Recent reviews by DREAMS DON'T DIE

This is a weird game to review. It's functionally reviewing an entire TCG while also reviewing a game at the same time but I'll give it a try. Also I really wish there was an inbetween recommending and avoiding a game on Steam but I still play this game close to every day so, I do like it still.
The Actual Yu-Gi-Oh part of Master Duel
Yu-Gi-Oh! is over 20 years old and because of that the game has iterated and evolved since the days of Duel Monsters Era card design and a ton of people who played it as kids might be dissuaded by that but I still do urge people to atleast try to give the TCG a chance when they can even if its casually. The game has shifted away from "Good Stuff" piles of decks to archetypes of related cards and away from hyper powerful spells and traps like Pot of Greed and Mirror Force (Not to say there aren't good S&T, just that there isn't as many must include S&Ts) to equally as strong Monster effects and Extra Deck summons. Every couple of years until of recent with the anime detaching itself from the TCG with VRAINS, they've introduced a new summoning type that pushed the limits of the card design within the game all of which have had their moment in the spotlight.
As the speed of the game increased this leads to evolution in the need against dominant strategy, leading to the introduction of Hand Traps (Cards such as Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Maxx "C", and Infinite Impermanence) and I do think that handtraps overall has made Yu-Gi-Oh much more interesting and interactive than any other card game I've played, now there's counterplay between both opponents on turn one instead of them just solitairing forever (Not to say that doesn't happen but we'll get to that). Overall, I do very much enjoy how Yu-Gi-Oh! has evolved over it's many years of existence and while it has it's ups and downs, I very much enjoy every era of this game.

Master Duel
After so many years of unofficial sims ranging from YGOPro to Dueling Network/Book and "official" ones such as Legacy of the Duelist which had their own issues. We finally an official simulator that is stated to have continual support and actually plays and looks great. We as players waited excitedly for more news and for the game to come out and when it did it felt like a renaissance for the game as over 200K new players were playing the game on release and for the first week. The game has a honeymoon period, you're given so much as a new player, tens of thousands of gems just given to you to open packs and make decks and it's one of the best things about master duel. You can just build anything you want with the gems given to you and within the first week I was playing full power Pendulum Magicians and Zoodiac like it was 2017-8 all over again. I was climbing the ladder and having the great time seeing all of the different strategies from casual to competitive and it was a blast. Then it kinda just stopped, not to say the game isn't fun anymore but you could feel the game become slower with the gems and people wanting to win so much more. Not to say there's anything wrong with the latter point but the atmosphere was different with Season 2 and beyond.

Gems and the Economy of Master Duel
Like stated before the overall Gems given to you at the start is staggering honestly, you can build essentially anything you want if you're smart with your Gems but after that, the game becomes a lot more stingy with Gems, now after you complete Solo mode and got all of your beginner gems, it is so slow to get over a thousand gems to buy 10 packs, this is aliverated with monthly events which gets a couple thousand if you do everything and they're fun! and I've built so many decks just being free to play but that's only because I played every event and done most of my dailies every day. Gem prices are also awful, 1 Dollar isn't even enough to buy 1 pack so you can imagine the conversion rate on the rest of price options are bad. So this game is weird where the game gives a lot but only at select times and very much discenstive from spending money on gems.

Card Pool and Banlist
I think my biggest problem with Master Duel is these two things, the card pool as of the recent update is up to Dawn of Majesty and Synchro Storm but that means the game is behind two core sets in the TCG and almost 4 in the OCG meaning a lot of strategies included in this update like Despia don't even have a good chunk of what makes them good as does Magikey and Suship along with newer decks like HERO and not having Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer. So we have this game in the state of being perpetually behind the modern game which is a major problem especially when the competition in Arena and Pokemon Online both have cards in the game Day 1.
Because of this we also have a metagame that is exactly 1 year behind and a banlist that mostly based around the OCG and by God do i think that is the single thing holding Master Duel back. The OCG and TCG functionally most of the Asia territories versus the rest of the world have had separated banlists for a couple of years now and have distinct differences in changes. The Master Duel banlist is full of some of the most toxic and uninteractive cards of the last couple of years, cards like V.F.D. which lock your monster effects, Rhongomyniad which completely locks summons, full power Drytron with seemingly endless Negates because of EVA and Benten, Simorgh summoning either Apex Avian or a Barrier Statue from deck and protecting it, Union Carrier buster locking you and Halq with O-Lion and Jet making ridiclious boards, just the works.
And honestly I don't think all of this hurt my enjoyment more than a single card being Maxx "C", theres a lot of debate around this card and whether its better at 3 or 0 as a way to curb combo but by god it is the single most overcentralizing card of them all, it is essentially a three of in any deck and anytime I resolve Maxx "C" I feel like I always win. The ability to draw every time your opponent special summons is so strong that so many decks also want to play cards that hate out Maxx C or just pass and hope you don't kill them. Maxx "C" existence basically kills any handtrap diversity in exchange for essentially only two handtraps either Ash or Maxx C instead of interesting meta calls like D.D. Crow, Ghost Ogre or Veiler. and don't even get me started on trying to break through a board when your opponent Maxx "C"s you, essentially refilling their entire hand as you try to playthrough it all and dying on the crackback. I just cannot wait to see something change about the legal cards so the game becomes more healthy at the higher levels of play.

Misc Thoughts.

Most of my thoughts were above but heres some thoughts about other parts of the game. Solo mode is serviciable, though like a lot of parts of the game theres just a lot of weirdly formatted and translated parts of the text that just make it seem like a robot was telling the stories it almost laughable at times. A lot of the loaner decks are severely underpowered and bricky and are very frustrating to playthrough though the ones that are competently built are super fun to play and get even inspire to try them out on ladder.
Customization could be better but its fine. Summon cut ins are great and add a lot to seeing a lot of old favorites get this cool animation but some feel like missed opportunities to have one like the Egyptian Gods and The Arrival Cyberse @Ignister.

Closing Thoughts
Overall I do think Yu-Gi-Oh has the potential to be the best sim on the market it just hurdles to go through and I'll continue playing it until becomes that.

Paid 5 bucks for the best theme in the game, it also came with a bonus character so thats cool

The longest I've ever had to think about an ending choice ever.

It's ok

ruined my life, 10/10 would recommend