Joey Wheeler

Katsuya Jonouchi or Joseph "Joey" Wheeler (4Kids dub) is one of the two deuteragonists (alongside Seto Kaiba) of the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series and both of its adaptations, acting as the deuteragonist in every arc up until Battle City. He is best friend of Yugi Muto, the protagonist, and other friends such as Téa Gardner and Tristan Taylor. Like his pals, he has defeated many enemies in duels. One of the duels being against Insector Haga, who had a creepy bug type deck. He was shown to have dark blonde hair, an almost Jersey accent in the 4Kids dub only, and his notable cards were his Time Magician and Red-Eyes Black Dragon. 
He once started up as an amateur duelist. But somehow. he manage to win almost all of his games against his opponents. 
Later, Joey, Yugi, and Seto Kaiba became the Chosen Ones to handle the three dragon cards. He was defeated by Mai Valentine and died when his soul was taken by Dartz until he was freed and revived by the three Legendary Knights of Atlantis.
At the end, he became one of the top five duelists in the Yu-Gi-Oh! series. He became #3. It was stated by Pegasus J. Crawford in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX.
He is voiced by in the Japanese version of the anime, and by and in the English version of the anime and also voiced Michelangelo from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)"
==Background==
Joey was given a hard upbringing after his parents' divorce. Joey's father was a hard drinker and often neglected Joey as a result. Joey still visits and tries to see his sister Shizuka (Serenity, in the English version) and tries to watch-out for her when the situation arises. Joey was first met as one of protagonist Yugi Muto's more hot-headed school bullies and stole a piece of his Millennium Puzzle. However, after seeing Yugi's skill at the Duel Monsters game, Joey became far more fascinated with Yugi's skill than antagonistic. Since being won over by Yugi, Joey has become one of his closest friends, Sugoroku Muto's hobby shop after school and trying to improve his skills at the game to back-up his natural luck.
Joey joins Yugi throughout his adventures, unlike Téa, who is often moral support, and Tristan, who tends to handle physical threats, Joey is the only one in Yugi's regular group of friends who tends joins in duels along-side Yugi. In particular, Joey dislikes Seto Kaiba, an on and off ally and social elitist, and the two often snipe at each-other when the other is around.
==Personality==
Because of his family life, Joey is both aggressive as a default in any situation but also very protective of any friends he can get. He and Honda usually go hand in hand to resolve a situation with violence. Since the manga centers around Duel Monsters, Joey is all to willing to forgo violence and solve a situation with a contest of skill to strike a blow against his opponent's pride, just as bad as a physical assault in Joey's experience. Because Yugi was willing to show Joey how to improve his skills, despite his original stance as one of his bullies, Joey considers him to be one of his truest friends. Joey Is somewhat hasty when mad, as evidenced when he attacks Odion as the latter has 4 Trap Cards.
Joey has name gags such as Rex Raptor as both Dinosaur Breath and Dino Brain, Kaiba as Rich Boy, Zigfried as Zig-Freak and Weevil as Bug Boy.
== Skills and Talents ==
Joey's main talents were martial - with Joey both very strong despite his age and being well versed in street-fighting. He has well above average strength but his aggressive mind-set has lead to his fighting style being truly vicious and often tag teamed with Tristan against other students and punks. Where Tristan has slightly more endurance than Joey, Joey has slightly more physical strength, and the two found they worked well as a team. His first encounter with Yugi lead him to realize physical talents couldn't get him through everything and he has since tried to embrace Duel Monsters' strategies. He has no where near Téa's social skills, has slightly less stamina than Tristan, and is overshadowed by Yugi and Bakura in Duel Monsters - he is however one of the toughest people in the group and the second most skilled Duel Monsters players - with Yugi and Bakura being more-or-less-tied in skill ahead of him. He tries to help Tristan and Téa follow a match, but likes to concentrate on the game and can't keep them updated constantly, also unlike Yugi and Bakura though he ends up being very well versed in the rules and on all the cards he has problems picking up on specific strategies until they are all but fully revealed to him. He starts out as a complete novice at Duel-Monsters but with Yugi to tutor him becomes an expert before long.
== Deck ==
Throughout much of the series, Joey's deck has no discernable archetype, mostly consisting of various Warrior-type monsters that represent his fighting spirit, with most of his strategies being built around luck, earning criticism from other characters. His signature cards are "Red-Eyes Black Dragon", "Flame Swordsman", "Time Wizard", "Gilford the Lightning" and "Gearfried the Iron Knight".
Initially, Joey's deck was of poor design, consisting only of Normal Monsters and possessing no strategic methodology. He lost six Duels as a result; one against Yugi and five against Tea. During Duelist Kingdom, Joey's deck consisted mainly of Warrior, Beast-Warrior and other tough-looking anthromporphic animals, befitting his rough and tumble personality. As Duelist Kingdom rules did not require Monsters to be Tributed, many of his Monsters were above Level 4. Joey acquired a few additions to his Deck during the boat trip to Duelist Kingdom; Yugi gave him "Time Wizard", and he also gained "Baby Dragon", "Salamandra", "Shield and Sword" and "Kunai with Chain". In the anime, Tristain Taylor gave Joey "Lava Battleguard". After defeating Rex Raptor, Joey won the former's "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" by gambling his "Time Wizard".
For his Duel with Duke Devlin, Joey constructed a Deck made from random Booster Packs, despite Yugi's objections that he shouldn't use cards he isn't used to.
For the Battle City tournament, Joey's deck undergoes a major overhaul. He now uses less high Level Monsters, as they now require Tributes to be summoned. Upon losing his "Red-Eyes" to the Rare Hunters, Joey rebuilds his deck with "Time Wizard" as his rare card. He now includes several cartoon-like warriors and adds several luck based cards. As the Tournament progresses, he gains the rare cards of his opponents, including Weevil Underwood's "Insect Queen", Mako Tsunami's "The Legendary Fisherman" and Espa Roba's "Jinzo". While Yami wins back Joey's "Red-Eyes", Joey refuses to accept it back, saying he will earn it back when he becomes a better Duelist. He is shown using it again in later arcs of the anime, leaving the result of his Duel with Yami following the tournament ambiguous.
During the Battle City tournament, Joey became possessed by Marik Ishtar via the Millenium Rod and was forced to Duel Yugi, his deck being modified by the Rare Hunters beforehand. This deck runs a Burn strategy, with several cards that directly destroy his opponent's monsters or inflict effect damage, despite such cards being outlawed from Battle City.
While trapped in the Virtual World, Joey constructed a deck similar to his Battle City one, but included several "Harpie" cards as a tribute to Mai Valentine. He used "Flame Swordsman" as his Deck Master, which could fuse with Yugi's "Dark Magician" to form "Dark Flare Knight", which, upon being destroyed, allowed them to Special Summon "Mirage Knight" in it's place.
During the Doma arc, Joey plays a "Red-Eyes/Warrior/Hermos" deck, which incorporates even more luck cards. He also adds cards that can end an opponent's turn, most notably "Aura Armor" during his Duel with Valon. His main addition, however, is "The Claw of Hermos", which he can fuse with other Monsters to become Equip Cards. Joey also incorporates Ritual Summoning into his Deck in order to support his "Red-Eyes".
During the Grand Championship, Joey's deck incorporates more support for lower Level Monsters, such as the "Landstar Monsters", while continuing to include luck-based cards alongside more iconic ones such as "Red-Eyes Black Dragon" and "Jinzo".
==Quotes==
== Trivia ==
* In the WCQ 2012, Joey has a bad grade when he and Tristan has a D+ in their math test.
*Joey faced Kaiba, Pegasus and Ishizu in scripted duels and lost terribly to all of them. 
**Kaiba beating him makes sense as Kaiba only lost to Pegasus (who cheated) and Yugi.
**Pegasus wasn't using Toon World, which Joey could counter due to seeing it in action; Pegasus using the Burning Abyss archetype threw him off additionally due to their convoluted GY and Banish effects.
**Joey would have beat Ishizu if the writers didn't decided to give her back Obelisk the Tormentor as surprise card.
*His usage of Swordsman of Landstar (a weak level 3 monster he always plays in attack mode) is made fun by the creator of Yugioh Abridged, LittleKuriboh in his finale take on Waking the Dragons.
*Joey's Red Eyes and Jinzo cards would later get more support in the real life card game in the 2010s; with some his other key cards getting retrained Red-Eyes versions (Gilfreed, Giltia, Kunai with Chain).
*Joey mellowed out in the middle part of the manga that focused on Duel Monsters (volume 8 through 37); since he was more aggressive and willing to get into fist fights in the first six volumes.
==External Links==
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