The duel draws towards a conclusion, as Yami Malik continues his strategy of targeting the weakest duelist. Which in this case, is Joey. Joey springs a trap on Yami Malik's monster, only for Kaiba to intervene and undo Joey's counter by using one of his cards to weaken Joey's monster, enabling Yami Malik to destroy it. Finally, Joey attacks Kaiba's monster, only for Kaiba to activate a card combo that would finish him off. Joey however counters with one of Yami Malik's own cards, grabbed via another trap, that redirects the damage to him, finishing him off. Kaiba finishes the duel by direct attacking Joey and bringing his life points to 0, thereby not only pairing himself with Yugi, but also pitting Yami Malik against Joey, who intends to beat him to save Mai.
This episode provides examples of:
- Batman Gambit: Joey attacks Kaiba, rather than Marik to force Kaiba into activating his trap card, which he can counter with Graverobber, causing Marik to lose, but leaving Joey defenceless and Kaiba able to easily finish him off... Allowing Joey to face Marik in the semi-finals; exactly as he desires.
- The Dog Bites Back: Minor example, but Joey gets a little payback on Yami Marik by pulling Spell of Pain via Graverobber, reducing him to 0.
- Hypocrite: For all of Kaiba's rantings on Joey not being able to hold his own, he just seems to be looking for excuses to troll him when he interferes with one of Joey's valid counters against Yami Marik (see Playing Both Sides).
- Playing Both Sides: After Joey activates Skull Dice to reduce the attack of Yami Marik's monster as it goes for the kill, Kaiba interferes by playing Shrink and enabling Yami Malik to destroy Joey's monster.
