Yu-Gi-Oh! GX - Episode 167

"Gratitude Duel! Cronos vs. Original Dropout Boy" is the one hundred and sixty-seventh episode of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime. It first aired in Japan on December 26, 2007.

Summary
Hassleberry and Blair have finished the graduation album photos and hand the flash drive containing them to Dr. Crowler. He previews the photos, and privately seems upset that everyone is growing up and leaving Duel Academy. Jaden has been skipping classes again, and Hassleberry and Blair inform him that Crowler's manner has changed. He chastises the third year students, making them do tests in basic math to ensure they can calculate Life Points, write Chinese text to understand card effects, and even makes them do push-ups. He then begins canceling classes, and the students begin to fear that they won't have sufficient grades to graduate if he keeps doing so.

Crowler goes to great lengths to hide from his students, and this ultimately results in a chase across the Academy, even leading them through Chancellor Sheppard's office. They finally corner him, and he states he won't allow them to graduate. Jaden asks why, and Crowler reveals that Jaden himself does not have sufficient points to graduate and even calls him "drop-out boy", something he hadn't done in long time (This expression is usually changed to "Slifer Slacker" in the dub). Jaden challenges Crowler to a Duel, and the latter accepts, with him promising to allow everyone to graduate should Jaden defeat him.

Jaden Summons "Elemental Hero Flame Wingman" early on. Crowler expects this, and removes it form play using his "Unfinished Time Box" Trap Card. He then successfully Summons three "Ancient Gear Golems" and reduces Jaden's Life Points to 200. Jaden comments that Crowler is a great teacher, and thanks him for showing him such an awesome combo. He strikes back using "Elemental Hero Flare Neos" and "Instant Neo Space". At this point, Crowler breaks down crying, and reveals that he doesn't want them to graduate as he will miss them. Many of the students even begin cheering for Crowler, telling him not to give up. Crowler unveils his most powerful monster - "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem, with an attack of 4400. Despite being reduced 100 Life Points, Jaden still appears optimistic, and Crowler himself wishes to see how Jaden will turn the situation around and defeat him.

Jaden does, freeing his "Flame Wingman" from "Unfinished Time Box" with a combination of "Elemental Hero Air Neos" and "Cyclone Wing". He activates "Demise of the Land", which lets him activate "Skyscraper" in the middle of his Battle Phase, and destroying Crowler's "Ancient Gear Golem", winning the Duel the same way he won their previous Duel. Crowler comments that he's learned just as many things from his students as they've hopefully learned from his. With this, Crowler begins teaching classes again, but forces Jaden to do all the work he's missed in his skipped classes.

Crowler's turn

 * Summons "Ancient Gear Soldier" (1300/1300) in Defense Position
 * Sets a card.

Jaden's turn

 * Activates "Polymerization" and fuses Elemental Heroes "Avian" and "Burstinatrix", forming "Elemental Hero Flame Wingman" (2100/1200), in Attack Position.
 * Attacks and destroys "Ancient Gear Soldier", activating "Flame Wingman's" effect, inflicting effect damage to Crowler equal to his destroyed monster's ATK (Crowler: 4000 → 2700).
 * Crowler activates his face-down "Unfinished Time Box", which removes "Flame Wingman" from play—since it destroyed one of Crowler's monsters this turn—and also lets Crowler draw a card.
 * Summons "Elemental Hero Clayman" (800/2000) in Defense Position.

Crowler's turn

 * Activates "Crazy Summon Gear", selecting "Clayman": this forces Jaden to Summon "Elemental Hero Sparkman" (1600/1400) in Attack Position and "Elemental Hero Wildheart" (1500/1600) in Defense Position from his Deck and also allows Crowler to Summon the "Ancient Gear Soldier" (1300/1300) in his Graveyard and 2 more copies from his Deck.
 * Activates "Spell Gear", sending his 3 "Ancient Gear Soldiers" to the Graveyard and Special Summoning three "Ancient Gear Golems" (3000/3000) in their place, one from his Deck and two from his hand, ignoring the summoning conditions.
 * Attacks Jaden's monsters with his 3 "Ancient Gear Golems", which inflict piercing damage on his Defense Position monsters (Jaden: 4000 → 3000 → 1600 → 200).
 * Sets a card.

Jaden's turn

 * Sends the top 5 cards of his Deck ("Elemental Hero Necroshade", "Elemental Hero Neos", "Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab", "Necro Gardna" and "Hero Signal") to the Graveyard to activate "Take Over 5". During his Standby Phase, he may remove this card in the Graveyard from play to draw a card. In addition, while "Take Over 5" is in the Graveyard, he is immune to effects that send cards from his Deck to the Graveyard.
 * Activates "Miracle Contact", returning "Elemental Hero Neos" and "Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab" from his Graveyard to his Deck, Special Summoning "Elemental Hero Flare Neos" (2500/2000) in Attack Position.
 * Equips "Flare Neos" with "Instant Neo Space", allowing it to remain on the field instead of returning to his Deck at the End Phase.
 * "Flare Neos" also gains 400 additional ATK for each Spell and Trap Card on the field, and there are 3. (3700/2000)
 * "Flare Neos" attacks and destroys 1 of Crowler's "Ancient Gear Golems" (Crowler: 3700 → 2000).

Crowler's turn

 * Activates "Ancient Gear Workshop", returning the "Ancient Gear Golem" in his Graveyard to his hand.
 * Activates "Polymerization", fusing the "Ancient Gear Golem" in this hand with the two on the field to Fusion Summon "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem" (4400/3400) in Attack Position.
 * "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem" attacks "Flare Neos", with Jaden removing from play the "Necro Gardna" in his Graveyard to negate the attack.
 * Activates his face-down "Desperado Battle", reducing "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem's" ATK by 1000 for the duration of the turn and allowing it to attack again.
 * "Elemental Hero Flare Neos" loses 400 ATK, since "Desperado Battle" is no longer on the field (3300/2000)
 * "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem" attacks and destroys "Flare Neos" (Jaden: 200 → 100).
 * With "Flare Neos" having left the field while equipped with "Instant Neo Space", Jaden can now Special Summon "Elemental Hero Neos" (2500/2000) from his Deck.

Jaden's turn

 * Draws "Demise of the Land".
 * During his Standby Phase, Jaden also removes the "Take Over 5" in his Graveyard from play to draw a card.
 * Activates "Fifth Hope", shuffling "Avian", "Burstinatrix", "Sparkman", "Clayman" and "Wildheart" back into his Deck to draw two cards.
 * Summons "Neo-Spacian Air Hummingbird" (800/600).
 * Returns "Neos" and "Air Hummingbird" from the field to his Deck, Special Summoning "Elemental Hero Air Neos" (2500/2000) in Attack Position.
 * "Air Neos" gains ATK equal to the difference in Life Points between Jaden and Crowler, which is 1900. (4400/2000)
 * Equips "Air Neos" with "Cyclone Wing".
 * Attacks "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem", destroying both monsters.
 * "Cyclone Wing" lets him destroy one Spell or Trap Card on the field, and he chooses to destroy "Unfinished Time Box", which Summons "Flame Wingman" (2100/1200) back to the field.
 * The effect of "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem" also activates upon being destroyed, Special Summoning "Ancient Gear Golem" (3000/3000) from the Graveyard, ignoring the Summoning conditions.
 * Activates "Demise of the Land" (since Crowler Special Summoned a monster): This allows him to activate a Field Spell Card from his Deck, and he chooses "Skyscraper".
 * Attacks "Ancient Gear Golem" with "Flame Wingman", with "Flame Wingman" gaining 1000 extra ATK from "Skyscraper" (Crowler: 2000 → 1900).
 * "Flame Wingman's" effect activates, inflicting damage to Crowler's Life Points equal to his destroyed monster's attack points (Crowler: 1900 → 0).
 * Jaden wins.

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