THE HEART OF THE CARDS

                                 ...Trust in the Heart

        EPISODE GUIDE

               Episode # 29 - Yugi Vs. Mai - Duel Identity (1)

     Everyone is up and excited about the finals competition that starts today.  Yami Yugi and Joey go to the standby room where Mai and Bandit Keith are waiting.  Mai greets Yugi with a friendly welcome but Bandit Keith tells Joey he came a long way to loose.  Joey shakes it off and Bandit Keith smiles because Joey hasn't found out that he's missing his entry card.  Croquet announces that the competition will begin and the doors to the dueling arena open.  Pegasus reviews with them the rules.  He restates that whoever wins can either go for the prize money or challenge Pegasus.  He says that if someone is able to beat Pegasus, they will become the first King of Games, recognized throughout the world.  Yami Yugi remembers his promise to save his Grandpa and the Kaiba Brothers.  He must defeat Pegasus to get their souls back.

     Round one starts and Yugi and Mai take their places on the Dueling stands.  They show Croquet their entry cards.  Mai has and shows the card for the prize money.  Yugi shows the card for the right to challenge Pegasus.  Joey heads up to the balcony with Tea, Tristan, and Bakura so he can see better.   In the arena, Yugi isn't thinking much about his duel with Mai.  He only cares about challenging Pegasus and Mai doesn't matter to him.  Mai is looking forward to her duel with Yugi.  She loves the rush of dueling; that's why she came.  Yugi is at a major disadvantage already.  Winning is hard when you don't take your opponent seriously.  Yugi does notice that Mai isn't using her scented card trick against him.  She is playing this duel straight forwards.  Mai begins the duel with one of her Harpies Ladies.  Tea warns Yugi to be careful but Joey says Yugi should have no trouble defeating Mai.  Mai also plays a trap card and ends her turn.

     Yugi decides to take down the Harpies Lady right of the bat and plays Gaia the Fierce Knight in attack mode.  When he attacked, Mai activated her trap card, Mirror Wall, which makes all of Yugi's attacking monster loose half their attack points.  Gaia drops to 1150 attack points because of the effect.  Mai powered up her Harpies Ladies with Cyber Armor, raising her attack to 1800.  She easily destroyed Gaia lowering Yugi's life points to 1350.  Mai wonders to herself how Yugi could fall into such a simple trap and thinks she might have over estimated her opponent.  Yugi draws Summoned Skull with an attack of 2500 and sends it to attack the Harpies Lady.  Mia smirks as the Mirror Wall shows up again and Summoned Skull is divided in half.  Yugi finally notices that Mirror Wall is a continuous trap.  It will continue to lower Yugi's monster's attack on the field.  Yugi's friends notice how bad he is dueling and are getting worried.

     Mai says she is worried for Yugi, he is over estimated.  When duelists face each other, there is a force putting pressure on each other.  Mai says she doesn't feel that force when dueling Yugi now.  Yugi doesn't have a fighting spirit.  He thinks that Pegasus is all that matters and he hasn't concentrated on the duel with Mai yet.  Pegasus talks to himself and agrees with Mai; Yugi isn't dueling at his strongest.  Something is on his mind.  Yami Yugi tells Mai that if she wants to teach him a lesson she has to defeat him first.  He tells he to stop talking and finish the duel.  Mai believes Yugi is covering his weaknesses and asks him how come he's so tough but he's fallen for her trap two rounds in a row.  On the sidelines, Tristan thinks Mai is just acting like her confident self and Joey encourages Yugi not to get distracted.  Tea though thinks that Mai is trying to get Yugi into the duel, not discourage him.  She knows how much Mai hates duels with no fighting spirit and she's trying to get Yugi's real spirit to show.

     Yugi is starting to get annoyed with Mai.  She warns him to be careful before he makes his move this turn.  Mai just wants Yugi to give his best effort.  Without it, the duel means nothing and winning would seem meaningless.  Mai draws a card and thinks the only thing stopping an attack by her Harpies Lady this turn would be Yugi's face down card.  She decides not to attack right away and plays Harpies Feather Duster which removes all of your opponents trap and magic cards.  Yami Yugi compliments Mai on a good move.  Mai shakes it off and says she was just being alert.  On Yugi's turn, he can't attack because of Mirror Wall so he switches Summoned Skull to defense mode and plays another monster face down.  Mai plays Rose Whip to power up Harpies Lady to 2400 attack points. She fells confident in her victory and is disappointed that Yugi isn't dueling his best.  Yugi notices that under the protection of Mirror Wall she is strengthening up her Harpies Lady.  Mai attack Yugi's face down monster, the Feral Imp, and it is destroyed.  Mai isn't set because she hasn't finished powering up her Harpies.  Yugi's friends are getting more and more worried about him.  Yugi knows he must find away to disassemble the Mirror Wall or he'll lose.

     Mai draws a card saying it will fully exploit Harpies Lady's potential.  She summons Harpies Lady's loyal servant, Harpies Pet Dragon.  For each Harpies Lady on the field, Harpies Pet Dragon gets 300 attack points.  The dragon attacks Summoned Skull and destroys it.  Mai tells Yugi that she has won and riddles Yami.  Yugi tells her that he will rely on strength to win and not let her words confuse him.  He pulls the Dark Magician.  It is strong enough to defeat Harpies Pet Dragon but Mirror wall is in play.  He plays the Dark Magician in defense mode along with a face down trap card.  He hopes Mai will attack it so he can activate his trap card, Mirror Force.  If she attacks, her monsters will be destroyed.  But Mai doesn't need to attack.  Instead she plays Shadow of Eyes which makes all monsters your opponent controls switch to attack mode and attack.  The Dark Magician hits the Mirror Wall and his attack points lower to 1250.  She plays another Harpies Feather Duster to destroy Yugi's Mirror Force card and attacks.  Yugi's life points fall to 300 while Mai still has all of hers.  Everyone is wondering why Yugi is dueling like he is and Mai thinks the duel is almost over.

Summary By YamiHikari

Screen Shots  (Coming Soon...)

New Characters:  None

Characters Shown: Yugi,  Joey,  Tea,  Tristan,  Bakura,  Mai, Pegasus, Bandit Keith, Croquet

Cards Featured: (Coming Soon...)

Episode Rating (1-10) 8.5  Hmm... Well the dueling was awesome for Mai, Yugi sucked but that's what made this episode great.  Yugi has a weakness and it adds to Yugi's character.  He isn't a god or something.  A great cliff hanger too, 2000 to 300 life points.  Wow.  Besides: Mai = cool.  Yugi = awesome.  "Cool" + "Awesome" = Great Episode.