Keith Howard, also known as Bandit Keith, The Plunderer, or That One American Guy With the Bandana.
Former U.S. champion. Duelist Kingdom semi-finalist. A man who tried to cheat and still got gleefully dunked on by Jonouchi.
While he didn't leave behind any legendary memes like Insector Haga did—whose antics got memed to the point even the protagonists suffered—thanks to his over-the-top "freedom bandana" and caricatured persona, Bandit Keith still left a memorable impression on You Ming back in his anime-watching days.
Of course, that impression didn't go any deeper than surface level.
If possible, You Ming would really prefer not to deal with people like him.
> "Hey, hey, hey, kid! I'm talking to you! You go mute or something?"
Facing those jet-black sunglasses, You Ming could clearly see the pure essence of American stereotypes shining through.
> "Crude. Arrogant. Violent."
> "Did your parents never teach you that staying silent isn't how you deal with problems?"
Faced with Keith's condescending, high-handed attitude, You Ming merely shook his head.
"Before we get into all this nonsense… don't you owe me an apology?"
He slowly removed Magic Cylinder from his duel disk and returned it to his deck, then stood up.
"That explosion just now? You almost got me caught in it."
> "So what? You think anyone decent comes to a place like this?"
Keith scoffed coldly.
"Cut the crap. Are you gonna hand over everything in here yourself… or…"
He pulled out a handgun from his belt.
Staring at the dark muzzle, You Ming raised an eyebrow.
But before he could fully think through a counter, the bandit jammed the pistol into the device strapped to his left arm.
Clack.
The device slowly unfolded, transforming into a metallic duel disk.
> "Looks like you need a little... education to understand how to respect your elders."
Now that's more like it.
Seeing Keith act all "duel or die", You Ming had to fight the urge to smirk.
If you think about it, in most anime settings, this was basically the same as someone pulling out a rocket launcher to threaten you.
Kinda dangerous, right?
…But whatever. The original series was even worse.
Fighting, stealing, cheating—Keith did all of it. From smuggling himself into Duelist Kingdom to beating up his own teammates and stealing their entry stars, he clawed his way to the semi-finals without doing a single honest thing.
Heck, compared to pulling cards out of his underwear, even Pandora's trimmed cards seemed more legitimate.
In a weird way, the fact that Keith was now pulling out a duel disk and playing by the rules was actually… progress?
Kinda inspiring, if you think about it.
> "What's with that look? You think this is funny, punk!?"
Maybe his thoughts leaked out a little—by the time You Ming snapped back to reality, Keith's expression had twisted into one of furious embarrassment.
Arrogant, selfish, and yet burning with fragile pride.
Seto Kaiba had the same vibe in the early series—getting wrecked repeatedly in Shadow Games until Duelist Kingdom gave him that much-needed brotherly love arc and amusement park dream to round out his character.
As for Bandit Keith…
"Yeah. Pretty much."
Staring back into the pure, undisguised anger in Keith's eyes, You Ming nodded honestly.
> "A former U.S. champion, reduced to bullying some random 'kid' like me just to reclaim your lost pride? Yeah… that is kind of funny."
He wasn't the kind of masochist who'd politely lean forward so someone could slap him.
"Who are you working for now? The Ghouls? Or are you still freelancing in the underground, drinking your days away in some shady bar while doing dirty jobs on the side?"
No—what he preferred was a swift, elegant verbal slap.
"And what? Did you finally agree to work for Industrial Illusions?"
He didn't consider himself some expert in conversation, but hey—he was a transmigrator.
Sure, people liked to highlight the "prophetic advantage" of knowing future events, but when it came to digging up dirt, this identity was a god-tier weapon.
> "Shut up!!"
There it was.
Even without a single curse word, You Ming could clearly see the ex-champ gasping for air like he'd been punched in the lungs.
Keith had fallen from grace after being utterly humiliated by Pegasus—who didn't even bother dueling him directly. Instead, Pegasus wrote his entire strategy on a notecard and handed it to a child, who then proceeded to mop the floor with the so-called U.S. champion.
If Keith had ever gotten over that, he wouldn't have spiraled into the gutter overnight.
> "Enough talk! Let's settle this with our cards!"
> [You have a new challenger!]
Keith stormed forward, seething with fury… and handed over his deck.
Naturally, You Ming passed his over as well.
After all, what choice did he have?
The automatic shuffling features that many duelists dreamed of wouldn't exist until the 5D's era. Checking graveyards and opponent's monster effects? That came in Arc-V.
Back in the DM and GX days, shuffling and cutting were done by hand.
Which led to this bizarre moment of dramatic tension…
> "You've got a sharp mouth, you little punk. I swear you'll regret running that yap of yours!"
> "Oh? If you think you can make that happen, I'd love to see it. I'm really curious how much weight your 'vows' actually carry these days."
Despite their cutting words, neither of them moved.
They just silently shuffled each other's decks.
Once they'd both cut, they backed away, returning to their respective sides.
And only then did the sacred ritual begin:
> "DUEL!"
> [You Ming LP: 4000]
[Keith Howard LP: 4000]
4000 LP.
It wasn't quite the TCG standard, but it was way more familiar than the early 2000 LP rules from the first episodes.
> "So do you want to roll dice or flip—"
> "I'll go first! DRAW!"
"… …"
You Ming had barely gotten the question out before Keith already had six cards in hand.
Ref, he's cheating! Can we get a DQ over here!?
…Yeah, no.
There were no judges here, and certainly no one who cared about You Ming's internal complaints.
Keith, as his opponent, obviously didn't think there was anything wrong with what he was doing.
> "Hmph! Even Lady Luck favors me today, punk!"
Watching Keith's smug, punchable expression, then glancing down at his own red, green, and blue card hand, You Ming felt… tired.
"…Whatever. This is anime logic. The louder you shout, the better you play."
As for the first-turn draw and whether going first was actually advantageous in early formats… honestly, You Ming wasn't worried.
This was the DM era. Going first usually meant summoning a vanilla 4-star monster in attack mode and saying "your move."
So he expected something like—
> "Spell Card—Graceful Charity! Draw three, then discard two!"
"…?"
When he looked up, a smiling angel had appeared beside Keith.
Holy crap. A banned draw card with no downside!
Before he could even fully process that, a huge spectral hand reached down and began pulling radiant souls from the graveyard.
> "Next, Spell Card—The Shallow Grave! I'll revive a monster I just sent to the grave!"
Amidst the glowing light, a massive war machine emerged, its weapons gleaming with icy menace.
> "One of the cards I discarded was a Normal Monster—Mechanicalchaser! With this card's effect, I Special Summon it in defense position from the grave!"
> Mechanicalchaser (Lv 4)
DARK / Machine
ATK 1850 / DEF 800
Staring at the mechanical monster folding its weapons into a defensive posture, You Ming felt his stomach sink.
Crap. He's comboing.