"One Step Ahead - Part 2", entitled "Valkyrie vs. Blue Eyes White Dragon" in the Japanese version, is the 195th episode of the Yu-Gi-Oh! television series.
Seto Kaiba pits his "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" against the Valkyries of Zigfried von Schroeder (formerly known as "Zigfried Lloyd"), ultimately having to go up against the seemingly invincible "Valkyrie Brunhilde".
Summary
Seto Kaiba and Zigfried von Schroeder continue their Duel. After Seto destroys one of Zigfried's Valkyries with his "XYZ-Dragon Cannon", Zigfried manages to draw "Nibelung's Treasure" and equip Seto's Cannon with "Nibelung's Ring", preventing it from attacking and also destroying Seto's Deck with each passing turn (due to "Nibelung's Ring's" effect). Using Zigfried's "Fortune Chariot", "Valkyrie Zweite" attacks Kaiba and whittles down his Life Points.
Zigfried removes Kaiba's first "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" from play with his 3 Goddess cards and destroys another with the effect of "Nibelung's Ring", but Kaiba makes a comeback when he summons his second "Blue-Eyes" back from the Graveyard (using "Monster Reborn").
However, Zigfried believes Kaiba's strategy is in vain, because then, he summons his "Valkyrie Brunhilde" and removes Seto's "Blue-Eyes" from play with "Enchanted Sword Nothung". On his next turn, Kaiba manages to avoid the effect of "Nibelung's Ring" with "Graceful Charity", allowing him to put his third "Blue-Eyes" in the Graveyard so he can remove it (along with "Pitch-Dark Dragon") from play to summon "Chaos Emperor Dragon". Seto's new monster destroys every card the players control on the field and in their hand, inflicting 1500 damage to Zigfried. However, he regains them all when he uses his "Magical Alms" and "Final Light" cards.
Seto makes another come-from-behind move when he draws himself a brand-new hand with "Card of Demise". In the end, his three "Blue-Eyes", his "Luster Dragon #2", and "Chaos Emperor Dragon" are summoned back to the field through "Dimension Fusion". Zigfried's "Valkyrie Brunhilde" destroys "Luster Dragon #2" and "Chaos Emperor Dragon", then avoids destruction from Kaiba's first "Blue-Eyes". However, she is eventually destroyed by Kaiba's second "Blue-Eyes", paving the way for his third "Blue-Eyes" to attack Zigfried directly. Kaiba is able to win, but Zigfried declares it isn't over.
Featured Duel: Seto Kaiba vs. Zigfried von Schroeder
Duel continues from previous episode.
Turn 10: Kaiba
Instead of conducting his normal draw, Seto is forced to draw two cards via the effect of "Nibelung's Ring" ("Monster Reborn" and "Attack Guidance Armor"). If one or both of those drawn cards is a Monster Card, Seto must discard one of them, however neither drawn cards are monster cards. Seto then Sets a card.
Turn 11: Zigfried
Zigfried draws. Zigfried activates the second effect of "Fortune Chariot" to halve the ATK of the equipped "Valkyrie Zweite" ("Valkyrie Zweite": 1600 → 800/1600) and allow it to attack directly this turn. "Valkyrie Zweite" attacks directly, but Seto activates his face-down "Attack Guidance Armor" to redirect the attack to "Valkyrie Erste". In response, Zigfried activates his face-down "Wotan's Judgment" to switch the top card of his Deck with a Magic Card from his hand ("Nobleman of Crossout"), negate the attack, and end the Battle Phase.[Notes 1]
Zigfried's hand is shown to contain "Gryphon's Feather Duster" and "Goddess Skuld's Oracle" at this point. Zigfried then activates "Goddess Urd's Verdict", "Goddess Verdande's Guidance", and "Goddess Skuld's Oracle". He activates the effect of "Goddess Skuld's Oracle". Now once a turn, Zigfried can use "Goddess Skuld's Oracle" to look at the top three cards of Seto's Deck and rearrange them to however he wishes. Also once a turn, Zigfried can use "Goddess Verdande's Guidance" to guess the card type of the top card of Kaiba's Deck. If he is correct, Kaiba must set the top card of his Deck face-down on his side of the field. In addition, Zigfried can use the effect of "Goddess Urd's Verdict" once a turn to select one of Kaiba's set cards and guess what that card is. If he is correct, then the set card will be removed from play.
Zigfried activates the effect of "Goddess Skuld's Oracle" to look at the top three cards of Seto's Deck (three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons"). Zigfried activates the effect of "Goddess Verdande's Guidance" and guesses that the top card of Seto's Deck is a Monster Card. He is correct, so Seto Special Summons "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" in face-down Defense Position. Zigfried then activates the effect of "Goddess Urd's Verdict" and declares that Seto's face-down monster is "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". He is correct, so "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" is removed from play. During the End Phase, the effect of "Fortune Chariot" expires ("Valkyrie Zweite": 800 → 1600/1600).
Turn 12: Kaiba
Due to the effect of "Nibelung's Ring", Seto draws two cards (two "Blue-Eyes White Dragons") instead of conducting a normal draw. He discards "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". Seto activates "Monster Reborn" to Special Summon the discarded "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" (3000/2500) from his Graveyard in Attack Position. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" attacks "Valkyrie Zweite", but Zigfried destroys "Fortune Chariot" to prevent "Valkyrie Zweite" from being destroyed (Zigfried 2500 → 1100).
Turn 13: Zigfried
Zigfried draws. He then activates the effect of his "Goddess Skuld's Oracle" to look at the top three cards of Seto's Deck ("Shrink", "Cave Dragon" and "Luster Dragon #2). Zigfried tells Seto to place "Luster Dragon #2" on top and he does so. Zigfried then activates the effect of "Goddess Verdande's Guidance" and guesses that Seto's top card is a Monster Card. He is correct, so Seto Special Summons "Luster Dragon #2" in face-down Defense Position. Zigfried then activates the effect of "Goddess Urd's Verdict" and declares that Seto's face-down monster is "Luster Dragon #2". He is correct, so "Luster Dragon #2" is removed from play.
Zigfried then activates "Gryphon's Feather Duster" to destroy all Spell and Trap Cards he controls and gain 500 Life Points for each Spell and Trap Card destroyed this way. Three are destroyed (Zigfried 1100 → 2600). He then Tributes "Valkyrie Zweite" and "Valkyrie Erste" in order to Tribute Summon "Valkyrie Brunhilde" (1800/2000) in Defense Position. Due to the effect of "Valkyrie Brunhilde", it gains 300 ATK for each Dragon-type monster and Warrior-type monster on the field. There is currently one ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 1800 → 2100/2000).
Turn 14: Kaiba
Due to the effect of "Nibelung's Ring", Seto draws two cards ("Cave Dragon" and "Shrink") instead of conducting a normal draw. He discards "Cave Dragon". "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" attacks "Valkyrie Brunhilde", but Zigfried activates the second effect of "Valkyrie Brunhilde" to reduce its DEF by 1000 ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 2000/2000 → 1000) in order to prevent it from being destroyed by battle. Seto Sets a card.
Turn 15: Zigfried
Zigfried draws. He then switches his "Valkyrie Brunhilde" to Attack Position. Zigfried then activates "Enchanted Sword Nothung", equipping it to "Valkyrie Brunhilde" and increasing its ATK by 400 ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 2100 → 2500/1000). The second effect of "Enchanted Sword Nothung" activates, destroying "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and removing it from play ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 2500 → 2200/1000). Now if Kaiba attacks "Valkyrie Brunhilde" with a Dragon-Type monster, "Enchanted Sword Nothung" will destroy that monster at the start of the Damage Step without applying Damage Calculation.
Zigfried then activates "Pegasus Wing" to halve the ATK of "Valkyrie Brunhilde" ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 2200 → 1100/1000) and allow it to attack directly this turn. "Valkyrie Brunhilde" attacks directly, but Seto activates his face-down "Shrink" to halve the ATK of "Valkyrie Brunhilde" ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 1100 → 550/1000). The direct attack continues (Seto 1100 → 550). On Zigfried's End Phase, the effect of "Pegasus Wing" and "Shrink" expire ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 550 → 2200/1000).
Turn 16: Kaiba
Due to the effect of "Nibelung's Ring", Seto draws two cards ("Graceful Charity" and "Emergency Provisions") instead of conducting a normal draw. Seto activates "Graceful Charity" to draw three cards and discard two cards ("Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and "Cloning"). He then removes from play "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" and "Pitch-Dark Dragon" from his Graveyard in order to Special Summon "Chaos Emperor Dragon" (3000/2500) from his hand in Attack Position[Notes 2] ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 2200 → 2500/2000).
Seto Sets a card and activates "Emergency Provisions" to send the Set card to the Graveyard and gain 1000 Life Points (Seto 550 → 1550). He then activates the effect of "Chaos Emperor Dragon" to pay 1000 Life Points (Seto 1550 → 550), send all cards in both players' hands and on the field to the Graveyard, and inflict 300 damage to Zigfried for each card sent. Five cards are sent to the Graveyard (Zigfried 2600 → 1100).
Turn 17: Zigfried
Zigfried draws "Pot of Greed" and subsequently activates it to draw two cards. He then activates "Magical Alms", which increases Zigfried's Life Points by 1000 upon its activation (Zigfried 1100 → 2100). Now during each player's turn, the turn player must predict how many Spell Cards they will activate for the rest of that turn. Both players will then gain 500 Life Points for each Spell Card predicted. However, should the turn player activate less Spell Cards than they predicted, that player will take 1000 damage for every Spell Card predicted during their End Phase. Zigfried proceeds to use the effect of "Magical Alms" and predicts he will activate one more Spell Card this turn (Zigfried 2100 → 2600; Seto 550 → 1050).
Zigfried then activates "Final Light" to pay 1000 Life Points (Zigfried 2600 → 1600), Special Summon one LIGHT monster from his Graveyard, and allow Seto to Special Summon one monster with 2000 or less ATK from his Graveyard. Zigfried Special Summons "Valkyrie Brunhilde" (1800/2000) in Attack Position while Seto Special Summons "Cave Dragon" (2000/100) in Attack Position ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 1800 → 2100/2000). "Valkyrie Brunhilde" attacks and destroys "Cave Dragon" (Seto 1050 → 950) ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 2100 → 1800/2000).
Turn 18: Kaiba
Seto draws "Card of Demise". He then proceeds to use the effect of "Magical Alms" and predicts he will activate four Spell Cards this turn (Zigfried 1600 → 3600; Seto 950 → 2950). He then activates "Card of Demise" to draw until he has five cards in his hand (his hand is empty so he draws five cards). Five turns after the activation of "Card of Demise", Seto must discard his entire hand during his Standby Phase. Seto then activates "Soul Release" to remove from play his "Chaos Emperor Dragon" from his Graveyard. He then activates "Spell Reproduction" to discard 2 Spell Cards ("Spell Absorption" and "Cost Down") and add "Dimension Fusion" from his Graveyard to his hand. "De-Fusion" is shown to be the only other card remaining in Seto's hand at this point.
Seto then activates "Dimension Fusion" to pay 2000 Life Points (Seto 2950 → 950) and allow Special Summon three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" (all three "Blue-Eyes": 3000/2500), his "Chaos Emperor Dragon" (3000/2500), and his "Luster Dragon #2" (2400/1400) from the Removed from Play Zone in Attack Position ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 1800 → 3300/2000).
"Luster Dragon #2" attacks "Valkyrie Brunhilde". "Valkyrie Brunhilde" destroys "Luster Dragon #2" (Seto 950 → 50) ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 3300 → 3000/2000). "Chaos Emperor Dragon" attacks "Valkyrie Brunhilde", but Zigfried reduces the DEF of "Valkyrie Brunhilde" by 1000 ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 3000/2000 → 1000) to prevent it from being destroyed by battle, so only "Chaos Emperor Dragon" is destroyed ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 3000 → 2700/1000). The first "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" attacks "Valkyrie Brunhilde", but Zigfried reduces the DEF of "Valkyrie Brunhilde" by 1000 ("Valkyrie Brunhilde": 2700/1000 → 0) to prevent it from being destroyed by battle (Zigfried 3600 → 3300). The second "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" attacks and destroys "Valkyrie Brunhilde" (Zigfried 3300 → 3000). The third "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" then attacks directly (Zigfried 3000 → 0).
Differences in adaptations
- Cut from the dub is a shot of Mokuba cheering for his brother.
- Cut from the dub is a sequence of first a pan of the field, and then Zigfried telling Kaiba laughing about how long he has waited for this day.
- The woman on "Soul Release" is given a dress to wear in the dub.
- "Spell Reproduction" has been redesigned in the dub.
- In the dub when Zigfried told Kaiba he couldn't afford to pay 1,000 LP to activate Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End's special ability, he made a wisecrack comeback saying there's nothing he can afford before proceeding to announce he would set a card. In the original, Kaiba just continued to announced he would set a card in response to Zigfried's remark.
- In the Japanese dub, after Zigfried saw Kaiba has three Blue-Eyes White Dragons at the top of his deck, he thought ahead of how he could win by using the effect of "Valkyrie Erste" to steal Blue-Eyes White Dragon's ATK and unequip Fortune Chariot from "Valkyrie Zweite" and equip it to Valkyrie Erste to win the duel.
Errors
The layout of "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" changes.
- In the Japanese version, when Kaiba displays his 3 "Blue-Eyes White Dragons" they all use the newer layout, but later when 1 of them is shown in his hand it uses the old layout. Another thing most people do not notice is when Zigfried uses "Pot of Greed", it also has the old layout.
- In the Japanese version, Zigfried's Life Points go from 3300 to 3000 twice: once when "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" destroys the shield of "Valkyrie Brunhilde", and again when the next Blue-Eyes destroys Brunnhilde. They should have gone from 3600 to 3300 the first time.
- In the dub, when listening to one of Kaiba's main workers when talking about kicking Zigfried out, the man says "Should I have Security remove him from the fark?" instead of park.
- When Kaiba activated "Emergency Provisions" he was shown with two other cards in his hand when he shouldn't have any other cards in his hand.
- It is eventually revealed in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX that "Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End" is banned from tournaments (even in the anime) due to how powerful it is, meaning that Kaiba's use of it is an illegal move.
- However, it is possible that "Chaos Emperor Dragon" wasn't banned until after this Duel (and possibly even because of this duel, seeing how effectively Kaiba uses it) or that Chaos Emperor Dragon's Forbidden status didn't matter since this was not an official, tournament-sanctioned Duel but instead a spur of the moment challenge from Kaiba.
- When Kaiba activates "Dimension Fusion", he was shown having no cards in his hand when he should have had one.
Featured cards
The following cards appeared in this episode. Cards in italics debuted here.
Notes
- ↑ The Japanese lore of "Wotan's Judgment" says that the Deck must be shuffled after the cards are switched. Zigfried is not shown shuffling his Deck after he switches the cards, as he immediately activates his "Goddess" Spell Cards afterwards. The shuffling occurs offscreen at some point, since Zigfried never draws "Nobleman of Crossout" again. This is verified after Zigfried activates the last card in his hand later in the Duel, "Pegasus Wings".
- ↑ In the TCG/OCG, "Chaos Emperor Dragon" is actually called "Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End".
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 This card was in Kaiba's hand.
- ↑ This card was dropped by Zigfried after he lost.
- ↑ This card was in Zigfried's hand.
