I swear I don’t quit these games on purpose. I’ll explain.

Yu-Gi-Oh is one of my childhood games. I would play in tournaments, brew decks, and had a lot of fun with it. The rules haven’t changed much from when I was growing up until today. What has changed is the mechanics on cards and the sheer amount of them.

Flash forward 20 some years and here we are with Master Duel. I was waiting on this game as I had the full TCG experience that Duel Links didn’t have. I have to say, it did not disappoint.

Master Duel came out with over 10,000 cards and one of the slickest UIs I have seen in a digital card game. The menus are easy to navigate, cards are easy to find, and crafting is amazing. It offers 2 main options to play the game, Solo or Duel. The Solo mode offers so many paths and chances to obtain decks that are more geared towards casual play. In both modes, the gems flow pretty freely.

You are given and gain the in-game currency quickly. It is easy to put together your dream deck, once you learn your way around, and climb the ladder if you so wish. At the time of writing and in 2 weeks, I had 2 decks fully built with a 3rd one close to completion. This game was honestly everything and more from what I want in a TCG online client.

Now for the hot take. My biggest gripe is a combination between the game and players. As Tha Gathering would put it, the players have cases of “Still Had All Deez.” This isn’t everyone, of course, but enough that make ladder play not fun. Part of it is because of the build to the boss monster of the deck. The other part is players just wanting to clear the board fully.

The additional time and longer duels I wanted have come back to bite me. It is to the point where I have timed out in duels because my opponent starts to play card after card. I switch off, start reading an article or watching a video on Youtube, and next thing you know, I lost because I timed out. Some creatures and decks do have slow builds and for those, I do like to see how they function. There are some that I just get bored.

So, that was a lot of rambling about a fun game. It is free on Steam and all modern-day systems. I will continue to play casually when friends want, but I feel as if hitting level 100 on the battle pass will be enough ladder play for me. Thank you for listening.

Vincent