Joey Wheeler and Espa Roba faced each other in a game of Duel Monsters, during the Battle City arc, in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. It is based on Katsuya Jonouchi and Esper Roba's Duel in the Yu-Gi-Oh! (manga).

Prior Events

As Joey Wheeler is looking for a new opponent to duel, he arrives just in time to see Rex Raptor be defeated by Espa Roba. After Rex's defeat, he gives Espa his "Serpent Night Dragon" and his Locator Card as per the rules. When Espa asks who would like to duel him next, two duelists are afraid to do so, but then Espa notices Joey and challenges him to a duel, saying it would be an honor to duel against the runner-up of the Duelist Kingdom tournament.

At the hospital, Tristan Taylor greets Serenity Wheeler and sets up a laptop on a table next to her bed. Since all Battle City duels are being monitored, Joey might be dueling, and event though she has her eyes covered, Tristan can give her a play-by-play.

Joey and Espa set the stakes:

Espa Roba wagers his "Jinzo" and Joey wagers his "Time Wizard"

Featured Duel: Joey Wheeler vs. Espa Roba

Turn 1: Joey
Joey's opening hand shows "Swordsman of Landstar", "Skull Dice", "Battle Warrior", "Giltia the D. Knight", and "Flame Swordsman". Joey attempts to Normal Summon "Giltia the D. Knight" in Attack Position.

However, Espa and Rex inform Joey that since the Summoning Conditions in Battle City are different than those in Duelist Kingdom, a Level 5 or higher monster requires at least 1 tribute. Since this is an illegal move, "Giltia the D. Knight" is removed from play.

Turn 2: Espa
Espa draws. He then Normal Summons "Cyber Raider" (1400/1000) in Attack Position. "Cyber Raider" attacks directly (Joey 4000 → 2600).

Turn 3: Joey
Joey draws "Graceful Dice". Joey's hand contains "Swordsman of Landstar", "Graceful Dice", "Skull Dice", "Battle Warrior", and "Flame Swordsman". Joey Normal Summons "Swordsman of Landstar" (500/1200) in Attack Position and Sets two cards.

Yugi watches the duel and notices three boys, each one being one of Espa's younger brothers watching the cards in Joey's hand and relay the information to Espa.

Turn 4: Espa
Espa draws. He receives information from his brothers that Joey has two "Graceful Dice" cards in his hand, and Espa himself guesses both of Joey's face-down cards are Graceful Dice. He then Tributes "Cyber Raider" to Tribute Summon "The Fiend Megacyber" (2200/1200) in Attack Position.

"The Fiend Megacyber" attacks "Swordsman of Landstar", but Joey activates his face-down "Graceful Dice" to roll a die and multiply the ATK of "Swordsman of Landstar" by the result. Joey gets a three ("Swordsman of Landstar": 500 → 1500/1200). Joey then activates his other face-down card. Espa tells him he can't activate both "Graceful Dice" cards on the same turn, but Joey reveals the other card wasn't "Graceful Dice", but rather Skull Dice". Joey activates "Skull Dice"to roll a die and divide the ATK of "The Fiend Megacyber" by the result. Joey gets a five ("The Fiend Megacyber": 2200 → 440/1200). "Swordsman of Landstar" destroys "The Fiend Megacyber" (Espa 4000 → 2940).

At this point, Joey points out that Espa Roba was cheating and Commissioner Mokuba catches Espa Roba's brothers helping him. Mokuba is about to expel Espa from the Duel and Battle City, but Espa's brothers explain to Mokuba why they were doing this and after a little argument, Mokuba decides not to cancel the Duel, provided Espa's brother's don't relay any more info to Espa. Espa Sets a card.

Turn 5: Joey
Joey draws "Alligator's Sword" and subsequently Normal Summons it (1500/1200) in Attack Position. "Alligator's Sword" attacks directly (Espa 2940 → 1440). "Swordsman of Landstar" then attacks directly, but Espa activates his face-down "Mind Control" to take control of "Swordsman of Landstar".

Turn 6: Espa
Espa draws. He then passes.

When Joey wonders why Espa didn't attack, Yugi, observing the duel, states if Espa activated "Mind Control" when "Aligator Sword" attacked, he could use "Alligator Sword" to destroy Joey's "Swordsman of Landstar" resulting in a double KO, but instead he allowed Joey to attack him directly with "Alligator's Sword" so he can use "Mind Control" on "Swordsman of Landstar"

Turn 7: Joey
At this point Joey think's there is only one reason why he would wait until Espa activated "Mind Control" to trap Joey's "Swordsman of Landstar". he wants to use it as a tribute to summon a monster of a higher level.

Joey draws. He then Sets "Chasm of Spikes".

Turn 8: Espa
Espa draws "Jinzo". He then Tributes "Swordsman of Landstar" in order to Tribute Summon "Jinzo" (2400/1500) in Attack Position. Due to the effect of "Jinzo", Joey's Set "Chasm of Spikes" is destroyed. While Jinzo is on the field, its effect prevents the activation of Trap Cards and no Trap Cards can be Set either. He then activates "Amplifier", equipping it to "Jinzo" and increasing its ATK by 500 ("Jinzo": 2400 → 2900/1500). Also "Amplifier" will increase the ATK of "Jinzo" by 300 during each of Espa's Standby Phases. "Jinzo" attacks and destroys "Alligator's Sword" (Joey 2600 LP → 1200 LP).

Turn 9: Joey
Joey draws "Baby Dragon" and subsequently Normal Summons it (1200/700) in Attack Position. Joey then activates "Time Wizard" as a Magic Card. He then activates the effect of "Time Wizard". Joey succeeds in the effect, so "Baby Dragon" transforms into "Thousand Dragon" (2400/2000), but "Jinzo" is unaffected by the effect of "Time Wizard". Espa explains that is because the armor of "Jinzo" can't age or corrode, for 10,000 years. "Thousand Dragon" attacks "Jinzo" before Joey realizes this. "Jinzo" destroys "Thousand Dragon" (Joey 1200 LP → 700 LP). Joey activates "Scapegoat" to Special Summon four "Sheep Tokens" (0/0 for all four) in Defense Position.

At this point, Serenity knows that Tristan had been lying to her about Joey winning since she asked the nurse what was actually happening, but before that, Tristan calls Tea to relay a message to Joey. Serenity isn't angry at Tristan but asks is she can cheer for Joey in spirit.

Turn 10: Espa
Espa draws. On Espa's Standby Phase, the second effect of "Amplifier" activates ("Jinzo": 2900 → 3200/1500). Espa then Normal Summons "Reflect Bounder" (1700/1000) in Attack Position. When this monster is attacked, both "Reflect Bounder" and the attacking monster will be destroyed after damage calculation. After that is done, the controller of the attacking monster will take all Battle Damage that Espa would have taken from the battle. "Jinzo" and "Reflect Bounder" then attack and destroy two "Sheep Tokens".

Tea and Mr. Muto arrive to relay Tristan's message to Joey, that his friends and Serenity believe in him.

Turn 11: Joey
Joey draws "Roulette Spider" and subsequently activates it to pay half of his Life Points (Joey 700 LP → 350 LP)[Notes 1] and target "Jinzo" (as it is the strongest monster Espa has out on the field). "Roulette Spider" then forcibly spins "Jinzo" until Espa tells it to stop. When it does, it will randomly choose a player or monster for "Jinzo" to attack and whatever is chosen will be attacked by "Jinzo". "Jinzo" then begins to spin. When Espa orders Jinzo to stop, The effect of "Roulette Spider" points to "Reflect Bounder" as the target for "Jinzo". "Jinzo" attacks and destroys "Reflect Bounder". Since "Reflect Bounder" was attacked by a monster, its effect activates, destroying "Jinzo" and inflicting the Battle Damage between the two battling monsters to Espa as "Jinzo" was his monster (Espa 1440 LP → 0 LP).

Joey wins.


Espa is shocked that he lost. He becomes a sore loser when Joey asks him to hand over his locator card and "Jinzo" and explains that he's only dueling for his family, but knocks Joey's hand away when he offers to help him up, unknowingly knocking out his earpiece in the process.

With some encouragement from his brothers, Espa gives Joey his "Jinzo" and Locator Card.


  1. The written anime lore of "Roulette Spider" does not say that the player needs to pay half of his/her Life Points to activate it.


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