Joey Wheeler's Decks

Joey Wheeler's Deck has changed numerous times throughout the series. His strategies often involve luck, which is sometimes criticized by other characters. It usually consists of Warrior-Type monsters and later support for "Red-Eyes Black Dragon".

Initially he tried filling his deck with just powerful Monster Cards. His deck becomes more balanced as he learns more about the game.

Duelist Kingdom
During Duelist Kingdom Joey's Deck comprised mainly of Warriors, Beast-Warriors or other tough Anthropomorphic animals.

Since the rules at this stage of the series excluded Tribute Summons, many of his monsters are above Level 4 and could be Summoned without Tributes.

In the anime on the boat trip to Duelist Kingdom, Joey acquired a few additions to his Deck. Yugi gave him the "Time Wizard" card and Joey traded with other people to get "Baby Dragon", "Salamandra", "Shield & Sword" and "Kunai with Chain". During the tournament, Tristan Taylor gave him the card "Lava Battleguard" in the anime. Joey won the card "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" off Rex Raptor by gambling the "Time Wizard" card.

Differences to OCG/TCG Cards

 * "Time Wizard" and "Copycat" were treated as Magic Cards. "Time Wizard's" effect consisted of a spinning roulette. There was a 2 in 3 chance of it stopping on a skull symbol. This would destroy all the controller's monsters and cause them to take damage equal to half the combined ATK of all monsters they controlled. There was a 1 in 3 chance of landing on one of the win symbols, which accelerated time by a thousand years. The result caused all monsters on the field to age, which usually weakened them. In "Baby Dragon's" case, it evolved into "Thousand Dragon". "Dark Magician" became weaker, but gained effects as "Dark Sage" when affected by "Time Wizard" while it was equipped with the Book of Secret Arts.


 * "Flame Swordsman" and "Giltia the D. Knight" were Normal Monsters, although the international dub of the anime, changed the color of the cards to purple making it appear to be a Fusion Monsters to match its real life equivalent, but the card was still used like a Normal Monster.


 * "Thousand Dragon" was not a Fusion Monster. It was not a card, but "Baby Dragon" altered by the effect of "Time Wizard".


 * "Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon" was not included in his Main Deck, but was actually "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" affected by "Metalmorph".

Vs. Duke Devlin
In the anime, Joey dueled Duke Devlin using a Deck made from Booster Packs opened just before the Duel. Yugi objected that Joey shouldn't duel using cards he's not used to. All the cards are from the Thousand Eyes Bible expansion of the actual card game.

Battle City
Many changes are made to Joey's Deck during the Battle City tournament.

With the rules changed to match the OCG and TCG, Joey's Deck includes much less high Level monsters as they must now be Tribute Summoned.

The number of tough Warriors and Beast-Warrior-Type monsters decreases and he includes a few cartoon-like warriors, while many more luck based cards are added.

Due to the Ante rule, Joey loses his "Red-Eyes Black Dragon", but wins a few more rare cards. Although Yugi manages to win back Joey's "Red-Eyes", Joey refuses to take it back and says he'll earn it when he becomes a better duelist (in the English dub, he lends it to Yugi to help defeat Marik). In later arcs of the anime, he is shown to have it again, so it is assumed he defeated Yugi in the Duel following the tournament. In the manga, Joey's last duel was his match with Marik, so that issue never came up.

Possessed Deck
During the tournament, Joey gets possessed by Marik Ishtar and is forced to duel Yugi. Marik adds a number of Magic Cards to his Deck, while allow him to directly destroy monsters and inflict damage, although such cards were outlawed in this tournament.

Dream Deck
After losing to Marik, Joey falls into a coma, where he dreams he is participating in another tournament. This tournament uses early rules, prior to Battle City and Joey uses a different Deck, consisting of Warrior-Type monsters. (In the original Japanese version, Joey is having a flashback to the tournament he entered in episode 2.)

Virtual World
In Noah Kaiba's virtual world, Joey was made to construct a Deck to use in this world. He made one close to his Battle City Deck, but also included a number of "Harpie" cards as a homeage to Mai Valentine.

He used "Flame Swordsman" as his Deck Master, where it could distribute its ATK among Joey's other monsters.

He teamed up with Yugi to face the Big Five. Here Joey was able to combine "Flame Swordsman" with Yugi's Deck Master, "Dark Magician" to form "Dark Flare Knight" and "Mirage Knight" who became their shared Deck Master.

Waking the Dragons
Joey's deck had evolved to incorporate even more luck cards. He also has included cards that end the opponents turns as well as Armor cards, much to Valon's surprise. The main addition, however, is "The Claw of Hermos" which can fuse with monster cards to become Equip Cards.

Grand Championship
In the Grand Championship Joey's Deck incorporates more support for low level monsters, such as the Landstar monsters. He continues his luck cards as well as his more memorable cards like "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" and "Jinzo."

Dawn of the Duel
He has not been seen Dueling properly during this arc, but he used cards from previous arcs while he's in Ancient Egypt to protect himself and others from Zorc Necrophades.

Dark Duel Stories
Joey's deck from Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories is loosely based on his early Battle City Deck from the manga, featuring Red-Eyes B. Dragon as his signature card. Other monsters previously used by Joey include Mountain Warrior, Time Wizard and Swordsman of Landstar. Other than that, Joey's deck was stacked with many weaker low-level monsters to reflect his low-level in the game.

World Championship Tournament 2004

 * See also: Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament 2004 Opponents

Joey Wheeler is a Level 3 opponent in World Championship Tournament 2004. In order to unlock him, the player must defeat all of the Level 2 Duelists at least five times and have a "Jinzo" in their Trunk, but not in their Deck. If they can amass at least ten wins and maintain at least a 50% win ratio against Joey, the former stipulation no longer applies.

Joey's Deck is full of high-ATK monsters. Many of his Level 4 monsters have 2000 ATK or more, but suffer from various restrictions, such as changing to Defense Position after the Battle Phase or losing ATK for every monster destroyed. He also has some dangerous Effect Monsters, such as "Jinzo" and "Time Wizard", and he almost always activates the latter's effect successfully, making it difficult to keep monsters on the field.

He has generic Spells and only a few Traps, which mostly focus on strengthening his own monsters or getting rid of his opponent's monsters to give him a clear shot at their Life Points. If he gets the chance, he'll also use "Polymerization" to bring out one of three deadly Fusion Monsters: the 1700-ATK, potentially-Direct Attacking "Alligator's Sword Dragon", the 2400-ATK "Thousand Dragon", or his strongest monster, the 3200-ATK "Black Skull Dragon".

On the other hand, Joey's Deck has no Spell or Trap negation apart from Jinzo, and very little defense against monster Summons (other than his "Ring of Destruction" cards). He also tends to Summon "Time Wizard" in Attack Position to make use of its effect immediately, which leaves him vulnerable to taking a large amount of Battle Damage from a powerful monster.