Yu-Gi-Oh! - Episode 026

"Champion vs. Creator, Part 1", known as "Save Mokuba! Kaiba vs. Pegasus" in the Japanese version, is the twenty-sixth episode of the Yu-Gi-Oh! second series anime. It first aired in Japan on October 17, 2000 and in the United States on May 18, 2002.

Summary
Yugi, Mai, and Joey have enough Star Chips to enter Pegasus' Castle, but Kemo, will not allow Tea, Tristan, or Bakura in because they are not even Duelists. However, while Mai distracts him they sneak in. They head onto the main balcony, where they meet up with Bandit Keith. Croquet comes in and greets the Duelists telling them there will be an exhibition match for them between Seto Kaiba and Maximillion Pegasus. Seto wants Pegasus to Duel with his Duel Disks but Pegasus says if they use them, Mokuba will operate his for him. Seto, not wanting to Duel his own brother, decides to Duel in a normal Duel Arena instead. The Duel starts with Pegasus toying with Seto, allowing him to destroy his first few monsters. Right when Kaiba tries to summon his "Blue-Eyes", Pegasus activates "Prophecy" in response, and, thanks to his Millennium Eye, Pegasus is able to correctly guess the card Kaiba was about to summon. Kaiba is forced to give Pegasus his "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". Kaiba wonders how Pegasus knew what card he was going to play before he can play it. Without that card in his hand, Kaiba is forced to switch his "Rude Kaiser" into Defense Position. Kaiba then tries to use his "Crush Card" and "Saggi the Dark Clown" combo on Pegasus to destroy all monsters in Pegasus' Deck that have at least 1500 ATK(Yugi and his friends note that this is the same combo Kaiba used on Pegasus' castle, but Yugi claims Pegasus knows it's coming), but Pegasus activates "Negative Energy" to stop Kaiba from using his "Crush Card", pushing Kaiba into a corner.

Featured Duel: Seto Kaiba vs. Maximillion Pegasus
Turn 1: Pegasus


 * Pegasus Sets 1 card then a monster.

Turn 2: Kaiba


 * Kaiba Sets 1 card then Normal Summons "Rude Kaiser" in Attack Position (1800 ATK / 1600 DEF).
 * "Rude Kaiser" attacks and destroys Pegasus's Set monster: "Toon Alligator" (800 ATK / 1600 DEF).

Turn 3: Pegasus


 * Pegasus Normal Summons "Parrot Dragon" in Attack Position (2000 ATK / 1300 DEF).
 * "Parrot Dragon" attacks "Rude Kaiser"
 * Kaiba activates "Mesmeric Control" to negate the attack and reduce the ATK of "Parrot Dragon" by 800 points ("Parrot Dragon": 2000 → 1200 ATK).

(NOTE: The real-life effect of Mesmeric Control is 'During your opponent's turn your opponent cannot change their monster's battle position except with a card effect', it doesn't reduce a monster's ATK power)

Turn 4: Kaiba


 * "Rude Kaiser" attacks and destroys "Parrot Dragon" (Pegasus: 2000 → 1400 Life Points).

Turn 5: Pegasus


 * Pegasus passes his turn.

Turn 6: Kaiba


 * Seto tries to Normal Summon "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", but Pegasus activates "Prophecy"; letting him predict the ATK of his card is more or less than 2000. He guesses right, so it goes into his hand.
 * Kaiba switches "Rude Kaiser" to Defense Position.

Turn 7: Pegasus


 * Pegasus Sets 1 card then a monster.

Turn 8: Kaiba


 * Kaiba Normal Summons "Saggi the Dark Clown" in Attack Position (600 ATK / 1500 DEF) and sets "Crush Card".

Turn 9: Pegasus


 * Pegasus activates his set "Negative Energy" to double the ATK of every DARK monster ("Saggi the Dark Clown": 600 → 1200 ATK), making "Saggi" an illegal Tribute for the "Crush Card".
 * Pegasus Flip Summons "Dark Rabbit" into Attack Position (1100 ATK / 1500 DEF) whose ATK doubles due to "Negative Energy's" effect ("Dark Rabbit": 1100 → 2200 ATK).
 * "Dark Rabbit" attacks and destroys "Saggi the Dark Clown" (Kaiba: 2000 → 1000 Life Points).

Duel concludes next episode.

Differences in adaptations

 * Mesmeric Control and Negative Energy's colors are changed slightly in the English version.
 * Prophecy is changed from a trap card to a spell card in the dub.

Mistakes

 * In the dub, when Kaiba summons "Saggi the Dark Clown", its ATK and DEF are shown as 900/1600 instead of 600/1500.
 * When Pegasus summons "Dark Rabbit", the area around its mouth is colored purple.

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