Plot or Skill?

[Pyro]

Aside from plot shenanigans, do you believe Yugi truly was the most skilled duelist out of the group?

I'd say he's more skilled than Joey, who relies more on luck than anything else, but I can't place him above Kaiba. Yugi himself (separate from Atem) at the Ceremonial Duel, yes, I could see being more skilled because he basically had only skill to rely on at that point, and his duel with Bakura was a good showcase as well. Otherwise, I think Kaiba is too calculating and strategic. The only blatant plot intervention I can recall for him was the Millennium Rod saving him against Ishizu, but other than that, he's advanced on his own merits without the plot pushing him forward.

Yugi (EOS) >~ Kaiba > Yugi (w/Atem) > Joey

As far as the main three go anyway.

 

[Super Saiyan Overlord1007]

I'd definitely say Yugi has skills but Yami Yugi has the plot which did him no good against Yugi so he had to replace that with magic. Yugi beat all 3 Egyptian Gods in a single turn something Kaiba said he could never do. But Kaiba is up there too. He was countering Yami Yugi's plot magic with his skills pretty damn well in the longest 1 on 1 duel of the entire franchise going almost 30 turns. He plans further ahead than Yugi does. But we'll see next year in the new movie. Joey has skills too but like you said he relies more on luck and too much of it at that. He fought well against Kaiba in Battle City but Kaiba was essentially stomping him the entire time rarely being surprised by Joey.

 

[withheldforprivacy]

Atem has nothing more than his marysuing antiloss barrier. He always had the worst deck in the series and what is viewed as skill is nothing more
than bending the rules at every duel (ex. the castle falling on Panic's monsters or that shit he did to Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon with Mammoth).

 

[Super Saiyan Overlord1007]

Does that really count? The rules were broken for everyone back in the Duelist Kingdom arc and the rules for the game weren't really set in stone just yet (which is questionable, why create a card game if you don't have a set rulebook for it)?

Although he has BS his way in many duels: Ex. Noah (It was a fair winning but drawing those 6 cards in one go? What are the odds), Dartz (Self-Explanatory how he took down a monster with infinite ATK).

The title of this topic is perfect for explaining the dueling strengths of both Yugi and Yami Yugi.

Yami Yugi = Plot (Even with how advanced decks are today Konami won't let Yugi loose having him scripted to beat the likes of Yusei and Astral)
Yugi = Skill, beat Yami Yugi with his plot magic and the Egyptian Gods in 1 turn.

 

[Pyro]

Yeah, I definitely think in the skill department, Yugi is quite superior to Atem. Yugi really showed his merit against Atem, which I suppose was the entire point, but it was crazy to see this little dweeb topple someone with plot hax, plot armor, and the three strongest cards in the game. Atem's really only ever relied on his magic shenanigans to win duels. That's not to say he hasn't pulled some straight savage moves (his duel against Kaiba at BC comes to mind), but it's more plot than anything for him.

 

[Papasmurf]

Buuuuuuuuurp

Atem's deck isn't THAT bad in the original series (not counting the inflated amounts of anime-only cards he was given in the show), a lot of his 5+ star monsters have quick summoning methods like The Tricky and some monsters like Berformet and Jack's Knight were 4-stars in the original comic, allowing them to be summoned more easily even if JK was almost always summoned via King's Knight. Of course it's still fairly asinine in TCG terms due to his deck having no uniformity in what type of monsters he uses and all, but not like anyone wrote that part of the series with that shit in mind.

 

[Fantastische Hure]

Atem has nothing more than his marysuing antiloss barrier. He always had the worst deck in the series and what is viewed as skill is nothing more
than bending the rules at every duel (ex. the castle falling on Panic's monsters or that shit he did to Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon with Mammoth).

Whilst his deck might have been the worst (can't remember exactly), you got to remember manga rules slightly differ and cards were nerfed in reality. He has banned cards like Pot of Greed and the other one I think and cards with much better effects in the manga, like say soul-rope. There's also the way spell-cards could be played in the manga (like trap cards). Also Jack's Knight and Berfomet were 4 star level. Not much, but still.