Yu-Gi-Oh! GX - Episode 015

Courting Alexis, known as Tennis Duel of Youth in the Japanese version, is the fifteenth episode of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime.

Summary
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, who ultimately 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.

Harrington's turn

 * 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 takes 1500 damage. Jaden chooses Spell, then changes his choice to Trap, but it is a monster, "Mega Thunderball" (Jaden 4000 → 2500). The chosen card is then removed from play.
 * Sets a card.

Jaden's turn

 * Summons "Elemental Hero Avian" (1000/1000) in Attack Position.
 * Attacks directly, but Harrington activates his face-down "Receive Ace", allowing him to negate the attack and inflict 1500 damage, at a cost of sending the top three cards of his Deck to the Graveyard (Jaden 2500 → 1000).
 * Sets a card.

Harrington's turn

 * Activates "Smash Ace", allowing him to draw a card. If it is a monster, he will inflict 1000 damage to Jaden. He draws "Mystical Shine Ball", but Jaden activates "Feather Wind" to negate "Smash Ace".

Jaden's turn

 * Activates "Polymerization", fusing "Elemental Hero Clayman" and "Elemental Hero Burstinatrix" to Fusion Summon "Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster" (2000/2500) in Attack Position.
 * Attacks directly with "Avian" (Harrington 4000 → 3000).
 * Attacks directly with "Rampart Blaster" (Harrington 3000 → 1000).

Harrington's turn

 * Activates "Deuce". Now, each player may attack with only one monster per turn, and whoever inflicts damage twice without the opponent doing so in-between the two strikes wins.
 * Summons "Big Server" (300/300).
 * Attacks directly via "Big Server's" effect (Jaden 700). Harrington places 1 counter on "Deuce".
 * When it inflicts Battle Damage, "Big Server" lets Harrington add "Service Ace" from his Deck to his hand, while Jaden is allowed to draw 1 card.
 * Activates "Service Ace", with Jaden declaring "Monster". Harrington reveals "Mega Thunderball" in his hand, so Jaden is correct.
 * Equips "Big Server" with "Giant Racket".

Jaden's turn

 * Activates "De-Fusion", returning "Rampart Blaster" to the Extra Deck and Special Summoning "Clayman" (800/2000) and "Burstinatrix" (1200/800) from his Graveyard in attack position.
 * Activates "Feather Shot": In addition to a normal attack, "Elemental Hero Avian" gains 1 additional attack for every other monster Jaden controls.
 * "Avian" attacks "Big Server", with "Giant Racket" negating the first attack.
 * "Avian" attacks "Big Server" again and destroys it (Harrington 300). Jaden places 1 counter on "Deuce", while removing Harrington's counter.
 * "Avian" attacks directly, with "Deuce" letting Jaden add 1 more counter to it.
 * Jaden wins.

Mistakes

 * In the Deuce visualization, Harrington's Deuce Counter wasn't removed when Elemental Hero Avian attacked Big Server the first time. Either way, Jaden wins the duel.

Differences in adaptations
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 English version, 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 English version.

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