PaniK

Panik, known as Player Killer of Darkness in the manga and Japanese anime, is a player eliminator hired by Maximillion Pegasus. He appears to be a rather brutal man and as Yugi Muto and his group arrive, Mai has just been defeated by him.

In order to salvage the situation and return Mai's Star Chips, Yami Yugi challenges Panik to a Duel. Upon losing, Panik then activates the flame ejectors that are in the ring, attempting to incinerate Yami Yugi. However, Yami Yugi is safe because of the power of the Millennium Puzzle, and he inflicts a Mind Crush on Panik.

In the English anime, Panik's soul is sent to the Shadow Realm. In the Japanese anime, Yami Yugi killed or sent Panik into a coma by inflicting a Mind Crush on him. In the manga, Panik was given a Penalty Game that gives him the illusion of being hanged.

Because of his brutality and the apparent frequency with which he knocks duelists out of the tournament, he wears 2 double-sized Dueling Gauntlets. This may likely reference his role as a Player Killer as well; during their duel in the manga, Yami Yugi pondered if Panik's role was to eliminate 10 of the 21 finalists. In the manga, instead of flamethrowers, Panik has a cord from the glove that he uses to bind the opponents by their neck to prevent escape, and to strangle them if he gets angry.

Panik also appeared in the Waking the Dragons arc as one of the lost souls wandering the sacred circle Yami Yugi ventures through to find his other half.

Deck
Panik plays a Darkness Deck. Using the duel system holographic simulator, he produces darkness with "Castle of Dark Illusions" in order to hide from attacks while launching his own. If that fails, he resorts to increasing the DEF of his monsters. Yami Yugi claims that Panik's tactics are those of a coward.

Most of his cards have unusual ATK and DEF values: Whilst most cards' ATK/DEF values end in 00 or 50, most of Panik's cards end in other values, such as 10, 30, 80, etc. Interestingly his main attacking monsters, "Barox", "Dark Chimera" and "King of Yamimakai" all have the same amount of DEF points in the anime.