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 would cause all monsters on the field, to age, which usually weakened them and destroy all the opponent's monsters and cause them to take damage equal to half the combined ATK of all monsters they controlled. In "Baby Dragon's" case it got stronger. "Dark Magician" got weaker but gained effects as "Dark Sage" when affected by "Time Wizard" while it was equipped with the Book of Secret Arts.


 * "Flame Swordsman" was a Normal Monster, although the international dub of the anime, changed the color of the card to purple making it appear to be a Fusion Monster 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). Since he is shown to have it back in his deck in later arcs, it is implied he won his duel with Yugi after Battle City. However, Joey's last duel in the manga 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.

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."

Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament 2004

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