Silent Magician & Swordsman - Failed Cards, Archetypes, and Sometimes Mechanics in Yu-Gi-Oh 

I don't care how bad these cards are, i will always love these guys from how they worked in the anime

11:59 "The upside of potentially getting a walking, talking Imperial Order..." He doesn't talk, he's silent 😶

Most of these "failed" mechanics are a lot more interesting to me than stuff that became meta.

Konami definitely watches these videos to fall asleep at 3am. Every time you talk shit about cards being bad, Konami says, “Bet….” and releases support for them. First it was Genex and now it’s the Silent cards. 😂

The worst thing the silent waifu "support" has it's the fact it doesn't even work as intended. SM Lv4 checks every draw your opponent makes, not every card drawn, meaning Silent burning only gives one counter towards its level up instead of the five you'd get as seeing in the anime

The funny thing about Duel Logs snarking about Black Luster Soldier getting support is that it is now one of the strongest archtypes in Duel Links since the Yugis can summon multiple versions of all the BLS monsters on Turn 1.

Ill just say Silents were yugis coolest monsters and i still hold out hope they get some more support, either retrains, boss monsters backrow stuff whatever because them being Yugi's own Black Magician and Gaia were so amazingly cool and to them just getting left even in like DSOD was heartbreaking

I don't think insulting other people waifus is a good idea duel logs.

These were supposed to be Yugi's ace monsters, representing him coming into his own and surpassing Atem. DSoD walked that back though and him use Magician Girls and Dark Magician again.

I remember using the Silent duo in one of the GBA games. Ironically I always found Silent Magician to be far more effective in a spell counter deck than it was in a Lvl up deck, because the attack growth can be accelerated using spell counter support like Alchemist of Black Spells. It was basically a discount Magical Marionette

I think the retrains were going in the right direction, but then totally veered off a cliff. 1: You should have been able to Normal Summon them. Not sure why that restriction was put in place when the game feeds off of Special Summoning. 2: With the passing of time or actions, their levels, stats and abilities should increase naturally as long as they're on the field 3: If they're destroyed, they should be able to summon any Lv counterpart from Deck, Hand or even the GY Ignoring Summoning Conditions. This would have made them at least a little playable. Now? Even if you were to do a themed duel, their playstyle and support are extremely lack luster at best.

ya bruh thanks for the Silent support this was a good teaser keep it up

Legacy of Destruction leaks just came out and we got a bunch of Small Yugi supports including for Silent Swordsman and Magician 😂

I love the silent swordsman cards. I got Diamond in master duel with them . Silent sword slash is overpowered and I love it.

As someone whose username is based on the “Silent” archetype. I was kinda sad they don’t play that much ( unless it’s duel links)

Silent Swordsman design is so cool! I like how LV3 resembles Yugi a lot.

Konami really have beef with this dude.

Konami has tried multiple times to reference anime Card of Sanctity on Yugi support but has never considered that "At the start of your Main Phase 1" might actually be enough.

Well. New support for Silent magician as a new Sarcophagus yugi Moto archetype announced. Definitely want to hear you talk about it

The only positive thing I can say about these "Silent" monsters... Is that their art was amazing. So amazing that it's almost a tragedy to see them die out like that xD

Normal Witch of the Black Forest, Link into Artemis, search Silent Magician, TS silent magician. Was doing this combo in decks that dont need a normal summon.

I really love the Silent cards and i think they should be Yugi's Ace Monsters, not Yami Yugi's Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl. Just makes sense to me to him have Silent Magician and Silent Swordsman

And now new Silent support just came out. Please please do a BLS failed video next, he too needs new support already. 😂

in the Silent magician part, you accidentally said "silent swordsman lv4 and silent magician lv8" just a reminder, still a great video

While they aren't good, you can run them in different decks to take advantage for them. Phantom knights for swordsman and magician can work with invoked (or possibly shaddolls).

10 days later: "Silent Support". Why is Konami so good at ruining Archetype videos?

Hey, I'm a fan of the channel and I just wanted to thank you for the content you put out. Your videos are so high quality and helpful and concise. I just got back into Yu-Gi-Oh! after a few years and your videos are so fun to watch. Keep up the good work. Thanks

I actually teched Silent Swordsman into my Noble Knight deck during the height of the Sky Striker days. Having a near free spell negate that I could just splash onto my end board (going first) or early into my combos (going second) was solid.

I'd argue Silent Swordsman LV5 was.....okay back in the day. it didn't NEED to be special summoned which helped a lot.

I haven't played the game in over 15 years. The game has evolved way too much for me to keep up. But...I watch these videos to help these videos to help me sleep and calm now my anxiety. So I appreciate that wholeheartedly.

Silent Swordsman is a massive threat in my Kings Court Deck. It fits in perfectly and works with some nasty floodgates being the same type and attribute

A couple corrections: -Silent Swordsman LV3 came out in Rise of Destiny, then LV5 in Flaming Eternity (so it is worse than you thought xD ) -Silent Magician (the retrain) also negates a Spell once per turn like Silent Swordsman does. She's not just "unaffected".

Here’s my idea for a LV 12 version of Swordsman and Magician each: _Silent Swordsman LV 12_ (LIGHT) Level 12 Warrior/Effect _Can only be Normal Summoned/Set by using 5 face-up Spells you control as Tributes. (Quick Effect) Can only be special summoned (From your hand, deck or GY) If your opponent activates 5 or more Spell Cards or Effects during their turn. Unaffected by Spell cards or effects, and also, all Spell Cards and effects on the field are negated while this card is face-up on the field. If this card would be destroyed, banished, or negated by an opponent’s card or effect: You can tribute 1 Spell card from your hand or field instead. You can apply each of the following effects of “Silent Swordsman LV 12” once per turn:_ ⚪️(Quick Effect) You can tribute any number of spell cards from your hand or field: During your next turn, this card can attack extra times in a row equal to the number of tributes. ⚪️If this card would leave the field by an opponent’s card or effect: Special Summon 1 “Silent” or “LV” monster from your hand, deck or GY, except “Silent Swordsman LV 12”, ignoring it’s summoning conditions. ATK/3500 DEF/1000 _Silent Magician LV 12_ (LIGHT) Level 12 Spellcaster/Effect _Can only be Normal Summoned/Set by using 5 face-up Spells you control as Tributes. (Quick Effect) Can only be special summoned (From your hand, deck or GY) If your opponent activates 5 or more Spell Cards or Effects during their turn. Monsters you control are Unaffected by your opponent’s Spell Cards and effects, and also, unaffected by opponent’s card effects during any turn where they activate a spell card or effect. Monsters you control Gain 500 ATK/DEF for every Spell card or effect that’s activated or applied, and also for each card that is added to or removed from either players hands by card effects. You can apply each of the following effects of “Silent Magician LV 12” once per turn:_ ⚪️(Quick Effect) You can tribute any number of spell cards from your hand or field: During next Draw Phase, Excavate an equal number of cards; add all excavated spells to you hand, then shuffle the rest back into your deck. ⚪️If this card would leave the field by an opponent’s card or effect: Special Summon 1 “Silent” or “LV” monster from your hand, deck or GY, except “Silent Magician LV 12”, ignoring it’s summoning conditions. ATK/5000 DEF/1000

I still did like how easily splashable High ATK monster is Silent Magician for a lvl 4 special summon. 1000 + 500/each card in your hand. :-)

big props for going the entire 15 minutes without stooping low enough to mention the elephant in the room why magician would ever be played even once (huehuehue)....

to watch at 3 AM hit me so fucking hard LOL

There is ONE strategy involving level down; and that is using it like defusion in the battle phase to go for game after your LV monster has already attacked. It's not much but it's A use that has won me the game when I was messing with it

Again, the LV Monsters were done right with the Level Up mechanic in Magic: the Gathering. A simple cost, a very rewarding payoff (depending on the card). And man, Duel Links is just a format where some bad cards see play.

Errata modulation to say: treat it as if it was special summoned properly first then special summon it....

They're probably just going to be retrained into new gandora support at this point so actual yugi can have an archetype and we can leave dm behind forever

New Silent Swordman and Magician support just drop

Bold video for someone in mind crushing distance

I tried running this archetype here and there but it just needs a little more, oomph. Not omni negates or anything, just more to help LV and their respective sub archetype. I do still love Silent Swordsman as a whole though.

I have a feeling that silent burning is more or less supposed to help the silent magician retrain. If i remember correctly, that monster gains 500 ATK for each card in your hand. That being said, having your opponent draw multiple cards is uh...ehh....

Used to beat so much face with Silent Waifu in highschool. She was such a fun card.

Mr. DuelLogs did it again ... HOW DO YOU DO IT?! And can you please give my favorites Nephthys some new support? :')

Lvl up mechanic needs a field spell that 1. Searches/adds back from the gy level up 2. Gives protection on summon (mound of the bound) 3. If the card is sent from the field to the gy add any level up or card that mentions it.

Let's go! We getting new Silent Magician support with this one.

To be fair Knight engine was played in Exostister and did top some regionals so its not "Failed"

I don't even play Yu-Gi-Oh anymore but I love watching your videos

Hell I love this deck! I hope now that you’ve made this video Konami should print new support

Great video duel logs . My fav normal monster is dark blade

"walking, talking imperial order" i don't know about the 'talking' part...

How come Everytime you bring up certain cards those cards end up getting retrains or something a week or so later?

I really loved the level up cards as a concept, and i would really loved to have seen them actually see competitive success, but it really sucks that they didnt get off the ground 😔😔

Huh this aged well Lol I think Konami heard you or something

Silent Sword Slash now has a new super bulky target in Silent Swordsman Zero that'll be really fun

Silent Magician's design baffles me, it's like a tribute to Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth.

6:20 flashback to that duel when i thought i could level down armed dragon 10 into 7 to finish up the game but instead lost my lv10 and was left with nothing 😑

I find it a neat attention to detail that Silent Magician LV8 has the same attack as LV4 with 5 counters on it (1000 ATK baseline with an additional 2500 ATK from the 5 counters which increase ATK by 500 per counter)

The idea of LVing up a monster is interesting to me as someone who grew up in the era of JRPGs such as Final Fantasy. That your monster can become stronger the longer its alive on the field when Yugioh did used to be a game of mostly normal summons with the occasional special summon would've made the original silent series' powerful so long as something like blue eyes didn't show up. I've also recently seen a great use for the card considered to be less useful, silent magician in a 43 card dogmatika/magician deck. The video was made by Crowley12 if you want to take a look

I loved these two cars for some reason, the RPG theme was so cool.

No matter what though, this will always be my favorite archetype

Silent burning is used to boost silent magician to 4000 ATK (it gains 500 atk per card in your hand, you didnt mention that for some reason). It’s still useless in most situation, but your example of leveling up lvl4 to 8 instantly is way off, as they may not draw enough.

Please do a video on the seal of orichalcos/the arichalcos anime arc cards!

I'm somewhat surprise a silent swordsman and Silent Magician weren't used in decks competitively. Even if you do nothing with it, it's still a fairly easy to summon spell negation. As mentioned in the beginning of the video, spells play such a crucial part in decks that I figured decks would run them just to slow down your opponent. Silent swordsman especially since it's an ever present threat into no spells.

It's midnight for me, but I feel called out about the "watch at 3am" crack 😂

I remember running Silent Magician in my Fortune Lady deck in Duel Links to pop my own synchro turn 1 so I could have spell negation, a possible 3500 if they got through it, and my synchro back next turn to do whatever I needed.

NEX: Silent Magician & Swordsman Thunder lv

There are three Skills in Duel Links that support the Silent cards: Determination to Fight, Silent Duelist, and Level Change!

0:30 calling me out for watching that vid at 3am exact was SO uncalled for…

All I'll say is that I made a lot of money selling my Silent Magician. Thanks waifu tax!

I made a successful silent magician + lightsworn deck that I made it to legend 2 with maybe 3 years ago. Silent magician will always be my favorite card even if it isn't the best these days

This one did not age well as well !

Silent Swordsman and Jinzo on the field together was fun. Always managed to anger my friends when I’d get them both out

Silent magician needs a reprint, she has seen zero play and she is $35~ I just want to put her into a cube why does waifu tax exist

The oxygen to the body line made sense but sounded out of character.

If "Silent Magician & Swordsman" (and family) ever make it to Rush Duels, I'm sure the Level Up mechanic will be removed since: 1) It is an obsolete mechanic. Additionally, Rush Duels already removed many classic Mechanics like Chains or Continuous Spell/Trap Card from the game. 2) It is very slow. In Rush Duels, what you want is to be as fast as possible and kill your Opponent with your Boss Monsters. There is no time to repair your next turn to have your Level Up Monster. In any case: - Low Level Monsters would serve as a bridge to reach high Level Monsters: example, this Monster can be used as two Tributes to bring in this specific Monster. - There would be many Retrains. Possibly even more playable or more versatile than the OG Monsters. This is because many Monsters do not meet the Rush Duels's stat standards.

I will never understand why cards that flat out state they ignore summoning conditions sometimes don't ignore summoning conditions.

I feel like you were overly harsh on the LV monsters in general. Level down has applications like dodging effects and recycling. They even had a time in the spotlight where they were a viable rogue strategy in Duel Links. Wonder balloon + LV Insects was annoying AF over there, and Horus has been strong against A LOT of events especially when problematic spells we don't have access to are at play.

This is perhaps the most tragic addition of this series

It's 2am and not the first time it's been this close.

@TheduelLogs I am watching this at 3:22 am. Your intro really freaked me out 😅

Still have my Ulti Silent Swordsman 3+5 somewhere. Loved those cards. Especially when my opponent had Econ/Brain/Snatch 😂

One of my favorite dumbest strats in Yu-Gi-Oh Spirit Caller, right next to playing Horus

I'll continue to campaign for the Ally of Justice cards, but the Worms and Aliens themselves could probably qualify for a Failed Cards episode. It would've been nice if Silent Paladin was at least better than her parents.

I still play silent swordsman sometimes in my warrior decks since a spell negate is very very powerful.

0:27 "You wouldn't be able to have this video to watch at 3 am" Bro, it's literally 3:31 am and I'm watching this lol.

this duo deserves more support

I only played the game on and off in the past, but I thought the use for the silent cards was to play along side a spell counter deck. Essentially using and moving spell counters around to boost Silent Magician to max pretty quick. Or at least that's how I played my deck...

Failed or not, I wish they would reprint them so I can get physical copies of them. They are currently too rich for my blood

I could only think of using Level down in a mirror match, but then again all of the Level monsters you'd want to use it against are either immune to spells or can negate them freely.

I wonder if Silent Burning was ever used for deck-out strategies

LV monsters are a guilty pleasure of mine in this game. Most of them are pretty bad but the idea behind them is interesting enough for me to enjoy them and their challenge

You could combine Swordsman in a Phantom Knights deck which I’ve done to great effect

"You wouldn't be able to have this video to watch at 3am if they turned out fantastic" No need to call me out like that.

Unfortunately, Yu-Gi-Oh was never as popular as it was during the DM era and it never will again. It's no wonder the nostalgic stuff gets all the support, since it was basically the last time in which the game even made sense in the first place.

Now let's see if Konami prints Silent Magician/Swordsman support in Legacy of Destruction that makes them Tier 1 and ages this video like milk lol.

For level down you could use it to Dodge effects or attacks (quick play), so it still has "some" use.

I'm surprised Great Moth never got a level version.