What An Idiot / Yu-Gi-Oh!

Being a franchise where Duels Decide Everything, the moves of the combatants in Yu-Gi-Oh! are at their most impressive when played through wits and synergy. At the same time, that means that it's all too easy to see a duelist make an illogical move or play the wrong card.

General (Also applies to every other card game anime in general.)

• Anytime a bad guy(s) or security cornered a hero that has no way of defending themselves, the bad guy can take anything the hero has to offer.
  You'd Expect: For the bad guy to just kick the crap out of the hero without challenging them to a children's card game, taking whatever items or possessions that they may have.
  Instead: For some reason, they decide to do it only if they won the duel in spite of the fact they don't even need to do that. Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged sums up the entire idiocy:
  Seeker: We are the elite group known as Rare Hunters. My name is Steve. And these are my associates. They are also called Steve. We're here to take your rarest card!
  Joey: You mean you're gonna kick the crap out of me and steal it?
  Seeker: No! First we're going to challenge you to a children's card game! Then we will kick the crap out of you and steal it!
  Joey: Wouldn't it be much easier just to skip the first step?
  Seeker: Yes! Yes it would!
• Ostensibly, all the cards in this card game have writing on them which describes their effects, though there are exceptions (the Winged Dragon of Ra, for instance).
  You'd Expect: As often as any duelist encounters an unfamiliar card, they'd give it a quick read so they'd know what it does. Admittedly, with duel disks they are playing an unreasonable distance apart, but that would just make doing so slightly more awkward. This is especially bad in VRAINS, because the holographic interface on the duel disk is shown to magnify card text and other attributes when the duelist wants to do so.
  Instead: Countless times duelists will be surprised by a card effect they could have simply read themselves before acting rashly, because the plot needs drama. Or, to quote the abridged series again.
  Duke: Oh, man, I have no idea what that card does.
  Rebecca: If only there was some way to find out.
  Duke: Yeah, like asking what it does.
  Rebecca: But we can't do that. That would be rude!
  Duke: I guess we'll never know.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Season Zero

• A runaway felon has escaped jail and death row with a gun. He believes it was his lucky day due to his horoscope and being born under a lucky star. By weird chance, he ends up at Burgerpalooza and realizes that he's hungry but has no money.
  You'd Expect: He would dine and dash. At a fast-food place, the burden would fall on the waitress if he runs off. It also would mean he has a means of escaping rather than cornering himself.
  Instead: He takes the waitress greeting him hostage, to extort a meal out of the place and forces everyone on the ground while he sits and gets a leisurely lunch. This hostage happens to be Anzu, and coincidentally Jounouchi and Yugi followed her on this day.
  The Result: The felon basically lost the minute he tried hurting Anzu. Even if Yami Yugi hadn't taken over and immobilized him with a Shadow Game — putting a cigarette lighter on his hand while the man is pouring vodka and pointing a gun at him, thus ensuring he will blow himself up if he tries shooting anyone— he was cornered in a relatively small fast-food establishment. If someone had the 1990s brick of a cellphone and the sense to call emergency services, likely there would have been heavily armed policemen and a negotiator. Not to mention that Jounouchi is prepared to jump the guy and would have if he weren't blocked by several scared patrons.
• Manga only. Ms. Chono is a Sadist Teacher with a reputation of expelling students For the Evulz and finding the pettiest infractions as excuses to kick them out of school. Anzu warns Miho not to get taken in by her pretty looks in the anime; Chono wants to make the rules even stricter so students can't even have personal items. On one day where she had a bad date, Ms. Chono decides to investigate everyone's desks as an excuse to expel someone. This leads to her finding a present inside Miho's desk. Immediately, three boys stand up to claim they are responsible: Yugi, who wrote the message included in the present; Jounouchi, who slipped the present into Miho's desk, and Honda, who says that he is the one who has feelings for Miho. None of them are lying and are prepared to face her wrath.
  You'd Expect: Ms. Chono would not quibble over who actually did it. She could expel all of them and make an example of them. Yami Yugi doesn't come out at this juncture and would probably accept this as a violation of the rules.
  Instead: She gives an Evil Laugh and says she'll complete the puzzle. The message will reveal the original sender.
  The Result: Everyone is staring daggers at her, and Yami Yugi emerges. In the manga, he doesn't think she's worthy of challenging to a Shadow Game and just makes the puzzle one, which removes her makeup as soon as she put the last piece in, so that everyone sees her true face.
• Anime only. In this version, another classmate is the one who asks for Anzu and Yugi's help to deliver a present to Jounouchi. He does so and promises to take his friend to the roof to open it and work on the puzzle inside in private. Jounouchi arrives late and notices the present while getting his textbook.
  You'd Expect: Jounouchi is naive but not stupid. He knows that Ms. Chono is a stickler for rules and has just introduced a ban on students' personal items. Leave the present inside his desk and take out the textbook, or examine it subtly.
  Instead: Jounouchi takes it out and makes a display of looking at it. The girls and Yugi go Mass "Oh, Crap!" with them muttering for him to hide it.
  The Result: Ms. Chono confiscates it, tears open the box, and puts together the puzzle, reading out the confession. While everyone laughs, Anzu stands up, shouts, You Leave Him Alone! and goes Taking the Heat that she wrote it. While this eventually leads to her challenging the unfair rules directly, Chono hires student thugs to beat up Anzu by erasing their school misdemeanors in exchange for cooperation. This motivates Yami Yugi to come out and destroy the teacher's face, revealing her ugly soul after beating her in a Shadow Game.
• Said Shadow Game is pretty simple, if dangerous. Yami Yugi shatters two mirrors and gives Ms. Chono gloves and a blindfold. They have to put together the mirror shards like a puzzle by touch and instinct only, and the first person to finish wins. He warns her to be careful, in Sincerity Mode, to play by the rules and wear the gloves. Ms. Chono has already noted that Yugi is acting oddly from the mild-mannered student she knows and only agrees to play because he threatens to tell the advisory council that she's been coercing students to do her bidding in exchange for erasing their disciplinary records. She can't resist a chance to win and buy his silence.
  You'd Expect: Ms. Chono would play by the rules, if for no other reason than the fact that she's already good at jigsaw puzzles. Yami Yugi is good at navigating while blindfolded but he's working at a slow, steady pace. Plus, this is odd behavior from a student that has never given her trouble.
  Instead: She takes off the blindfold to finish first.
  The Result: Yami Yugi then casually reveals that she broke the rules in a Shadow Game, and as a penalty, everyone will see her true face. He says that she subjects students like Anzu to unfair rules but doesn't hold herself to the same standards, and she couldn't even follow some simple instructions in a challenge that a child could complete. Her makeup crumples off her face, showing a withered one, and she runs off. The next day reveals that her power over the school is broken, as she spends all her time in the bathroom fixing her constantly chipping makeup, leaving the vice-principal that she was bullying confused, and the other teachers commenting on her vanity.
• Mokuba is more of an Enfante Terrible in the manga rather than the well-meaning Big Brother Worship Badass Adorable he would become. When he and Yugi seem to bond over purchasing Pocket Monsters for use in battle, he orders a group of ruffians to hold Yugi at gunpoint and kidnap him. Only then does he reveal that Kaiba is his big brother, and Mokuba wants revenge for Yami Yugi humiliating Seto Kaiba for trying to steal his grandfather's Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Yugi is understandably confused and scared because of his Alternate Identity Amnesia and that he's got six guns pointed at him. It turns out word has gotten around that another Yugi takes over the Nice Guy, and Mokuba is aware of it, as well as the Shadow Game penalties.
  You'd Expect: He'd make his revenge quick and dirty, for Combat Pragmatist reasons.
  Instead: He deliberately goads for Yami Yugi to come out by challenging Yugi to a Pocket Monsters game. Yugi can only walk away free if he beats Mokuba in a fair fight. Then Mokuba waits for Yami Yugi to help out, reassuring one of his concerned thugs that his brother told him this happens with "another Yugi" coming out to play games.
  Predictably: Yami Yugi beats him in a game of Pocket Monsters by sacrificing all his monsters.
  Fortunately: The penalty is temporary because Yami Yugi Wouldn't Hurt a Child; he subjects Mokuba to brief hallucinations that wear off the next time they meet.

Duel Monsters

• In the start of the very first Arc, Yugi is approached by Insector Haga/Weevil Underwood, who asks to see his Exodia Cards. Exodia is an Instant Win set of cards that allows anyone who has all five cards in their hand to automatically win the duel. Yugi is about to play in a tournament against Haga/Weevil, and the Exodia Cards would be a massive threat to any competitors he went up against
  You'd Expect: That Yugi would refuse his request, or if he did allow Haga/Weevil to see them, he wouldn't allow the cards to leave his hand for any reason whatsoever.
  Instead: Yugi just hands him the cards without hesitation.
  Result: Haga/Weevil throws the cards over the deck of the cruise ship, ensuring that Yugi cannot use his extremely powerful Ace Cards.
• Before the first duel between Joey and Rex, Joey gets teased by his friends for his dueling skills and then accepts Mai's challenge to duel Rex without Yugi's help in order to prove himself while risking his star chips.
  You'd Expect: That Joey's friends would realize that their teasing is what's pushing Joey into accepting Mai's challenge in order to prove himself, and they would try to change his mind by apologizing to him so he doesn't risk his only chance of helping his sister Serenity.
  Instead: They don't apologize and Tristan continues to insult Joey by calling him a baby, causing Joey to lose his temper and punch Tristan while still accepting Mai's challenge, and then Tristan ditches Joey and still refuses to apologize.
• Before Yami Yugi's first duel against the "Evil Spirit of the Ring" possessing Ryou Bakura, the Spirit imprisons the souls of Yugi's friends within their favourite cards. During the duel, Yami Bakura uses Morphing Jar to force both players to discard their entire hands and draw 5 cards, putting pressure on Yami Yugi to Summon the monsters containing his friends' souls lest they be sent to the Graveyard. Meanwhile, Yami Bakura has prepared a Trap Card, Just Desserts, to inflict 500 damage for each monster on Yami Yugi's field.
  You'd Expect: Yami Bakura to wait until Yami Yugi has Summoned all four monsters containing his friends' souls before activating Just Desserts. Since players began with 2,000 Life Points at this point instead of the later 4,000, doing so would bring Yami Yugi's Life Points down to 0 in one fell swoop, One-Turn Killing him.
  Instead: For no good reason, Yami Bakura activates Just Desserts prematurely — when Yami Yugi has only Summoned three of the monsters containing his friends' souls — leaving Yami Yugi hanging on with 500 Life Points. Maybe Yami Bakura wanted to extend Yami Yugi's suffering (which would be entirely in-character for him), but it's still impractical.
  As A Result: Yami Yugi eventually finishes off Yami Bakura — for the time being, of course.
• The first ever duel between Joey and Kaiba takes place at Duelist Kingdom. It's the first ever duel using the newest technology created by Kaiba Corp: essentially a prototype for the DUEL DISK SYSTEEEEEEEM!™ Early on into the fight, Kaiba summons Battle Ox which utterly destroys Joey's Armored Lizard and Flame Swordsman, and then fuses with Kaiba's Mystic Horseman to become the much stronger Rabid Horseman. At this point, it can easily destroy any monster in Joey's hand.
  You'd Expect: Joey would simply put monsters in defense mode, or if he doesn't know how on the new system, ask Kaiba how to do it. In case you didn't know, a monster in defense that's destroyed in battle deals no damage to the player's life points (with a handful of monsters having an aversion to this being their effect). It's been used before and after this duel.
  Instead: Joey keeps summoning them in attack mode. The monsters don't have HP like an RPG or anything, so attacking a stronger monster does nothing but cost yourself life points. Back when this duel took place, the rules were sort of different in a way that would have given Joey an advantage. There was no attacking directly, you could only attack as many times as there were monsters to hit. Joey could have simply put his cards on defense until he drew something strong enough to do something. Had Joey dueled correctly using the rules at the time, he likely would have only taken a total of 800 LP, out of a total (at the time) 2000. It would have kept going, but the idiot move was treated like Kaiba was genuinely skilled. By the time Joey summoned his Red-Eyes Black Dragon, it was too little too late as Kaiba draws his Blue-Eyes and destroys it.
• During Yami Yugi and Kaiba's duel in Duelist Kingdom, Kaiba manages to summon Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, but it gets countered by Yami Yugi using the Mammoth Graveyard + Living Arrow + Polymerization combo, making his Ultimate Dragon slowly get weaker with each turn. This duel — at least in the manga — has special rules^note which can be summarized as the player only being able to keep 5 cards in play at all times, with a main monster who acts as the battler, the other 4 cards powering up your main attacker as much as possible, and only drawing cards if your 5-card number decreases. Since Kaiba controls the 3 polymerised Blue-Eyes + the Polymerization card and one extra trap, he can't draw any cards. Celtic Guardian is about to attack one of Ultimate's three heads. Said extra trap that Kaiba controls is a Negate Attack, which he even specified was unable to counter the Living Arrow + Mammoth Graveyard combo.
  You'd Expect: For Kaiba to use Negate Attack against Celtic Guardian. This way he can draw something else in his draw phase and at least attempt to get out of this situation.
  Instead: Kaiba freezes in the spot and takes Celtic Guardian's attack. He then threatens Yugi with suicide if he loses all his life points. He draws Monster Reborn and revives one of Ultimate's heads, but since special summoned monsters can't attack the turn they are summoned, he needs to stall out one extra turn.
  Even worse: Kaiba could have used the Negate Attack when Yugi attempted an attack on his next turn. This way, he gets three fresh cards to try and formulate a plan to win. He had no need to go all histrionic on Yugi's face, and humiliate himself by threatening something so low.
• Bandit Keith is shown to have a knife (manga)/gun (anime) that he used to threaten Pegasus for his prize money.
  You'd Expect: That he would use it earlier, when Joey has just defeated Bonz where he threatens him and his friends for his star-chips. Or better yet, he could use it earlier to extort as many hapless duelists as possible, potentially enough to get all four of his gang to the Duelist Kingdom finals and would purposely stage it so that he gets to duel Pegasus. If he (predictably) loses, then he would have all his gang subdue Pegasus, extorting him for the money and humiliating him at the same time.
  Instead: He doesn't think of doing any of this and by the time he threatens Pegasus, he falls down a trapdoor and dies/sinks into the ocean, making his entire ploy to defeat Pegasus pointless.
• Anime only. After Yugi wins the Duelist Kingdom tournament, he arrives back home in Domino City, relieved his grandfather is alive. A girl named Rebecca accosts him, accusing his grandfather of having stolen a Blue-Eyes White Dragon Card from her grandfather. This is news to everyone, and it takes a bit of recollection for Yugi's grandfather to remember the exact circumstances.
  You'd Expect: Everyone to tell Rebecca that the issue is that Seto Kaiba stole and tore up the card in question. Sure, she isn't reasonable about it when Yugi later forfeits and has to reveal the card is useless, but at least they could avoid the misunderstanding.
  Instead: They freeze up because she keeps browbeating Yugi for something he didn't even do, and challenges him to a duel to fight for the card. Yugi decides to humor her and asks Mokuba if they can use one of the dueling platforms. He doesn't bother summoning Yami Yugi, which shows how low-stakes this is.
  The Result: Rebecca finds out that her vengeance duel was All for Nothing. Her grandfather Professor Hopkins appears when Yugi forfeits the fuel, greets Yugi's grandfather warmly, and reveals what actually happened: he and Yugi's grandfather were trapped in a collapsed pyramid passageway, and they played Duel Monsters for the last sip of water. Yugi's grandfather ended up surrendering despite having an easy win because Professor Hopkins collapsed, and Yugi's grandfather felt that he needed the water more. When they were rescued, Professor Hopkins gifted the card because he owed the other man his life. Rebecca herself looks sheepish when Professor Hopkins chides her for not trying to figure out the full story.  
• During the Battle City tournament, Kaiba has invented a new rule that disallows Fusion Monsters to attack during the turn they are summoned (keep in mind that at this point, you can only fuse based on the monsters you control).
  You'd Expect: For the duelists to simply attack the player with all their remaining monsters before they fuse in the Main Phase 2.
  Instead: They fuse with the monsters first before they even attack and without even using Quick Attack. This results in most duelists throwing the game when they could just attack first and fuse later.
• Speaking of Battle City, a powerful card that was used several times in the story was Exchange. This is a card that allows the players to take one card from each other's hands. When used correctly, it can easily cripple the opponent.
  You'd Expect: For the one who is playing it to set all their powerful cards facedown or use them first before playing it and leaving only weak or useless cards for the opponent to take.
  Instead: They always leave behind a powerful staple card for their opponent to take. This makes it such that it becomes a case of Discard and Draw, where even though they lose a powerful card, they just get another equally powerful card in return, making the whole thing near pointless.
• During the battle between Yami and Strings (who's being controlled by Marik), Strings manages to drain Yami's only monster on the field, Big Shield Gardna, to 600 DEF and has two monsters on the field, Slifer the Sky Dragon and Revival Jam.
  You'd Expect: That Strings/Marik would switch Revival Jam to attack position. Since it has 1500 ATK, it can destroy the weakened Big Shield Gardna. After that, Slifer the Sky Dragon can finish Yami off.
  Instead: He only attacks Big Shield Gardna using Slifer the Sky Dragon and doesn't even bother attacking using Revival Jam. This allows Yami one more turn and as a result, he makes a comeback and wins the duel.
  • On the subject, Marik/Strings has set up a field where he has infinite hand size to fuel Slifer's ATK power, draws three cards whenever a monster revives, Slifer destroys or depowers any monster Yami summons, and has Revival Jam intercept all attacks and immediately revive, tying back into his draw ability.
    You'd Expect: After reaching a comfortable hand size so Slifer could one-shot Yami with any attack, he'd use the extra cards to wipe out Yami's defenses and end the duel quicker.
    Instead: He relies solely on the power of Slifer, boosting its ATK to completely unnecessary levels just to brag about how unbeatable it is, and stops playing any more cards altogether. This lets Yami stall until he can draw something to turn the game around, costing Marik one of the god cards.^note This is more justified in the manga, where only 5 cards maximum could be under a Duelist's control at a time, but it still counts as it instead begs the question of why he wasted a slot on Infinite Cards instead of something that could wipe out Yugi's defenses or give Slifer piercing damage.
• Yami has Slifer summoned and ready to deliver the finishing blow against Yami Bakura, who then reveals his trump card: Relinquishing control of his host, resulting in Bakura being left confused, scared, and injured. Yami refuses to attack, worried that he may hurt Bakura even further, risking disqualification via forfeit. Yami Bakura and Marik watch on.
  You'd Expect: Marik to just sit back and wait until Yugi is eventually disqualified. Both he and Yami Bakura even state that Yugi would never attack a defenseless opponent.
  Instead: He casually brings up the possibility of Yugi attacking anyway. This causes Yami Bakura, who is not willing to take any chances and still needs his host alive, to retake control and tells Yami to attack him, thus basically giving him the win.
• Upon the protagonists figuring out that Odion isn't really Marik, the real Marik considers having Odion use a fake god card to cover up his identity.
  You'd Expect: Since Joey is about to lose in one attack by Serket, for him to decide against it and let Odion finish him off. Not only will he have another ally he can bank on but if he keeps acting innocent, then not only will the heroes keep guessing on who the real Marik is, but even better, assume that he just fled from Battle City.
  Instead: He orders Odion to use the fake Ra, which not only causes Joey to win a duel that he shouldn't have but also allows Marik's Superpowered Evil Side to appear and cause more havoc than his original self.
• Yami Marik enters Odion's room to send Odion to the Shadow Realm (or kill him in the original). Odion is in a coma and therefore completely helpless. Right when Yami Marik is holding the Millennium Rod above Odion, he is told through a monitor that all duelists are to be present for the next duel announcement.
  You'd Expect: For Yami Marik to simply cast his magic or even better, do the very simple 1-second task of lowering his arm to kill Odion.
  Instead: He spares him and leaves.
  Result: Later during Yugi's duel with Yami Marik, Odion wakes up at the last second and manages to free Marik's good side, giving Yugi the win. The abridged series joked about this as well:
  Melvin: Oh no, I'm late for a children's card game. This somehow prevents me from simply lowering my arm and murdering you. Punctuality, my Achilles' Heel.
  • What Yami Marik does before the message on the monitor is broadcast is in-character, but impractical.
    You'd Expect: For Yami Marik to kill Odion in five-seconds flat, without wasting time with Evil Gloating. It's not like Odion would be able to hear him; he's literally in a coma, so delivering a taunting speech before killing him is completely pointless.
    Instead: Being a psychopathic sadist who cannot resist the opportunity to relish in another's suffering, he does exactly that.
    Result: He wastes time and the above scenario happens.
• During the last segment of the duel against Yami Marik, Mai has taken The Winged Dragon of Ra from Marik's deck, currently has a Cyber Harpie Lady on the field and she is also capable of multiplying them into 3 using Elegant Egotist. Marik on the other hand, only has 1 monster in face-up attack position and 1000 life points, leaving him open for a direct attack for game. At this point, Mai is tempted to use The Winged Dragon of Ra.
  You'd Expect: For her to just attack Marik's Holding Arms with Cyber Harpie Lady and win the match. If she was concerned about Holding Arm's effect, she could've also summoned Amazon Fighter back to the field, since Rescue Operation is a Special Summon, and used Amazon Fighter on Holding Legs while Cyber Harpie Lady could attack and defeat Marik. After all, Mai is in a winning position as it stands, having already taken the god card from Marik, and would win the card permanently by winning the duel, at which point she could figure out the rest of how it works at her leisure with nothing at risk by having a friendly duel with Joey or Yugi.
  Instead: She decides to Tribute Summon Ra. Ra remains in Sphere mode because she can't read the incantation on the card, allowing Marik to take control of Ra from her simply by reciting it himself, not only costing Mai the match but also putting her life at risk.
  In Her Defence: Anyone that aren't the Tomb Keepers has no idea that Ra needs an incantation until Marik revealed this fact after Mai's screw-up. Obelisk and Silfer/Osiris didn't require any incantation when summoned, so there was no reason why Ra wouldn't work the same at that time. If she knew she needed a crash course in ancient Egyptian to play Ra, she would have just kept Ra and attacked with Cyber Harpie Lady.^note This is also an Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole from the manga, where Marik had way more Life Points at this point and Special Summoned monsters couldn't attack the turn they were summoned.
• Ishizu's explanation to Yugi about how Marik began his Start of Darkness ends with Marik's evil side awakening after his father brutalizes Rishid to unconsciousness for assisting Marik and Ishizu with leaving to explore the surface, thereby neglecting their duties as protectors of the Pharaoh's memories which their father believes is more important than the well-being of his children. Marik's evil side stabs the father with the Millennium Rod, but is sealed away once Rishid regains consciousness. As much of an Abusive Parent as Marik's father is, he is his father, and Marik is understandably distraught at seeing his bloodied corpse. Shadi, the mysterious spirit Guardian of the Millennium Items and a Seer who has foretold the Pharaoh's return to the living world, then arises from the corpse.
  You'd Expect: For Shadi to straight-up tell Marik that he has developed a Superpowered Evil Side from the pain of his father's abuse and that his evil side murdered his father. Unlike Rishid, Marik's adopted older brother who has sworn to protect Marik and who would be heartbroken to cause him more pain, Shadi has no such obligation to shield Marik from the truth.
  Instead: Shadi cryptically says, "The one who caused this destiny was the soul of the great Pharaoh. The Pharaoh will revive soon. Go search for the Pharaoh, Marik!"
  Result: Marik interprets this to mean that the Pharaoh murdered his father and becomes determined to kill the Pharaoh when he revives and free his family from their duty (enslavement from his view) as Tomb Guardians, kickstarting the conflict during the Battle City arc. You know, you could have avoided all of this, Shadi!
• An example of the Idiot Ball being dropped to keep consistent with the manga: in the middle of the ocean, the main characters' airship is attracted by a new villain totally out of the blue who demands that they defeat him in a virtual reality game thing (filler, anime-exclusive arc). They do it; but by doing so they left Evil Marik, the villain, unsupervised; and Odion/Rishid, the guy he's trying to kill, at his mercy. (He is currently in a coma and cannot defend himself.)
  You'd Expect: For Marik to find Odion on the ship and kill him, and, if Ishizu tried to protect him, kill her as well (seeing as she has no Millennium Item left to defend her at this point).
  Instead: He just sits and waits for God-knows-how-long, and near the end of the whole thing decides to leave the airship and destroy the Arc Villain's computers For the Evulz.
• Gozaburo Kaiba, Seto's Archnemesis Stepdad who has contributed much to Seto's own ruthless outlook on the world, is cunning, a powerful businessman... and a terrible Duelist. During his and Seto's final confrontation at the end of the Virtual World arc, Gozaburo's strategy is to get all five pieces of the Forbidden One i.e. Exodia in his Graveyard via Painful Choice, to Special Summon Exodia Necross (which, to his credit, he succeeds at). While the Forbidden One pieces remain in the Graveyard, this fearsome beast cannot be destroyed by battle, nor by Spell, Trap, or Monster effects, and it gains 1000 ATK after damage calculation with an opponent's monster. This creates a difficult situation even for Seto, who goes on the defensive but is nevertheless confident that Exodia Necross still has a weakness.
  You'd Expect: After Special Summoning Exodia Necross, Gozaburo would try using the other cards in his hand to dispatch Seto's defences and pave the way for Exodia Necross to obliterate him, similar to the aforementioned Marik/Strings example with Slifer.
  Furthermore, You'd Expect: Since Gozaburo himself explains that Exodia Necross derives its power from the Forbidden One pieces being in his Graveyard, he would have anticipated Seto having a card that removes monsters from the Graveyard and come prepared with a counter-strategy.
  Or: Cut out the middleman and just go for the automatic win via gathering all five Exodia pieces in his hand. It wouldn't be the first time Seto lost this way.
  Instead: Similar to the aforementioned Marik/Strings example with Slifer, Gozaburo relies entirely on the power of Exodia Necross, overconfident that its destruction-immunity powers means his victory is 100% guaranteed, and doesn't play a single other card for the rest of the Duel. Seto himself Lampshades what a simple-minded "strategy" this is, and despite Gozaburo himself explaining the source of Exodia Necross' powers, he is apparently unaware of the existence of Graveyard-removing cards as he is taken by surprise when Seto exploits this information and removes all the Forbidden One pieces from Gozaburo's Graveyard, reducing Exodia Necross' 5800 ATK to its original 1800 ATK and making a comeback to win the Duel.
• During Yami Yugi and Kaiba's duel in the Battle City semi-finals, Kaiba manages to Special Summon XYZ-Dragon Cannon (2800 ATK). Meanwhile, Yugi has two Defense Position monsters on his side of the field, Big Shield Gardna (2600 DEF) and Queen's Knight (1600 DEF).
  You'd Expect: For Kaiba to realise that if Yugi has Queen's Knight in his Deck, then there's a good chance he has King's Knight and Jack's Knight too, and probably has cards to help get King's Knight out easier as well. In case you don't know, King's Knight has the effect of Special Summoning Jack's Knight from the hand or Deck (hand-only in the OCG/TCG) if it's Summoned when Queen's Knight is already on the field, which would give Yugi the means to Tribute Summon his God Card, Osiris, which Kaiba knows is already in Yugi's hand due to trying to take it from his Deck with Lullaby of Obedience, only to be countered by Exchange. Therefore, it would be in Kaiba's best interest to use XYZ-Dragon Cannon to attack and destroy Queen's Knight. Kaiba has frequently demonstrated that he has high intelligence, so it should not be too difficult for him to foresee Yugi's plan.
  Instead: Kaiba impulsively attacks and destroys Big Shield Gardna.
  Result: Yugi activates Soul Rope^note A Trap Card that can be activated when a monster you control is destroyed, and Special Summons 1 Level 4 or lower monster from your hand or Deck at the cost of 1000 Life Points. to Special Summon King's Knight from his Deck, whose effect in turn Special Summons Jack's Knight, which allows Yugi to Tribute the three Poker Knights for Osiris, which he does promptly.
• In Season 4, Dartz's deck allows him to raise his life points to ridiculous levels in his duel against Kaiba and the Pharaoh, at one point rising as high as 20,000.
  You'd Expect: Dartz would take advantage of his hugely inflated life point count to defeat his opponents in a battle of attrition, such as by using cards that can inflict massive amounts of damage to all players simultaneously like Ring of Destruction or Dark Snake Syndrome. It's hard to believe a man with such a powerful deck couldn't get his hands on such cards.
  Instead: He summons Divine Serpent, a monster that requires him to pay all of his life points to summon it, with his new losing condition becoming its destruction, assuming that it is undefeatable just because it has infinite attack points.
  The Result: The Pharoah figures out a way to destroy the serpent, winning the duel and making all of Dartz's work to build up his life points completely pointless.
• The final duel of the KC Cup is here and we have just learned about Seigfried, a rival buisiness owner to Kaiba, being the brother of Leon, a talented duelist who has made it to the final fight against Yugi. Kaiba can't just opt to disqualify Leon as it would cause a PR problem. In the meantime, Seigfried has given Leon the Golden Castle of Stromberg, a card that Pegasus created but never actually finished, so Seigfried has made up his own rules and added them to the card data in the duel disk servers. Primarily, the card is indestructible and unaffected by card effects. In addition, as long as it is in play, it's erasing all the data on the Kaiba Corp. mainframe. However, as we learned from Seigfried's duel with Kaiba, he's not just a bad businessman, he's also a terrible duelist, and he's not even involved in the duel.
  You'd Expect: Regardless of whether or not Kaiba Corp. had a backup in case anything were to happen to their systems, which he should have known if you want to add that to his list of bad decisions, this is basically a stalling game so that the card would eat away at the data. Keeping that in mind, you would expect that he would design its effects so that it would stall the duel indefinitely, like making both players immune to all damage or something equally broken. It's not like the conditions have to be remotely fair; he's literally cheating. Furthermore, if he also wants to screw Yugi out of his title, he would give an unfair advantage to Leon.
  Instead: Seigfried programs it with two additional effects that run completely counter to the main reason he designed the card. First, the opponent has to discard half their deck as a maintenance cost. Second, monsters on the field are forced to battle. The first effect ensures that the opponent is going to deck out within five turns or less depending on how long the duel has been going. The latter makes it all the more likely one of the players will lose the duel through attrition if nothing else. Worse still, because the first effect is a maintenance cost, a.k.a. if the cost isn't paid the card is automatically destroyed, Yugi is able to destroy it simply by waiting until his deck is reduced to one card, which because of the way the cost is designed, was inevitable. In addition, due to the second effect, Leon is essentially locked out of his own duel, and by the time the card is destroyed, it's far too late to stage a comeback.
  Even Worse: If he really wanted it to be absolutely busted, he would have forced the cards out of play instead or supplemented a strategy to turn Leon's deck into a deck destruction style to win via deck out. Instead, Yugi manages to get his Dark Magician out of his graveyard and onto the field, giving Yugi the opening he needs, which wouldn't have happened had it not gotten discarded in the first place. Yes, Seigfried is so incompetent at the game, he managed to ruin Leon's duel by giving him one card.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

• During the duel between Jaden and Sartorius, Jaden manages to bring out Shining Flare Wingman on his second turn and, with one attack, manages to bring Sartorius down to 300 LP. Prior to this, he had also drawn Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird and Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin in his opening hand.
  You’d Expect: For Jaden to summon Aqua Dolphin in his main phase 2 and activate its effect^note He would be allowed to look at Sartorius’s hand, and if there’s a monster within that has less or equal attack than a monster Jaden controls, it would get destroyed and Sartorius would take 500 points of damage; unless Sartorius has drawn something like Arcana Force EX — The Light Ruler already, the best case scenario would be for there to be any other Arcana Force monster in his hand, thus letting Jaden win via an OTK and stop the former’s plot outright.
  Instead: He summons Air Hummingbird to buff his own points instead of wiping Sartorius’s out and saving the freaking world like he’s supposed to.
  Result: On his very next turn, Sartorius manages to draw his Light Barrier field spell^note Which basically allows him to choose what effects each Arcana Force monster receives and negate the effects of all of Jaden’s monsters, provided the card lands right-side up during each of the former’s standby phases, make one giant comeback, and keep Jaden on the defensive the entire duel, causing lots of tension that could’ve easily been avoided from the start.
• It's eventually made abundantly clear that the Big Bad of the third season is specifically targeting Jaden's friends and loved ones in order to inflict maximum pain on him, and will continue to target them as long as they're made a target for him/her/it.
  You'd Expect: Jaden's friends to agree to back off and not provide a target for the Big Bad, knowing he's The Ace and, with only himself going in to take care of the enemy, he has the best chance of doing so while cutting off the Bad's biggest advantage over him.
  Instead: They completely ignore his pleas to this fact, dive in with him, and fall victim to the Big Bad.
• Sure, Adrian, take on Yubel with the very cards they willingly gave up to you in favour of the Deck they're running now. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
  Result: He's destroyed in a duel that Yubel could have won twice over^note Once through Raviel's effect and once through Yubel's own. and only played out as long as it did because Yubel wanted to draw out Adrian's inner darkness and feed on it.
• In the manga, during Bastion's duel against Reggie, Bastion is able to summon Red Ogre on Reggie's turn, allowing him to destroy three cards on her side of the field. On her field are two monsters, a face-down card (which turns out to be Mirror Force) and Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen, a card that allows Reggie to Special Summon a Fairy monster from her hand or graveyard once per turn. In addition, Red Ogre has just enough ATK to bring Reggie's LP to 0 if it is able to get in a direct attack, while Bastion's LP are at 100.
  You'd Expect: Bastion to leave Valhalla on the field. Its effect had already been used during that turn, and it was the only card on the field that would be unable to protect Reggie from a direct attack.
  Instead: He destroys Valhalla, and instead decides to leave the face-down card on the field.
  As a Result: Reggie is placed in a position where she can easily win on her next turn by protecting herself with Mirror Force, summoning just about any monster and attacking for game. Luckily for Bastion, she decides to forfeit the duel instead.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's

• Yusei has faced off against Machine Emperor Wisel, a monster capable of absorbing Synchros. He defeated it with some trouble, but not before it briefly ate Stardust.
  You'd Expect: Yusei to realize that his Deck already has plenty of cards that can counter Wisel. He used Savior Star Dragon to defeat it, but even without relying on supernatural power, Junk Archer could banish Wisel and destroy its parts, Turret Warrior isn't a Synchro, and Turbo Warrior could ignore its effects and rip it apart at its leisure. Even then, he has plenty of Spells and Traps that shut it down, like Scrap-Iron Scarecrow or Panic Wave. The upgraded Wisel parts could handle a few of these strategies, but Yusei doesn't know about it. It's not like Synchros are the only worthwhile cards in-universe; plenty of Duelists don't use them significantly or at all. If Assault Modes exist in the anime canon (they do in an OVA), he could even try those out.
  Instead: He lives in complete fear of Wisel for about forty episodes, having nightmares about it and trying out terrible non-Synchro strategies before seizing on the idea of using the Fusion Draco-Equiste. When he finally goes in for Round 2 against Wisel, he tries neither of the above tactics (bar a single failed Scrap-Iron Scarecrow activation) nor Draco-Equiste, and only survives because of a literal Deus ex Machina handing him a super-card.
• Team 5Ds vs. Team Unicorn:
  • While watching Jack’s duel and monitoring his D-Wheel, Bruno notices that the vehicle has a serious problem with its air intake, and Yusei, citing safety, tells Jack to make a pit stop, though doing so will sacrifice some Speed Counters.
    You’d expect: Jack would make the pit stop. He knows Bruno and Yusei are monitoring his D-Wheel, and thus would notice any unforeseen problem. Racing is dangerous, so if your vehicle has a problem, you get it fixed. Sure, Jack is extremely proud, but if his pride caused him to ignore safety precautions, he'd no doubt have been seriously injured or even killed long before this, so his pride shouldn't prevent him from taking the pit stop.
    Instead: He quite rudely blows off the concern and keeps racing, so his bike eventually blows up, seriously injuring him and almost costing his team the Duel before his teammates can even participate.
  • Andore thrashes Jack and Aki, and does serious damage to Yusei before going down. Breo runs a mill deck, reducing Yusei's deck to 4 cards before going down. Jean finds himself in the position where ending his turn would have won him the duel, as Yusei has 0 cards left in his deck.
    You'd Expect: Him to actually, you know, do so.
    Instead: Yusei starts their duel by taunting Jean about winning using a cheap tactic, and though Jean knows he's being baited, he still decides he wants to win with honor or some tripe like that. So he attacks Yusei's monster, allowing Yusei to activate an effect that wins the duel for Team 5Ds.
  • On the subject, Breo is the Second Wheeler for Team Unicorn. Both his teammates play very aggressive, offensively-minded strategies that deplete the opponent's LP quickly.
    You'd Expect: Breo to play an aggressive Deck as well, to finish off opponents weakened by Andore's raw damage. Or, if the idea is to change things up to knock opponents off-guard, play some kind of stall/burn deck and ignore offense in favor of directly hitting the opponent's LP as much as possible. The effects of Speed World 2 means that even the resoundingly terrible decks of Team Taiyou can get pretty far by relying on burn damage.
    Instead: Breo plays a Mill Deck. Mill Decks are based around completely ignoring the opponent's LP. It's a good Mill Deck, but it also means that he'll effectively be fighting a fresh opponent, and that Jean's job isn't going to be made any easier.
    Result: Breo fails to deplete Yusei's remaining 2000 LP, inflicting minimal damage over the course of the Duel. As a result, Jean ends up fighting Yusei basically fresh — if anything, Breo helps Yusei by giving him a ton of Graveyard resources.
• Team 5Ds vs. Team Ragnarok. Harald has managed to assemble three Aesir monsters, which have absurd stats, can revive themselves when destroyed, and have their own effects. Yusei is barely managing to stall him out with Monster Chain.
  You'd Expect: Harald to wait for Monster Chain to expire, then use his three powerful Aesir to stomp Yusei into the dirt.
  Instead: He wrangles together multiple needlessly complicated plans, including activating Gjallarhorn to put his monsters on a three-turn countdown to inflict damage to Yusei equal to their combined ATK at the end of those turns, at the cost of also banishing them, using Odin's Eye to repeatedly check Yusei's facedowns at the cost of removing the ability of his Aesirs to become immune to facedowns, and summoning Fenrir and Jormungardr, effectively giving Yusei two free monsters in the hopes that their detrimental effects might hurt Yusei.
  Result: Every single one of his plans backfires in some capacity - Yusei uses the free monsters as fodder for his own cards, Odin's Eye gets redirected and its detrimental effects make his Aesir vulnerable, and Gjallarhorn's damage gets blocked, wrecking Harald's field for no gain.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal

• Yuma's quest is to find all the Number cards. These are very powerful Monster cards. Also, Yuma plays a Syllable Deck, revolving around level changing effects, that would allow Yuma to easily Xyz Summon monsters.
  You'd Expect: Yuma would take advantage of all the powerful monsters he finds. Even if he wants to keep Utopia around as his ace monster, he's never limited to having only one Xyz monster on the field.
  Instead: He usually tries to get Utopia out on the first turn, and then stops trying to Xyz Summon monsters altogether.
  Even Worse: Early on, he did use Leviathan Dragon and to a lesser extent, Terror-Byte, but after awhile, he just kept spamming Utopia.
  Result: Yuma tends to struggle against opponents more than he needs to, especially since many of these Numbers were ones he struggled against and now he can use the very cards that gave him difficulty against other opponents. Alito and Tetsuo have called him out for this, as did Astral early on, but the latter stopped for some reason and even went along with it against Number 96.
• Shark duels against Kaito to prevent the latter from getting to Yuma and Astral. Shark knows Kaito is a Number holder, and that Number cards can't be destroyed by non-Numbers, so he is prepared.
  You'd Expect: For Shark to try to summon Black Ray Lancer earlier. He earlier used this to defeat Yuma's Utopia, as well as Rikuo and Kaiou's Volcasaurus and Freezerdon, since it can negate effects, including those of Numbers that grant them immunity to non-Numbers.
  Instead: He tries to steal Kaito's Acid Golem of Destruction.
  Result: Acid Golem of Destruction's effect takes a huge chunk of Shark's Life Points due to its ability when it has no Overlay Units, and Shark loses the duel.
• Girag has come to Earth to claim Yuma's Numbers. At this point, Barians can't duel in their normal forms or use their signature Numbers due to the energy of Earth, so Girag uses Rank-Up-Magic Barian's Force to brainwash duelists into dueling Yuma for him.
  You'd Expect: For Girag to focus on powerful duelists. He does this at first, with Fuma, the tough leader of a gang, and Daisuke Katagiri, a professional Duelist, but later on...
  Instead: He just targets random students in Yuma's school.
  Result: Yuma and his friends dispatch them easily.
  Worse Yet: One of Girag's plans was to host a Sports Duel Tournament. He convinced Yuma to go along with this because the Numbers Club, specifically Kotori and Cathy, were in a fight. He told Yuma to lose on purpose to them to help them make up. Girag also pairs Yuma up with Shark so he can get his Numbers too.
  You'd Expect: For Yuma or Girag to inform Shark about this part of the plan.
  Instead: They leave him in the dark and he looks visibly bored throughout the tournament.
  Result: He leaves before the finals start, forcing Girag to fill in for him. Yuma still has in mind to lose the Duel on purpose, which could kill Girag (or send him back to Barian World and blow his cover in the English dub) due to the energy of Earth and the very card he armed Kotori with. Amongst all his moments of stupidity, Girag briefly grabs the Smart Ball and realizes as long as Kotori doesn't play Rank-Up-Magic Barian's Force, he'll still survive even if he loses, so he decides to destroy it before Kotori gets a chance to play it. To do this, he combos Spell Search (which lets Kotori draw Barian's Force) and Magic Hand (which can destroy what was just drawn). Yuma suggests Girag chain his (Yuma's) Memory Loss Trap Card.
  You'd Then Expect: Girag would remember that Yuma is still trying to lose on purpose, which is why he was so worried earlier, and not listen to him, continuing his plan to destroy Barian's Force.
  Or, Alternatively: Tell Yuma not to interfere and that he is trying to make this purposeful loss seem more convincing, because if they're too obvious with playing weak monsters in Attack Mode and the like, Kotori and Cathy might become suspicious and see through their plan. After all, he's just destroying a Spell Card that Yuma doesn't know is Barian's Force. It won't damage their Life Points anyway.
  Instead: He breaks the stupidity scale and just blindly lets Yuma chain his Trap Card.
  Result: Turns out Memory Loss negates the effect of a monster, therefore Kotori has Barian's Force in her hand ready to use it. Yuma even has to remind Girag he's still trying to lose on purpose.
  But The Worst Part Is: Whether Shark left or not, Girag should have known that Yuma would never lose on purpose to someone who played Barian's Force. Girag was never in any danger at all when he was forced to fill in for Shark.
• Yuma just found out that "Rei Shingetsu" is a Barian, and the latter warns the former not to tell Astral about it, saying it would put him in danger.
  You'd Expect: Yuma would ask Rei how knowing his secret would endanger him, as Barian energy can harm Astral and knowing that there is one among them could potentially save him from danger.
  Instead: Yuma just goes along with this and believes "Rei".
  Result: We find out later that Rei Shingetsu is actually Vector, and Astral grows to distrust Yuma for hiding the fact that Rei was a Barian all along, causing him to give into the darkness.
• Astral can be as much to blame for the above scenario. During Yuma's tag duel with Anna Kozuki against the Habara couple, he notices Yuma has Rank-Up-Magic Limited Barian's Force. He asks Yuma why he has that card, and the latter lies by saying he stole it from Girag.
  You'd Expect: Whether that was true or not, he would try to have a frank talk with Yuma about using Barian cards, due to how the energy knocked him (Astral) out during the duel against Girag and the beings of his world being harmed by Barian energy.
  Instead: Going off of the fact that that card helped them defeat the Habara couple, he just lets Yuma use it with only minor questioning of it and doesn't confront him about it again.
  Result: The above scene happens.
• In Yuma's duel against Vector, Yuma had one card left while Vector had Number 104: Masquerade on the field, with the ability to Mill one card from the top of Yuma's deck.
  You'd Expect: Vector to use this ability to Mill Yuma's last card, then simply pass. Yuma loses and Vector gains all the Numbers.
  Instead: Vector uses Rank-Up-Magic Barian's Force to summon Chaos Number 104: Umbral Horror Masquerade, a card with no such ability, which gives Yuma one more turn to defeat Vector... which he does.
  Worse Yet: This action also allowed Yuma and Astral to unlock ZEXAL II. Mizael and Durbe were not pleased.
• Mizael and Durbe themselves don't have much room to talk, as they were a part of Vector's plan after luring Shark and Kaito to Sargasso, so the two could duel with them.
  You'd Expect: Mizael and Durbe to continue to duel with them to carry on with the plan Vector painstakingly set up. (Especially Mizael, who was also motivated by proving he is the true Galaxy Eyes Master.)
  Instead: They basically pause their duels to watch Yuma and Vector duel.
  Result: The winners are undecided due to Sargasso collapsing from ZEXAL II, forcing everyone to flee, and Durbe and Mizael did absolutely nothing.
• After losing several friends to the Barians, Yuma and Astral head directly for Barian World to take on Don Thousand rather than fight the Barians separately.
  You'd Expect: Yuma's remaining friends not to get involved in this dangerous mission, seeing as they have nothing to protect themselves with.
  Or Even: Understandably, with Kaito, III, and V refusing to go to Barian World, they might think he feels lonely, so Cathy would be the best bet. She has cat powers to defend herself (though that element seemed to have been forgotten by this point) and is the best duelist of the remaining three.
  Instead: Cathy insists Kotori go with Yuma, saying that she (Cathy) would get in the way and Kotori would somehow be able to contribute more.
  Result: Alito ensnares Kotori in vines and uses her as bait to lure Yuma into a duel.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V

• Leo Akaba has raised Yuri to be a powerful duelist, but also caused him to turn into a ruthless Blood Knight, and since Yuri is one of 4 components of Zarc, who Leo has been trying to stop the whole time, having him wander around and dueling/defeating the other 3 parts of Zarc is a big no-no.
  You'd Expect: For Leo to card Yuri ASAP, and seal him away in a safe/vault that is locked in a way that only Leo Akaba can unlock. Even if Yuya, Yuto, and Yugo somehow merge, Zarc still can't return unless Leo releases Yuri, which won't happen.
  Or: If carding Yuri is too hard on him emotionally, to just give Yuri strict instructions to never leave the Fusion Dimension and keep an extremely close eye upon him - and if one of the other halves of Zarc just so happens to stumble into the Fusion Dimension, just have them carded ASAP and the card they are trapped in sealed away.
  Instead: Leo doesn't take any precautions against the possibility whatsoever. He puts a lot on Serena, instead, who, on top of not being a Blood Knight, doesn't have any chance of destroying the world.
  Result: Yuri ends up stumbling upon Yugo and defeats him, absorbing him and being one step closer to reviving Zarc...which he eventually does after dueling Yuya.
  • We're not done with Leo yet, because the whole plot is a one big What an Idiot! moment by Leo. But let's go into a specific moment, during Leo vs Yuya. So, Yuya (and Yuto) has gone full-on rage mode, has already nuked the field with Odd-Eyes Raging Dragon (the clearest sign that Yuya is about to teeter off the edge). Yuzu and Ruri, as well as Serena and Rin, begin to plead to the two to calm down and not give in to evil...and it's working.
    You'd Expect: For Leo to pick up on this and realize that these pieces of Zarc are being pacified by the girls, and it being clear that at least two of them are close and dear to the Zarc pieces before him. Never mind fully realize that maybe to go with that route instead, just realize that the girls are having an effect.
    Instead: Leo takes that lull to push the Arc-V machine that will further absorb the girls, not helped by getting a call from a staff member that they're good to go.
    Result: Yuya and Yuto are just driven further off the edge and the girls can't reach them anymore before they get absorbed into the machine, which just removes the second to the last pillar of Yuya's sanity.
• That likewise leads into a moment for Ray herself. At that point, she's at least able to manifest herself enough to communicate with the physical/living world, as shown by her ability to interact with Reira. She's at least aware of what's been happening the entire series via her fragments.
  You'd Expect: For her to fill what happened to her in the backstory, that her fragments, or at least 3 of them, had been planted next to their respective Zarc fragment to keep them in check and genuinely happy (Leo kept Yuri and Serena apart, and locked the latter away until prior to the beginning, compounding the previous What an Idiot! moment with Yuri).
  Instead: She actively bars Reiji from stopping Leo, convincing Reira that her revival is necessary.
  Result: Reira wastes time by dueling Reiji and gets beaten in the process. Leo continues on his plan, none the wiser on the necessity of leaving the girls alone and their pacifying effects on the Zarc fragments, her fragments effectively dying, and ultimately leading Zarc to be revived.
• During Yuya and Reiji's duel against Leo:
  • Yuya, having gone berserk, goes to finish Leo with a card that inflicts 1000 damage to everyone who took battle damage that turn, which includes Reiji due to one of Leo's cards.
    You'd Expect: Reiji to either go for an action card that could prevent the damage, as the Lancers are trained to do, or accept his loss as the price to pay for stopping The Professor, considering his philosphy up until that point.
    Instead: Reiji sits there and does nothing.
    As a Result: Yusho comes in and uses an illegal card to end the duel with no result. This ultimately results in Leo's plan up until that point effectively succeeding.
  • Yusho, witnessing Yuya about to beat Leo and Reiji, decides to intrude on the duel and activates an illegal card that forcibly ends the duel and restrains the player with Solid Vision even after the duel ends.
    You'd Expect: Yusho would use the card to restrain Leo, this way Leo can't sacrifice any of the Bracelet Girls, including Yuzu, in his ill-conceived attempt to revive Ray, and the duel would still be aborted, allowing him to try and talk Yuya down himself.
    Instead: He uses it on Yuya and pins him to a column, allowing Leo to flee while leaving Yuya struggling to free himself.
    As a Result: Leo is able to complete his attempts at sacrificing the Bracelet Girls yet still fails to revive Ray, while Yuya is left awakened as Yusho tries to hold off Yuri while simultaneously saving Yuya, only to fail and get carded.
• Kaito and Edo try to break up the duel between Yugo and Yuri who've both fully awoken. They primarily try to pull a I Know Your In There Somewhere Speech on Yugo.
  You'd Expect: Them to try and take out Yuri first, who's a proven psycho and who was on the defensive before they interfered. Especially since he's proven to be stronger then Yugo.
  Instead: They go after Yugo, who wastes most of his spell/traps and monsters fighting them off.
  As a Result: Yuri ends up defeating both of them with ease, as they used up most of their options on Yugo, then defeats and absorbs Yugo shortly afterwards. This pretty much directly paves the way for Zarc's revival.
• Yuri approaches Yuya after having absorbed Yugo with the intent of absorbing him too to reform Zarc, only for Yusho to stand in his way and demand a duel.
  You'd Expect: Yusho to consider the severity of the situation and forego fair play by using the illegal card again to restrain Yuri, if only to stall for time.
  Instead: He still tries to perform an Entertainment Duel in the hopes he can simultaneously talk down both Yuya and Yuri.
  As a Result: Yuri, caring little for Yusho's attempt, proceeds to decimate and card him, sending Yuya into a strong enough rage that he breaks free from the pillar, and the two of them proceed to duel, with the end result no matter who wins being Zarc's resurrection.