"Courting Alexis", known as "Duel Tennis of Youth" in the Japanese version, is the fifteenth episode of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime. It first aired in Japan on January 12, 2005 and in the United States on November 14, 2005.

Jaden Yuki ends up in a Duel against Harrington Rosewood, a third year Obelisk Blue student who is in love with Alexis Rhodes and mistakes Jaden and her for a couple.

SummaryEdit

In gym class, the students are playing tennis. Jaden Yuki and Syrus Truesdale are playing against Jasmine and Mindy. Jaden complains that tennis has nothing to do with Dueling, and spikes the ball, which goes off into the adjacent court, right towards Alexis Rhodes. He yells for her to watch out, and the ball is intercepted by someone else, and ends up hitting Dr. Crowler in the face. The boy who intercepeted the ball appears immediately smitten with Alexis and ultimately backs away nervously. Jaden is later called to the infirmary, and is blamed for hitting Crowler with the tennis ball. Ms. Fontaine attempts to defend him, having seen the incident, but Crowler will not listen. He punishes Jaden by forcing him to join the Academy's tennis club for a day. Mindy and Jasmine approach Alexis, and reveal that the boy who intercepted the ball is a third-year Obelisk Blue student named Harrington Rosewood, and is the heir to his family's company. They attempt to convince Alexis to date him. Syrus enters the room, panicking, and asks where the tennis club meets. They respond they meet out on the courts, and Syrus reveals that Jaden's punishment was a day of tennis lessons under the captain of Duel Academy's tennis team, who turns out to be Harrington himself.

Alexis arrives at the courts, and Harrington assumes she came to see him. She ignores him, however, and reveals to Jaden that she just spoke with Professor Banner, and that someone has recently spotted Chazz Princeton. This enrages Harrington so much that he challenges Jaden to a Duel, with the winner becoming Alexis' fiancee. Alexis objects, but Jaden accepts the Duel, never turning down a challenge. Alexis contemplates walking out, but stays to see if the rumors that Harrington is as good a Duelist as Zane Truesdale are true. The Duel begins, and Harrington activates "Service Ace", which lets him pick a card from his hand. Jaden must guess if it is a Monster, Spell or Trap. If he is wrong, he will take 1500 damage. Jaden guesses Spell, but after some taunting from Harrington, changes his answer to Trap. Regardless, it's a monster - "Mega Thunderball", so Jaden loses 1500 Life Points, while Harrington removes the chosen card from play. Harrington Sets a card to end his turn. Jaden Summons and attacks directly with "Elemental Hero Avian", but Harrington activates his face-down "Receive Ace", which negates the attack and inflicts another 1500 damage to Jaden, though Harrington must discard the top three cards of his Deck. Jaden Sets a card.

Harrington activates "Smash Ace". With this, he reveals the top card of his Deck. If it's a monster, Jaden will take 1000 damage. He flips his top card, and it's a monster - "Mystical Shine Ball". However, Jaden activates his face-down "Feather Wind" to negate the activation of "Smash Ace". Jaden plays "Polymerization", fusing "Elemental Hero Burstinatrix" and "Elemental Hero Clayman" to Fusion Summon "Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster". He attacks directly with both of his monsters, tying the Duel at 1000 points each. Harrington activates "Deuce", which he can only activate when both players have 1000 Life Points or less. It essentially changes the rules of the Duel to mimic a round of tennis. Life Points are now irrelevant, and the first Duelist to inflict damage twice without the opponent inflicting any in between is declared the winner and only one monster may attack per Battle Phase. He then Summons "Big Server", and uses it's effect to attack directly, giving him one point on "Deuce". A successful attack from "Big Server" also lets him add a "Service Ace" from his Deck to his hand, while letting Jaden draw a card. He then plays the "Service Ace", with Jaden declaring monster. He is correct, as Harrington reveals another "Mega Thunderball", which is then removed from play.

Harrington equips "Big Server", with "Giant Racket", which will let him negate the first attack towards "Big Server" at the cost of destroying "Giant Racket". Jaden draws, and then plays "De-Fusion", splitting "Rampart Blaster in order to Special Summon "Burstinatrix" and "Clayman". He then plays "Feather Shot", which will let "Avian" attack once for each monster Jaden has on the field. The first attack is negated by "Giant Racket", the second destroys "Big Server", and the third is a direct attack, meaning Jaden inflicted damage twice, winning the Duel via the effect of "Deuce". Harrington bursts into tears and runs off. Jaden approaches Alexis, and states that he guesses this means he's now her fiancee. He than asks her what that means. She has quite a different response to his question depending on the versions. The episode ends with Harrington staring at the sunset, screeching.

Featured Duel: Jaden Yuki vs. Harrington RosewoodEdit

This Duel uses Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime gameplay. Rules and card effects may differ from that of the TCG/OCG. See the individual card articles for more information.

Turn 1: Harrington
Harrington draws. He then activates "Service Ace", picking a card from his hand. Jaden must guess if it is a Monster, Spell or Trap. If he is incorrect, he will take 1500 damage. Jaden chooses Spell, but then he changes his choice to Trap. The chosen card is then revealed to be the monster "Mega Thunderball". Since Jaden was wrong, he takes 1500 damage (Jaden 4000 → 2500). The chosen card is then removed from play. Harrington's hand is shown to contain "Smash Ace", "Service Ace", and two "Mega Thunderballs". Harrington Sets a card.

Turn 2: Jaden
Jaden draws "Feather Wind" while his hand contains "Elemental Hero Avian", "Elemental Hero Clayman", "Elemental Hero Burstinatrix" and two unspecified cards. Jaden Normal Summons "Avian" (1000/1000) in Attack Position. "Avian" attacks Harrington directly, but Harrington activates his face-down "Receive Ace", sending the top three cards of his Deck to the Graveyard in order to negate the attack and inflict 1500 damage to Jaden (Jaden 2500 → 1000). Jaden Sets a card.

Turn 3: Harrington
Harrington draws "Smash Ace" and subsequently activates it, allowing him to reveal the top card of his Deck. If it is a monster, he can inflict 1000 damage to Jaden. He draws "Mystical Shine Ball", so Jaden takes 1000 damage, but Jaden activates his face-down "Feather Wind" to negate the effect of "Smash Ace" and destroy it. The card revealed is then sent to the Graveyard due to the last effect of "Smash Ace".

Turn 4: Jaden
Jaden draws "Polymerization" and subsequently activates it, fusing "Clayman" and "Burstinatrix" to Fusion Summon "Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster" (2000/2500) in Attack Position. "Avian" attacks Harrington directly (Harrington 4000 → 3000). "Rampart Blaster" then attacks Harrington directly (Harrington 3000 → 1000).

Turn 5: Harrington
Harrington draws "Big Server". Since both players have only 1000 Life Points, Harrington activates "Deuce". Now, both players may attack with only one monster during each Battle Phase. Whoever can inflict Battle Damage twice without the opponent doing so in-between the two strikes wins the Duel. If a player takes damage from their opponent, the number of times that player is considered to have inflicted damage will become 0. Also while "Deuce" is face-up, neither player can lose the Duel if their Life Points hit 0. Harrington Normal Summons "Big Server" (300/300) in Attack Position. "Big Server" attacks Jaden directly via its own effect (Jaden 1000 → 700), placing a counter on "Deuce". Since "Big Server" inflicted Battle Damage, its effect activates, allowing Harrington to add "Service Ace" from his Deck to his hand and allowing Jaden to draw a card, which is "Feather Shot". Harrington activates "Service Ace", picking a card from his hand and making Jaden guess the card type. Jaden declares "Monster". Harrington reveals the picked card as "Mega Thunderball". Since Jaden was correct, he takes no damage and "Mega Thunderball" is removed from play. Harrington equips "Big Server" with "Giant Racket" Now, once per turn, the equipped monster can't be destroyed by battle and Harrington will take no Battle Damage from that battle.

Turn 6: Jaden
Jaden draws "De-Fusion" and subsequently activates it, returning "Rampart Blaster" to the Fusion Deck and Special Summoning "Clayman" (800/2000) and "Burstinatrix" (1200/800) from his Graveyard in Attack Position. Jaden activates "Feather Shot" by selecting "Avian". Now, in addition to a normal attack, "Elemental Hero Avian" will gain one additional attack for every other monster Jaden controls. Jaden controls two, so "Avian" gains two additional attacks. "Avian" attacks "Big Server", but Harrington activates the effect of "Giant Racket", which prevents "Big Server" from being destroyed and prevents Harrington from taking Battle Damage. "Avian" attacks and destroys "Big Server" (Harrington 1000 → 300), placing a counter on "Deuce". "Avian" then attacks Harrington directly (Harrington 300 → 0) and places a second counter on "Deuce". Due to the effect of "Deuce", Jaden wins.

MistakesEdit

• Despite the card's written effect, a counter was not shown being removed from Harrington's side of "Deuce" when Jaden gained a counter.

• When Harrington's hand is shown, his hand contains "Service Ace", "Smash Ace", and two "Mega Thunderballs". There should have been only one "Mega Thunderball" while the other three cards should have been "Receive Ace", "Deuce", and "Giant Racket".

Differences in adaptationsEdit

In the Japanese version, Asuka's response to Judai's question of "what does fiancee mean" is "you idiot!". This is changed significantly in the dub, where Alexis responds, that it just means they are friends, "for now." In addition, Ayanokouji's declaration as he looks at the sunset is "I hate Dueling the most" in the Japanese version, while he promises to win Alexis' affections in another way in the dub.

Featured cardsEdit

The following cards appeared in this episode. Cards in italics debuted here.