Wins almost every single duel he ever had in the entire series

>wins almost every single duel he ever had in the entire series
>still considered a low-tier duelist in universe

Why?

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Did you mix it up? He's considered high tier by everyone except Kaiba, but we as viewers know him for the charismatic shitter that he is.

chin

Kaiba's a cunt.

His reliance on cards that require him to gamble on luck, like his dice cards and Time Wizard, could be seen as making up for his lack of actual skill and strategy.

First off, the only one who explicitly considers him low-tier is Kaiba. Kaiba has very unique standards. To him, Duelists come in two categories:
>Supreme Top Class: Himself, Atem, Pegasus
>Worthless Shitters: Everyone else

Even then, after he nearly beat Malik, Kaiba started having a better opinion of him. At least, in the manga anyway. Also, remember that Kaiba thought of Yugi as a worthless scrub until the end of Dark Side of Dimensions, despite the fact that Yugi's the only one in the manga to ever beat Atem legitimately.

Do remember that he literally only just started playing the game when the Duelist Kingdom arc started. Also, he had a shit deck. That Time Wizard was literally the most powerful card that he had until he got his Red-Eyes.

>still considered a low-tier duelist duelist in-universe
Only by Seto Kaiba and other arrogant Duelists. The actual creator of the game ranked him 3rd-best Duelist.

does he count yugi and atem as two diferent people?

Yugi literally only played the game when Duelist Kingdom came about, before that everyone was a filthy casual.

even by the end of GX, he duels judai to an inconclusive win

and konami has consistently shown yugi winning against every protag in the non-canon YCS duels.

I think that most people either don't realize or don't care about him changing personalities. However, in the last movie, Kaiba travelled to the past, or the afterlife, I don't know which one, to duel with the Pharaoh, so at least by then he was conscious that they were two different people. But since reincarnation is also at play, I guess they are really only one person? Kaiba's hate boner is for the Pharaoh anyway.

The author ranked him first actually. Atem and Kaiba are sore losers while Joey isnt

Even Duel Links proclaims Yugi as the King of Duelists, rather than Atem.

yugi did beat atem 'fairly'.

No, Yugi was playing it on the same level as Joey. It was just something to screw around with at school, even at Death-T. Kaiba was the only person who played it at an elite level before Duelist Kingdom. Before that Yugi Mutou was just a casual player, Kaiba didn't even take Yugi seriously, he took Atem seriously.
Yugi had unfair access to both Dungeon Dice, Shadow RPG and Duel Monsters because his grandfather ran a game shop. The only time Atem didn't do all of the weight lifting was Dungeon Dice.

With how much bullshit Atem pulled over the years, I would say that Yugi was playing fair, or at least he used less bullshit.

He should've won

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Did Joey beat Atem to gain his red eye dragon back, or was it only a joke for the abridged series? I don't know where to get the original to check, and I don't trust my memory.

It's hard to imagine how he could win unless Atem removed all his good cards from his deck, especially considering Atem's subconscious magic topdecking.

Though considering cards have wills in this series, it's possible that the Red-Eyes' desire to return to its owner could have pushed both decks to align themselves to that end.

Yes, had it n Millennium World implying he won their duel.

In Duelist Kingdom, he was a shitter skating by on Yugi's advice and luck. He only comes into his own towards the end of Battle City, and even then his deck is a hodgepodge of stuff he picked up and luck hax. After that point, he's only considered weak when he tries to compete with the real big boys.

>his deck is a hodgepodge of stuff he picked up
Honestly Yugi's deck is not that different

Joey is at his best when playing against the weirdo duelist of the week.

This is mainly because the author doesn't really seem to get how trading card games work. A lot of the strategies and mechanics in the manga were pretty bullshit, even up to and past Battle City. The best duel is arguably the one between Yugi and Atem because that's when the game is at its most refined, at least up to that point, but there's still a ton of bullshit. Even in the anime, a ton of duels are just lazy copouts.

The movie probably has some of the best duels in the entire original saga, and even then they're not GREAT. But at the very least, Yugi doesn't win his duels by shooting turtles at the fucking moon. Yugi's duels were actually kind of interesting, if not kinda stupid. His tactics are based around stall plays until he has the perfect hand to win the duel, turning everything around in a single move. I don't think it'd work that well in the modern meta, but in the anime, all duels are long for dramatic effect. No duel lasts for just two or three turns. In that sort of setting, where every duel is designed specifically to be interesting to watch rather than tactically viable, his deck is probably ideal.

When did Kaiba ever show that he respected Pegasus?

He's too poor to afford good cards. I think Jinzo is the only good card he's ever owned. In the position he's in, gambling is the right move. It raises his chances from zero to something.

>He's too poor to afford good cards
He should just beat up some /tg/ nerd and take all of his cards. All of the truly good duelists steal cards.

His dad would just sell his cards and use the money to buy alcohol. Joey can't have nice things no matter what. He can only have this deck because it's too shitty for his alcoholic dad to sell.

Then he should just kill his dad and turn his house into a VR theme park. His inability to do something that basic is why he'll always be a third-rate duelist.