THE HEART OF THE CARDS

                                 ...Trust in the Heart

        EPISODE GUIDE

               Episode # 31 - Keith's Machinations

     Joey's Duel with Keith will determine Yugi's opponent in the finals.  Joey congratulates Yugi on his victory against Mai and says that he will win now and then they will be paired off in the finals.  Yugi says it will be a wonderful duel.  They agree they will have to play fair and try their best.  No matter what they will still be friends.  Joey goes through the doors to the arena and notices that Bandit Keith hasn't arrived yet.  He sees him on the balcony just waking up from a nap.  Joey yells at him to hurry down so that he can win.  Croquet interrupts them and asks to see the entry cards.  Keith flashes his Glory of the Kings Hand card that he stole from Joey.  Joey then, obviously doesn't have an entry card.  His friends watch him search his jacket, unable to believe that Joey had really lost his card!

     Joey is given five minutes to find the card.  If he doesn't, he is disqualified and Keith will be declared the winner.  Joey rushes to his room tearing it apart in the search but can't find it.  Bandit Keith knows that he stole Joey's card and is confident that he won't be able to find it.  He tells Croquet to disqualify Joey now, he won't be coming back.  He says Joey is scared to face him and he purposely lost the card to avoid loosing.  Yugi is sure Joey wound never run from a duel.  They still hope he can find it before the time runs out.  Joey gives up searching in his room and says coming to Duelist Kingdom was a waste of his time if he can't continue in the finals.  He asks his sister Serenity to forgive him and a tear rolls from his eye.  Mai suddenly shows up and orders Joey to stand.  She tells him if he wants to cry, wait for the duel to be over.  Joey denies crying but Mai says that Tea has already told her about his sister.  She wipes his tears away with her handkerchief.  Mai tells Joey not to give up.  Just as she starts to walk away, Joey unwraps Glory of the Kings Hand from the handkerchief.  Mai tells him she doesn't need the card anymore but he does.  He has to win.  Joey asks he why she is being nice.  She looks back and tells him that they're buddies.

     Joey steps in the arena just in time and his friends are excited to see him.  Joey shows Croquet the card entering him in the competition.  Bandit Keith is amazed that Joey found the card.  He though he stole it.  Croquet officially starts the match between Bandit Keith and Joey Wheeler.  Both plays start drawing cards.  Bandit Keith says Joey is dueling an American champion so there is no way he can win.  Bandit Keith plays a Monster in Face Down Defense position and ends his turn.  Bakura says he is worried about Joey but Tristan tells him that Joey has been up against better duelists before.  Bandit Keith is nothing.  Joey knows he has to win to get the money for Serenity's operation and is ready to do his best.  He plays a monster in defense mode and ends his turn.  Bandit Keith changes is monster to attack mode revealing it as Axe Machine, a level 6 monster with 1750 attack points.  Joey has never seen a Machine Monster before and is worried.  Bandit Keith destoys Joey's monster and ends his turn.  Yugi is curious about Keith's Machine monsters too and wonders why they are so special.  Joey plays Giltia the Dragon Knight (1850 attack points.)

     Joey attacks but even though his attack points are higher.  Giltia's attack seemed to have no effect.  Keith explains that magic attacks doesn't work on Machine monsters so they are unstoppable.  No magic cards can effect them.  There is not way Joey can defeat them.  Bandit Keith plays Launch Spider (2200 attack points) and easily destroys Joey's Dragon Knight, taking him down to 1650 life points.  Tea is worried on the sideline and asks Yugi if Joey can still win.  Yugi isn't sure.  Keith's deck of Machine monsters is extremely powerful.  Joey plays a defense monster and a magic/trap card and ends is turn unable to figure out a strategy to win.

     Bandit Keith doesn't want to attack a defense monster because it won't lower Joey's LP so he comes up with a trick.  He sets a trap card and "accidentally" drops a card on the field.  Part of the image is shown on the field before Keith switches it to defense mode saying he just made a mistake.  Joey notices that the card wasn't a machine monster and decides to attack it.  Indeed the monster wasn't a machine, it was Devil Zoa (2600/1900).  Yugi warns that Keith's "accident" seems strange, it could be a trap.  Joey plays Flame Swordsman and attacks even though he only has an attack on 1800.  He equips it with Salamandra, raising it's attack to 2500.  Bakura notices Bandit Keith should have played the Zoa in attack mode.  He must be up to something.  Tea asks if Keith had dropped Zoa on purpose to lure Joey into a trap.  Indeed she is correct.  As Joey attacks, Keith activates his trap card, Metal Force.  The attack and defense of Zoa are boosted to 3000/2400.  It also becomes a Machine and Joey's attack is reflected.  Flame Swordsman is destroyed and Joey's Life Points fall to 1150.

     Keith laughs and says he easily caught Joey in that trap.  He uses stop defense it lure Joey's battle Ox to attack position.  Yugi says that if Bandit Keith attacks with Metal Zoa, Joey will loose the duel.  Bandit Keith attacks but Joey reveals his trap card which destroys the attacking monster.  One quarter of Metal Zoa's attack points are removed from hi Life points, putting Bandit Keith at 1250.  Joey mocks him and asks how he could fall for such a simple trap.  Tea says she can't believe Joey is dueling on the same level as an American champion.  Joey plays a trap card and warns Bandit Keith to watch out.  He switches his Axe Raider to defense mode and plays Gerusies (1800/1500).  It destroys Axe Machine taking Keith to 1200.  Bandit Keith is ticked off and attacks with Launch spider.  Joey plays a simple trap card, Kunai with Chain raising his monsters attack to 2300.  It destroys The Launch Spider and takes Keith down to 1100 Life Points.  Joey has gained the upper hand but the duel isn't over yet!

Summary By YamiHikari

Screen Shots:  Coming Soon

New Characters:  None

Characters Shown: Yugi,  Joey,  Tea,  Tristan,  Bakura,  Mai, Pegasus, Bandit Keith, Croquet

Cards Featured: (Coming Soon...)

Episode Rating (1-10) 7.62  The duel was good but pretty useless. We know Joey is going to win so that he can have his face off with Yugi.  The cool part of this episode is when Mai saved Joey.  More character development.  (My God I sound like a professor.)  But still it's what made this work.  Other wise it would have been a filler episode and we don't want that do we?