Assault Mode Monsters - Failed Cards and Mechanics in YuGiOh 

When you compare a Yugioh mechanic to Neos Wiseman, you know it’s going to be straight garbage.

Assault Mode is the "What If?" of the synchro summon if they weren't a extra deck summon

The description is gold lmao

4:22 Actually, the anime had nothing to do with the introduction of Assault monsters. The only way the anime was involved is when Konami released an OVA of a duel between Yusei and Jack, with both of them using Assault Mode versions of Stardust Dragon and Red Archfiend Dragon. The OVA was released as a way to promote the Assault Mode cards, since the anime didn’t have those monsters.

Assault mode is literally just “You wanna go -1 and use a garnet to MAYBE have a monster with 500 more attack? No? Why not!?”

I still want a Black Rose Dragon/Assault Mode, even if I know I’ll never play it.

assault mode is incredibly fun to play in more casual enviroments. you can also suprise some meta decks with it and sneak in a cheeky win :P But its simply not strong and fast enough to compete with decks like Drytrons, Virtual World or any of the top 6-10 decks :P

I remember having a Zombie World Stardust Assault deck back in the day that was actually feared by my friends. Using Plaguespreader to return the Garnets back in the deck. One of the most fun things was having both Stardust and Red Dragon Archfiend Assaults at once and have them destroy each other while floating into their synchros and OTKing that way.

Oh man if he makes an Arcana Force video...

"All assault mode cards have a When instead of an If for their Floating effect" *shows stardust assault mode which specifically says If and not When*

I feel when one type of your game's three cards types is almost entirely passed over unless it is completely broken there is a problem

I actually had a lot of fun with this deck back when yugioh games on the ds were a thing. While I stopped playing the card game after a while, one thing stardust assault mode taught me early was how dumb omni negates are. I pretty much made the deck to turbo out stardust and I managed to get out assault mode often.

Assault mode is such a wild concept. It feels like a janky anime mechanic, but they were never in the anime outside of a non-canon tv special. Konami legitimately expected this to be a good mechanic. At least Konami did a good job supporting them with the cards in EXFO. Sure it's just "Stardust turbo", but it works and is actually a solid rogue deck now. If assault modes can be made playable, anything can be.

I like how you talked about assault mode stardust having a when effect while the version you show on screen has an if effect. It actually is a when but its funny that the image you used showed it with an if.

Really enjoy the failed cards and mechanics series

Gemini will most certainly be covered by this series :D

Assault Mode felt like they were trying to revive the whole Metalmorph transformation from the Joey/Bandit Keith duel in that you use a Trap card to switch out a monster with its Metal/Assault version from the Deck...only they didn't learn why that concept failed and somehow made it worse. XD

Assault Mode is one of many cool ideas that just never got the good support they needed or just wasn't implemented very well. Main deck boss monsters that need a special monsters on field should be able to summon themselves from the hand/deck, the same way Theinen the Great Sphinx can.

Assault Mode is basically upgraded Metalmorphs (MetalZoa and REBMD) but still as bad to use lol but at least they have effect

I remember pulling a collectors edition of Arcanite Magician Assault and knew it would never sell for much nor be used

Top 10 main deck boss monsters. Top 10 Spells/Traps with graveyard effects. Top 10 Toon cards. Top 10 worst searchers.

I like how whenever he mentions the word garnet, there’s a picture of Gem Knight Garnet. 😂

Can’t spell Assault without ass, which is what these cards are. At least they look cool though. They did attempt to make Assault monsters more viable through Assault Mode Zero, which didn’t work. But it did see some niche casual play in Duel Links For those who don’t know, Assault Mode Zero is a Quickplay Spell Card that lets you summon an Assault monster by tributing the appropriate Synchro. But it also has a GY effect where you can banish it to set Assault Mode Activate directly from your deck. Also, can we just appreciate the genius that is the description?

I ran Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode in my Dragunity Deck back in 2012/2013. Of course it wasn't the most consistent or competitively viable deck, but Dragunity was already my favourite archetype and Stardust Dragon my favourite boss monster, so it was like the perfect deck for me. Would probably still be playing it to this day if I was actually still playing this game, lol.

We need more good Main Deck Boss Monsters like Levineer and Chaos Emperor

Assault Beast isn't unprecedented by any means, it just searches a good card rather than a field spell like the other level 4 1900 ATK monsters from the GX era that came before it (Gravekeeper's Commandant being the only noteworthy one).

They just need a field spell with destruction protection and a Galloping Gaia effect. Reveal an Assault mode spell/trap get a monster and viceversa 👍

When Konami starts to bank on 5ds again we probably will see some new support for this. I really like the assault mode cards.

Very cool video, would love more videos based on failed archtypes, mechanics, cards.

Honestly I love Assault Mode Stardust, it's one of the most fun decks in the history of Yu-Gi-Oh in my opinion, especially back in the day when you could kind of splash it into an otherwise regular Synchro engine (of which admittedly lots of cards got limited and/or banned eventually). Also, it works with Starlight Road as an alternative way to summon Stardust. Not too sure if that card is even used these days being a trap and all, but back then it was surprisingly easy to enable.

Yeah, psi reflector is pretty nuts At this point they should either errata assault mode activate to summon from the hand because MAN is it annoying to brick with stardust

I'm a big fan of assault mode, I love the idea of cards getting an upgraded form or even further transformation

I still like the assault counter trap card for the lack of once per turn. Solid video as always from Mr.DuelLogs

Assault Beast's effect is actually surprisingly common, but most of these searchers search spell cards, of which most are field spells. Zeradias searches "sanctuary in the sky", Destroyersaurus searches "Jurassic World" and Neo-Space Path Finder searches Neo-Space.

With experiences from Duel Links... Psi-Reflector and Assault Beast are a good engine for Synchro summoning monsters without specific monster requirements. Although intended to then chain into assault mode, sometimes it's more worth it to keep the Assault Mode for discard effects.

Frick I'm a little late, but my man I love these kinds of videos where people talk about different game mechanics, or about the game in general, what are some failed experiments, what were some needed changes and such, not that I don't like the usual content u put out, I follow u for that kind of videos, but I also wouldn't mind more videos like this :D

If Assault Mode got more support. Here’s a few ideas - Clear Wing Synchro Dragon/Assault Mode Lv 10 ATK/3000 DEF/2500 (WIND Dragon/Effect) Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be Special Summoned by “Assault Mode”. If a special summoned monster activates its effect, you negate that effect and if you do this card gains ATK equal to that monster’s original ATK. During damage calculation this card gains 1500 ATK. If this card is sent to the GY Special Summon 1 “Clear Wing Synchro Dragon” from your GY - Black Rose Dragon/Assault Mode Lv 10 ATK/2900 DEF/2100 (FIRE Dragon/Effect) Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be special summoned by “Assault Mode”. If this card destroys a defense position monster by battle inflict piercing damage to your opponent. If this card is destroyed by battle or card effect. Destroy the attacking monster during the end of the Battle Phase. If this card is sent to the GY special summon 1 “Black Rose Dragon” from your GY. - Junk Warrior/Assault Mode Lv 10 ATK/2700 DEF/2100 (DARK Warrior/Effect) Cannot be normal summoned/set. Must first be special summoned by “Assault Mode”. Gains 100 ATK/DEF for each Level 4 or lower monster you control or in your GY. During the start of the Battle Phase, this card gains double its original ATK or DEF. if this card is sent to the GY Special summon 1 “Junk Warrior” from your GY - Azure Eyes Silver Dragon/Assault Mode Lv 10 ATK/3200 DEF/4000 (LIGHT Dragon/Effect) Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must first be special summoned by “Assault Mode”. During your Main Phase you can discard up to 2 Spell cards from your Hand and Add 2 LIGHT Dragon Monsters from your Deck or GY and Special Summon 1 of those monsters in Attack Position. If your opponent activates a Spell/Trap you can pay 100 LP and negate the activation and banish that card. If this card is sent to the GY special summon 1 “Azure Eyes Silver Dragon” from your GY. - Blackwing Armor Master/Assault Mode Lv 10 ATK/2800 DEF/1200 (DARK Winged Beast/Effect) Cannot be Normal/Set. Must first be special summoned by an “Assault Mode” Card by tributing 1 “Blackwing Armor Master” or “Blackwing Full Armor Master” from your field. When this card destroys a monster with 2000 or more ATK by battle. Your opponent must discard 2 cards from their hand (if they have any). Once at the Start of the Battle Phase (Quick Effect) you can discard 1 Spell/Trap and target 1 Face-Down Card on your opponent’s field and negate it until your 3rd Standby Phase after this activation. If this card is sent to the GY, Special Summon 1 “Blackwing Armor Master” or “Blackwing Full Armor Master” from your GY. - Assault Mode Forward!!! (Quick-Play Spell) Special Summon 1 “Assault Mode” monster from your Hand/Deck or GY by tributing 1 Synchro Monster of the appropriate name. Your opponent cannot activate effects when this card is activated. If this card is in your GY or banished face up, you send the top card of your Deck to the GY to add this card to your hand - Assault Mode Initialize!!! (Continuous-Spell) You can only activate this card if you don’t control a Synchro summoned monster. Special summon 1 “Assault Mode” Monster from your Deck or Hand by sending 1 synchro monster of the same name from your Extra Deck to the GY. If that monster is sent the GY, destroy this card and take damage equal to half its ATK or DEF (your choice if tied) or if this card leaves your field destroy that monster - Junk Speeder/Assault Mode Lv 10 ATK/2900 DEF/2100 (WIND Warrior/Effect) Cannot be Normal/Set. Must first be special summoned by an “Assault Mode” card by tributing 1 “Junk Speeder” from your Field. If this card was summoned during your Turn and was not negated, Special Summon 1 level 7 or lower “Junk” or Warrior Synchro Monster from your Extra Deck ignoring its summoning conditions (This special summoned can be treated as a Synchro Summon) once during your opponent’s Battle Phase if this card is targeted for an attack you can negate the attack and if you do inflict damage to your opponent equal to half the attacking monster’s current ATK. If this card is sent to the GY, you can special summon 1 “Junk Speeder” from your GY.

I love DuelLogs’ soft spot for Colossal Fighter/Assault Mode. Also I get a lot of Metalmorph parallels with Assault Modes.

Assault mode decks actually fit REALLY nicely into Altergeist. Topped casual meet ups with it twice. Heavily suggest checking into it

Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

Doomkaiser Dragon/Assault Mode is actually one of my favorite cards (I have an ULT playset 😁) it's a real shame that it can't really benefit from Psi-Reflector since Doomkaiser requires Plaguespreader as its tuner.

Assault Mode might see some success running 3 Crossout Designator and 1 of every hand trap to stop opponents from interrupting lol. I like these videos, helps me learn about cards I literally never bothered learning about

I have a soft spot for Assault Mode monsters since it was my first proper Yu-Gi-Oh deck in the early days of Duel Links. Back when I played with a friend he was constantly stomping me with a HERO deck while I struggled to keep up with Red Dragon Archfiend, up until I added Assault Mode support to help my deck out. His reaction after seeing my newest Red Dragon Archfiend was amazing :)

I always believed that ritual monster cards should be in the fusion(then)/extra deck.

This video made me have ideas to try making a deck with these cards in master duel. I think it will be a solid deck

I remember when Assault Modes first showed up. Back when the game first came out, a friend of mine would always stomp me with what could basically be described as Critter/Android Format Goat Control - yeah, he was playing Goat Control before Goat Control was even a thing. And he kept playing it casually after Thousand Eyes Restrict was banned. I always struggled with getting decent cards, since at the time I wasn't allowed to buy singles and I always had terrible luck with pulls. So, fast forward to early Synchro format (yes, it took that long for me to get anything remotely viable). I pull off the ol' Summoner Monk + Rose, Warrior of Revenge combo and get a Stardust on the field first turn, and then set my Assault Mode Activate. He activates Polymerization, I chain Assault Mode Activate. So now we both have our big bosses on the field - my Stardust Assault Mode and his Thousand Eyes Restrict. He proceeds to declare that he's activating TER's effect, and I start to laugh maniacally as I tell him I chain Stardust Assault Mode's effect, negating and destroying his TER. I know this isn't much, but FINALLY beating that damn thing is a fond memory of mine, and I did it with Stardust Dragon/Assault Mode.

Great vid DuelLogs!

love this video concept. keep making more please

glad to see another failed cards video. Do you think we can get a music list if it isn't too much trouble?

Man, I loved playing Stardust AM in the Tag Force games. One of my favorite decks along with Djinn lock Nekroz.

Love the Video idea, pls keep them coming

I haven't played yugioh in a decade but an Assault Mode deck sounds super fun and interesting. Tiny me would have loved that deck!

U can add to these series the Greveykeeper archtype. All cards based around the necrovalley field spell card and how they suppose to be counter the zombie archtype back in 2005 I can add some hints if u want to talk about it

Colossal Fighter Assault Mode was actually such a beast boss monster in my Battlin Boxers, being able to have both Colossal Fighter and Assault Mode on the field with a 8K Lead Yoke beat stick, There really wasn’t much my opponent could do against it.

Thanks for this video, I was someone who took assault mode stardust a tournament once when mermails and inzektors were running around. I didn't win alot of matches but the ones that I managed to turbo out assault stardust + set scrap iron scarecrow were pretty hilariously unbalanced.

Great video. Assault mode looks so much more fun than when I used to play the card game

Toons deserve a spot in this series, I think they would serve as an excuse to talk about so many mistakes konami had to learn with these cards. Toon book of contents and how having no restrictions on it makes it a useful cheese card in exodia/royal magical library ftk decks, or how they had all the different "waves" of toon monsters with so many different rules like special summoning or normal summoning from the hand, paying 500 to attack or not, and in TDMG's case being able to attack the turn it is summoned or not.

Have you made a video about the artifact cards? The ones that are effect monsters, but they set themselves in the spell and trap zone. I would love to hear you talk about those, and your opinion on them :D

Its kinda a shame the whole assault mode strategy was just a shade to vulnerable to work in modern tcg. I think the last nail in the coffin was actually called by the grave already being run in every deck as a way to deal with handtraps, also happened to kill startdust assault mode.

I love this new type of videos!

I remember Upstart Goblin in OG TCG. I always ran 3 copies. The card was always insane. Another favorite I had was dark illusion. Basically Dark Illusion was a negate anything that targets a dark monster trap card. I played blackwings and Gravekeepers, so this trap was always a surprise to my opponent. I also ran two copies of Michizure to kill my opponents monsters when I would syncro-summon. I also ran an insane Gravekeeper deck that used Visionary and people I played against always forgot about it's built in protection. The card was unreal at the time. I even beat an exodia battlestall deck using 2x heated heart on a neos. That era, right when XYZ came out, was the best time to play the game.

I think it would be really cool to do a video about the top cards that have never been reprinted or have had only a single printing.

It bears some note that PSI-Reflector and Assault Sentinel makes one Emergency Teleport transform into an infinite advantage loop that allows you to basically have complete control over the gamestate. It is an incredibly lengthy combo, but you can use PSI-Reflector to perform a Halqadon combo that leads to looping Megalith Och for infinite advantage, since Assault Sentinel can change Gale Dogra to a psychic type, leading to ignoring its cost and repeatedly dumping infinite copies of Herald of the Arc Light thanks to PSY-Framelord Omega. Said infinite advantage loop can be used to draw exodia, resolve final countdown on turn 0, summon any boss monster in the game, mill your opponent out, literally complete control of the game state. Unfortunately, it can be stopped by every single hand trap in the game.

Did this get Assault mode monster to see competitive play? Of course ✨No✨

My brother knew how to get assault modes out extremely easily during the 5Ds era (it involved Flamevell Firedog, which I STILL think is a bonkers card)

I always wanted to make arcanite magician work when I was younger and assault mode looked really cool but otherwise I wasn’t super into assault thematic

Colossal fighter's assault mode is a card I used since since day one like original form and I still used them to this day in both my warrior/war rock deck and best deck which is endymion/elemental and mask heroes.

Arcane Apprentice could be floated into by using Apprentice Magician in Arcanite decks. Once you had it either in hand or on field you drop the Instant Fusion for Musician King, Synch Arcanite Magician, clear board with his counters, then Assault Mode on Opp's turn when they tried to remove or beat over him.

I also remember back in day seeing some folks using a psi reflector engine in the ocg as a way to make halqifibrax, so i guess that's another competitive use they had.

I gotta hand it to ya, I love your videos. This one is one of your best. The exposition about trap cards and slower stuff to foreshadow how bad assault mode was. Explaining how Psi reflector carried the archtyped. and then saying. You might ask yourself did they see competitive play? the answer might surprise you.... No LUL

I played a Quickdraw Stardust Assault mode deck back in the day. There was also a really good duelist at my locals that played a Hero Assault Mode deck that was amazing. He was pretty well known in the community as the Cloaked Duelist. It really wasn't that hard to pull off. Plus Omni negates were broken back then. Basically combos including using dark Grepher to pitch malicious, summon arcane and then bring malicious out and bam that's a stardust dragon Assault mode. Plus if you bottomless'd grepher you could still use priority.

Great topic! HOpe it becomes a serie

The armor of the Assault mode monsters reminds me of Joey's armor that he used on the Orichalcos arc of the niame

With the new addition of Pendulums in Duel Links, can you do a "Top 10 Pendulum Archetypes that Don't Work with 3 S/T Zones"?

I had some fun with Hyper Psychic Blaster asssault mode back when emergency teleport was not banned/limited.

Omg please make another video this was awesome 😎

If I had to compare them to anything, it's like baking a cake, then exchanging it for a slightly better cake.

There was this guy in my locals back in 2011 who every single week would bring a different version of his startdust assault mode deck, never really worked but he had lots of fun

I find it really interesting how both DuelLogs and Rata did videos on Assault Modes (Rata's being a Pathetic Aesthetic), and for both of them, Colossal Fighter is the thumbnail image.

Love this one, it’s like real life yugioh lore… and I’m a sucker for lore lol

Still hopping for a Black Rose Assault

I regularly use assault mode Red dragon archfiend on duel links with my Jack Atlas since it's such an easy synchro to pull off

Back in 2011-2012 I had a friend use this deck with Dragunity’s and it was OP when it popped off which was actually pretty consistent. He always got a first turn stardust with like 2-3 cards and dragon ravine really helped with the consistency. Some turns he could get 2 stardust assaults out at once and good luck playing around that lol.

The only Assault Mode monster I've ever encountered is Startdust Dragon. I wasn't aware that there were more since this one I got in a bunch of other cards.

It's the Master Duel N/R Event where I try to use Assault Mode Cards but with only 2 Assault Mode Monsters available, it's rather hard to play them.

Talk about the malefic archtype, they have big boss monsters too, and apparently didn’t see competitive play too

In Duel Links I use a TG deck because you have a two card combo with skills to halberd canon so I can easily get assault mode once I draw assault mode activate. The other TG monsters can addTG Halberd Assault mode to my hand

I really like the idea of Assault Mode... If they all had power on the level of Stardust, they might warrant the garnets in some decks. Stardust AM is, in theory, a pretty easy omni negate to get out with the new support (and with E tele to 2 soon it's pretty nice), and in some cases it leaving the field until the end phase after negating might keep it safe until next turn.

If the assult mode momsters had Necroz like effects, that lets you return them to the deck/discard them to add assult mode to your hand, or even activate it. Or something like that

I actually stumbled into making an assault mode deck a year ago cause i was just looking for the highest level monster you can summon and the TG halberd thing was one of the highest on the list I was repeatedly creamed by my friend who ran a more meta deck but it was fun so eh

Stardust Assault Mode was the card that defined my deck in the Synchro era. Too the point that players in my area had to keep "D.D. Crow" in their side-deck for when they faced off against me.

I misremembered the assault mode cards so badly. I used to think at some point at their trap card just sent the original monster from the extra to the graveyard in order to summon the Assault Mode card, which would actually be good enough even on a trap.

I only used assault mode activate if the synchro was about to get destroyed by some card effect. I only had the colossal fighter one.

if you havent done so, are you able to do a failed cards and mechanics on spell counters and/or archetype counters

I saw some idea with arcanite magician You use Assault Mode to get the Effect one, and use Graveyard Fusion to get the Fusion at the same time

Back in the day I use to Lava Golem twice the best opening hand of an Assault Mode deck.

Trying to use the assault mode engine just leads you to realizing it turbos out any synchro monster you want, and in fact you get more consistency if you just ditch the assault mode and focus on powerful synchros like hi speed roid kite drake.

This is actually my favorite archetype to play in Millennium Duels (the dragon rulers still being at 3 in that game helps)

here's an idea for assault mode support. "ASSAULT SYNCHRO" is a quick play spell with the effect that if you control one tuner and one or more non tuner monsters who's level is equal to the level of an assault mode monster in your hand you can send those cards to the graveyard and someone the assalt mode monster ignoring its summoning condition, if the syncro counterpart to this card is on the field when you activate this card you can send that card to the graveyard as its cost and it gains the affect "once per turn you can attack directly with this card and deal double damage, if this cards attack is reduced or negated it can attack every card you opponent controls once each."

I can only imagine the choice words you'll have for the Gemini mechanic