Top Ten Yu-Gi-Oh! Duels of All Time (A Perfectly Scientific Analysis) Part I

IT’S TIME TO DUEL. Sometimes you don’t need to have the weight of the entire world on your shoulders to have an epic duel. In fact, fighting for a global cause is hardly a requirement for really intense dueling.

Intense dueling comes from the heart. It’s a battleground to work out family problems and personal issues or to face your personal demons. Dueling takes those tricky, abstract conflicts and fleshes them out into physical monsters.

Rather than posit the thesis Yu-Gi-Oh‘s takeaway point is that card games are really just a metaphor for life, I’ll take the slightly more traveled road and conduct a highly subjective, yet incredibly scientific test to determine the top 10 duels in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series. The criteria used to evaluate is based on five critical factors: 1) sheer card/archetype coolness; 2) envy-inspiring combos; 3) suspense factor; 4) the stake; and of course; 5) the emotional feels.

What distinguishes the following duels as the top ten is the deeply personal nature of these duels. Duels can be fun and generally are but they can also be very psychologically scarring. The downside to epic season finale duels is that you tend to already “know” who’s going to win. With mid-season duels that take place in the thick of things, the outcome of these duels are markedly unpredictable. Sometimes, the good guys don’t always win, or if they win, the victory leaves a bitter aftertaste in the mouth.

Yes, even card games can make you cry.

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