“Hmm,” we thought to ourselves.
“We need to do something splashy for the final Ultimate Duelist Challenge. Something that we haven't done before. Something that will really test the public's knowledge of the card pool.” We thought hard about it. “How about a recurring character contest? There are so many recurring characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! Let's do a contest where people try to find as many unique groups of three as possible.”
And thus, the final installment of the Ultimate Duelist Challenge was created. Entrants had to create strings of three cards that featured the same character. Once an entrant used a card, he or she couldn't use it again for a different character, so there was some planning involved for cards such as
Return from the Different Dimension that featured multiple characters.
Little did we know how many recurring character strings people would come up with! We were sure to check every single one. Sometimes, we'd make it to string number 60 or so before finding an error—then we'd move to the next highest entry. Ouch! With a total of 57 strings, the winner of the final Ultimate Duelist Challenge is Saleh Salman M. from Springfield Gardens, New York. Want to see the winning entry? Here you go!
Character: Marauding Captain - 2 strings
Character: Gagagigo - 4 strings
1.
Altar for Tribute (You can make out Gagagigo's tail and claws from the outline of the monster that is being offered.)
Character: Freed - 2 strings
Character: Goblin of Greed - 2 strings
Character: Goblin Attack Force - 2 strings
Character: Mokey Mokey - 2 strings
Character: Don Zaloog - 1 string
Character: Cliff the Trap Remover - 1 string
Character: Chick the Yellow - 1 string
Character: Inpachi - 2 strings
Character: Marron - 1 string
Character: Sealmaster Meisei - 1 string
Character: Warrior Dai Grepher - 2 strings
Character: Invader of Darkness - 1 string
Character: Terrorking Archfiend - 1 string
Character: D. D. Warrior Lady - 1 string
Character: Manticore of Darkness - 1 string
Character: Orca - 1 string
Character: Exodia - 2 strings
3.
Exchange (Some Exodia pieces appear on this card.)
Character: Dark Blade - 1 string
Character: Pitch-Dark Dragon - 1 string
Character: Gaia - 1 string
Character: Dark Ruler Ha Des - 2 strings
Character: Skull Servant - 1 string
Character: Behemoth - 1 string
Character: Gearfried - 1 string
Character: Mystic Swordsman - 1 string
Character: Silent Swordsman - 1 string
Character: Ultimate Insect - 1 string
Character: Armed Dragon - 1 string
Character: Horus the Black Flame Dragon - 1 string
Character: Red-Eyes B. Dragon - 1 string
Character: Harpie Lady 1 - 1 string
Character: Cannon Soldier - 1 string
Character: Ojama Yellow - 1 string
Character: Tyrant Dragon - 1 string
Character: Paladin of White Dragon - 1 string
Character: X-Head Cannon - 1 string
Character: Y-Dragon Head - 1 string
Character: Gemini Elf - 1 string
Character: Blue-Eyes White Dragon - 1 string
Character: Baby Dragon - 1 string
Character: Des Kangaroo - 1 string
Character: Summoned Skull - 1 string
Character: Dark Magician - 1 string
Those are a lot of recurring characters, and it was a lot of work picking them all out. Some are easy to find like the LV monsters, but others required a lot of attention to detail. Congratulations to Saleh for a job well done!