Was Yugi About To Defeat Yami? [Self Destruction] 

Oh, and whoever loses the duel, loses their soul!

I would like to point out that if yugi set sangan on the first turn, he could’ve searched berfomet, use poly on the next turn to make the king of mythical beasts, and use monster reborn, and tribute what he summons for dark magician girl. Puts him WAY farther ahead.

It would be funny if Yugi used Sangan to shuffle his deck, but then Yami used his own Sangan to shuffle his deck, and then their decks would be revealed to be shuffled the same way, so they still draw the same cards.

I feel like is someone was going to do the "Break the mirrored hands by shuffling deck" move they should have done it very near the end of the duel, as like a big "aha!" moment to solve the puzzle and win. Kinda a letdown to use that premise for all of ~3 turns before discarding it.

This is pretty standard for Yugi. In most duels where he is in control, he tends to value saving a life or teaching a lesson more than actually winning the duel. In fact, most of Yugi/Yami's official losses are because Yugi was in control and prioritized these things. Even in the final duel, its telling that Yami used Reborn to make a power play and Yugi used it to send a message

Even though I haven't played YGO in nearly 20 years, this "Was X About To Defeat Y?" series has been one of my favorite things on RU-vid. Keep up the great work, mate! First-time commenter, long-time watcher.

There is a difference between misplaying and throwing, this duel is pretty much ghost yugi throwing the game to slap sense back into Atem.

I honestly think that the main reason for this duel is for Yugi to teach Atem, not to defeat him. To help Atem take his first step to conquering his inner darkness. That's why I can forgive any misplays and accept that Yugi is trying to teach Atem with a specific strategy.

Waking the Dragons Arc duels are so amazing, especially this one. It was so much pressure for Yami, but very touching to overcome his heart of darkness problem all thanks to Ghost Yugi

In the wrong context and if you don't much about the anime, you're basically watching Yugi play with himself.

The thought of Catapult Turtle turning its turret around, jamming it into the ground, and self-yeeting at Atem is hilarious.

You know in Duel Links when you build the most overpowered deck possible, then you go up against a generic low level NPC, hit "auto-duel", and it loses in 3 turns?

I always found it so fascinating that the duel mirrored Atem's duel against Raphael in every way, but the Pharaoh couldn't see that until Yugi played the card. Even when he played Swords of Revealing Light to "try and talk some sense into Yugi" per his own words, he wasn't realizing what Yugi was trying to do; teach him a lesson. As he always preferred to do when dueling. It was never about winning for Yugi-it was about learning and teaching and just loving the game. I think this shows Atem's psychology as well; not just overall but in the moment. Which is something I don't think is often talked about enough in this arc.

It's extremely rare we get to see Mirror Matches in Yu-Gi-Oh, but when we do, they are incredibly memorable. The only others I can think of are the Volcanic Mirror Match in Season 4 of GX between Trueman and Axel, and the Red Dragon Archfiend Mirror Match between Jack Atlas and the Imposter Jack Atlas.

With the amount of Duel Analysis videos that take place in the Waking the Dragons Arc, I'm surprised that we haven't seen the Kaiba vs. Alister duels yet.

You know it is something special when the first turn is given so much salt. Love it haha

Man, I've never seen Sam this livid about Ghost Yugi. It's both relatable and funny.

I love how this guy found a format to analyze a whole duel it’s like watching a full episode or multiple full episodes for free and have more understanding of the duel

It's just the first turn and he's already going apeshit. 10/10

I’m still waiting for Syrus vs Zane, Sam.