Duelist Kingdom Arc

“Yugi and his friends travel to the Duelist Kingdom island and challenge Pegasus, the creator of Duel Monsters, in order to recover the soul of Yugi’s grandfather.”

Author’s Note: My goal with this arc was to recreate it faithfully within the Kingdom Duels ruleset. Therefore, no actual changes were made in the narrative on this particular arc. The 40 episodes are replicated here as precisely as they were in the original japanese run of the anime.

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List of Episodes

Episode 1 - The Heart of the Cards

A narrator explains how in Ancient Egypt, when the pyramids were young, ancient Kings played Shadow Games, which erupted into a war that threatened to destroy the world. However a Pharaoh sealed the magic away, imprisoning it in the Millennium Items. Thousands of years later Yugi Muto unlocked the secrets of the Millennium Puzzle infusing him with ancient magical energies. Destiny has chosen Yugi to prevent the return of the Shadow Games, just like the Pharaoh did.
At Domino High School, Yugi is teaching his friend, Jonouchi, how to play Duel Monsters, while Honda, Anzu and Bakura watch.
Yugi takes his friends to see Sugoroku’s (his grandfather) shop. The old man reveals that he has an ultra rare card: Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Kaiba, a rich kid from school who overheard them talking about it, arrives to the place too and attempts to purchase the card but Yugi’s grandfather refuses.
Later that night Kaiba calls Yugi asking him to come retrieve his grandfather as he is not feeling well and needs picking up. Kaiba had sent his employees to grab the old man and drag him to his place, where they dueled and he took his Blue-Eyes card.
Kaiba welcomes Yugi and his friends at his company and tears apart the card he took from Sugoroku. He explains that he did it because already had 3 Blue-Eyes and didn’t wanted for the 4th one to be used against him.
Sugoroku leaves in an ambulance but entrust Yugi his own deck. Anzu uses a marker to draw a smiley face symbol of friendship on everyone’s hands. She says that even though the ink will wash away, they will always remember the circle of their friendship.
Yugi confronts Kaiba in an epic duel using his grandfather’s deck. Yugi is overwhelmed and cornered though, as Kaiba is an excellent duelist. Eventually the protagonist manages to draw the five legendary pieces of Exodia, which allow him to win the duel and cleanse the darkness in Kaiba’s heart using the power of his Millennium Puzzle.
Elsewhere, Pegasus is informed that the uncontested champion Seto Kaiba has been defeated by someone named Yugi. Pegasus smiles and his golden left eye flashes.

Episode 2 - The Gauntlet is Thrown

At school Jonouchi is dueling Anzu and is defeated by her quite easily. He still has a ton of room to improve so after a talk with Yugi he decides to ask for Sugoroku to train him into a better duelist.
A few days later the Duel Monster National Tournament is taking place and the group is watching the finals on the TV between Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki, a matchup that ends up with Haga’s victory. Pegasus J. Crawford, creator of Duel Monsters, hands the trophy to Haga and announces a new tournament of a scale never seen before that will be taking place soon.
Yugi receives a delivery package in the form of a VHS tape, a gauntlet and some other things from Industrial Illusions, the company creating Duel Monster cards. He watches the VHS which happens to be a message from Pegasus inviting him to the tournament.
Suddenly everything changes when the Pegasus from the TV freezes time and lures Yugi into a Shadow Game using the power of his Millennium Eye. They have a time-gated duel of 15 minutes and Yugi is shocked by Pegasus abilities to read his mind. In the end Yugi is about to deliver a final blow but the time limit is up and Pegasus wins. Using his powers, he seals Sugoroku’s soul into a card and challenges Yugi to come and recover it by defeating him face to face in the upcoming Duelist Kingdom tournament.

Episode 3 - Journey to the Duelist Kingdom

Yugi and Jonouchi attend the ferry to Duelist Kingdom with Anzu and Honda who are sneaking onboard as well. Jonouchi is excited as the prospect of winning the prize money to pay for his sister Shizuka’s eye operation but he wasn’t invited to the tournament so he almost get booted by security until Yugi sees him and gives him one of his Star Chips, therefore allowing him to participate according to the rules.
During the trip, Yugi and Jonouchi meet Kujaku Mai. Anzu spots Bakura from their school and wonders what is he doing there. Mai kicks Ryuzaki out of his room when she beats him in a duel.
Haga, the national champion, meets Yugi and tricks him into letting him see the Exodia pieces. In a surprise twist, he throws them overboard. Jonouchi jumps in the water after them. Yugi jumps in to help Jonouchi when he struggles to keep swimming and Anzu throws a rope ladder for them both.
Jonouchi is upset that he wasn’t able to find Yugi’s cards. He talks about Shizuka who is going blind and the tournament prize money would pay for an operation to fix her eyesight. The four of them decide look into the sunrise as the island approaches in the distance.

Episode 4 - Insector Combo

The duelists arrive to the Duelist Kingdom and the tournament starts. Pegasus, the host, reveals that it will take place in the entire island as they have to bet other duelists and collect 10 star chips to qualify to the finals.
The group starts wandering around and Yugi finds Haga. They begin an all-or-nothing duel as Yugi wants payoff for what happened to the Exodia cards. It is now revealed that there are Duel Arenas scattered across the island and that the terrains they are placed on give different powerups to different monsters.

Episode 5 - Ultimate Perfect Form - Great Moth

The hard-fought duel between Yugi and Haga continues and reaches an epic conclusion. In the end, Yugi wins and kicks Haga out of the tournament. Who would have thought that the first duelist sent home would be the Japanese champion?

Episode 6 - Gorgeous Harpie Lady

Mai, who watched Yugi’s duel against Haga, has defeated a duelist and is happy with her new star chip. She then sees the group and approaches them, challenging Jonouchi to a duel as she wants to win her way to the finals first and then duel Yugi there.
Jonouchi takes up this challenge, and although is outmatched and confused by her aroma tactics, he ends up pulling the shocking win thanks to the Time Wizard card he got from Yugi as a gift during the ferry.

Episode 7 - Attack from the Deep

The group wanders around the island and find some fish being cooked near a cliff. Hungry as they are they jump to the opportunity, but then they meet Kajiki Ryota who was the one cooking those fish.
After finding out that Yugi, the one who beat Kaiba, is among them, Kajiki invites them to eat and later challenges Yugi to a duel using his powerful ocean monsters that hide beneath the water. In the end Yugi uses a crazy combination to destroy the moon and recede the tide to win. In good spirits, they all depart on good terms.

Episode 8 - Stolen Blue-Eyes White Dragon

The group hears from a Duelist who has been kicked out of the tournament when his Deck and Star Chips were stolen. They track down the thief, who turns out to be none other than Mokuba Kaiba, the younger brother of Seto Kaiba. He is there to avenge his brother’s loss.
Mokuba challenges Yugi to a duel but he is no match and abandons the duel in an attempt to steal some Star Chips from Yugi, trying to get him disqualified.
They end up catching him and convincing him to return the stars to their rightfull owner, but when he does it the tournament official, Saruwatari, throws the Star Chips to the ocean and grabs him. Yugi challenge him to a duel and he arranges a duel… but with a different opponent. It seems that opponent is no other than the spirit of the now-defunct Seto Kaiba.

Episode 9 - Duel With a Ghoul

The duel between “Kaiba” and Yugi begins. The group is still in shock on how that person looks and acts exactly like the real Kaiba, and even has his own deck. Yugi is quickly cornered by his powerful monsters.
Somewhere else, the real Kaiba, who was attacked by Pegasus goons and had to flee the scene leaving his Deck behind, manages to get to a hidden Kaiba Corporation computer server. From there he launches an offensive trying to put a stop on Pegasus machinations, who is plotting to get rid of him and take over his company.

Episode 10 - Blue-Eyes White Dragon’s Counterattack

Kaiba hacks into Industrial Illusions servers and finds that Yugi is having a duel against “himself”. He sends a virus trying to destroy the Blue-Eyes card but is stopped by Pegasus’ cybersecurity mid-way. Someway, however, his bond with his own card manages to destroy the Blue-Eyes White Dragon used by the fake Kaiba, which gives Yugi a fighting chance. As Pegasus hencheman find Kaiba’s location he has to flee the scene once again.
In the actual duel, Yugi manages to fend-off the attacks with the help of the real Kaiba. The impersonator finally reveals himself as who he actually is and the duel concludes with a clever comeback by Yugi. In the end, Yugi focuses his rage towards Pegasus who is watching everything unfold through a monitor, smiling in anticipation for their upcoming duel.
When the group looks around, Mokuba and Saruwatari are missing.

Episode 11 - The Power of Friendship! Barbarian #1 and #2

Since Jonouchi defeated her, Mai no longer enjoys dueling as much as she used to and vows to get revenge. When Dinosaur Ryuzaki challenges her as payback for what happened on the ferry, she says she will take him on, but only if he beats Jonouchi first.
Ryuzaki then finds and challenges Jonouchi to a duel, in which his experience proves to be overbearing for the newbie duelist. As he manages to hold Ryuzaki’s attacks, Jonouchi plays a pair of Battleguard cards that are a representation of the bond that he and Honda have, managing to turn the tide of the duel.

Episode 12 - Black Flame! Red-Eyes Black Dragon

The duel between Ryuzaki and Jonouchi continues, with the latter Battleguards dominating the field. Suddenly Ryuzaki plays his best card, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, which turns the tide in his favour once again. Feeling confident, Ryuzaki convince Jonouchi to bet their rarest cards in this duel. A miracle play with the Time Wizard is barely enough to give Jonouchi the surprising win and also the Red-Eyes card.
When nighttime falls the gang decides to set up camp. They are exhausted and hungry. Suddenly Mai shows up with a sack full of food. They get to talk and know eachother better. Later, Mai goes on a walk nearby and is kidnapped by a large man.
At the campfire, Bakura (a friend from school) appears and the group welcome him to sit down, asking how he got there to the island and what is he doing there. They get to talk about Duel Monsters and all of them show their favourite cards. Bakura states that he wants a duel with Yugi, not for star chips but just for fun, and suggest that they should all put their favourite cards in Yugi’s deck.
When they are about to duel a mysterious power shines on and the Millennium Ring appears at Bakura’s neck. Everyone passes out due to his magic. As he reaches for Yugi’s Millennium Puzzle, the-other-Yugi appears and says that if he wants his Puzzle, he has to duel him for it, but if Yugi wins, Bakura must restore the souls of his friends. Bakura accepts, but warns him that this is one game he will not win.

Episode 13 - Evil Spirit of the Ring

The duel between Bakura and the-other-Yugi begins. It’s a Shadow Game in where the gang takes the form of their corresponding favorite cards. The other Yugi is worried because the soul of their friends are at stake, and duels carefully while Bakura is trying to send the cards to the Graveyard so their souls can be consumed by the reaper of the cards.
It’s also the first time that the rest of the group sees the two Yugi side by side and interact.
In the end they all manage to work together and defeat the evil spirit inside the Millennium Ring, with the help of the real Bakura that bought enough time to let the-other-Yugi to finish the duel.
Everyone returns back to normal. Jonouchi, Anzu and Honda thought they had been dreaming the experience. Bakura reveals that his Millennium Ring was a gift from his father who had bought it in Egypt from an unusual looking merchant.
Suddenly, everyone hears a loud scream in the distance and they run to see where it came from.

Episode 14 - Pitch Black Duel! Castle of Darkening

Mai just had lost a duel against an eliminator named Panik, and is forced to give up all her Star Chips, and therefore she is eliminated from Duelist Kingdom.
The group arrives and see what is happening. Yugi challenges Panik betting all his star chips to try to recover the ones Mai lost, and the two duelists enter an arena in which the darkness and the night give the eliminator a huge advantage. Yugi is not intimidated by Panik, he stays confident and mocks his opponent repeatedly, as the duel grows more difficult moment by moment.

Episode 15 - Cut Through the Darkness!

Panik continues his defensive strategy but Yugi states that he will defeat him shortly. With a smart combination of cards he manages to completely destroy Panik’s defenses and win the duel.
After the duel, Yugi offers Mai her Star Chips back, but Mai refuses to take them as she believes she does not deserve them. After Jonouchi plays around and tries to steal the chips, Mai demands that he give them back, and he does. As Yugi and the group leave, Mai thanks Yugi for his effort, saying that when they meet again, she will repay him and face him in an honorable duel.

Episode 16 - Clash! Blue-Eyes vs Red-Eyes

Pegasus is in his office talking with the Big Five about their deal to take over Kaiba Corporation, which will require from Pegasus to beat Yugi in a duel to clear Kaiba Corporation’s name after Kaiba’s defeat at the hands of the young duelist. The Big Five are the board of Kaiba Corporation and want Kaiba removed from it.
Meanwhile, Seto Kaiba arrives in a helicopter to the Duelist Kingdom island in search of Mokuba and encounters Yugi and the group. Yugi returns Kaiba’s deck to him (as he had been holding on to it after defeating the impersonator) and Kaiba thanks him. They talk about defeating Pegasus.
Jonouchi is angered by Kaiba’s attitude and challenges him to a duel, which Kaiba accepts as he wants to try out his new Duel Disk system he’s been working on. Jonouchi is no match for Kaiba and gets stomped.
Kaiba then tells them about Pegasus’ mysterious powers. Sometime ago at the United States, Kaiba himself was one of Pegasus’s guests of honor in a tournament. In the final round, Pegasus was dueling a man named Bandit Keith. Pegasus just played with Keith, then wrote something on a piece of paper and called a kid from the audience. With that paper the kid managed to beat Keith in a single turn, to Kaiba’s surprise.
Yugi and Kaiba may not agree on most things, but they both know that Pegasus must be stopped. Kaiba leaves the group and heads for the Pegasus’ castle, unaware that Pegasus is watching him with his Millennium Eye.

Episode 17 - Terror! Call of the Living Dead

The next morning Anzu shows up with Mai’s backpack. Mai left the group, but wrote Yugi a note saying she owes him eight Star Chips.
As the gang walk through the woods, they are being spied on by three boys: Kotsuzuka, Takaido, and Satake, who all work for Bandit Keith. Keith sneaked into the Duelist Kingdom tournament to get revenge on Pegasus for what he did to him in New York City. The three spies know Yugi was the kid who defeated Seto Kaiba months earlier, so they decide to eliminate Jonouchi first. Jonouchi, wanting to go to the bathroom, splits a bit from his group but Takaido and Satake follow him and knock him unconscious.
Jonouchi wakes up in a cave where a Graveyard field is located. In there he begins a spooky duel against Kotsuzuka and his Zombie monsters.
Yugi and the group find Jonouchi’s wallet, leading them to investigate a nearby cave.

Episode 18 - Arena of Lost Souls

Yugi and the group have to deal with a number of traps until they finally reach the arena. In there, the duel between Jonouchi and Kotsuzuka continues and reaches its climax. After being overwhelmed by the indestructible zombies, Jonouchi manages to swap them into defense and destroy them for good, winning the duel. He now has eight Star Chips, meaning he only needs two more to become a finalist.
As the group approaches the cave’s exit, Keith’s gang blocks the entrance with a large boulder, too heavy for any of them to budge. As punishment for losing, Keith beats up his henchmen and takes all of their Star Chips, getting a total of ten. Though this was not what he originally planned, it’s still fine by him, and he strides off alone, ready to enter Pegasus’s castle.

Episode 19 - Labyrinth Tag Duel

In the cave, Yugi and the group have no way of removing the boulder blocking the entrance. Suddenly, Bakura’s Millennium Ring starts to point into a direction, presumably towards Pegasus’s Millennium Eye.
Following where the ring points, they end up at a large Dueling Arena, where the Meikyu Brothers appear, challenging them to a tag duel. Yugi and Jonouchi bet six Star Chips between them, enough to gain them entrance to Pegasus Castle if they win. But first they must get pass the eliminators and their unique field: the Labyrinth.
Meanwhile, Mokuba, trapped in Pegasus’s underground prison, is thinking about his brother Seto and what happened to them when they were younger. Kaiba, on the other hand, is outside, approaching Pegasus’s castle.

Episode 20 - Three Gods Combine! Gate Guardian

The duel in the labyrinth continues. Yugi and Jonouchi bring out their strongest monsters, but the Meikyu Brothers use clever tactics to traverse the maze and separate their monsters while they unleash all three pieces of their powerful boss monster, the “Gate Guardian”.
Meanwhile, as Seto Kaiba approaches Pegasus’s castle, he is confronted by Saruwatari, but Kaiba overpowers him and takes him hostage, demanding that he take him to Mokuba. Saruwatari takes Kaiba through Pegasus’ underground prison, but activates an alarm, forcing Kaiba to flee and find Mokuba himself.

Episode 21 - The Fiend Dragon - Black Demons Dragon

Yugi and Jonouchi display really effective teamwork strategies to overcome their opponents and win the tag duel, finally earning enough Star Chips to enter the castle.
In Pegasus’s dungeon, Kaiba finds Mokuba but is soon confronted by Pegasus, who uses his Millennium Eye to lock Mokuba’s soul in a card. He throws some star chips at Kaiba and tells him that if he wants to see Mokuba again, he must defeat Yugi first.

Episode 22 - Duel of Destiny! Yugi vs Kaiba

Yugi and the group emerge from the underground tunnel and arrive outside Pegasus Castle. Anzu thinks about how Yugi often switches from a gentle and caring nature to a more forceful, slightly colder and unfriendlier one. She concludes there must be two Yugis after remembering his Duel with Bakura.
She then recalls some time ago when she was working part-time at Burger World and she feared that Yugi and Jonouchi would reveal this to the school when they visited one day (as it was against the school rules to have a part-timme job). She admitted she was working there to raise money to travel to New York to study dance, and was shocked to find they were encouraging her instead of mocking her. At a later point, she was lured into a warehouse by a pervert mugger with a camera, and was knocked out unconscious for a moment. She was rescued by Yugi who challenged the mugger with Duel Monster cards and Mind Crushed him. Although she was a bit hazy she remembered the confident attitude of Yugi at that time.
As the group climb up the stairs to Pegasus Castle they encounter Kaiba, who challenges Yugi. Yugi accepts and they begin their duel on an open area atop the castle using Kaiba’s new-and-improved Duel Disks. Bandit Keith arrives at the castle in time to watch, but he stays out of view of the others.

Episode 23 - Strongest! Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon

The duel between Kaiba and Yugi continues and Kaiba pulls off a big combo summoning a fusion of his three Blue-Eyes while also destroying Yugi’s entire deck. The situation seems hopeless for Yugi, but encouragement from his friends and thoughts of his grandpa make him determined to carry on.

Episode 24 - Kuribohs Multiply! Shocking Finale

Despite being at the mercy of Kaiba’s fused dragon, Yugi forms a crazy counter defense while also jeopardizing his opponent monster, turning the tide completely. Kaiba becomes distressed as he knows he is going to lose the duel, and the fate of Mokuba is also in the balance for him. Yugi’s Elf Swordsman cuts off one of the dragon’s head, and another attack will defeat Kaiba.
In desperation, Kaiba moves to the edge of the castle battlements. It’s clear that the force of Yugi’s next attack could knock him over the edge and kill him. Kaiba resurrects the dragon head that was destroyed. This means he can defeat Yugi’s monster and win the Duel, but only if Yugi skips his next move, otherwise he will fall to his death. Yugi and his other self have a conflict over risking Kaiba’s life for his grandpa. The-other-Yugi launches the attack anyway, but Anzu runs to him pleading to call off the attack. Yugi regains control of his body and stops the attack just in time. Kaiba then declares an attack and wins.
Yugi, having returned to his normal self, is frightened of his other self, who was willing to kill in order to win. He drops to his knees and begins to sob. Kaiba attempts to mock Yugi on his weakness, but Anzu tearfully scolds him, saying that he bet his “chip of life” like it was nothing and that he is the true loser because Yugi was willing to protect Kaiba’s own life despite the outcome of the duel. Kaiba leaves, having no comeback to her words.

Episode 25 - Shining Friendship

Yugi is shocked about what happened and won’t respond to his friends, even when Jonouchi offers his star chips to him. Mai shows up and offer him the Star Chips that she owed him, stating that she wasn’t able to find all 8 but she has 6, which would be enough for him to enter the castle. But Yugi has no response. Exasperated, she challenges him to a duel for the chips but Anzu decides to take his place to everyone’s shock.
The duel does not start off very well for Anzu, as Mai is just more experienced. But at some point Anzu manages to use a combination to destroy Mai’s Harpie Lady. Mai was about to activate a response but decides not to, and forfeits the duel after that. Yugi snaps out of it during the duel, seeing Anzu dueling for him. He ends up accepting Mai’s Star Chips and everyone heads towards the castle.

Episode 26 - Save Mokuba! Kaiba vs Pegasus

Yugi, Jonouchi and Mai have ten Star Chips each so they enter the castle for the finals. They head onto the main balcony where they meet up with Bandit Keith, the other finalist.
Mr. Crocketts comes in and greets the finalists telling them there will be an exhibition match for them between Seto Kaiba and Pegasus himself. Kaiba wants Pegasus to duel with his Duel Disks but Pegasus says if they use them, the now soul-less Mokuba will operate his for him. Kaiba, not wanting to duel his own little brother, decides to duel in a normal Dueling Arena instead.
The battle starts and Pegasus uses his power to get a clear advantage of his opponent.

Episode 27 - Champion vs. Creator, Invincible Toon World

As the duel continues it is clear that Pegasus is untouchable, as he has an answer to everything Kaiba tries. He unleash his powerful Toon monsters against him, and although Kaiba puts up a valiant fight, in the end he is defeated by a reverse combo in which Pegasus uses Kaiba’s own virus card to destroy his entire deck.
After the duel, Pegasus seals Kaiba’s soul inside a card. Yugi, both saddened and angry after everything that happened, challenges Pegasus. He responds that if he wish to duel him he has to win the tournament first.

Episode 28 - Night Before the Battle! Pegasus Secret

It is the evening before the Duelist Kingdom finals and everyone in the castle is having dinner in the dining hall. During the feast, the pairings of Duelists in the Finals are determined. First, Yugi will face Mai, and then Jonouchi will duel Keith. Unfortunately, Jonouchi and Keith do not have either of the required tournament entry cards. Yugi gives his friend the “Glory of the King’s Hand” entry card for him to use the prize money for his sister’s eye operation. Meanwhile, Keith schemes to find another way to get one of the cards.
After the dinner, everyone splits and heads to their designated bedrooms. Mai is planning her strategy for the duel. Jonouchi is asleep in his room, dreaming and talking out loud when Keith sneaks in and steals his tournament entry card. Yugi is asleep and has a dream with his grandpa and the Kaiba brothers cards in tombstones, speaking to him asking for his help.
Meanwhile, Honda suspects that Pegasus cheated in his duel against Kaiba and brings Anzu and Bakura to inspect the Dueling Arena. They find a hole that shines moonlight directly at the arena. Looking through the hole, Honda sees a tower on the other side of the courtyard and suspects that one of Pegasus’ henchmen may have being spying on Kaiba’s hand using a telescope. The three climb into the tower using a grappling hook. Inside, they inspect the room and find nothing but a painting of a woman. They are soon confronted by Pegasus, who uses his Millennium Eye to transport them to another place.
The three wake up in a passageway filled with Egyptian murals and paintings. They enter a room, where two robed men are facing each other while others behind them are chanting. The two robed men reveal stone tablets to each other. One contains a carving of a “Blue-Eyes White Dragon” while the other has a “Crawling Dragon”. The robed man with “Crawling Dragon” loses and is consumed in green flames, as his monster was weaker than “Blue-Eyes White Dragon”. Honda, Anzu and Bakura unintentionally make some noice seeing this, causing the robed men to notice them and surround them. The winning man reveals himself to be Pegasus.
Pegasus reveals that the game he just played was one of the Shadow Games that took place in ancient Egypt, an ancient ritual where one’s very being is put to the test. He reads Anzu and Honda’s minds, to their shock, and explains what his Millennium Eye can do. When he tries to do the same to Bakura, his Millennium Ring appears and the evil Bakura takes over Bakura’s body. Pegasus is absolutely surprised about this. Then, their Millennium Items clash in a powerful beam of light.
Honda and Anzu appear back in their rooms, feeling that what just had happened was a dream. In his own room, the other Bakura is happy that he has finally found the Millennium Eye.

Episode 29 - Desperate Situation! Shadow of Seduction

The first duel of the Duelist Kingdom semifinals between Kujaku Mai and Muto Yugi begins. Mai plays focused but Yugi seems distracted and is thinking ahead to a potential duel with Pegasus so he makes mistakes and she takes advantage of it.

Episode 30 - The Legendary Strongest Warrior

Mai has driven Yugi into a corner in the first semifinal, but you can never count Yugi out of a duel and he turns it around summoning the first Ritual monster of the series: Chaos Soldier. Losing her most powerful monster and not willing to watch her Harpie Ladies be destroyed, Mai surrenders.

Episode 31 - Keith’s Machinations

The second duel of the semifinals between Keith and Jonouchi is about to begin. When Mr. Crocketts asks both contestants to show their tournament entry cards, Keith shows the one he took from Jonouchi. So naturally, when Jonouchi reaches for his, he can’t find it. He has five minutes to find that card or he will be disqualified. Jonouchi searches all over his room for it, but to no avail. He is just about to give up when Mai comes in and gives him her card. He arrives at the Dueling Arena just in the nick of time and presents Mai’s card, to Keith’s shock.
The duel between them begins, and Keith takes the advantage with his machine monsters which are immune to magic attacks. He is far more experienced and after dealing with some of Jonouchi’s cards he launches a final attack… which gets stopped by Jonouchi. The duel then turns into a neck-to-neck battle, proving how much Jonouchi has learned in the island.

Episode 32 - Surpass Time! Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon

The duel between Jonouchi and Keith remain close until the latter summons Revolver Dragon, which not even Jonouchi’s Time Wizard combo was able to defeat. He ends up making a crazy move though, summoning his Red-Eyes Black Dragon and using Keith own cards against him. At some point Keith has to actually cheat by pulling cards to his hand in order to re-take the advantage, but even then Jonouchi manages to find a path and deal the finishing blow.
Keith, refusing to accept defeat, demands the Duel be declared invalid since Joey used Mai’s card. Jonouchi admits this is true and asks how he could have known that. Pegasus, at this point declares that Keith stole Jonouchi’s card, and that he personally doesn’t care much about which card they are holding, but he cannot condone how he cheated during the duel. Pegasus orders his guards to take Keith away, but Keith knocks them out cold, jumps towards Pegasus, and points a gun to his head, demanding the prize money. Pegasus mocks Keith and activates a trap door on the ground, sending Keith through a tunnel and out into the ocean.
With Jonouchi being the winner, he now has to face Yugi in the final duel of the tournament to decide the one that will face Pegasus.

Episode 33 - Final Match of Friendship - Yugi vs. Jounouchi

It is the final match of the Duelist Kingdom finals. Yugi faces Jonouchi and whoever wins will face Pegasus afterwards. This is a really tough duel for both Duelists, as they are both close friends, but must face each other to get what they want (Yugi the chance to Duel Pegasus and save his grandpa and the Kaiba brothers; Jonouchi the chance to win the prize money needed to pay for his sister eye operation).
Jonouchi starts strong and gets the upper hand, baiting some plays from Yugi and managing to summon Black Demons Dragon fusing monsters from both of them.

Episode 34 - Best of Friends, Best of Duelists

The hard-fought duel between friends continue and reach an epic conclusion. Jonouchi ends up using his Time Wizard to empower his Baby Dragon into Thousand Dragon, but this also triggers Yugi’s own Dark Magician who becomes an older and more experienced version of itself. With tears in their eyes, Yugi resurrects Black Demons Dragon to finish the duel. He is the winner of Duelist Kingdom.
Afterwards, Jonouchi tries to give him his “Glory of the King’s Right Hand”, but Yugi tells him to keep it since Jonouchi needs the money more than he does and Yugi is only there to rescue his grandfather. With the Duel over, it’s time for the ultimate showdown between Yugi and Pegasus.

Episode 35 - Yugi vs. Pegasus: Match of the Millennium

The final Duel of Duelist Kingdom is about to begin. Yugi will face Pegasus for the release of his grandpa, Kaiba and Mokuba. The Big Five are watching the Duel, knowing that if Pegasus wins, Kaiba Corporation is his. Before the duel starts, Mr. Crocketts asks Yugi to show the “Glory of the King’s Left Hand” card to challenge the king, which he does. He explains that if he wins he will get 60% of Industrial Illusion’s stocks (in other words, if he wishes it, he will become the new president of Industrial Illusions). Pegasus then says that on the other hand, if Yugi loses the duel, he will be trapped in a card like the others.
The Duel does not start off very well for Yugi, as Pegasus is able to read his mind through the use of his Millennium Eye, thereby countering any of Yugi’s moves.
Meanwhile, Honda, believing Pegasus is up to something, runs off to the castle’s dungeon to find the bodies of the Kaiba brothers. He wanders around the dungeon until he finds Mokuba. Unfortunately, unlocking his cell door triggered a silent alarm, forcing him to flee while the guards hunt him down.

Episode 36 - The Invincible Toon Army

Pegasus continues to read Yugi’s mind in their duel, and plays “Toon World”, turning his monsters into Toon monsters. Yugi knows from Pegasus’ Duel with Kaiba that this is a very powerful card.
Meanwhile, Bakura, under the control of his evil self Bakura, leaves the group to search for Honda. He finds him with Mokuba’s body and being cornered by two guards. Bakura uses “Chains of Magical Energy” to trap the guards (using some sort of magic to actually use the effect of a card in the real world), allowing him and Tristan to get away. However while trying to escape, they quickly reach a dead end.

Episode 37 - Counterattack Begins! Mind Shuffle

The final duel continues. Yugi and the-other-Yugi devise a plan to counter Pegasus’ Millennium Eye by repeatedly switching control of Yugi’s body each turn using the Millennium Puzzle. They will not even tell each other what cards they place on the field, making Pegasus unable to figure out their strategies.
When Yugi destroys Pegasus’ “Toon World” and all of his monsters, Pegasus decides to take the duel with the utmost respect and he starts a Shadow Game.
Meanwhile, Honda and Bakura are cornered in the dungeon, but suddenly Bakura uses “Flesh-Eating Insect” to attack Pegasus’s guards, then sending them to the Graveyard with “Metamor Pot”. Honda realizes that Bakura is really the spirit of the Millennium Ring from before, and Bakura reveals that he wants to use Mokuba’s body for himself. He threatens Honda, saying that if he doesn’t give him up, he will end up like the guards.

Episode 38 - The Wicked Eye Activates - Sacrifice

As the evil Bakura demands Mokuba’s body, Honda knocks him out, takes his Millennium Ring, and throws it off the castle into the woods. He then carries Bakura and Mokuba back to the balcony, where Jonouchi and Anzu are witnessing the beginning of the Shadow Duel.
Contact between them and Yugi has been cut off, and they cannot enter the shadow cloud - they either walk straight through it or return where they started.
Inside the shadow, the duel continues. The virtual simulation system from Kaiba is not working. Instead, each monster is maintained by one’s life energy, and regular Yugi cannot handle the force of the Shadow Game. The-other-Yugi takes over for a time stating that Yugi will not survive in such conditions, but Yugi convinces him to switch back to keep their Mind Shuffle strategy working. He manages to draw and set a card, but when Pegasus destroy’s his defending monster Yugi collapses. Despite his other self frantic calls, Yugi seems to be gone. This leaves just the-other-Yugi against Pegasus, who can once again read his mind and know all of his moves.

Episode 39 - Fusion of Light and Darkness

The-other-Yugi is on the verge of defeat against Pegasus. He then gets a vision of Sugoroku, who tells him that Yugi may not physically be with him, but his spirit still is. When Pegasus tries to read Yugi’s mind, the card he drew is blocked because of Anzu, Honda and Jonouchi spiritually bonding together to support Yugi.
In a final epic turn, the-other-Yugi wins with the help of “Magician of Black Chaos”, a card summoned thanks to the final effort of Yugi himself. Pegasus is left completely shocked at his loss, as the shadow bubble dissipates.
Yugi’s friends are overjoyed that he is okay and that he finally won the duel, but Anzu quickly reminds everyone that this is not over yet until Pegasus returns Kaiba, Mokuba, and Yugi’s grandfather’s souls like he promised. Yugi then turns around and is shocked to see that Pegasus has disappeared. Bakura at this point wakes up and calls out to the group. Honda reveals to Bakura that he had to get rid of the Millennium Ring as it was possessing him like before and Bakura thanks him, understanding that getting rid of it was the probably the right thing to do. Bakura then tells the group he’ll keep an eye on Mokuba while the others search for Pegasus.
After they leave, the Millennium Ring reappears around his neck and the evil Bakura returns. Mokuba’s body is no longer of use to Bakura since Pegasus will be returning his soul, but with Pegasus weakened, Yami Bakura states it is the perfect time to take his Millennium Eye.

Episode 40 - King of Duelists

Having won the tournament, Yugi is now officially the King of Duelists.
Yugi and his friends are running through the castle in order to find Pegasus, so that he will release all the souls that he captured like he promised. Anzu stops for a brief moment because she notices a nearby tower. She notes to her friends that she recognizes that tower as the one she thought that Honda and Bakura went up into before in a dream. She then realizes that was Pegasus’s sanctuary and what she remembered was real. Honda agrees too as the memory is coming back to him. They decide to go there.
Pegasus is in his private tower and is depressed that he lost against Yugi and the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. Regardless, he is a man of his word, so he releases the souls of Sugoroku and the Kaiba brothers. Because of this all 3 wake up and regain their senses. Just then, the evil Bakura arrives and gives Pegasus an impromptu tarot reading before challenging him to a Shadow Game using their Millennium Items. Bakura easily defeats Pegasus (who’s still exhausted from his Shadow Game with Yugi), and takes his Millennium Eye. Yugi and the gang arrive to see Pegasus unconscious being carried away by his guards. They enter the tower and find Pegasus’s diary. Anzu reads from it, and it explains that as a teenager, he met a girl named Cyndia. They were true lovers, but just as they were about to be married, Cyndia got sick and died.
Pegasus traveled all over the world trying to get her back. He wound up in Egypt, where he met a man named Shadi, who gave him the Millennium Eye. Thanks to his wish asked to the Eye he got a brief vision of her. Pegasus gets the idea that using the holographic technology of Kaiba Corporation along with the power of the Millennium Items could bring Cyndia back to life. He explains in his diary that this was his reason for hosting the Duelist Kingdom tournament, but the diary ends there.
Yugi notices that there are three Soul Prison cards that are blank. That means Pegasus did release the souls of his prisoners like he had promised. As the group leaves, Shadi appears in the stairs using magic and confronts Yugi. Shadi uses his Millennium Key to enter Yugi’s mind, as that is the power of his item. To his surprise, he finds two chambers in his mind, one for Yugi, and the other for the-other-Yugi. While the former is a nice room full of innocence and toys, the latter is a giant maze filled with trap doors. Shadi enters through several of them before almost falling into an endless void. Luckily, the regular Yugi saves him.
In one of the chambers, Shadi and Yugi are walking alongside stone tablets that feature monsters from the actual Duel Monsters game. The “Dark Magician” shows up, who is about to attack them as he thinks they are intruders. Shadi plans to use the “Blue-Eyes White Dragon” tablet below them to destroy it, but Yugi talks him out and manages to convince the “Dark Magician” to let him go. Shadi is shocked that Yugi was able to convince the “Dark Magician” that easily, given that the “Dark Magician” is it said to be the most loyal of the ancient Pharaoh’s servants. Shadi leaves Yugi’s mind, believing he is the one that will save the world from chaos. Before he leaves, Shadi warns Yugi to take great care as the thief that stole the Millennium Eye will go after Yugi’s Millennium Puzzle soon.