Dark Yugi and Maximillion J. Pegasus' TV Duel (manga)

Yami Yugi and Pegasus' TV Duel was a Duel in which Yami Yugi and Maximillion Pegasus dueled through a videotape. Pegasus appeared on the video, claiming to be prerecorded, knowing what moves Yami Yugi would make.

In the manga, Yugi took part in the beginning of the Duel, until he realized that it was a Shadow Game and allowed Dark Yugi (Yami Yugi) to take over.

This Duel used an early set of Duel Monsters rules, which vary from the Yu-Gi-Oh! Official and Trading Card Game and a number of cards have different properties.

Prior events
When the Duel Monsters champion, Seto Kaiba was defeated by Yugi Muto, KaibaCorp's reputation was damaged. Maximillion Pegasus used this as an opportunity to overthrow Seto Kaiba and take control of the company. Part of his plan involved defeating Yugi in an official Duel to restore its reputation when he got control. Pegasus planned this unofficial Duel as a means of coaxing Yugi into taking part in the Duelist Kingdom tournament, where he could face him in an official one. He created a videotape to use as a means of communicating with Yugi and mailed it to him with equipment for Duelist Kingdom.

Yugi watched the tape along with Téa Gardner, Joey Wheeler, Grandpa and Tristan Taylor (Tristan was not present in the manga.) Pegasus appeared on the screen and complemented Yugi on defeating Kaiba. Pegasus expressed his desire to test Yugi's skill and challenged Yugi to a game of Duel Monsters. The notion of Dueling a prerecording seemed impossible, but Yugi accepted. (In the anime, Pegasus caused everyone in the room except Yugi to freeze before he accepted the Duel and Yugi then switched to Dark Yugi.)

The Duel (manga)

 * The following events are from the manga only.

Yugi Summoned "Koumori Dragon" (ATK: 1500). On the TV screen, Pegasus correctly stated what card Yugi played; something a prerecording shouldn't be able to know. Pegasus claimed to know Yugi would play that card and what cards were in Yugi's hand. He predicted that Yugi was planning on combining "Koumori Dragon" with "Dragon Knight" on his next turn to increase its power. Secretly Pegasus was using his Millennium Eye to read Yugi's mind. Pegasus countered with "Dragon Capture Jar", which sealed "Koumori Dragon" inside itself. When Yugi saw the illustration on the card getting sucked out and drawn into the TV screen, he realizes that they were playing a Shadow Game, so he switched to Dark Yugi.

Dark Yugi drew "Baby Dragon". It would only get sucked into "Dragon Capture Jar", so he played "Silver Fang" (ATK: 1200) instead. Pegasus said he know Dark Yugi was going to play a Beast and power it up with "Mystical Moon" next turn. Pegasus countered with "Dragon Piper" (ATK: 200) and used its effect to Summon "Koumori Dragon" from the jar. "Koumori Dragon" attacked "Silver Fang" and since it used a fire-based attack it gained ATK when battling Beasts (ATK: 1500 → 1700). "Silver Fang" was destroyed. (Dark Yugi: 2000 → 1500 Life Points). Pegasus joked that it must have been "jarring" for Yugi.

Dark Yugi Summoned "Great White"(ATK: 1600), but Pegasus countered with "Oscillo Hero #2" (ATK: 1000). Water monsters' ATK are halved when battling Lightning monsters (Great White: 1600 → 800 ATK), so "Great White" was destroyed by battle (Dark Yugi: 1500 → 1300 Life Points). Pegasus joked that he understood Yugi's "shock".

At this point, Pegasus explained that Yugi was to take part in the upcoming Duelist Kingdom tournament should he lose. Dark Yugi asked what would happened if he refused, but Pegasus claimed that was irrelevant as Dark Yugi was going to lose.

Dark Yugi was about to play "Undead Warrior", but realized he was about to do it out of pure instinct. He suspected Pegasus was using subliminal messages to tell him what cards to play, which would explain how Pegasus knew what cards he was going to play in advance. Instead Dark Yugi played "Dark Magician" (ATK: 2500) face-down. He then asked Grandpa, Jonouchi and Anzu to guess off the top of their heads what he played. They guessed a skull, a warrior and a skeleton, reinforcing Dark Yugi's suspicion that Pegasus put a subliminal message in the tape to implant the idea of a skeleton into the viewers' head.

Pegasus said that Yugi played a Zombie, so he Summoned "Rogue Doll" (ATK: 1600), who had an advantage over Zombies. "Rogue Doll" attacked the face-down "Dark Magician", causing itself to be destroyed (Pegasus: 2000 → 1100 Life Points). Pegasus claimed to have know it was "Dark Magician", but attacked anyway to keep things fair. Since the tape contained footage of "Rogue Doll" being destroyed, Dark Yugi thought Pegasus might be telling the truth. At some point, Pegasus switched "Oscillo Hero #2" and "Dragon Piper" to Defense Mode (DEF: 500) (DEF: 1800).

Pegasus said that there was only so much film left on the tape, so he imposed a time limit of 15 minutes; If neither player had won before the time ran out, whoever had the most Life Points would be declared the winner. Pegasus ended his turn when the timer reached 13:58.

Dark Yugi attacked and destroyed "Koumori Dragon" with "Dark Magician" (Pegasus: 1100 → 300 Life Points).

Pegasus drew "Illusionist Faceless Mage". He Summoned it (ATK: 1200) and equipped it with "Eye of Deception". He chose "Dark Magician" as the monster for "Illusionist Faceless Mage" to control with "Eye of Deception". Dark Yugi mistook this action as the two monsters battling, but neither of them were destroyed.

The timer was at at 5:03 as Dark Yugi began his turn. He was able to win on Life Point difference by doing nothing until the timer ran out, but considered that cowardly. He drew "Celtic Guardian" and Summoned it (ATK: 1400). He attempted to attack "Illusionist Faceless Mage" with "Celtic Guardian". However, through the effect of "Eye of Deception", Pegasus got it to battle "Dark Magician" instead, resulting in "Celtic Guardian" being destroyed (Yugi: 1300 → 200 Life Points).

Pegasus Set a card and ended his turn with the timer at 0:13.

Dark Yugi drew "Summoned Skull" and Summoned it (ATK: 2500). He attacked "Illusionist Faceless Mage" with it, but the timer hit 0, before the attack went through. Pegasus then won on Life Point difference.

The Duel (anime)

 * The following events are from the anime only.

Aftermath
Pegasus remarked "If that battle had gone on... I would have lost... or would I?" He said that Yugi had more talent than he expected and predicted they would meet again at Duelist Kingdom. As the Yugis Penalty Game for losing, Pegasus sucked the soul of Grandpa into the TV. In the manga, Grandpa's soul was sealed in the videotape more specifically and Yugi was able to communicate with him through any device that could play the tape.