Yu-Gi-Oh! 10 Anime Card Mistakes That Are Too Funny

No other anime ignores its own card games' rules as much as the original Yu-Gi-Oh! does, which led to some undying laughs.

Based on the popular children’s card game, the famous Yu-Gi-Oh! anime unsurprisingly focuses on card games. The anime was made to help promote the brand and sell cards, which it does well even today.

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But as fans began to understand the mechanics and built powerful decks, they realized just how wrong the original anime’s duels were. This wasn’t a controversy, though; in fact, these wildly inaccurate and over-the-top duels become a goldmine of memes and timeless punchlines.

10. Toon World Is Unfair

With Toon World activated, Maximillion Pegasus is untouchable. The card transforms his Monsters into Toons that can’t be destroyed by non-Toon means and also get cartoon-based abilities, such as comically dodging attacks Bugs Bunny-style. Toons can hide in Toon World to avoid damage and according to Pegasus himself, Toon World can’t be easily destroyed.

In reality, Toon World’s only effect is that it costs 1,000 LP to use and allows the user to summon Toon Monsters. On top of that, Toon World is just a regular Spell Card that can be destroyed by literally any anti-Spell effect.

9. Mystical Elf Prays For ATK Points

During that time Yugi fought Ghost Kaiba/The Mimic for the fate of the real Kaiba’s soul, both duelists have a Blue-Eyes White Dragon on their fields. The dragons are evenly matched with 3,000 ATK each but luckily, Yugi summons Mystical Elf, who prays for Yugi’s dragon to get an extra 800 ATK points to win.

This is both wrong and impossible because Mystical Elf is a Normal Monster. Not only that but the other Mystical Elf card – Gift of the Mystical Elf, a Trap card – aids user’s Life Points, not their Monster’s ATK. Mystical Elf has no inherent ability to increase anyone’s attack points, nor can a card pray for another in an actual duel.

8. The Impenetrable Kuriboh Wall

One of Yugi’s signature strategies is Multiply, which allows him to summon several thousands of Kuribohs that can absorb all incoming attacks. This technique got Yugi out of countless nail-biters and taught audiences a valuable lesson about not underestimating seemingly weak but determined people, like the unassumingly cute Kuriboh.

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The actual Multiply isn’t this powerful or saccharine, only allowing users to summon a couple of Kuriboh Tokens in exchange for the user’s Kuriboh. At best, the Kuriboh Tokens can beef up the user’s defense for a bit but Yugi’s wall of Kuribohs nullifies everything in its way, unfairly keeping him safe from literally any attack.

7. Giant Soldier Of Stone Attacks The Moon

Yugi accidentally plays into Mako Tsunami’s trap when he activates Full Moon, which inadvertently strengthens Mako’s Umi (a water-themed card) Field Bonus. Umi takes up more land each turn, gradually shrinking Yugi’s field and options. Yugi smartly remedies this by having Giant Soldier Of Stone kill his moon, which literally turns the tide as Mako’s Monsters get beached because real-world weather conditions apply to AR card games.

This is riddled with errors, like Full Moon acting like a broad Spell card rather than a Beast-Warrior Equip, plus everything about Field Bonuses that gives one player an unfair advantage. Most importantly, Giant Soldier Of Stone is a Normal Monster that can’t attack Magic cards or celestial bodies. This ridiculously amazing moment has been immortalized in the Spell card Attack The Moon.

6. Mai’s Harpie Strategy Is Inaccurate & Secretly Overpowered

Mai is known for her Harpie deck that’s not only filled with Harpie Ladies but for losing nearly every duel she’s in. Not only are the effects of her cards wrong, but she’s unfairly destined to lose despite having a deck that, by the anime’s logic, should be immensely powerful.

Mai’s signature attack involves the Harpie Lady Sisters, the result of one Harpie Lady being tripled by the Spell card Elegant Egotist. The real Egotist can summon the Sisters, but they’re a singular card with a decent if not spectacular 1,950 ATK/2,100 DEF. That said, Mai’s anime deck is designed for overwhelming opponents. Logically, Mai should’ve won many of her on-screen duels in the first few turns but instead, she suffers humiliating defeats or forfeits too soon.

5. Yugi Summons Dark Magician Girl By Cheating

In a duel straight out of Saw, Yugi debuts Dark Magician Girl by following the conditions set by the Spell card Dark Magic Curtain. Thing is, Yugi didn’t activate the card; his opponent Arkana did.

Dark Magic Curtain allows the user to pay half their current LP to Special Summon any “Dark Magician” Monster from their deck, but it only applies to its player. Yugi never has his own Curtain, instead (somehow) hijacking Arkana’s, claiming the effect applies to both players when the card’s text says no such thing. How he did this is never properly explained, making this one of the original anime’s most laughably awesome rule-breaking moments.

4. Whatever Makiu, The Magical Mist Does

The real Makiu is a situational card that can only be used on either Summoned Skull or any Thunder-Type Monster. Makiu destroys all the opponent’s Monsters with a DEF lesser or equal to the chosen Monster’s ATK. Meanwhile, Yugi uses it to get out of plot corners.

In Yugi’s duel with Joey, he uses Makiu to repel Thousand Dragon’s attack. More egregious was Yugi using Makiu like a literal storm to wash the poison made by Weevil Underwood’s Great Moth and make it vulnerable to Summoned Skull’s lightning. Later, Makiu’s rain rusts Bandit Keith’s Machine-Types, obviously lowering their ATK and DEF. Not helping is Makiu’s anime-only text, which vaguely proclaims that “Better electrical conductivity boosts ATK by 30%!!”

3. Time Wizard Literally Controls Time

The real Time Wizard is risky to play since it can wipe out all of an opponent’s Monsters or do the same to its user via coin toss. The first time Joey uses it to age Rex Raptor’s Red-Eyes Black Dragon into dust isn’t too inaccurate, as it’s more a cool visualization of its effect. Its returns are another matter.

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When Joey successfully calls Time Wizard’s roulette (the anime’s coin toss), it ages all monsters present. Joey’s Baby Dragon turns into Thousand Year Dragon, while Yugi’s Dark Magician and Mai’s Harpie Lady Sisters weaken as they turn elderly. Yugi somehow wins his duel, saying Time Wizard’s powers aged Dark Magician into an elderly and wiser spellcaster because Joey’s silly clock card can alter time itself. First of all, Thousand Dragon is a Fusion of Baby Dragon and Time Wizard, not the result of Wizard’s effect. Next, Dark Sage has to be Special Summoned and can’t evolve on the spot like a Pokémon. Lastly, Time Wizard’s newfound ability is absolute nonsense.

2. Everything In The PaniK Duel

PaniK, a player who probably killed his defeated opponents, has cards that really exist but their anime-only effects are beyond preposterous. With Castle of Dark Illusions, his Monsters can hide in the darkness and avoid damage. The real Castle only boosts Zombie-Types’ ATK points, not give users a fog of war.

Yugi’s crazy duel with PaniK ends when Yugi uses Catapult Turtle (whose real effect attacks opponent’s life points) to literally fire Gaia the Dragon Champion at the Castle. This doesn’t just kill the Castle but it kills PaniK’s other Monsters during its fall, crushing them because they’re trapped in his Chaos Shield. In reality, Shield gives Monsters an extra 300 DEF, not set up an inescapable wall. Of course, PaniK reacts to this loss rationally by trying to set Yugi on fire.

1. Labyrinth Wall Creates A New Game

Where the previous examples center on cards that slightly skew the rules, the Paradox Brothers took this rule-skewing to a new level. With Labyrinth Wall, they reshaped the tag-team card battle with Yugi and Joey into a board game. The brothers scour the maze to build their powerful Monster, Gate Guardian, while Yugi and Joey search for a way out with their Monsters as avatars.

In reality, the Labyrinth cards are barely powerful. Labyrinth Wall is a Normal Monster with 0 ATK/3,000 DEF, but that’s it. It’s arguably more useful with the Equip Spell Magical Labyrinth, which summons Wall Shadow (1,600 ATK/3,000 ATK) by using Labyrinth Wall as a tribute. None of these say anything about throwing the current card game in favor of a board game/scavenger hunt.

Source: CBR.com