Team Taiyo Team Taiyo , translated as Team Sun , is a team participating in the WRGP finals . It is revealed that Taro Yamashita , Yoshizo Hayashi and Jinbei Tanigawa were friends before the WRGP . They lived in the countryside with their families until Taro heard of the WRGP and decided they should have a shot at it . By pooling their money , they are able to buy one Duel Runner , but it is a piece of junk and requires them to gather replacement parts to get it working again . Taro ' s father helps with this , even though his hope for Taro ' s success is lukewarm at best . They also look through the trash just to find enough cards to make a Deck , but practically all of them are low - level Normal Monster s . Even though Taro refuses to give up hope , Jinbei is frustrated by this and goes off on his own to try to move to the city and get better cards . Taro then finds one card that they could work and devises a strategy around it . Jinbei encounters trouble , but Taro and Yoshizo rescue him . After their close escape , Taro announces that he ' s found a strategy that they can use not only to duel , but to win . While the team remains doubtful that their strategy could work , they nevertheless decide to give it a shot . As the sun rises on the trio , they affirm their identity as Team Taiyo ( named for the Japanese word for " sun " ) , the team that rises brightly each day . During the preliminary block , they win both of their first duels , putting them into the finals . However , their Machine Day Breaker is damaged during the Diablo attacks , and they are unable to fix it properly . During a test run , they have an accidental encounter with Leo , who scrapes his knee as he dodges being run over . They take him back to the old hotel where they are staying to treat his injury . As they swap introductions , they are surprised to learn that Leo is from Team 5D ' s . Yoshizo wants Yusei ' s autograph , and Leo offers to convince Yusei to repair their Machine Day Breaker , but Jinbei adamantly refuses this . Leo leaves , but later on , he brings Yusei and Bruno to them to offer their help again . Team Taiyo has still made no progress , and even though Jinbei still insists that they should do this on their own , Taro admits that their progress has surpassed his own expectations , and he wants to see how they can do in the finals . Jinbei finally relents , and Yusei and Bruno not only patch the Machine Day Breaker back together , but also improve its speed and handling , to the amazement of Yoshizo , Jinbei and Taro . During the repairs , Yusei sympathizes with Team Taiyo , who is surprised to learn that Yusei ' s first Duel Runner was also built from scraps and junk . In fact , he , Jack and Crow all had to pull themselves from the depths of Satellite by finding a new hope . Yoshizo asks Yusei to sign his Deck . When Yusei and Leo see that it seems to only have been built with Normal Monster s , Jinbei hurriedly hides the cards , because both teams are competing in the WRGP and Yusei knowing Yoshizo ' s cards would be a disadvantage for them . Afterward , the two teams part , and Taro says that if they face , they can duel without regret . In a surprise to both teams , the next day ' s announcements show that Team 5D ' s and Team Taiyo will be facing each other in the first round of the finals . Team Taiyo ' s strategy is a very passive one , and such tactics are quickly booed by the crowd , to which Taro reflects that it has been like that the entire tournament . However , Jack suspects that there is more to it than meets the eye , and he passes those concerns on to Crow , who is able to work them down to their last member , Taro . It is not until the last possible minute that Yusei realizes what their true strategy is — they are aiming to summon " Zushin the Sleeping Giant " , a monster with incredible power but also with summoning conditions so steep that nobody bothers to use it . Despite a warning to Crow , Taro succeeds in the summon , and the crowd is instantly swayed in favor of Team Taiyo for having brought about such a miracle . Likewise , Yoshizo and Jinbei are overjoyed at this support and the fulfillment of their team strategy , and Taro is determined to not let them down . However , just when Taro believes he has the game set for his team ' s victory , Yusei defeats " Zushin " by combining his own surprise ace monster with card effects left behind by Jack and Crow as well as exposing the weakness to the effects of " Zushin the Sleeping Giant " . Team 5D ' s wins , and Taro is left devastated , apologizing to his friends for being unable to win , but Jinbei gets him to snap out of it , with Yoshizo agreeing that they ' ve still fought an unsurpassed duel and managed to finally be able to summon " Zushin " which was all an incredible feat that was seemingly impossible to them . Team 5D ' s congratulates them — even though 5D ' s may have won the match , Taiyo has won the Duel by awakening such wonder in the crowd . Taro cheers back up , and he celebrates with his team . They gladly shake hands with Team 5D ' s and decide to return home . In episode 150 , they ' re cheering on Yusei . Decks . The members of Team Taiyo play Stall - Burn Decks . Their decks are made up mostly of weak Normal Monster s they found in the trash due to not having access to any other cards . Their goal is to keep the Level 1 Normal monster " Key Mace " on the field for 10 turn s to summon their ace card " Zushin the Sleeping Giant " , a monster that no one would attempt to summon because it ' s summoning conditions are too difficult to achieve in a regular duel . However , since the WRGP Duels are team - based , the special rules used during the tournament treat the entire match as one single Duel so the Turn count doesn ' t reset after each Duelist is eliminated , allowing Team Taiyo to continue prolonging the duel even if they lose a team member . They stall by using their low Level monsters with high defense in order to power up " Hand - Holding Genie " and defend themselves from card effects using " Scrum Force " . They also use this stalling strategy to inflict continuous damage with " Speed World 2 " . Their " Stall - Burn " tactics also serve to distract the opponent team from their real goal of summoning " Zushin the Sleeping Giant " , as their opponents will focus more on taking down their " Hand - Holding Genie " rather than destroying their seemingly harmless " Key Mace " . Their Decks do not have any rare cards ; even " Zushin the Sleeping Giant " is a common card , presumably found in the trash . It is also unknown how they were able to get into the finals , as it is said that no one has been able to summon " Zushin the Sleeping Giant " up until Team Taiyo ' s Duel with Team 5D ' s , and no one knew that they were using that card until Yusei figured it out . It can be assumed that they won through using the effects of " Speed World 2 " . Owned cards . In addition to their Decks , the Team was shown with a vast amount of Normal Monster cards in flashbacks in episodes 119 and 120 .