Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 342 The Last Gamble!!

Taking a leaf out of Jonouchi's book, are we? Not that there's much choice after a certain point - Yuugi and Atem only have the cards they've drawn, and as the saying goes, you've got to make the most of the hand you're dealt. I can imagine that being left with little choice but to take a large risk is a quite frequent occurrence in this game. Being left with several cards that simply don't work very well together would be MY luck, but then again, I've never been much of a strategist in the traditional sense. Not like these two, who literally built these specific card decks around what they imagined their mind twin would do. 

Took a while for one of them to have the other on the ropes like this, for how well they know each other.

Jonouchi curls up a fist in front of him, hunched and tense over how even Yuugi's secret weapon Gandora couldn't beat DM, and now Yuugi doesn't have any monsters to defend himself. Honda is standing a little straighter and looks more subdued in his disappointment when he says that when the Dark Magician attacks on the next turn, it's all over for Yuugi. Anzu just thinks about Yuugi with a worried look. 

An observation is made by one of them that Yuugi and Atem each have one card left in hand. Not sure who it is, but Yuugi speaks next when he pulls the final card from his fingers to play face down and end his turn, naturally. Not really much else he can do. Atem updates the observation from before - now Yuugi has NO cards in his hand. Does he have no cards left in his DECK, since he didn't draw a new one? Or is he just voluntarily making this is last turn? I can't really get a good look at that Duel Disk, so I'm not sure.

Atem, however, DOES draw a new card, and assesses the two face down cards Yuugi placed, as well as the gold sarcophagus box that contains the secret unusable card from the last chapter. 

 I should HOPE not. What, do you expect him to go to the afterlife in your place if he loses or WHAT??

Atem declares (whether silently or out loud is a little unclear; I'm guessing the former) that he will ALSO fight to the end, as if he has ever NOT done that. Then he plays a card face down as well, and Yuugi notes the single card left in Atem's hand with a sharp look. Still has a pretty fat stack in his deck to draw from, though, from what I can see. 

Throwing out his hand, Atem orders DM to attack Yuugi directly, much to Jonouchi's distress. As the Dark Magician approaches Yuugi with staff raised, ball of energy charging at its tip, Yuugi poop-faces the coming attack head-on, but Sugoroku and Ryoji are kind of freaking out about how bad this is and declaring it's all over, respectively. 

If you smirk on the next page, Atem, I'll... well I can't actually do anything, but I'll be very displeased!

Yuugi says that this card allows him to summon a magician of his very own when a magician attacks HIM, and Jonouchi cheers that he's not out of the game just yet, Honda looking astonished in the background. The gears are turning in Sugoroku's head, though, and he's wondering if Yuugi KNEW that Gandora wouldn't destroy the Dark Magician, if his grandson is really thinking THAT far ahead. Pretty impressive, if so. 

Yuugi slaps down Silent Magician, Level 0. Atem scoffs, but he doesn't SMIRK, at least not that we can see, so I guess I can't get upset with him, technically.

What is this POSE??? 

You know what, it's time I just accept I won't ever get it. I'm not a het dude, I just won't ever get it. 

Although, het as Yuugi has been established (to an extent), he's not looking pleased, but rather a little horrified. Atem asks if Yuugi WASN'T aware that Magician's Circle applies to both players when it's played, so he also gets to summon a magician, and says he's glad for it. From just the eyes that we get to see in his extreme close-up, Yuugi is quite alarmed. Atem reveals his own face down card, "Magicians Unite", the card text stating that Atem's two magicians can combine their power for 3000 points of attack when more than two spellcasters are out and about. 

Now it's YUUGI'S turn to wonder if ATEM was thinking so far ahead that he knew Yuugi would be playing a magician of his own, given that Magician's Circle only works when MORE than two spellcasters are on the field. Can't share a head with a guy for a few years without him being able to pull one over on you at the most inopportune time! Jonouchi and Honda are blown away by the 3000 points between DM and DMG, the former lamenting that Silent Magician just has 1000 points of attack. He says the two against one odds are too unfair and he can't watch. His eyes are wide enough that he may not have a choice, though. 

The Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl fly at Silent Magician, but Yuugi throws out his hand to put a halt on the attack, activating another of his face down cards called "Card of Sanctity". Atem gapes at the announcement, trailing in a thought about what that means, and Yuugi finishes that thought by stating plainly that they both draw cards until they have six in their hand. So I guess Yuugi DOES still have cards, he just wasn't drawing them on purpose? I'm focusing on entirely the wrong part of this, because Atem looks almost mortified while Yuugi continues to explain that Silent Magcian's attack goes up by 500 for every card they draw, and they have to draw quite a few. He invites Atem to look at Silent Magician now, with the card power-ups they gave her. 

Oooh, buddy, that hat is fucking SICK. I said it before: conical hats are best hats. 

Silent Magician throws out her arms and a sphere of power radiates out from her, which blows away Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl. Atem's magicians are defeated, as Yuugi notes from the spectral smoke they leave behind, and Atem has his jaw clenched while his points go down by 500. Everyone stands in silent awe as the rest of the smoke clears. Atem, in particular, looks a bit miffed. He ends his turn. 

Yuugi announces his turn and draws a card at last, thinking at Atem that this is it - their last turn. Atem himself appears moody, noting the six cards in his hand, then smiles a little, declaring mentally at Yuugi that this is his final gamble. Ooooh, SO close to getting that title.

The tension isn't anything to scoff at. 

With an expression of determination, Yuugi orders Silent Magician to attack Atem. Honda's the only one who can pry his jaws apart enough to declare the obvious, that if this attack works, then Yuugi wins. Atem doesn't seem very worried at all, not so much as a sweatdrop to indicate nervousness. Sugoroku thinks that there's only one thing that Atem could do to block this upset, and wonders if Yuugi did anything to prepare for it.

Yuugi is still considering what he would do if he were Atem, while Atem has to admit that Yuugi's Card of Sanctity/Silent Magician combo was just about perfect, with just the TINY little flaw that it filled ATEM'S hand too. He makes an apology to his partner, while we get a good look from a low angle at the card he has face down, an ankh with a brilliant backlight. 

Atem orders something back to life. 

... Do you though?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? First and foremost, I have to ask, can it be a part of one's strategy in this game NOT to draw a card at the beginning of a turn? I had to go back to the previous chapter to see if he had stopped drawing cards and I just didn't notice, but he seemed to be drawing them like normal, so this was something of a new development in this chapter. And one that didn't have ANY attention drawn to it too - none of the characters comment on this or say anything referring to it, except to state how many cards are currently in Yuugi's or Atem's hands. I certainly don't have anything against this being treated as normal, considering that as a part of the strategy it IS pretty subtle and so comes off as an interesting surprise if you're not paying attention (like me, lol). Still, I can't recall if I've seen this before in duels leading up to this one, and it seems to have come a little from nowhere for me. Let me know if I'm just a little blind in the comments! I can totally see something like characters quietly NOT drawing at the start of their turn totally escaping me before because it just wasn't really part of the resolution of the duel or something. Scratch that, it turns out that I had completely failed to register that the chapter started in the MIDDLE of Yuugi's turn, after he had already drawn his card! See comments below!

That aside, I think it's interesting that Yuugi did some overlooking of his own here; he assumed that Atem wouldn't put more than one god card in his deck because they require too many sacrifices, but failed to remember that there might be OTHER ways gods can be summoned. And I went back a few more chapters still just to refresh my memory - I had completely forgotten that Atem had indeed put a card in the graveyard before summoning The Tricky on his first turn. The audience even got a pretty clear view of Monster Reborn in his hand at the time. GREAT setup and payoff, in addition to the fairly solid logic from Yuugi to throw us off the scent a little. Is it weird that I like being deceived by writers when it's done well? 

But more than that, Yuugi's little mistakes in reasoning and strategizing are really compounding at this point. His use of Magician's Circle, his assumptions that Atem wouldn't put more than one god card in his deck, his lack of caution around Atem's face down cards, have all allowed Atem to gain a prominent lead in the duel. It's keeping the tension high, but at the back of my mind, I'm still not trusting that all of these are necessarily "mistakes". After all, Yuugi has referred back to his "if I were you" train of thought many times, and there's still that sarcophagus box to contend with. There's obviously no doubt in my mind what the ultimate outcome of this duel will be, but I'm just anxious to see how Yuugi makes the turn-about happen. 

Finally, I just want to point out the universal loser's declaration that Atem makes at the very end of the chapter there. Always a mistake to declare a win before its time in a story. But he certainly doesn't look happy about it, and that's very striking to me. When he thinks that he's won, his reaction to this thought is at best stoic. There's no emotion behind it, not even smugness, and you just get the impression that his winning has become so uninteresting, even to himself, that he's almost uninvested. It's another day ending in "y".

Further driving home why this "sword" of his needs to be TAKEN from him. It's his instinct, nature, to use his deck not just to fight obstacles, but to reinforce his own place in the grand scheme. It may be holding him back, but he can't let it go willingly because of how integral to HIM that it's become. So, though it's not helping him, hindering him at this point, he's just kind of going through the motions. The lack of JOY at his thought of winning, though it would mean him getting to stay with his friends, is fucking BLEAK. 

Shit dude. Making me depressed.