Red-Eyes Black Dragon

Red-Eyes Black Dragon (or Red-Eyes for short) is a card in the Yu-Gi-Oh! universe.

It is the signature card of Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler in the English-language anime) in the original manga and the second series anime. In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, the card is the signature card of Nightshroud (Darkness in the Japanese version) in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.

Red-Eyes is one of the three main signature cards of the Yu-Gi-Oh! series and as a result, is an important pop culture icon in and of itself. At 2400 ATK, it is the weakest of the three cards. The other two are Yugi Moto's Dark Magician (2500 ATK) and Seto Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon (3000 ATK). Its signature attack is 'Inferno Fire Blast'

While it is weak on its own (compared to Blue Eyes), the strength of the Red-Eyes was explained in the first Yu-Gi-Oh! movie: "The Blue-Eyes brings victory, but the Red-Eyes brings potential." The Red-Eyes possesses more combos than the Blue-Eyes, including two fusions that are more powerful than a lone Blue-Eyes. The Red-Eyes is considered by characters in the anime and manga to be the second most powerful dragon in the game, even though other creatures such as Tyrant Dragon eclipse it in raw power.

It should also be noted that the word 'Black' on the English card of Red-Eyes Black Dragon is replaced with a B. making it say Red-Eyes B. Dragon.

Card Specs

• Attribute (Main-Type): DARK
• Type (Sub-Type): Dragon
• Level: 7
• Attack Points: 2400
• DeFence Points: 2000
• Card Text: A ferocious dragon with a deadly attack.

There are two different versions of Red-Eyes. One was an ultra-rare released in the Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon set and in the North American Joey Starter Deck (Jonouchi Structure deck in Japan). The second was released as a ultra rare Shonen Jump promo card, a super rare in the Dark Beginning 1 booster packs, a common in the Dragon's Roar Structure Deck, and a secret rare in the Power of Chaos: Joey the Passion PC game.

Appearances

The card made its debut in Episode 12, Trial by Red Eyes (Black Flame! Red Eyes Black Dragon in Japan), where it was utilized by Rex Raptor and destroyed Joey's Swamp Battleguard and Lava Battleguard and took him down to 235 life points. Then Rex put up a bet saying that the winner of the duel wins the other player's current card on the field. Joey had his Time Wizard on the field and bet it for Rex's Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Joey then used Time Wizard's special ability and succeeded in getting the time roulette to land on a Time Machine. This effect aged the Red-Eyes Black Dragon and fossilized it, effectively destroying it and wiping out Rex's life points with Time Wizard. Because of the bet, Red-Eyes Black Dragon went into Joey's hands.

Since then, it has been seen in almost every one of Joey's duels. In Episode 55, Stalked by the Rare Hunters (Ghouls Attack: Take Aim at Red Eyes Black Dragon in Japan), Joey was forced into a duel with a Rare Hunter and had to bet his Red-Eyes Black Dragon. The Rare Hunter won with Exodia and took the card away. In the next two episodes, Yugi would defeat the Rare Hunter and win back the card. Joey, however, tells Yugi that he does not deserve that card until he can prove that he is a true duellist. Red-Eyes would end up helping Yugi in two of his most important duels in Battle City: against a Marik-controlled Joey and against Seto in the finals. After Battle City, Joey and Yugi would duel for the card and Joey would win, although it is not shown in the anime. Later, Joey would utilize the card he won back in a duel in the anime-exclusive filler arc, KC Grand Championships.

Relation to Blue-Eyes White Dragon

Red-Eyes Black Dragon is considered a counterpart to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. In the anime, Yugi makes a comment AbOUT the Red-Eyes Black Dragon's powers rivaling those of a Blue-Eyes. If one looks at attack points alone, this appears inaccurate, as the Blue-Eyes ATK 3000 is much stronger. However, the first Yu-Gi-Oh! movie summarizes the hidden power of the Red-Eyes: "While the Blue-Eyes White Dragon brings victory, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon brings potential. Somewhere, a card must exist to bring out that potential." (Rough translation from fansub.) In the movie, Yugi defeats Kaiba in a duel using a Red-Eyes Black Dragon borrowed from a friend by fusing it with Meteor Dragon. The power that Yugi is referring to is not that of the Red-Eyes by itself but of its potential to fuse as both of the Red-Eyes fusions have higher attack points than a lone Blue-Eyes.

The Two dragons are true counterparts, not only in name and look, but also in duelling style. Both have cards that are made for them only, or with them in mind. Below is a chart of all cards meant to support Blue-Eyes and their Red-Eyes counterparts.

• Kaibaman/Red-Eyes B. Chick
• Paladin of White Dragon/Knight of Dark Dragon
• Burst Stream of Destruction/Inferno Fire Blast
• Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon/Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon

The Blue-Eyes can only fuse into Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. The Red-Eyes, unlike the Blue-Eyes, has two fusions: Black Skull Dragon and Meteor Black Dragon. And while the Blue-Eyes can fuse into an Ultimate form, Red-Eyes can combine with Metalmorph to create Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon. Also, though the Red-Eyes has no "Ultimate" form per se, there are two other Fusions. Lord of the Red appears as a warrior wearing a suit of armour modeled after the skin of a Red-Eyes. This can be compared to the outfit of Kaibaman, as Kaibaman's outfit is designed to resemble a Blue-Eyes.

There is also a metaphorical meaning between these two cards. Seto Kaiba controls the stronger Blue-Eyes White Dragon, while Katsuya Jonouchi (Joey Wheeler) is the user of the slightly weaker Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Kaiba often considers Jonouchi an inferior duellist, despite Jonouchi's various victories. The dark, often gritty look of Red-Eyes can also be seen as a representation of Jonouchi's street-smarts and small beginnings, and the Blue-Eyes a symbol of Kaiba's power and grandeur.

Furthermore, "Yu-Gi-Oh!" is based on a scheme of three protagonists, a triumvirate made of Yugi, Kaiba, and Jonouchi. Each also has their respective signature monster. While Kaiba's is the most powerful, Yugi's Dark Magician has more abilities and can defeat this superior foe. Jounouchi is the weakest of the three duellists, his ability based on his standing as a regular human and not his ties to the past. As such, the Red-Eyes, with its underdog attack points but potential to become the best, is an excellent metaphorical match.

Playability

Despite the number of Red-Eyes support cards, it is difficult to create a Deck around the Red-Eyes Black Dragon due to the general weakness of the support cards in question. The first and foremost problem is that the Deck is centered around a two tribute monster with only 2400 attack points and has no effects to compensate for these factors. Its Blue-Eyes counterpart is still the single most powerful "vanilla" (monsters that have no effects) monster in the game, with a large 3000 ATK points making it an effective "beatstick" (monster that is GeneRally only used for attacking). Due to Red-Eyes inferiority in this category, a deck around it must have other methods of winning.

Due to the lack of Knight of Dark Dragon, the Red-Eyes equivalent of Paladin of White Dragon, Red-Eyes is forced to rely upon Red-Eyes B. Chick as the only alternate method of bringing it to the field. This is a serious disadvantage, as Red-Eyes Black Chick is a poor substitute to Knight of Dark Dragon in bringing Red-Eyes Black Dragon onto the field since the former requires Red-Eyes already in the hand while the other can search from the deck in order to bring it out. Getting Red-Eyes into one's hand is also difficult, as it is unsearchable by all cards in the current format, and as such, it is difficult to utilize it with Red-Eyes Black Chick in such a manner.

Inferno Fire Blast is a support card that offers a large amount of damage offered with the strict requirement of having a Red-Eyes Black Dragon on the field. Due to the difficulty mentioned above with Red-Eyes Black Chick, this is a difficult requirement to fulfill. Due to this, this card is often dead-weight in one's hand as Red-Eyes is rarely on the field.

Even if Red-Eyes does get onto the field, the player quickly finds that its inferiority in terms of statistics as well as a lack of protection quickly leads to its demise. Cards such as Mobius the Frost Monarch and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch can easily match it in terms of attack points, and both of these monsters are one tribute and are heavily used in the Trading Card Game. Red-Eyes' lack of an effect also means that it has nothing else to offer, including protection, hence it is highly vulnerable to the commonly played Smashing Ground and Sakuretsu Armor.

Because of Red-Eyes' general weakness as shown above, the best way to use it is fusion: B. Skull Dragon and Meteor Black Dragon. Instead of using the traditional method of fusing by using Polymerization, which promotes poor hand management due to the number of cards required before such a thing can be executed and also the number of cards that will be lost for this to work, an alternate method will be used. Using Dragon's Mirror, one can fuse the monsters in the Graveyard for a dragon type fusion monster, so getting Red-Eyes and the necessary monsters into the Graveyard should be the overall objective. Instead of using Summoned Skull and Meteor Dragon, however, "Fusion Substitutes" such as King of the Swamp and The Dark - Hex-Sealed Fusion can be utilized in its place. Magical Merchant and Graceful Charity are both easy ways of getting these cards into the Graveyard. From here, the Fusions can be brought out, and their attack power is great enough to nullify that part of Red-Eyes' weakness, hence they are much more effective.

Black Dragon Series

Monster Cards

Red-Eyes B. Chick

• Attribute (Main-Type): DARK
• Type (Sub-Type): Dragon/Effect
• Level: 1
• Attack Points: 800
• Defense Points: 500
• Card Text: Tribute this card on your side of the field to Special Summon 1 "Red-Eyes B. Dragon" from your hand.

Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon

• Attribute (Main-Type): DARK
• Type (Sub-Type): Dragon/Effect
• Level: 9
• Attack Points: 2400
• Defence Points: 2000
• Card Text: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned, except by tributing 1 "Red Eyes B. Dragon" on your side . Increase the ATK of this card by 300 points for every Dragon-Type monster in your Graveyard.

This card has only appeared in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Nightshroud, the first of the seven shadow riders, summoned it after his Mirage Dragon was destroyed. His dragon then gained 2100 attack points, because 7 dragons were in his Graveyard, raising its attack points to 4500. Near the end of the duel, Jaden Yuki brought his Elemental Hero Wildheart via The Warrior Returning Alive and summoned it to the field. He then used Wild-Half and cut Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon into 2 monsters with 3300 attack points. He then fused Wildheart with Elemental Hero Bladedge to summon Elemental Hero Wildedge and used Skyscraper and increase Wildedge's attack points by 1000 because of the dragons' higher attack power and attacked all of Nightshroud's monsters, winning the duel

B. Skull Dragon

• Attribute (Main-Type): DARK
• Type (Sub-Type): Dragon/Fusion
• Level: 9
• Attack Points: 3200
• Defense Points: 2500
• Card Text: "Red Eyes B. Dragon" + "Summoned Skull"

This card is only ever seen three times when Joey and Yugi are with each other, duelling. It was first seen in their duel with the Paradox Brothers. Since the Brothers used the monster card Labyrinth Wall to create a maze, it prevented all flying creatures from moving (the real Labyrinth Wall has no effect). Fortunately for both of them Yugi used Monster Replace to swap places with his Dark Magician and the Black Skull Dragon. Powered up by a duplicated Riryoku, thanks to Joey's Copycat, the Black Skull Dragon demolished the Brothers' Gate Guardian and their life points, winning the duel. It was seen again when Joey and Yugi duelled each other. Joey used Graverobber to take Summoned Skull from Yugi's Graveyard (in the real-life version of the game, Graverobber only takes a spell card, and only for one turn), then used Copycat to use Polymerization, again, from Yugi's Graveyard. It was used later in the duel, by Yugi, to defeat Joey. The third time is when they attempt to rescue Kaiba from the Virtual World, and fuse the Black Skull Dragon to once again defeat Gate Guardian.

Meteor B. Dragon

• Attribute (Main-Type): FIRE
• Type (Sub-Type): Dragon/Fusion
• Level: 8
• Attack Points: 3500
• Defense Points: 2000
• Card Text: "Red Eyes B. Dragon" + "Meteor Dragon"

Note: This card has not been released in America or Europe nor has Meteor Dragon

Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon

• Attribute (Main-Type): DARK
• Type (Sub-Type): Machine/Effect
• Level: 8
• Attack Points: 2800
• Defense Points: 2400
• Card Text: This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set this card can only be Special Summoned from your Deck by tributing 1 “Red-Eyes B. Dragon” equipped with “Metalmorph” from your side of the field. Your Deck is then shuffled.

This card has only been seen during Joey Wheeler's duel with Bandit Keith. Keith was about to attack Joey's Red-Eyes Black Dragon with his Barrel Dragon when Joey responded by flipping his Copycat face-up and duplicating Bandit Keith's Metal-Morph that existed in his Graveyard, transforming his Red-Eyes Black Dragon into Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon, and giving his new monster enough attack power to counter-attack Keith's Barrel Dragon. Near the end of the duel, Keith took Joey's Shield and Sword and used it to switch his powered-up Slot Machine's attack points and defence points, allowing him to destroy Joey's Metal Dragon. However, after the Red-Eyes was destroyed, Joey used Graverobber to steal and use Keith's Time Machine and bring back his dragon before Shield and Sword 's effect took place. With its attack strength higher than Slot Machine 's, Joey's Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon destroyed it and Keith's remaining Life Points, winning the Duel. It should be noted that the Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon was not used during Joey's duel with Rex Raptor, who was possessed by the Seal of Orichalcos, possibly because his Deck does not contain the Metal dragon, or perhaps because the effect of Metalmorph effectively allowed Red-Eyes to become strong enough without becoming the Red-Eyes Metal Dragon.

Note: Unlike the other "Black Dragon" cards, this card did not have the word "Black" replaced by "B."

Lord of the Red (Anime exclusive)

• Attribute (Main-Type): DARK
• Type (Sub-Type): Warrior/Ritual/Effect
• Level: ?
• Attack Points:' 2400
• Defence Points: 2000
• Card Description: This card can only be Ritual Summoned with the Ritual Spell Card, "Red Eyes Transmigration". When two Spell Cards are played in the same turn, you can activate this card's effect. Destroy all monsters on the field except for this card.

This card is only seen in Episode 3 of Joey's duel with Valon. Its outward appearance is a suit of the Red-Eyes Black Dragon worn by the player who played it. Joey first used it to try and execute an attack on Valon's monsters, but Valon tributed his Black Hole Shield to negate the attack. Its effect came into play when Valon played Monster Reborn to revive Buster Pile, but Joey then activated Scapegoat to activate and use his monster's ability, and destroyed Valon's armour monsters and his Sheep Tokens. It is destroyed on the next turn when Valon used Extinction Fist to negate Joey's next attack and destroy Lord of the Red. Due to ''Extinction Fists' ' effect (which was not said in the English anime) it allowed Joey to special summon the monsters that were used for the ritual summon. It also made an appearance in Capsule Monsters when a possessed Joey wore Red-Eyes as "Duel Armour".

Knight of Dark Dragon (Anime exclusive)

• Attribute (Main-Type): DARK
• Type (Sub-Type): Dragon/Ritual/Effect
• Level: 4
• Attack Points: 1900
• Defence Points: 1200
• Card Text: This card can only be Ritual Summoned by the Ritual Spell card "Dark Dragon Ritual". You can tribute this card to Special Summon 1 'Red Eyes B. Dragon' from your Deck. (Red Eyes B. Dragon cannot attack during the turn this effect is used.)

Seen twice, but only played properly once, in the series. Its first appearance was during Joey's second duel with Mai Valentine, who possessed the Seal of Orichalcos, where it was summoned to get Joey's Red-Eyes Black Dragon to the field so he could use it to create the Red-Eyes Black Dragon Sword. Its next appearance is in Episode 191, when Joey was duelling Zigfried von Schroeder, where it was drawn due to the effect of Zigfried's Nibelung's Ring. It is then discarded due to the ring's side effect.

Spell Cards

Inferno Fire Blast

• Attribute (Main-Type): Spell
• Type (Sub-Type): Normal

Select 1 face-up "Red-Eyes B. Dragon" on your side of the field to activate this card. Inflict damage to your opponent's Life Points equal to the original ATK of the selected "Red-Eyes B. Dragon". "Red-Eyes B. Dragon" cannot attack during the turn you use this card.

Nails Of Bain (Dragon Nails)(Anime exclusive)

• Attribute (Main-Type): Spell
• Type (Sub-Type): Equip

Increase the ATK of an equipped DARK Dragon-Type monster by 600 points.

Red-Eyes Transmigration (Anime exclusive)

• Attribute (Main-Type): Spell
• Type (Sub-Type): Ritual

This card is used to Ritual Summon "Lord of the Red". You must also offer 1 "Red Eyes B. Dragon" and 1 other Warrior-Type monster as Tributes from your hand or field.

Dark Dragon Ritual (Anime exclusive)

• Attribute (Main-Type): Spell
• Sub-Type: Ritual

This card is used to Ritual Summon "Knight of Dark Dragon". You must also offer monsters whose total Level Stars equal 4 or more as Tributes from your hand or field.

Red-Eyes Black Dragon Sword (Anime exclusive)

• Attribute (Main-Type): Spell
• Spell (Sub-Type): Equip

"Red Eyes B. Dragon" + "Claw of Hermos". Increase the ATK of the equipped monster by 1000 points, plus an additional 500 points for each Dragon-Type monster on the field.