Confident and raring to go, Joey is eager to challenge anyone to a duel, no matter their experience. He soon learns to be careful what he wishes for as the beautiful Mai Valentine answers his challenge. Mai uses Harpie Lady cards, winged monsters that aren't strong at first but have a lot of equipment to make them a threat.
Mai also claims to be psychic and can read what cards she'll draw before drawing them, psyching Joey out and giving herself a serviceable lead. She uses Cyber Shield to increase her Harpie's power even more. Yugi tells Joey that there has to be some other method she's using to read her cards, and Serenity is counting on him to win. Joey closes his eyes... and realizes all her cards were soaked in perfume. Confidence restored, Joey plays Baby Dragon and ends his turn.
Mai isn't done yet, though, and is able to triple her Harpie with the power of Elegant Egotist. Joey feels helpless, but Yugi coaches him by noting a flaw in her strategy—the Harpies are probably the only monsters she has. Using Time Wizard's Time Roulette, Joey ages his Baby Dragon into a Thousand Dragon, severely aging and weakening the Harpies in the process. Joey defeats them all in one attack, winning one Star Chip and defeating Mai.
This episode contains examples of:
- Bowdlerization: Harpy Lady's skimpy outfit is replaced by a full-body jumpsuit, and the spikes on her equip armor are digitally removed.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Time Wizard's time-warping effect occurs immediately, instead of depending on a roulette spin.
- Joey's land-based monsters are unable to hit Mai's Harpies because they can fly, a mechanic which doesn't come up in any future duels.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Joey closes his eyes, he can start smelling different perfumes coming from Mai's deck and realizes that she marked her cards as part of her psychic act.
- I Shall Taunt You: Mai's psychic act causes Joey to make all kinds of bad moves.
- Phony Psychic: Mai pretends to be psychic to throw off Joey's game.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Joey scolds Mai for having selfish reasons to want to win.
