In Yu-Gi-Oh rule-breaking is as common as a Monster Reborn card in a deck. Nearly every villain on the show does it and we're not surprised by them. However, one would expect better from the noble hero of the show; Yugi Muto.
As many know, Yugi has only one legitimate loss on his record which was to Raphael in season 4. However, there was several times throughout the series where he logically should have lost the duel but because of the vagueness of the rules and sometimes just outright cheating, our protagonist won the match. Let's look at 8 times Yugi should have lost but won instead.
8 Panik
The most intimidating of Pegasus' Eliminators, Panik faced our hero during Duelist Kingdom and was dealt a trip to the Shadow Realm for his efforts. But all indications, Panik seemed to have a good strategy of taking down Yugi with shadow creatures who can attack from the darkness and retreat back.
But leave it to Yugi to find a way around this. Since Panik used the card "Yellow Luster Shield" to boost his monsters' defense points and bundle them in one area of the field, Yugi used his Catapult Turtle to launch a monster and destroy Panik's Castle Of Dark Illusions' floatation ring. The castle would fall, crushing all of Panik's monsters to win the match for Yugi. Just another non-sensical day in Duelist Kingdom.
7 Kaiba (Pyramid Of Light)
Before Dark Side Of Dimensions, the only Yu-Gi-Oh movie western audiences would get is Pyramid Of Light. Like the latter film, this movie was highlighted by a rematch between Seto Kaiba and Yugi. However unlike in Dark Side Of Dimensions, this match had a decisive winner. Too bad it was the wrong duelist.
When Kaiba summons his newest monster Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon, he mentions how his creature gains 300 attack points for every dragon in his graveyard. By our math, this means the monster's attack would be 4800 and not 4500 as he had 3 Blue-Eyes White Dragons, Paladin Of White Dragon, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Rare Metal Dragon in his GY. That meant his attack on Yugi's Sorcerer Of Dark Magic would have won the match for him. Maybe Kaiba fudged the rules since he wanted his "perfect victory" by using Yugi's God Cards against him?
6 Seeker
Still one of the most powerful duelists ever seen on the show, Seeker of the Rare Hunters possessed three copies of every piece of Exodia and had monsters loaded with high defense to stop enemies from getting to his life points. He beat Joey Wheeler and had Yugi dead to rights but Yugi just up and broke the rules to save his hide.
Just as Seeker was about to draw the final Exodia card he needed to win the game, Yugi activated the trap card Lightforce Sword... from his hand. As even novices know, trap cards must first be set on the field and can only be activated on your opponent's next turn after they draw a card. Well we'll call this even we suppose since Seeker himself was cheating anyway.
5 Mako Tsunami
Ah yes here it is. The infamous moment that was so iconic in the fandom that Konami made a card lampooning the event. For those who saw the card without knowing its context, let us explain.
During a duel versus Mako Tsunami, Yugi found himself at a loss against the Water deck of Mako who had reduced Yugi down to a single landmass field zone. Yugi then played his Giant Soldier Of Stone who then proceeded to attack a spell card of his own, Mystical Moon. Now not only can you not attack spell cards with monsters, but the destruction of the moon caused the ocean tide to recede and dried up all of Mako's monsters leaving them easy prey for an attack from Curse Of Dragon.
4 Dartz
If we were to ask any normal people whether or not you can get any higher than infinity in mathematics. However since the Pharaoh didn't seem to major in that subject, he just decided to up and break it during his duel against Dartz in season 4.
Faced off against Dartz's Divine Serpent's infinite attack points, Yugi utilized a convoluted combination of the Legendary Knights, Mirror Force and Attack Guidance Barrier to reflect and multiply an attack to infinite attack points. But as that was going on, he also fused together Knight Of Destiny who is and we quote from Yami Yugi here, "a power beyond infinity". What can you even say to that?
3 Pegasus (Kuriboh Attacks)
Likely the kookiest duelist he ever faced, Yugi fought Pegasus in the Duelist Kingdom finals to rescue the souls of the Kaiba brothers and his own grandfather With so much on the line, you know he was going to pull something out of his butt to win the game if needed.
And that need came near the end of the match when Pegasus summoned his Thousand-Eyes Restrict which seemed set to paralyze and absorb all of Yugi's monsters including his multiplied Kuribohs. However, the Kuribohs all of a sudden have the ability to self destruct on contact with the enemy which blinds and renders useless Pegasus' ace monster. We suppose that since Pegasus doesn't protest this despite being the creator of Duel Monsters that we can't get too wound up about it.
2 Ghost Kaiba
Even though fans would have to wait a few more episodes in season 1 to get a proper rematch between Yugi and Kaiba, we got a little tease of it in this match as an imposter used Kaiba's stolen deck versus Yugi. However, Yugi would only win the match because of some outside interference.
Experiencing a change of heart after his mind crush, Kaiba was determined to assist Yugi in his duel however he could. First off, he tried uploading a computer virus into a Blue-Eyes White Dragon's data which caused its attack points to drop. However that wasn't working fast enough and through sheer willpower (we guess) Kaiba destroyed the monster outright from miles away. If the attack had gone off, we'd have seen Yugi eliminated from Duelist Kingdom.
We guess this guy didn't stand a GHOST of a chance against the King Of Games.
1 Arkana
In Battle City, Yugi faced off against the only other wielder of the Dark Magician in the franchise to determine who was the true master of the card. Seeing as how Arkana built his whole deck around the card and would have won the match if not for some rule-breaking, we'd have to call the Rare Hunter the true magical master.
However that's not how it went down. When Arkana used his Dark Magic Curtain to summon Dark Magician from his deck, Yugi stated that the card also allowed him to summon a Dark Magician of his own... which it doesn't so strike one. But also, Yugi played Dark Magician Girl which is not the same thing. So in conclusion, that teenage boy should have had legs cut off err we mean be sent to the Shadow Realm via "dark energy disk".