Anime-only duels;
Vs Seto Kaiba (post-battle city)
Of course their are some idiot's who think that kaiba would have won this duel had it gone on any longer, yet they ignore basic facts concerning the duel that occured. Everything was going into Bakura's favor, he had absorbed the power of blue eyes, his LP was 1,400 while Kaiba's was at a lower 900. After kaiba's lasturn was over it was Bakura's time to draw a card, he would have decided the match then and their, but didn't.
Vs Atem (mid-duelist kingdom).
Main important thing's to discuss are
- Bakura had this duel won, but the other bakura (his nicer counterpart) interfered preventing the spirit of the millenium ring from winning this match. His plan was to take control of the Black Magician, then destroy one monster, dealing over 600 damage to Atem, winning the duel, it would have worked if plot did not prevent this fair win from happening.
- If Bakura had only waited for Atem to play Anzu's Magician of Faith card then activated "Just Desserts" at the right moment he would KO Atem in a single move with that trap card's effect as it deals 500 damage per monster on opposing player's field, but he did not. I think maybe the reason he activated it early when Atem had three monster's instead of four was because Bakura believed Atem could have a card that destroys trap's or spell card's so before atem plays it Bakura decided he would spring the trap card first.
vs Bonz (battle city night)
The spectators already know he won, the audience and fans of Yugioh already know about this incident, so i dont have to elaborate on that.
Manga-only duels;
vs Katsuya Jonouchi ("Millenium World Arc")
Vs unamed battle city participant.
Source - Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Chapter 119.
Vs other participants (who are not "Bonz").
He clearly mentioned their were locater cards he gained from the other participant's of battle city, thiss in the middle panel of the page i posted above.
Both continuities include these other duels;
vs Bonz (battle city arc)
In the manga it was less than one page, in the anime half a episode is dedicated to it.
vs Atem (Battle city qaurter finals)
In the anime this's what's said.
In the Manga he gained praise from Kaiba for his skill's. But goes out the same way on his own terms, if their was not a God Card (Slifer/Osiris) involved then the winner of this duel would indeed be Bakura.
vs Yugi (memory world)
Bakura made many smart play's but was in the end outmanuevered, he was a breath away from victory as Yugi had only card remaining in his deck, and it could be argued that Bakura was not at full power or that he simply didnt take this duel seriously enough.
He may not be at full power because his soul was split into three pieces (thief king, honda's body, the darker bakura who was in a room with Atem manipulating hourglasses) their were 3 Bakuras at that time period, it must be a Bakura who was at thirty three percent of his power. Or 50 percent due to one bakura (the theif) dying.
Reason's for him to not take it seriously are simple because he was ony trying to stall Yugi not defeat him, the battle had lower stake's than other important battle's going on simultaneously.
In the Anime bakura was at 200 lifepoint's prior to the last move which resulted in him going down to zero.
In the Manga he had more LP left before the ultimate loss, Bakura was at 2,600 lifepoint's before hitting 0. In both Yugi had 1 card remaining in the deck prior to his victory.
Overall Bakura performed well in both versions of the duel. In the manga he even used Multiply with necromannequin, a extremely smart play that he likely picked up from watching Atem's duelist kingdom matchup with Kaiba.
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His duel with Dark Marik;
It is true that Bakura lost, but i did not include it because its not a duel that he could have won or would have won. Here Bakura's enemy didn't have plot armor unlike Atem who always has plot armor. Bakura fairly lost and made mistakes of being reckless with lifepoints (in the anime) while the duel was only six turn's in the manga.
Comparing his record to other important duelists in yugioh:
Overall the man had 9 duels, but performed well in 8 of them.
Eight divided by Nine is "88 percent". So Bakura did well in eighty-eight % of his matches. The only time he didn't perform well was in the duel against Dark Marik. He was too reckless with the lifepoints and it was too much of a risk.
Note;
Him performing well is what gets a plus in my book and standard's not whether he won or lost because what matters is the reason's why he lost or had uncompleted duel's.
Before you make fun of Bakura understand that Kaiba is pathetic as he was shocked just because a enemy duelist summoned a monster with 2300 ATK in their first turn.
What makes 0 sense.
Bakura had the millenium eye of Pegasus yet he never used it in his duel's with other people. If he did he couldve gained a solid easy win against any opponent by seeing their hand and predicting their moves even quicker.
Bakura has the card "Diabound Kernel" but does not use it in battle city or duelist kingdom, instead only used it in the duel with Kaiba and not even after that. It had immense power when played in combination with other cards.
If he used "Spirit Illusion" & "Dearbound" on Atem's "Back Magician Girl" he could deal 1600 damage. Then combine it with "Spiritualist Medium" (spell card) to raise the ATK of Dearbound even more. He didn't need to wait it out by playing defense with "dark spirit of the silent"
Bakura had the Ectoplasmer spell card and could have used it on Kaiba after beating his blue eyes, that way half his Daibound's current ATK (3,300/2 = 1650) would be dealt as effect damage to Kaiba, winning Bakura the duel. Since he already absorbed the white lightning attack their wouldn't be a need for him to continue or stall this match.
In the last duel he had which was against Yugi himself if Bakura had not decided to get greedy and speed up the pace of the duel by activating "Necro Jar"s effect (in the anime as the manga has a different continuity of event's) then he would have been the winner.
If he hadn't done that then the remainder of cards in yugi's deck would be sent to the GY on their own and Yugi would not have drawn the final card left at the bottom of his deck, the one only key card which could put a stop to Bakura's undead lockdown. Yet again because of plot armor (or poor writing) bakura got cheated out of his well deserved win.
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Intro; as an added bonus to this post. Below are three hypothesis's or analysis's of mine that compare Bakura to other major characters/duelists popular with the fandom.
Why Bakura is greater than Dartz.
Shuneros not only requires certain condition's to be met for its summonings possibility but it also loses ATK each turn, so its basically a rotting corpse or a dying old soldier that succumbs to it's own weakness.
Kyutora could be spared by Bakura to ensure Shuneros/Divine Serpent Geh never get summoned as if Kyutora is not destroyed then Shuneros will never be summoned. Kyutora also has a fatal flaw of only negating certain type's of damage like battle damage.
So it is not able to do anything in front of effect damage (LP reduction based on card effect's). Bakura can also defeat Dartz through deck outage a tactic that is commonly known as the "Mill Deck" where a duelist beats his opponent by making them somehow discard all cards in their deck.
Bakura could use "Counterbalance" and "Necrodoll Twins" for this to work. He could also use an alternate win condition, similar to Seeker's Exodia Bakura has the Ouija Board that spell's out 5 letters to grant victory instantly regardless of LP & cards remaining in deck's.
Bakura can negate the Seal of Orichalcos by using the combo of "Dark Designator" (spell card) & "Multiple Destruction" (trap card). As that card is only immune to card effects when its placed on the field not if its still in your hand or deck, then it can be discarded by the owner. In the manga Bakura was able to use this strategy to kill Ra (a god monster) before it could be summoned.
Why Bakura is a better player than Seto Kaiba.
I will take into factor only battle city bakura and memory world bakura's decks, so basically two different Bakuras.
(Battle City Bakura) vs any Kaiba (post-duelist kingdom):
He could use dark designator and multiple destruction to get Obelisk in Kaibas and force him to discard it. Then if Kaiba ever revived it with monster reborn all Bakura had to do was use defence position monsters to prevent any damage to his LP & after that turn expires Obelisk returns to the GY.
Another way Bakura could deal with Obelisk is by using Exchange to get it from kaiba's hand, also among the god cards Obelisk is the least complex, hes easier to understand so Bakura wont have the same problem with this Obelisk that he did with Ra.
Bakura could also use Ectoplasmer, to deal effect damage against Kaiba.
Because in the duel with Yami Malik he was able to summon three monsters each with 2 thousand ATK or more, so combining their atks is atleast going to total 6 thousand points, then you half that for Ectoplasmers effect and Kaiba loses 3 thousand LP.
Bakura even has "Jowgen the Spiritualist" which will prevent special summoning, so if Kaiba tries to summon blue eyes white dragons using monster reborn, silent doom, or even "flute of summoning dragon" those are all going to fail.
The only thing Bakura has to watch out for is Kaiba's soul exchange spell card, and even then Bakura would still win by his Ouija Board tactic.
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(Memory World Bakura) vs any Kaiba (post duelist kingdom);
The combination of necro mannequin & multiply will prevent attacks of Obelisk The Tormentor, Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, Blue Eyes Shining Dragon etc.
The power of his Zoma Trap Card will deal effect damage equivalent to double the atk of a monster that destroyed it, if it's Blue Eyes then 6 thousand points of effect damage, if its Ultimate Dragon then it gets even worse with 9 thousand also if its Obelisk still it would happen cause only Obelisk has effect immunity towards trap card's not Kaiba (the owner).
And its possible Obelisk also actually did not have such an immunity to begin with when the incident of Isis predicting that the "Blast Held by A Tribute" (trap card) would work, or when Yugi used two trap card's on Obelisk at his final duel with Atem.
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Why the Shining Dragon (from "Pyramid of Light") won't work against Bakura:
Because it can only allow the owner to choose which card effects work on the dragon itself not on the owner. In simpler terms the dragon is immune not the owner (Kaiba) once the owner falls the dragon will. And Kaiba will fall either by virtue of "Deck OuT" or by "Ouija board" (instant win condition that Bakura uses in Battle City).
It also will fail to break through Multiply, unless Kaiba uses De-Spell (which he only used in Duelist Kingdom not before or after). Otherwise Bakura would multiple necro mannequin (or a different monster) into ten piece's of itself.
Bakura vs Atem (logically, realistically, unbiasedly).
I would also argue that Atem was vastly inferior as a player to Bakura all on the basis of how both players dueled against Yugi whether that be anime or manga.
Atem was hardpressed and lost fairly.
Bakura was hardpressed but he dominated the duel for many rounds. Yugi was hardpressed on the recieving end for most of it here.
If we were to use powerlevels than
Yugi = strongest.
Bakura = mid class.
Atem = lower class.
1st, 2nd, 3rd. As a duelist Bakura was better than Atem but weaker than Yugi.
Bakura is one of the most underrated among duelists of the franchise, whether that be Zexal or 5D's or GX or anything before GX.
Bakura was better than Kaiba, Dartz, Jonouchi and Atem.
