I hesitate to give Master Duel a rating by nature of it being both 1) a live service game and 2) a card game that constantly evolves. Any rating that I give now can just as quickly be made irrelevant by a future update that changes the in game economy or the introduction and removal of cards that can change the meta in a moment. For that reason, I'm going to keep this to the current state of the game, while ignoring format specific issues. Lord knows how many people love to complain about the current meta threat.
So I'm going to get this out of the way right now, the biggest issue with Master Duel is the existence of Maxx "C". I have no idea why Konami is seemingly so in love with this card, but it's incredibly unhealthy for the game and warps deck building. You basically have to dedicate a quarter of your deck list to account for this card. While banning it won't solve all the games issues, it would do a lot to lessen the impact of them.
The game is also not very good at onboarding new players. Yu-Gi-Oh is an incredibly complicated game to learn and master, and Master Duel does a very inadequate job at teaching people how to play the game. The tutorial will teach you very basic stuff about the game, but beyond that you're shit out of luck. Solo Mode can maybe provide a better learning experience for certain archetypes, but if none of them interest you, then that's that. The best thing you can do to learn is find a deck that interests you and look up a guide on Youtube on how best to play it. In my experience, it doesn't take that long for me to learn the fundamentals of a new deck, but this will vary wildly from person to person.
The best of one format is also not an ideal way to play a game, especially in a ladder format. I get why that's the case, as games would drag on for much longer if ladder was in a BO3 format with side decking, but it would do a lot to encourage skilful play and deck building instead of simply building a deck that can generate a 51% win rate.
So does Master Duel anything good compared to paper play. Shockingly, yes. In a strange turn of events, Konami created a game with one of the most generous economies I've experienced. You can make competitively viable decks without ever needing to spend a dime to do so. This is made easier by the fact that the game has a crafting system, where you can just craft the cards you need for any strategy and dismantle cards you'll never use. Don't want to spend hundreds if not thousands of gems in the hopes to pull a one of UR? Just craft that sucker. It also helps that a lot of the expensive cards are staples that you'll run across many decks, so the true cost to build a new deck is never as high as it might seem. Master Duel also only uses one type of currency, and that currency can be easily earned by just playing the game. In a world where the TCG can often times be prohibitively expensive, it's nice to see a way to play these decks without needing to remortgage your house.
Another feature that keeps the level of investment low is the game's various starter decks. For 1500 gems, you can run some pretty decent decks. They aren't Tier 1 meta threats, mind you, but some of the Starter Decks on offer are at the very least viable to play on the ladder, which means that you don't need to invest all that much to get a head start on your climb up the ladder. Just do your due diligence and do some research on which decks are worth getting before taking the plunge.
I can't say whether Master Duel is a good way to experience Yu-Gi-Oh as it's so heavily dependent on the type of person you are. If you're looking for a way to just do pick up and play type Yu-Gi-Oh, this is not the product for you. If you're looking to more seriously get into the game while also not wanting to break the bank on cardboard, Master Duel could provide a good alternative for that itch.
So I'm going to get this out of the way right now, the biggest issue with Master Duel is the existence of Maxx "C". I have no idea why Konami is seemingly so in love with this card, but it's incredibly unhealthy for the game and warps deck building. You basically have to dedicate a quarter of your deck list to account for this card. While banning it won't solve all the games issues, it would do a lot to lessen the impact of them.
The game is also not very good at onboarding new players. Yu-Gi-Oh is an incredibly complicated game to learn and master, and Master Duel does a very inadequate job at teaching people how to play the game. The tutorial will teach you very basic stuff about the game, but beyond that you're shit out of luck. Solo Mode can maybe provide a better learning experience for certain archetypes, but if none of them interest you, then that's that. The best thing you can do to learn is find a deck that interests you and look up a guide on Youtube on how best to play it. In my experience, it doesn't take that long for me to learn the fundamentals of a new deck, but this will vary wildly from person to person.
The best of one format is also not an ideal way to play a game, especially in a ladder format. I get why that's the case, as games would drag on for much longer if ladder was in a BO3 format with side decking, but it would do a lot to encourage skilful play and deck building instead of simply building a deck that can generate a 51% win rate.
So does Master Duel anything good compared to paper play. Shockingly, yes. In a strange turn of events, Konami created a game with one of the most generous economies I've experienced. You can make competitively viable decks without ever needing to spend a dime to do so. This is made easier by the fact that the game has a crafting system, where you can just craft the cards you need for any strategy and dismantle cards you'll never use. Don't want to spend hundreds if not thousands of gems in the hopes to pull a one of UR? Just craft that sucker. It also helps that a lot of the expensive cards are staples that you'll run across many decks, so the true cost to build a new deck is never as high as it might seem. Master Duel also only uses one type of currency, and that currency can be easily earned by just playing the game. In a world where the TCG can often times be prohibitively expensive, it's nice to see a way to play these decks without needing to remortgage your house.
Another feature that keeps the level of investment low is the game's various starter decks. For 1500 gems, you can run some pretty decent decks. They aren't Tier 1 meta threats, mind you, but some of the Starter Decks on offer are at the very least viable to play on the ladder, which means that you don't need to invest all that much to get a head start on your climb up the ladder. Just do your due diligence and do some research on which decks are worth getting before taking the plunge.
I can't say whether Master Duel is a good way to experience Yu-Gi-Oh as it's so heavily dependent on the type of person you are. If you're looking for a way to just do pick up and play type Yu-Gi-Oh, this is not the product for you. If you're looking to more seriously get into the game while also not wanting to break the bank on cardboard, Master Duel could provide a good alternative for that itch.