20:43 - People have pointed out, Yugi only had 300lp left not 500 here. So it turns out that Yes! if Rafael attacked queens knight…Rafael would have won!

One of my favorite and funniest pieces of trivia about this duel is how the result returned the title of King of Duels to Yugi in a more roundabout way than what it seems. You see, way earlier when Rebecca was introduced, she and Yugi had a duel which he threw, so you could say Rebecca was unofficially the King of Duels from that point on, however she lost a duel against Valon, then Valon lost to Joey, then Joey lost to Mai, then Mai lost to Rafael, and finally, Rafael loses to Yugi, thus returning the title to him. Of course this is not to be taken too seriously, it's just a very funny idea.

To be fair, Rafael was constantly drawing perfect combos cause of *plot* ,so him making fatal mistakes cause of it evened things out a bit

16:21 AHH! MAGICAL PIGEONS?!?! THATS IMPOSSIBLE!!! NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN ABLE TO ACTIVATE THAT!!!

There’s a cool detail that the dub cuts out, it’s when Atem is riding the elevator, he’s actually shown essentially modifying and checking his cards as he’s riding it, which I thought was a nice change of pace quite frankly, showing some card changes (Even though they don’t show any side deck on Atem as he’s seemingly doing this) And before they duel, Rafael and Atem shuffle each other’s cards, something that has only really happens in tournaments (The dub did show this part)

Raphael: "You are evil and have proved it by activating the Seal of Orichalcos" Yugi: "No, he's right, using that card is an evil thing" Raphael: "And now I activate the Seal of Orichalcos" Yugi: "What?" Raphael: "It's okay because I don't sacrifice my monsters" Yugi: "Still feels like bullshit but okay" Raphael: "And now I sacrifice all my monsters to power up my Dreadscythe with the Seal of Orichalcos on the field to help my good guy quest" So apparently Littlekuriboh was right, Orichalcos is Latin for "Giant f*cking hypocrite"

Sam...i hate to do this, but after Amulet Dragon was destroyed by Guardian Dreadscythe, Yugi had 300 life left. If Raphael attacked Queen's Knight with Guardian Dreadscythe, Yugi would have lost even with Reduction Barrier's effect

6:35 - Dude, my heart blossomed when you said. "And Yugi draws MST". I was like: "That is an amazing topdeck. Now you can finally get rid of guardian treasure and cause Mr.'My cards don't work if I dont draw them in pairs' to loose his huge advantage maschine." Then he targeted the worthless +500 Atk equip spell. Crys in missed value...

I always love when cards used represent the characters. Rafael is obviously represented by the Guardian cards and his refusal to let them die, even if it means taking damage himself, but when he snaps, the cards used and discarded also reflect his dark side. The first card he plays post-Reaper is Obedience, no longer does he care about monsters to the point he uses a card that FORCES them into changing their modes. Dreadscythe's first maintenance cost is "My Body As A Shield", aka Rafael refusing to use his own self to defend his monsters. When Yugi attacks with Dark Magician Girl, The Dragon Knight, the card discarded is "Purity of the Cementary", aka Rafael no longer respecting his fallen monsters nor the purity of their sacrifice. He uses "Spirit Hunting" to force Dreadscythe into Attack Mode and destroy any Defense Mode monsters. And of course, once Dreadscythe is destroyed and Rafael overcomes his darkness, he uses Soul Charge to revive all his monsters at the cost of lifepoints, using them all in order to bring back his monsters, effectively sacrificing his soul to save his monsters.

Jesus Christ, Rafael's draw luck is even better than Jaden's. Btw could you do a "was Kagemaru about to defeat Jaden?"

Every time I see a new "Was about to defeat" video I am so excited, best series ever!

If you freezeframe at 20:37, you can see Yugi only had 300 LP remaining, so in fact, Rafael attacking Queen's Knight instead would have won him the duel (4000 battle dmg reduced to 400). Yugi's LP had fallen to 300 at around 15:00.

How about this for a duel analysis: was Aster about to defeat Adrian? The duel where Adrian gets the power of Exodia at the end of the duel at the cost of Gecko.

It's strange how yugi never draws mirror force in either duel, despite that probably being the most effective card against Rafael

If Raphael summoned Kay’Est to attack one of the hats, he would’ve run the risk into crashing into Dark Magician, and either lose life in defense, or if it was in attack, would’ve destroyed it and his plays would’ve been ruined since a monster was in his graveyard

I actually don’t think Raphael not playing his mermaid guardian was a mistake. Keep in mind yugi does have traps like mirror force, and if he used it then Raphael would have lost all his monsters, and possibly allowed Yugi to kill him. And seeing as before Iatos died he wanted to save all his monsters it’s possible he did it to keep the card safe until he was certain it would live. A misplay for sure, but one that plays off his flaw

13:27 always loved the way they singled out a card with only one hand

Very underrated duel, I still remember how I felt when Yugi reduced his LP to like 10 or something. I think that's the closest I've seen to 0 in the original anime.

Not destroying jacks knight was a huge misplay, but feel kinda suited Raphael’s character, not just for the plot (kinda). Cuz he’s sacrificed his lp to protect his monsters in the last duel, so leaving which one on the field didn’t really matter to Rachael all that much, plus giving a five stars monster also taunted Yugi to attack recklessly. But huge misplay for sure.

If GX is next, I’d like to see syrus vs zane. Zane is sams favourite character and I wonder if syrus could’ve beaten zane at all. Also continued theme of Yugi in duels against rafael by not using all possible cards before playing card of sanctity

In the Japanese version it makes even less sense for Raphael to give Atem Hermos. He’s afraid of the three dragons, he says this in their first duel so really had the writers just left hermos with Joey instead of Mai taking it, Atem could have simply taken it instead for this duel

I hope you do a Duel Analysis on whether or not Chazz was going to beat Adrian Gecko. That was a good duel.

Sam, the 'early' Yugioh duels had certain criteria and such by the writers and animators with also plot driven ways for the anime to develop characters and evolve. You really break these duels down GREAT!!!!

"If you lose the duel you lose your SOUL!" - Tristan.

Small note that I don't see anyone else mentioning: Soul Charge prevents you from attacking the turn it is activated, so Rafael couldn't have won on his last turn.

Regarding the Queen's Knight situation, others have already pointed out that Rafael would have won had he attacked it instead of DMGtDK. There isn't anything remotely resembling a logical explanation for the misplay, but the closest thing I can think of is that maybe it inspired one of the added effects when The Seal of Orichalcos was printed, specifically the 'cannot attack the weakest monster' clause for its controller. In theory there was nothing stopping the writers from, while they were at it, retroactively extrapolating that effect, so the anime version would have been applying this but for monsters on both fields, since we know the anime doesn't specify every listed effect of the Seal (it's apparently got that discard omni-negate in the anime which literally _never_ gets used because the point of it was soul-stealing), so who's to say this was just one of those hidden things that never came up and as such was never added to the 'official' listed anime effect? It also loosely (operative word here) makes sense, in that neither Rafael nor Yami Yugi attacked the weakest monster when the other controlled at least 2, so maybe that line on the IRL Seal was added to cover what would otherwise be a tremendously bad misplay. Yes I know this is beyond tenuous but it's fun to speculate and a modicum of the idea makes sense.

Always love your content, there are almost no youtubers that dissect yugioh duels, but are so precise in your analysis. It’s always fun to see you analyse over these ridiculous card game shenanigans if you actually looked at the deck in its entirety

After 10 months since the first duel between Yami Yugi and Rafael we finally got their 2nd duel, which I'm thankful. Later, I would love to see a Duel Analysis of Aster Phoenix vs Sartorius to see IF Aster would have won.

Atem Vs. Rafael Round 2… Aka, “Who’s the bigger hypocrite?” Don’t believe me? Then take a look at this part of the duel (14:03)

I always liked to believe that in the Yu GI oh universe, any duelist who believed in their cards would be granted fortune in their draws. It would explain why Raphael has such great drawing luck, because he believes in his deck more than any Antagonist in the series. Would also explain why that luck seems to abandon him when he betrays his cards summoning Dreadsythe.

13:16 I would say that this isn't too much of a misplay, as for all he knew Yugi had Mirror Force face down and that'd disrupt his board.

I think the reason Rafael attacked dark magican girl the dragon knight over queens knight while it was because of the plot I think it was also supposed to be him wanting to destroy Temius

Something I'd like to see is Kaiba vs Zigfried, and yes, this is just an excuse to see Kaiba's 4 card combo again.

Rafael not destroying Jack's Knight is one of the most blatant "because plot" misplays ever seen. There is ZERO reason he doesn't take out the strongest card and threat to Elma then and there, but if he does that Yugi's following moves are fucked so Rafael had to be written as dumb for it to work/

Some ideas: 1.Was Pegasus about to beat Yugi 2.Was Marik about to beat Yugi 3.Was Valon about to beat Joey 4.Were Paradox brothers about to beat Yugi and Joey

Rafael consistently getting the perfect Guardian + Equip combo either is because topdecking is a skill you can train or because his deck is effectively full of marked cards. MST on Gravity Axe instead of Guarded Treasure is a weird move but, eh, he had a play in mind and he made it.

Rafael didn't need to use Orichalcos Sword of Sealing. Yugi wouldn't be able to use Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight's effect because his hand was empty.

1:42 This isn't the only time the dub has fixed an error the original made. When Jim Cook faced off against the Supreme King in Yugioh GX, After Jim attacked with skull knight a second time, it showed The Supreme Kings life points as 1950, rather than 1850, which the dub fixed.

*Yugi summons Guardian Eatos Rafael: Mommy No!! I taught I was yor favorite!

"Magical pigeons? What is he insaaaane?" To quote littlekuriboh.

I can't get enough of these duel analyses. They're so well put together and kept track of super well too. Gives me a whole new appreciation for how the game is played in both the anime and real life.

13:30 Here’s another moment you can argue as a misplay from Yugi. Here he sends 2 unknown cards to the graveyard while getting the eye of Timaeus which he fused with dark magician for amulet dragon whose effect is banish all spells in your grave on summon to gain 300 ATK permanently. Here, Yugi banishes 8, 7 of which are named in order of usage(unless I’m counting wrong or missed the 8th spell he used) 1. Monster Reborn 2. Brave Attack 3. 5 Star Twilight 4. Mystical Space typhoon 5. Dark Magic Curtain 6. Magical Hats(spell in anime) 7. Graceful Charity The 8th one mentioned was likely discarded through graceful charity so I don’t see anything wrong with the counting and final tally. What I do want to mention is that if Yugi discarded magical pigeons in addition to the random spell card we never see, he would have banished 9 spell cards thus making Amulet Dragon’s attack gain be 5600 ATK. This matters as while it’s more damage, it also makes it more powerful than dreadscythe which when summoned will have an ATK of 5500, 500 from the seal and 2500 from the 5 guardians in his graveyard. So until Rafael draws into the sword of sealing, which is 2 turns for him, Yugi would be able to hold back and overpower dreadscythe for 2 additional turns and ultimately not needing to be in the defensive. I really see no reason for him to do this, unlike his knights and 5 start twilight, nothing in Yugi’s hand would have brought out DMG to warrant keeping magical pigeons so it would have helped him to toss in it.

lets go im excited to watch that video love those "Was Duelist about to defeat Duelist" series

11:14 I feel like yugi knew it did not banish 0 attack point monsters cause it seems like the duel disk is the one that handled removing the cards from his grave yard.

18:04 if we had to decide on what cards Raphael drew, I'm going to say they're Guardian Tryce & Twin Swords of Flashing Light - Tryce 19:27 again if we had to guess the mysterious card, i want to say Guardian of the Throne Room (because why not?)

Something neat I recently noticed, each equip spell for a Guardian is up on a unique stone pedestal, but they do appear similar enough. The only two to not appear upon a pedestal are Eatos and Dreadscythe, implying that instead of being on display they're being utilized by their Guardians.

This is the series I'm always excited to watch even if I lost interest in modern Yugioh long time ago. One suggestion: If one character did a major misplay, it would be really interesting to see a simulation from there on in YGOPRO or something to see how the duel would have looked if both played perfectly from that point on until the duel ended or a point is reached where you couldn't predict the progress of the duel (for example because the deck was shuffled).

I just have to mention the animation in these three episodes was immaculate, it's definitely some of the strongest the show had

Requests: Ishzui vs Kaiba Battle City Quarterfinals Mai vs Joey - 1st duel in Waking the Dragons Jack vs Yusei - 1st duel in 5d's

who would win in a hypothetical duel between atem and rafael, one without the legendary dragons and the other one without the seal and guardian deathscythe, because rafael had absolute control in both duels and was always cornering yugi during the majority of the time

Im surprised “ORICALCHOS sword of sealing” wasn’t given a double take by any of the characters. It’s a card with “ORICALCHOS” in its name yet they don’t seem to care, its effect isn’t even explained properly in the anime

Love these duel analysis vids!

At 20:52 Yami wouldn’t have survived it if Rafael would have attacked the queens knight because he only had 300 LP and with the damage reduction to 400 Yami would’ve lost

Can we just get backup gardna in the real world. Just make sure the equip spell moving is limited to only guardian monsters because no way in hell I’m dealing with that on Mikanko.

This was a pretty good video and nice to see how the rematch between Atem and Raphael was. There were a good amount of misplays but at the end of the day it was still a pretty interesting entertaining and solid duel. Again great job!

Bro I love these videos I get so hype when you post them so please keep making more plus these videos literally got me into Yu-Gi-Oh so thanks

Raphael literally had Yugi on the ropes the entire duel.

Oh yes! I’m so excited, I’ve been waiting for this!

What a great vid! Good job! Loved the editing and everything.. Everything is totally on point (in my opinion at least)

That was an awesome video man. Very well done.

Dreadscythe has a pretty rad design. I especially love that laugh…especially when her attack was negated by being switched to defense.

4:03 But if the requirement to actvate this card is not having any Guardian monster in the gy, that means literally any deck can use this card. It's even more difficult to use in a Guardian deck

Please don't stop this series of videos you do. You do such an amazing job analyzing the duels. We all love and appreciate them 🙌

Dude I am loving these videos! It gives me a completely new perspective on my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh Duels!

That moment when Rafael says "what do you say we finish this duel and see how goes" that was the moment when yugi was shitting himself, he was utterly at Rafaels mercy, if Rafael had ONE more monster other than graul that would be the end of yugi, (10 LP left) Yugi screaming as the seal encircles him, his friends helpless to save him. His puzzle still failing to save him, he tries to hide in the puzzle but the seal humilates yugi by exorciseing him from his own puzzle room, yugi is done

11:59 This is the only (?) time Yugi switches a card to defence before activating Magical Hats

I’ve been waiting for this one! Heck yea, can’t wait to see more

My favorite videos! Always look forward to seeing them. Can't wait until the next! 🥳

Next duel analysis I think should be an Arc V or Vrains duel. Arc V Sora vs Shun Yuya vs Jack R1,2 and 3 Yugo vs Yuri and Aster and Kite (what would’ve happened had they not interfered) Yuya vs Yuri (best Arc V duel IMO) Everyone vs Zarc Vrains Playmaker vs Revolver R4 Aoi vs Spectre Soulburner vs Revolver (best Vrains duel) Playmaker vs Ai Playmaker vs Akira

Underrated rematch, imo. People understandably talk a lot about the first duel, but I liked this one even more.

I watched your Bonds Beyond Time Duel Analysis before I went to bed after holding off on it for so long, & how short & simple it was left me longing for MORE! Waking up to this is such a delightful surprise! Will probably comment more! Thanks for uploading!

This is one of my favorite duels of all time. Great stuff!

This one series has made this the best yugioh channel on KZfaq

I can't believe he played magical pigeon.

Yes! Thank you for doing this, buddy This rematch duel was really enjoyable and brings me into tears at the end when Rafael saw his family again, only in a illusion

Love these dual videos , keep them up!

This was Yugis toughest duel outside of dartz. not even marik would stand a chance against orichalocs raphael

12:51 I think not summoning Kay'est and attacking with it fits with Rafael's philosophy of him protecting his monsters at all cost. If he summoned and attacked with Kay'est after Elma and found the Dark Magician, Kay'est would've been destroyed. Yes, Rafael could've attacked with Grarl before Kay'est, but let's be real. The plot wouldn't have allowed him to hit the Dark Magician.

Love these videos, excellent work my friend!

"Yugi learned from the first duel" Did he though, the man is still not setting his cards before playing Card of Sanctity.

Love this series and would love to see come Crow or in general 5Ds

No wonder Rafael is so buff. His whole deck is a huge brick.

YES! I've been waiting a long time for this one! Thanks, Sam! :D

Loved this series!

Dread Scythe and Eatos were destroyed at the same time, so I don't think the effect would work. Also, Dread Scythe got banished from the effect of Underworld Circle and they can't be summoned from the banished pile, at least by their own effect.

22:40 They'd both be banished by underworld circle so dreadscythe couldn't come back

Man I don't even play yugioh anymore but after finding your channel I forgot how much I love this stuff. Thanks for the content man I look forward to more.

Yes! Been waiting for this for ages!

IMHO, Rafael just let Dartz's philosophy get to him. Note how much both character's have changed between their Duels. Atem had to "lose Yugi" in order to realize how important your humanity is. Rafael, unfortunately, let the powers of the Oricalcos warp his philosophy around. It's a fascinating character study and unfortunate that all the best character moments happened in the Filler arc's of the DM era....

Yes Rafael needed insane top decking for his deck to even function, but let's not ignore Atem top decking Graceful Charity and Card of Sanctity on back to back turns, soon followed by top decking Pot of Greed.

I’ve been waiting for you to do this duel since you started this series. One of my all time favorite duel and storyline.

Love these analysis videos, you do a good job with them! I think I'd like to see one on Joey vs grandpa Muto from the fifth season

Always love these. Personally I'd be happy to see whether Bakura/Good Marik team could have beaten Yami Marik.

I watch a lot of YuGiOh content but this series is my favorite

Been waiting so long for this vid

Bro I was waiting for a new video like this let's goo, your videos are the best

Underworld Circle is one of the most busted and broken cards ever.

Regarding magical hats it could have been a Mirror Force so keeping a monster to summon as a back up isn’t the worst idea.

I love these videos, keep up the good work Sam!

I love watching these videos, especially all these duels in the waking the dragons season!