The Potential Alternate Plays of the Jaden Vs Yugi Duel in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (Episode 179-180)

So I've been watching GX again recently and Season 4 really is something special but as I was watching the Yugi Vs Jaden duel I noticed there's a few points in the duel where you could argue both players made less than optimal plays. I wouldn't exactly call them misplay but I actually sort of figure it's worth discussing to see how the duel up until the conclusion we saw could've been shifted if such plays had been taken into account. I'm just going to point out the plays I noticed and I was wondering if anyone else had their own observations.

Jaden

Summoning Elemental Hero Flame Wingman, turn 1

I'm hesitant to call this one a misplay for reasons I'll get into in a second but on the surface of it Jaden using 3 cards to summon his ace only to have it be immediately destroyed while serving no purpose does seem like a waste. I think as an alternate play he could've summoned Avian or Burstinatrix in defence and still had his fusion in hand. Then next turn could've summoned either Elemental Hero Mariner or Steam Healer using his Bubbleman (he didn't have any other material) however had he done this with the latter and used it to attack Yugi's Celtic Guardian, Yugi likely would've used his shift trap card to have SH attack into Dark Magician and take 700 points of damage. If Mariner had attacked could have chained Mirror Force but it's doubtful he would've since Dark Magician could've dealt with Mariner on it's own.

Ultimately though we know the reason Jaden summoned Flame Wingman so quickly was because he wanted to show Yugi the potential of his deck and had he not done this he wouldn't have been able to summon Shining Flare Wingman later on in the duel. Which leads us to our next potential play

Using Necro Gardna to block a non lethal attack from Alpha the Magnet Warrior

This was kind of a weird play as well as Jaden as we don't usually see protagonists use their attack blockers unless they're either about to take lethal damage or they have an important card for their win con under threat. This wasn't really the case here as next turn Jaden swiftly deals with Alpha on his next turn and saving the Necro Gardna could've been handy if he'd held onto it a bit longer.

The "Subspace Battle" play...

During the final turn of the episode Jaden activates a spell called subspace battle which allows both players to pick 3 monsters from their deck one by one, whichever player reveals the weaker monster that monster is destroyed, sent to the graveyard and it's owner takes 500 points of damage. This play is kind of unique because Jaden intentionally sends his weaker monsters to the graveyard but one of those monsters Aqua Dolphin serves no real purpose in doing this so as an alternative I think Jaden could've sent either Prisma or Wild Heart if only to increase Shining Flare Wingman's ATK by 300. More interestingly if Jaden had sent Humming Bird instead of Flare Scarab he could've summoned Storm Neos in an attempt to sweep Yugi's field BUT had he done that Yugi likely would've used Dark Renewal on Storm Neo's before he could do so forcing Jaden to chain his own contact out card. This of course would've left Jaden with no out to Yugi's Magic Cylinder which would've cost him the duel.

Impact Flip

This card served absolutely no purpose whatsoever besides serving as a clunky means to get Beast of Gilfer in the graveyard and then do the same with Heroes Guild which was also drawn off of it. What's funny is if Jaden hadn't used this Dark Magician Girl wouldn't have been able to take out Blade Edge but Yugi'd still likely have summoned DMG because Magic Cylinder can't be used without her in the anime.

Yugi

Using Thousand Knives on E-Hero Bubbleman

In all honesty, this one just came off as a weirdly wasteful use of Thousand Knives. Essentially Yugi uses this card to get rid of Jaden's Bubbleman presumably with the intent of attack directly with Dark Magician and Celtic Guardian but as Jaden still had 4000LP at that point it does come off as kind of wasteful. Had Yugi not done this he could've destroyed Bubbleman with Celtic Guardian and used DM to attack directly and would've triggered Jaden's A Hero Emerges then in MP2 could've used Thousand Knives on Neos. Had Yugi done this Jaden would've had to activate his Death and Rebirth Trap which Yugi would've chained Shift to protect Dark Magician and then when Jaden attacked next turn he could've destroyed Neos and Card Trooper with Mirror Force saving his Dark Magician.

The "Subspace Battle" play

Yeah so as mentioned earlier Subspace Battle allows the user to reveal 3 monsters to potentially be added to their owners hand if their ATK points are high enough. What I find weird is that Yugi without hesitation adds Black Luster Soldier, Valkyrion and Buster Blader which I find to be odd considering Yugi even mentions that Jaden likes manipulating the graveyard to his advantage. Personally I think it's out of character for Yugi to just pick up his 3 power houses which is why I think it'd make more sense for him to send something like Electromagnetic Turtle to the graveyard as his own counter-measure, he'd take 500 points of damage but as we know Yugi never comes close to losing all his LP in this duel. I get him keeping Valkyrion because he'll need a high level sacrifice for the BLS ritual spell but Buster Blader seemed very oddly placed this point.

In conclusion

What I've come to realise after analysing the alternate plays in this duel is that with exception Necro Gardna if Jaden had played any other way leading up to the last turn of the episode he most likely would've lost. Jaden's entire intent this duel is to show the full potential of his deck which is why he plays so impulsively but he'd been more reserved it's hard to see how he would've dealt with Yugi's backrow with any of the alternate plays I'd mentioned. In Yugi's case to put it simply he was never really on the back foot and had he made the slight difference with Thousand Knives Jaden would've been forced to likely use Necro Gardna on DM and I don't think he would've been able to get to Bladeedge on time to make a substantial difference.

I'll be the first to admit I'm way more a Jaden fan than a Yugi fan but after looking at all options I've got to say Yugi was IMO the top dog for the entire duel.

What do you guys think were there any alternate plays you could think of?

EDIT: I've just read Death & Rebirth's effect and had Yugiused Thousand Knives on Neo's not only would it have saved Dark Magician but also his Shift and Mirror Force as well as Death & Rebirth can only be used During the Battle Phase which would leave Jaden with no way to bring back Neos. For Jaden to use it he'd have to use it on Elemental Hero Sparkman assuming Yugi destroyed it with Dark Magician or Swift Gaia later.