In the anime, when this card's effect activates, four hats appear and place themselves on the controllers' monsters. The hats then randomly shuffle themselves to hide the monster(s) and prevent the opponent from knowing which monsters are where without attacking.
In episode 9, Yami Yugi uses this card in his Duel against Ghost Kaiba (who was disguised as Kaiba at the moment). He uses this card to create four hats and hide his "Dark Magician" from "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" then attacks a hat. In the next episode, the attack destroys the hat, but it turns out to be empty. Next turn, "Blue-Eyes" attacks and destroys another "Hat", but this activates "Spellbinding Circle" which holds down "Blue-Eyes" and decreases its ATK by 700. Yugi then releases his "Dark Magician" out of the hat it was hiding in. "Dark Magician" then attacks and destroys "Blue-Eyes White Dragon".
In the second above-mentioned episode, this card appears on Kaiba's computer as soon as he and the computer get inside arena 146 and find out that Yugi is dueling Ghost Kaiba who is using Kaiba's Deck. This card also appears in the computer's explanation when it explains how Yugi defeated the first copy of "Blue-Eyes White Dragon".
In episode 20, Yugi uses this card during his Tag Duel with Joey Wheeler against the Paradox Brothers. He uses this card to create four "Hats" and hide his "Dark Magician" and Joey's "Flame Swordsman". "Dungeon Worm"(who was powered up by "Invigoration" and the effect of "Monster Tamer") then attacks a hat, but it turns out to be empty. Joey then releases his "Flame Swordsman" out of the "Hat" it was hiding in. Joey then equipped his monster with "Salamandra", increasing its ATK by 700. "Flame Swordsman then attacks "Dungeon Worm" and because the latter is weak against fire, it loses the boost it got from "Monster Tamer", making its ATK 2200. "Flame Swordsman" then destroys "Dungeon Worm". In the next episode, "Gate Guardian's" bottom section attacks and floods the maze. This card was able to protect "Dark Magician" as he was still inside a "Hat" during the attack, however "Flame Swordsman" is destroyed because it was weak against water(this caused its ATK to decrease by 300) and had no defense against the attack. Yugi would then attack "Gate Guardian" with "Summoned Skull" since the water around the area will help guide his monster's attack towards "Gate Guardian". The Paradox Brothers try to use one of their monster's section's effects to protect itself, but nothing happens. Yugi reveals that one of the attacked "Hats" contained "Spellbinding Circle", which Yugi then activates to prevent "Gate Guardian's" sections from defending against his "Summoned Skull's" attack as well as weaken each section's ATK by 700. Because of that, the attack made by "Summoned Skull" destroys Gate Guardian's bottom section. Later, Yugi releases his "Dark Magician" from the hat it was hiding in so that it could move further through the maze.
In episode 33, this card appears when Yami Yugi explains to Joey that Duel Monsters is about the balance between Monster, Spell and Trap Cards.
In the dub version of this episode, this card is shown within a series of scenes from previous episodes that are shown after Yugi and Joey make it clear to each other that they will Duel their hardest to see who will get to Duel Pegasus.
In episode 34, Yugi uses this card during his Duel against Joey. He uses this card to create four "Hats" and hide his "Dark Magician" in one. Joey's "Black Skull Dragon" then destroys a hat, but it turns out to be an empty one. Joey then tries to get Yugi to release his "Dark Magician" out by "accidentally" summoning "Garoozis" in Attack Position. However Yugi is not fooled by this and just sets a card face-down. Joey's "Black Skull Dragon" then attacks anothers "Hat", but that was empty too. On Joey's next turn, "Black Skull Dragon" destroys another third "Hat", but this allows Yugi to activate "Spellbinding Circle", holding down "Black Skull Dragon" and reducing its ATK by 700. The last "Hat" containing "Dark Magician" was destroyed shortly after Yugi releases "Dark Magician". Yugi then equips "Dark Magician" with "Book of Secret Arts" to increase its ATK and DEF by 300. "Dark Magician" then attacks and destroys "Black Skull Dragon".
In episode 35, this card is shown in Yugi's hand during his Duel against Maximillion Pegasus. In the next episode, this card is still shown in Yugi's hand. In the following episode, Yami Yugi uses this card to create four "Hats" and hide his "Dark Magician" in one of them. Pegasus then uses his Millennium Eye to read Yami Yugi's mind to find the "Hat" that hides the "Dark Magician", but Yami Yugi switches minds with Yugi Muto, leaving Pegasus unable to find the location as Yugi doesn't know. Pegasus' "Toon Summoned Skull" then attacks one "Hat", but it was empty. On Pegasus's next turn, "Toon Summoned Skull" attacks another "Hat", but that was empty too. Later, Pegasus activates "Magical Neutralizing Force" to destroy the remaining "Hats" and reveal "Dark Magician".
In episode 44, Yugi uses this card while he and his friends were inside The Big Five's rigged virtual world and were trying to save Kaiba. He uses this card to create four "Hats" and hide himself and his friends in one of the hats so that they could escape the "Labyrinth Tanks". One of the "Labyrinth Tanks" then attack the hat that went down on Yugi and his friends, but it turned out to be empty. Yugi and his friends then get out of the hat they were under and begin on escaping the maze.
In episode 51, Yugi uses this card during his duel against Bandit Keith while the latter was possessed by Marik Ishtar. Yugi uses this card this card to create four "Hats" and hide his "Dark Magician" in one of them. Keith then activates "Magic Jammer" to negate the effect of this card and destroy it.
In episode 61, Yugi uses this card during his Duel against Arkana. When Arkana activates "Mystic Guillotine" to destroy Yami Yugi's "Dark Magician", Yami Yugi activates this card to create four Hats and hide his "Dark Magician" in one of them. "Mystical Guillotine" then destroys a hat, but it turns out to be empty. Arkana then activates "Thousand Knives" to destroy Yugi's "Dark Magician" since the former's effect is able to automatically figure out which hat "Dark Magician" is under, but Yugi activates "Cursebreaker" to negate and destroy both "Thousand Knives" and this card.
In episode 65, this card is shown in Yami Yugi's hand during his Duel against Strings while the latter was possessed by Marik Ishtar. In the next episode, Yugi uses this card to create four "Hats" and protect his "Dark Magician Girl" from being destroyed by the effect of "Slifer the Sky Dragon" as she had less than 2000 DEF. The effect of "Slifer" then destroys a hat, but it turns out to be empty. Later "Slifer the Sky Dragon" attacks the hat that contains "Dark Magician Girl", but Yugi activates "Magic Cylinder" and "Spellbinding Circle" to decrease the ATK of "Slifer" by 700 as well as redirect the attack back to "Slifer", however String uses the effect of "Jam Defender" to let "Revival Jam" intercept the attack, destroying it instead.
In episode 99, this card appears when Yami Yugi was building his Virtual World Deck for his Duel against Gansley.
In episode 103, this card appears in a flashback Téa Gardner has when she remembers Yugi talking about "Maha Vailo" looking similar to him and having a great power inside its effect.
In episode 113, Yami Yugi uses this card during his Tag Duel with Joey against the Big Five (who were using Tristan Taylor's body). He uses this card to create four "Hats" and hide his "Dark Magician" (his Deck Master) within one of them. Yugi then uses his Deck Master's Special Ability to duplicate this card's effect, creating another four "Hats" and hiding Joey's "Flame Swordsman" (Joey's Deck Master) in one of them. "Berserk Dragon" then attacks all of the hats on Yugi's side of the field to destroy Yugi's Deck Master. The three empty hats were destroyed, but before the fourth attack could destroy Yugi's Deck Master, Joey orders his Deck Master to intercept the attack. Joey then activates "Silver Dollar" to prevent his monster from being destroyed and prevent himself from taking Battle Damage.
This card also appears in a flashback Yami Yugi has when he remembers Joey using the Deck Master ability of "Flame Swordsman" to transfer 1000 of its ATK to this card which is why Joey was able to use "Silver Dollar" on "Flame Swordsman" when it intercepted the attack "Berserk Dragon" made on "Dark Magician".
In the second above-mentioned episode, this card is seen in a flashback Yugi has when he reminds himself that "Exchange" may have helped him get "Slifer the Sky Dragon" into his hand, but it also helped Kaiba too.
In episode 157, this card can be seen in Yami Yugi's hand during his Duel against Rafael.
In episode 175, Yami Yugi uses this card during his duel against Rafael. When "Guardian Eatos" attacks "Dark Magician", Yami Yugi activates this card to create four hats and hide Yugi his "Big Shield Gardna" and his "Dark Magician" within one of them. "Guardian Eatos" then destroys a hat and it then reveals that the hat contained "Big Shield Gardna". Because of that, "Big Shield Gardna" is destroyed. "Guardian Elma" then attacks and destroys another Hat, but it was empty, however Rafael did this so he would have a higher chance at getting rid of Yugi's "Dark Magician". "Guardian Grarl" then attacks and destroys another hat, but it's revealed to be empty, so "Dark Magician" was safe for the moment. The last hat containing "Dark Magician" was automatically disappears afterwards since there's only one hat remaining after the third attack. Later Yami Yugi activates the effect of "Amulet Dragon" to banish all Spell Cards from his Graveyard and increase its ATK by 300 for each Spell Card banished this way.
In episode 184, this card appears in a flashback Yami Yugi has when he remembers playing "The Seal of Orichalcos" against Yugi's better judgment.
Yugi uses this card when he duels the Ventriloquist of the Dead. He uses this card to hide his "Dark Magician" after the Ventriloquist prevented Yugi from having his monsters defend themselves with "Stop Defense". "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" then attacks a hat, but it turns out to be empty. Next turn, "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" attacks another hat, but that hat is revealed to contain "Spellbinding Circle" which Yugi then used to immobilize "Blue-Eyes" and weaken its ATK by 700. Yugi then released his "Dark Magiciain" out of the hat it was hiding in and proceeded in attacking "Blue-Eyes" with "Dark Magician", destroying the former monster.
This appears in the non-canon duel World Championship 2016 Special: Yugi vs. Kaiba, Yugi uses this card in his Duel with Kaiba. When "Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" attacks "Dark Magician", Yugi activates this card to hide "Dark Magician" in one of four hats. Due to its own effect, "Neo Blue-Eyes" attacks and destroys three of the hats, none of which contained "Dark Magician".