on the edge? Not revealing your main strategy until the end? That's the way Edo duels in situations like this, same happened against Zane/Kaiser.

5:00 Something worth noting is that the "Fusion Deck" had no size limit back then; theoretically, so long as the show made up an appropriate card, every possible combination may have existed in his Extra Deck.

Actually, Jaden likely has more than that in his extra deck. The extra deck used to have no limit, that was added when synchros were added. Though I think the video games did have a limit

Fun fact: this is the last duel Jaden loses in the entire series.

I assumed Aster was holding back his D-heroes from his own personal sense of drama. In a sense he was being cocky but i think he wanted to make his point about heroism.

I know it was certainly just a "the writers didn't think to write it this way" or "they did but wanted Aster's win to be more dramatic," but I like to think the in-universe reason for all of his misplays is to show judai/jaden that "I could play poorly and STILL beat you" or some similar sentiment

I think both you and the animators/guionists have forgotten about "Bubbleman", at the final turn, before "Dreadmaster" attacks, "Bubbleman" should be special summoned, since 2 turns had happened since the activation of "Doom Lord"'s effect, ON THE SAME battle position he had when he was banished. So even if Judai/Jaden had summon "Shining Flare Wingman" and change "Necroid Shaman" to defense, he would have a "Bubbleman" in attack position on Aster's turn to be attacked by "Deadmaster", so he would have lost anyway.

I know in the dub, when Aster is first introduced on a televised duel he fuses to make Phoenix Enforcer and everyone is confused but Chazz explains that Elemental Heroes have multiple fusions as Flame Wingman and Phoenix Enforcer can be made with the same fusion material. It's the same with Shining Phoenix Enforcer. Stupidly in the show Jaden doesn't know either of those things.

I love these videos, the duels are so nostalgic.

This duel introduced my favorite archetype, The D • HEROs or Destiny HEROs.

I honestly don't think Jaden could have beaten Aster in this duel. Also, Aster's moves in this duel involving the destiny heroes are specifically designed to focus on the fact that Aster believes in destiny, that everything is predetermined. The Japanese version of this duel heavily emphasizes this, as does the English version.

How about an episode of "was weblee about to defeat atem over the train?"

I researched this episode recently and it made me want to rewatch this video What really bugs me about that duel is that Jaiden kept asking what the Clock towers effect was but Aster didn't answer until after he had four counters on it

Aster and Zane are probably the first characters to defeat an antagonist without manipulating them or do something bad if the protagonist win. They did it all with their skills alone, and Aster is a special one because any move Jaden made was immediately countered

As someone who doesn't really delve much into the actual card game, these videos are still quite fun. Thank you for taking the time to analyze all these episodes.

I just wanted to see if Jaden could win. To think if Jaden won, he might’ve not met the Neo Spacians. Also Jaden should’ve summoned Darkbright instead of Tempest. Since Aster didn’t set D Time until the next turn when he summoned Shining Phoenix Enforcer, Jaden should’ve crashed Darkbright into Enforcer meaning all Aster could is summon and attack with Sparkman and then set D Time. Yes, Jaden would take damage but next turn, Jaden would win with Shining Flare Wingman. Also, Jaden would’ve had to attack as Aster must know Darkbright’s effect so I doubt he would attacked with Shining Phoenix Enforcer during his turn. Another way for Jaden to win, would’ve been to set Light Laser during the Tempest Turn. This means he could use it to save Tempest meaning next turn, he could use it to attack directly after Shining Flare Wingman to win.

Gotta love how often Aster was just toying with Jaden and most of his foes in Gx and Arc-v, only in 1 duel did he ever try from the start and that was against The D or DD because he was the one who killed his father other than that he only every tried late in any of his duels.

These duel breakdown videos are absolutely amazing.

These Yugioh Duel retrospectives really do make me realize how much the game of Yugioh has change over the years. Like I can’t even remember there only being one Field Spells on the field. Everyone drawing on their first turn? What?! Also, the dub really does be shooting itself in the foot with these edits!

I would love to see "Revolver vs Lightening." That breakdown would be one of the best

15:58 I think that what happens is that, in the specific example you're putting, since the materials are moved to the GY they are considered to be new cards, and as such they're not considered to have been used as fusion materials for Shining Flare Wingman. In the anime we also have the fact that Shining Flare Wingman was banished until the 2nd standby phase, which would make it so it "forgets" that it was summoned using those two specific monsters. I'd think this is more of an anime effect vs TCG effect over an illegal play, the anime de-fusion is probably summon cards that are legal materials for the fusion monster, in this case the specific materials, or it might be that it didn't work that way in the anime since some rules are different than the TCG EDIT: As someone said, another reason to add to all these is that TCG Flare Wingman can only be fusion summoned, meaning that you cannot summon it from the GY with de-fusion, and I'd think de-fusion requires you to summon all the fusion materials, meaning you can't summon anything. TL,DR: It only works in the anime cuz they slightly changed the card(s) in the TCG (mainly Flare Wingman, we don't know about anime De-Fusion as far as I'm aware)

Sadly Elemental Hero Flame wingman can only be Fusion summon in TCG. 😕

Whenever I see these videos, I always think how fun it would be to play a duel where you don’t know the opponents cards effects, until they’re used

And this is why when you're dueling you ask "ok what does it do?" Every new card you see

Ok. What about the D/D/D archetype. The lore would be so cool, each one deriving its name from an ancient king or the end of the world.

Maybe do a 5ds one? Obviously suggesting Jaden vs Yubel Ones with screwy finishes are always more fun

That duel was actually good it showed how good Aster really was n the anime n the skill level of duelist he was n wit him beating Jaden the best duelist n the academy after Zane left was just insane

Honestly? I like to attribute a lot of Aster's misplays to him being that overwhelming against Jaden. His whole motif of Destiny and the duel going completely according to his plan fit this idea, plus a longer duel (aside from being better television) helps the end result of the duel (in which Jaden's confidence is utterly shattered) be that much more impactful. The idea that Aster was one step ahead at almost every turn AND wasn't even playing the best he could helps drive home the idea of how powerful he is and explain how effortlessly he beat Zane without even using the Destiny Heroes

One thing about Jaden's extra deck. I don't think he had plasma vice at the time as when he fought proffesor Viper and brought Plasma Vice everyone was surprised and Hassleberry even said that it must be a newly aquired monster. I could be wrong however but I liked to point that out.

I JUST watched this last night and was wondering if he would do a video on it. This man's timing is perfect

I am really glad you started using the Japanese scenes instead of the dub ones, and just mentioned the discrepancies for the sake of quality

Without even waiting to the end, I can say confidently that anime-wise? No. But if Legacy of the Duelist is anything to go by, Aster's deck wouldn't last a fucking minute against Jaden's, oh my GOD that was a horrific match.

I'd put Aster's lack of playing and D cards in his first turn as him potentially still having a sliver of hope for justice and wants to prove E-heroes can do

The Wingman and Sparkman that are added back to the graveyard with Burial From the Different Dimension are not the "same" Wingman and Sparkman that were used as materials for the fusion summon. When a card changes zone it becomes a new instance of the card. It's the same logic that if a monster resurrected with Call of the Haunted is banished with Interdimensional Matter Transporter, it will no longer be tied to Call of the Haunted when it returns to play.

There was a really missed opportunity to make “alternate” fusions of the Jaden’s like Flame Wingman and Phoenix Enforcer.

Maybe an interesting sequal would be Jaden not using the effect of fusion gate and switching all to defense mode and summoning sparkman to defense mode. Then on Asters turn, Aster draws d-counter and attacks flame wingman with dreadmaster and sparkman with diamond dude, then banishes necroid shaman with doom lords effect then sets d-counter and ends the turn. Now Jaden draws Winged Kuriboh and automaticly summons it in defense mode. Asters turn. Now Aster draws his second boss monster, Destiny HERO Dogma. He automaticly summons it in attack mode by tributing diamind dude, captain tenacious and doom lord, then he destroys both, clayman and kuriboh. Jadens turn, he draws monster reborn and revives winged kuriboh and takes 75 damage from dogma's ability. Asters turn and he draws destiny hero dasher. Now he attacks both, necroid shaman who came back, and winged kuriboh and ends his turn. Jaden draws mirror force, he sets it and ends the turn. Aster draws d-cube and attacks for game, then jaden defends with mirror force. Now Aster in main 2 summons d-cube in defense mode. Jaden draws bladedge and summons it cuz of necroshades effect and attacks for game but aster uses d-counter. Jaden ends his turn. Asters turn and he draws d-fortune, then he tributes his d-cube and summons Dasher and attacks for game which gives him the victory. I think Jaden needed to lose 'cuz of his new deck and I no mather what, he just got new cards to add to the deck, he didn't lose the deck actually. And why did Jaden have yellow gadget, I don't get it.

I am always excited to see these pop up in my subscription window. Glad this one had a good amount of meat to really cut into.

Absolutely love this guy's reviews of old school duels, great stuff

More duel analysis videos! These are by far the favorite for me at least. It’s fun to hear about the misplays and how different turns can be better. Really makes you think how the actual plot and stuff could be different if certain duels were won or lost.

When I saw the poll for "Jaden vs Aster (first duel)" I kinda assumed you meant the one where Aster used random cards and still nearly won.

The Rematch between Rafael and Atem would also be a great one to cover as if he hadn't essentially given up he still had a chance to win.

Just love this series of videos. I remember watching this duel, I was so shocked with the combo of D-Hero Captain Tenacious effect of re-summoning the destroyed D-Heros destroyed that turn + cant be destroyed by battle + u can only attack him... I thought this combo was invincible HAHAHHA good times.

People have already commented on how De-Fusion would function in the TCG and Flame Wingman's TCG Fusion restriction. There is another move in this duel that would've played out differently in the TCG though. When Aster activates Magical Stone Excavation at 15:00, he wouldn't need to discard Fusion Sage and Terraforming. This is because Spell cards revealed by Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude's effect aren't activated on the field. So you don't need to pay the costs for them.

15:55 In the real card game, while Shining FW was still Fusion Summoned, it forgot it's materials, and the materials were moved, so they're no longer the same cards.

I would love to see a video about Joey vs Zigfried Duel.

I mean Aster was mostly playing with Jaden this whole dual so it makes sense that he miss play the lot

Great video idea! Here's one for ya. Was Alexis Rhodes About To Defeat Jaden? (Episode 94) Because I mean if she had used one of her facedown cards, Flare Neos would've lost attack strength and enabled Alexis to survive the turn, and due to its adverse effect, Jaden would lose Flare Neos, leaving him wide open! You have a gift my friend!

Storywise Jaden was literally doomed to lose this one, because Asters Deck was infused with light of destruction by Satorius so Aster would be guaranteed to win. I also think Aster just used the orignal 5 original E-Heros and the 2 Enforcers, since he only used those to provoke (vs. Zane) and trick Jaden (in their duel). Those cards also feel like they are common cards, kinda refering to Jadens and Asters first duel, when Aster just used a few standard boosters to make a deck. Again a really good video by the way, keep it up. :)

this was also the beginning that Jaden uses Neo-Spacians monsters and E-HERO Neos became his new Ace monster

Maybe the reason Aster didn't set D-Signal and D-Mind in the first turn is because Aster still believes in the Elemental HEROs and doesn't want to abandon them right now.

I love how the two people claiming to be Jaiden’s best friend cared more about his cards

Imagine the chain of events that could have happened if he had summoned darkbright and crashed Aster would have to bring out sparkman, but Jaden could bring out shining flare wingman, but now he’s actually done over 4000 lp worth of damage

I would like to see if "Was Yusei about to beat dark signer Kessler?" They're first encounter Yusei survives because of an interruption. But I was wondering if there was a way Yusei could have won that duel.

I honestly wouldn’t mind an alternative universe where Aster is the protagonist. His story and the history/ legacy of the Destiny Heroes are so cool.

These "Was X about to Defeat Y" series is easily the best yugituber content out there. Always looking forward to the next one.

The way clock tower prison was described in the dub made me think it had an instant win condition that actives when enough time has passed.

I’ll admit in GX I actually liked aster. He felt like a characterization of myself in a way. Prideful, likes to be flashy, and someone close to him murdered for no reason. Knowing that I think I can answer why aster misplayed so much. He’s a pro, he’s flashy, he wants the suspense and drama not just a quick overpowering win. Least that’s how I can figure it. That’s how I’d do it if I was essentially a performer.

That was amazing analysis... best Yu-Gi-Oh content ever!

"I use heroes because they are cool. Also heroes save people from the utmost danger, and I want to do that because i feel like someone may get hurt by being around me. For some reason"

This duel, specifically the clocktower segment, lives rent free in my head.

Aster Phoenix: "My Destiny HEROs are greater than the Elemental HEROs".

Given how big the fusion deck was back then... Aster would have been crazy not to at least have 1 of each of the other e hero fusions in there just to have a it of a toolbox

The 'can only be fusion summoned and not special summoned' stipulation was added to most fusion monsters in the GX era until it became a blanket rule in the TCG that you MUST fusion summon correctly beforehand. Now only exceptions to the rule (such as summoned by the effects of Mask Change etc) are added in a fusion monster's description. This was to stop you pulling any shenanigans like discarding from the extra deck using card effect's like Cyber-Stein and then special summoning from the Graveyard for free, no polymerisation required. This rule would stop you using interactions like Cyber-Stein, Monster Reborn (or Metamorphosis) and attack with Blue-Eyes Ultimate then use De-Fusion for three Blue-Eyes attacking for a collective 13,500 damage. In that era with only 4000 lifepoints, that'd make for a consistent one turn kill. You'll also find that Ritual Monsters are governed by a similar rule. Until these card stipulations and later blanket rule was added, that interaction would've been perfectly legal (it's also why most of those cards are banned or limited). The problem is that Shining Flare Wingman was banished. In the anime it appears that if a fusion monster is banished then so are the fusion materials (which means Jaden's play is legal within the anime). In the TCG, ONLY the fusion monster is banished (with its materials remaining in the graveyard). When this happens, Shining Flare Wingman becomes a new instance of the card and no longer recognizes the fusion monsters originally used to summon it. It loses its 'summoned correctly' status. So if Shining Flame Wingman was destroyed in battle or by card effect, you could special summon it from the graveyard using Monster Reborn (or similar) in the TCG ONLY if it was summoned correctly. Despite its oddly worded stipulation in the card text. You'd also be able to use De-fusion providing you have any monsters in the grave that COULD be used as fusion materials (even if they weren't the ones originally used).

Another ruling misplay: Due to how Diamond Dude works, _you don't have to pay the cost for spell cards activated through his effect._ He didn't need to discard Fusion Sage and Terraforming.

To be honest it's hard to bypass dreadmaster... Hell I remember winning locals with that card's effect alone. You have to banish him though.

I always remembered that Jayden never technically ended his turn in the dub right before he lost, but I could be wrong.

More importantly, do you think Chazz, Cyrus and Alexis rehearsed that "HE LOST? HIS CARDS!" choreography? It looked super smooth, like no delay at all

Thanks for another great entry in this series TGS Anime. I never realized the amount of misplays that occurred in this duel, despite remembering this duel.

At 17:00 another big misplay from Jaden, assuming in the anime he can special summon Flame Wingman with De-Fusion, is that he really could have just attacked Diamond Dude and won the game without the need to play Fusion Gate at all since Clock Tower only negates battle damage and not the effect damage that Wingman's super power does. I suggest Diamond dude cuz the effect damage would've been enough to do lethal even if Aster had a trap card that halved the damage. Though if I'm missing something from Clock Tower's anime effect, then that makes this point null.

They did Aster dirty in arc v

As a comment on the last turn with Jaden and Shining Flame Wingman, you pointed out earlier that Aster drew Terraforming and we know that he has Dark City in his deck (Destiny Hero version of Skyscraper), so he could have grabbed that and then used the 1000 ATK boost to run over SFW with Dreadmaster, unless SFW has more than 3800 ATK

I love in the dub at 5:58 it shows Jazz's VWXYZ catapult cannon in his graveyard as a hero card lmao

Man, that clock tower made me feel this was an absolutely unwinnable duel for Jaden! I don't remember right now, but I don't think Aster used the same deck against Zane. Did he?

Aster Phoenix lost his father and went on a warpath to find the one responsible. And sadly, he was misguided for a while before Jaden Yuki defeated him in their 2nd duel and opened his eyes. I honestly would love to see a Yu-Gi-Oh! GX spinoff series ft Elemental, Destiny, Evil plus other archetype HEROE monsters in the spirit world/12 Dimensions. I would pay top dollar to watch it.

This is the best series in this channel. Even when I'm running low on internet I'll watch

After this dual, favorite line of of all time is Aster not wanting to say Jaden name so he makes up something similar "Smaden Smogi" I fucking DIED 😂

Welp, what about the second time Jaiden duelled Aster, Who would of Won then?

I would love to see Zane vs Jaden the graduation match to see whether it could have gone a different way

Imagine a What If episode where Jaden wins this duel and because of that doesn’t find Neos, and therefore he would’ve lost to Darkness because he didn’t have Neos

I love to think, in my own head cannon, that Aster has a completely different extra deck, full of fusions we were deprived from seen.

Man, I didn't know there was a Batman wannabe in YuGiOh! , makes me wanna go back and watch/read the series. Great analysis as always, I'm curious as to what's the meta in the universe of YuGiOh and why do characters use such variety of decks?

I think the reason Defusion doesn't work is because Flame Wingman can only be special summoned via a fusion summon, and thus can't be brought back by Defusion.

The reason why De-Fusion Didn't work is actually beacuse De-Fusion can only bring Back the Monsters sents to the Graveyard as Fusion Material it doesn't bring back the Materials listed on the monster that means that as Flame Wingman and SparkMan were sent to the Graveyard with Different Dimension Burial they aren't counting as the fusion materials of Shinning Wingman, is a translate error De-Fusion works like De-Synchonise.

For the De-Fusion play, it doesn't work IRL because Flame Wingman (along with a bunch of E HERO Fusions) can only be Fusion Summoned. But I love this duel in the anime and it's one of the things I'm looking forward to in my Re-Write of GX (and I have to thank Konami for inventing something in the Destiny HERO line-up able to counter Sunrise).

I like to think that all of asters vanilla E-HERO fusions are similar to Jaden's only they all carry the name Inforcer.

That reminds me of the series "what makes a duel" from noajenk, both are really nice

Clayman, Burstinatrix, Sparkman, and Avian: What the heck are you doing here? VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon: I'm the Phoenix Enforcer now.

One of my favourite duel in GX and it make aster one of my favourite yugioh rivals Having seto,Aster,Zane&kite

Was Joey about to defeat Mai in the waking the dragons arc?

I read aster as Aleister lol

Rewatching this after having binged most of the playlist again, it's weird how so often the technicality of a play just breaks down to an aggression tactic vs a cautious tactic when it's not just a flat misplay.

5:57 I don't know when VWXYZ Dragon Catapult Cannon became a Hero but now I want it now lol

The Japanese version of this duel is amazing

I think since the fusion materials were banished, they dont count as shining flare wingman's fusion materials anymore even if they are returned to the grave. But shining flare wingman was resummoned a lot with doom lord anyway so I dont think they would of counted as it's fusion materials anyway.

After this episodes I’ve always felt that there were minimum 4 fusion options per a fusion. The Flame Wingman, Phoenix Enforcer, & eventually Inferno Wing (being the corrupted evil version of one) being the evidence of this. So for this fusions would be based on which material monster is the dominant trait + attribute to be dominant. Flame Wingman is dominant Avian + wind attribute, while Phoenix Enforcer would be Avian + fire attribute. This then would allow for 2 more with Burstinatrix + wind, & Burstinatrix + fire. This could further apply to most 2 named material Elemental HERO fusion monsters. While the Shinning variants are being powered by the additional light attribute of Sparkman calling on other HEROs support, and would blanket onto all those lines being extended like it does for the 2 known ones.

In summary: the most powerful ability all players have is no-one reads the cards properly OR asks their opponents what their monster effects are. It is why I loved in the past using a Caius Bomb to win. Also, I feel the duel is somewhat self-defeating in the message it delivers about the elemental heroes. By all accounts, Aster has less respect for them than Jaden technically as by this time Aster has already discarded them due to him having all the D-Heroes in his deck and clearly going for them instead. Likely his last tournament outing was the last showing of the deck and possibly had to stick with it until tournament conclusion (or plot device to make it dramatic). Ultimately Jaden makes use of the heroes far more respectful which is where I enjoy how he eventually returns to the heroes. By all accounts, this is the first duel I think we can say was Jaden's path on "losing something important" as Aster had never dueled for fun which Jaden had always done and was happy; something Aster hated because why should someone like him be happy. Also...dear god was anime diamond dude horrible, still having to pay costs...what's the point then of what is just a bad draw effect. At least Doom Lord put in work. As a last thing, I notice that Aster's deck was extremely well tuned to react to attacks and high power monsters. Even his variant fusion for Burstinatrix and Avian show this, a lot of leaning into anti-battle tech and going more for removal and immunity to battle effects, to the expense of raw power. May say something about the in-worlds meta at the time as we often see a lot of "top class" duelists often using high power bully cards with few who go for more esoteric options and even when characters become "stronger" often that is reflected in having bigger attack power monsters. Just something I noticed. Aster winning tournaments by using a rogue deck like a boss! (despite being an edgy cry-baby imo).