Recapturing the Joy of Joey Wheeler for the 25th Anniversary

Amid a cast of serious players, Joey Wheeler was the goofball of the show. He often relied on literal coin flips and the odd illegal play to win his duels. And we loved every second of it. With the game celebrating its 25th anniversary, we wanted to look back at one of the anime's most beloved arcs: Battle City.

The last few duels of this arc were epic, but deck building in the show was based on sacky one-offs drawn at the right moment. While trying to keep the spirit of the anime alive, we wanted to see how these decks could look with modern design ideas, like realistic odds of drawing your key cards.

Joey's Deck

Joey's deck was difficult to assemble. While his has gotten countless support cards over the years, his deck, more than any other, was usually comprised of random small synergies that have no place in today's world. We wanted to keep some of them intact because , , and are too iconic for him to cut. Sadly some other cards like , , or are outclassed by modern standards.

Focusing on the Red-Eyes strategy's support was the way to make sure Joey would be able to compete with the others. With cards like , , , and buffing out the build in the spell and trap department. we were already halfway there. The deck also got new bosses main like and , plus utility monsters in the likes of and .

Even the extra deck now houses extremely powerful end bosses like and . But can they be enough?

decklist
Click to view at full resolution
Joey Wheeler Deck
Main DeckExtra Deck
  • 3
  • 3
  • 3
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 3
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  •  
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1
  • 2
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
  • 1

Time to Duel!

Now the only thing left to do was battle it out in a series of videos and see who would win this modern version of Battle City. With the deck set in stone, just one question remained. Who could play the goofy sidekick not afraid to bet everything on a coin flip? It quickly became clear that this role would be Johnny's.