Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is a fantastic digital version of the classic card game that brings the excitement of dueling to a new level. The game is visually impressive, with smooth animations and a vast library of cards to collect. The matchmaking is solid, and the variety of game modes keeps things fresh. Whether you’re a seasoned duelist or a newcomer, the tutorials and easy-to-understand mechanics make it accessible to everyone. The microtransactions can be a bit much, but overall, it’s a great experience for fans of the series.

After roughly 100+ hours of play time, I can attest that I am still waiting to take my turn. Yes, you read this right.... 100+ hours and I will give a fair assessment that I spent a total of 90% waiting to draw one card and play once before someone counters and then starts the infinite cycle of bs link summon cards for a full 30 card loop to absolutely demolish and end a duel. 10/10 - do not recommend

Master Duel is a good online simulator, but power creep has ruined yugioh and it's probably only going to get worse. Having to wait a minimum of 5 min. just for your opponent to finish their combo, after which they negate pretty much anything you do simply isn't fun. yugioh has 13000+ cards, which allows you to get creative with building a deck... except not really, because only the current meta decks seem to matter. It's not about who has the best deck, but about who's best at playing the meta. You could of course just play a casual match!... except even there most players resort to meta decks.

should be a classic mode for us older players. not meta

I’ve been playing this game for almost a week non-stop, but I wouldn’t recommend it—not even to my worst enemy. Both Ranked and Casual modes feel like watching someone play solitaire, except somehow it’s even more boring.

The game itself is well-made; I didn’t encounter any bugs during my time playing. However, that’s not the issue. The real problem is the modern state of Yu-Gi-Oh! as a card game—it’s so atrocious that it’s not even fun anymore.

If you have friends who don’t play combo or chain decks, you will enjoy this game. BUT, if your goal is to climb the ranks in Ranked or Casual play, be prepared to learn and build a combo deck so overpowered that it carries you through the entire season and beyond. Even then, you’ll likely get bored of the repetitive nature of the combos and strategies. Believe me, I’ve been there.

One thing I noticed while playing Ranked is that if you don’t have a meta deck, you’ll lose around 86% of the time. This also depends on the time of day you play. Since I played for a week straight, I found the best hours to play are when most Asian players are asleep, and European or American players are active. They seem to focus more on fun and use a wider variety of decks.

As I climbed the ranks, I noticed something else: progressing to Platinum is quite easy since you don’t lose progress until then. But once you reach Platinum, things change. Almost everyone uses the same archetypes, with very little variation. Unfortunately, this doesn’t make the game any easier. Most of these decks are combo or chain-heavy, meaning that if your opponent goes first, you’re essentially done for. Plus, you now start to loss progress, but it doesn't lower your rank.

In conclusion, don’t play this game. If you have friends and some disposable income, just build a physical deck and play in real life. If you don’t have that luxury—or friends—I’d still recommend avoiding this game and looking for something else.

Overall, the game is well-made. Modern Yu-Gi-Oh? Trash.

this game is so unfair, everytime i join a duel match its someone with a 30 action first turn getting out a 10000 atk and 6000 def.... how the hell are you suppose to enjoy this game if there is only one deck that can win and it either takes years of gameplay to get to or you have to spend a bunch of real life money. why isnt there a mode where you can fight random a.i. decks that the structure decks can actually go against instead of getting 3rd turned by someone who takes 30 actions a turn?

I like how the only reason I was able to play this game was because of some people making a mod for it to become accessible with screen readers thanks to the devs not doing their part to add it to any of their games, so blind people can feel included for once.

As someone who used to be into Yu-gi-oh a decade ago, I cannot recommend this game because it is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to play. The tutorial is far too basic and easy (I remembered the rules it taught me from when I used to play), but the actual game itself is FAR too hard. I'll normal summon one card only to have to sit there for 10 minutes while my opponent is able to flawlessly special summon a 9 trillion attack card that negates all effects. Does this game not have skill based matchmaking? Why is there no in-game direction telling you what decks to build or what you're supposed to do?

Don't get me wrong, I think the game is plenty of fun, and I love playing YGO, but there are some genuine issues with this game:
- Casual duels are worthless (can't get any sort of rewards)
- If you don't spend the gems they flood you with at the beginning well, you might as well delete your account and create a new one
- Even if you do spend the gems well, it's going to be boring for a while because you're going to be stuck with 1-2 decks for the next month or so (when you finally build up enough FTP gems to make a new deck (don't spend money on gems; it's a major ripoff))
- Any sort of fun gimmick format created only lasts for a week or less, then it's back to the endless ranked grind if you want rewards for dueling
- Good decks being made up of way too many URs (even better when you can't pull them in packs)

It's still fun, and I'll probably keep playing, and if you want to enjoy, I'd suggest the following:
- Log in everyday to build up daily tasks (you can stack up to 9)
- Play your fill of any side mode that comes up (since it won't be around for long anyways)
- Play ranked mode sparingly (unless you have a top meta deck), probably only when you have 9 daily tasks stacked; it's not fun to end up in a situation where you're stuck playing against people that are running the best because you can't rank down from where you are
- Keep yourself stocked on gems. Only buy packs in ten packs (never buy the master pack), and only buy if you can afford a second ten pack (you're guaranteed a UR next time if you do a ten pull without a UR)
- Never surrender a duel, no matter how bad your chances. You don't get rewards for surrendering, and you never know when your opponent will fumble something and surrender out of frustration themselves lol.

Absolute crap solo game play.