How much you enjoy Master Duel will probably enjoy how much you enjoy honest to god modern day YGO, for better or for worse.
The aesthetic leaning into the more Hearthstone/Magic Arena realm and away from the sleek futuristic cyber nonsense of Duel Links is understandable, but also disappointing; Yes, the anime and card games are related, but wholly enjoyable on their own individual merits. Still, it feels like Master Duel is almost afraid of YGO's own branding and legacy at times, gimmicky pets and the usual card pool aside.
Master Duel's usability is also not as great as any of Hearthstone's, Magic Arena's, or even Duel Links'. Navigating menus is clunky and slow, as is passing through the different turn phases, and features such as highlighted ability triggers on a chain (Like Magic Arena) are sorely missed.
Again, this is all mostly bearable depending on how much you like modern day YGO. I find the base ruleset to be perfectly good and fine, but the lack of different matchmaking options (Rank vs Unranked) or different formats - Things like Modern, Oldschool, Draft, or even Speed Duels - makes playing online with strangers an absolute chore once you reach a high enough rank when your opponents are ones with access to any number of archetypes that have boatloads of protection, removal, negation, and special summons that drag a single turn out into 5 minutes of sequence playing solitaire.
[As an aside from Master Duel in specific and more on the game of Yu-Gi-Oh itself, I have often heard some longtime YGO prolifics talk about how fast the speed of the game is. It probably is true in terms of per-match time or total turn count that YGO games are shorter than other games in the genre, but I found while playing Master Duel that in half of my games each of those turns takes so much longer and is very much less interactive than in any other card game I've played. When this happens and it's not your turn, a match that's literally half the length of a bout in [Other Card Game] feels twice as long.]
If that's your thing, then, cool. The YGO card game fanbase is a big one, and it's almost a wonder why it took so long for something like Master Duel to come along. The biggest piece of admiration I can have for this online iteration of the card game is the sheer breadth of cards available from the getgo, either in packs or by way of the game's card crafting system; Only about one card I searched for in the deck editor didn't show up. Even being older than 20 years old, the effort to implement this library of game pieces is appreciated, and something more games could stand to do. Being able to look up your favorite card from when you were younger and play with it has a great satisfaction to it. But I don't see myself seriously returning and investing more hours until more formats/playlists are available unless I'm playing with friends.
On its surface, Master Duel is a gateway for new players to enter the world of Real Ass Yu-Gi-Oh!, much like Hearthstone and Magic Arena were able to make complex card games accessible to the masses in the past. It technically serves that function, especially with it being free-to-play and on just about everything, but I have a hard time having a lot of faith or enthusiasm in it as an effective onboarding experience for anyone without a previous interest in the property.
The aesthetic leaning into the more Hearthstone/Magic Arena realm and away from the sleek futuristic cyber nonsense of Duel Links is understandable, but also disappointing; Yes, the anime and card games are related, but wholly enjoyable on their own individual merits. Still, it feels like Master Duel is almost afraid of YGO's own branding and legacy at times, gimmicky pets and the usual card pool aside.
Master Duel's usability is also not as great as any of Hearthstone's, Magic Arena's, or even Duel Links'. Navigating menus is clunky and slow, as is passing through the different turn phases, and features such as highlighted ability triggers on a chain (Like Magic Arena) are sorely missed.
Again, this is all mostly bearable depending on how much you like modern day YGO. I find the base ruleset to be perfectly good and fine, but the lack of different matchmaking options (Rank vs Unranked) or different formats - Things like Modern, Oldschool, Draft, or even Speed Duels - makes playing online with strangers an absolute chore once you reach a high enough rank when your opponents are ones with access to any number of archetypes that have boatloads of protection, removal, negation, and special summons that drag a single turn out into 5 minutes of sequence playing solitaire.
[As an aside from Master Duel in specific and more on the game of Yu-Gi-Oh itself, I have often heard some longtime YGO prolifics talk about how fast the speed of the game is. It probably is true in terms of per-match time or total turn count that YGO games are shorter than other games in the genre, but I found while playing Master Duel that in half of my games each of those turns takes so much longer and is very much less interactive than in any other card game I've played. When this happens and it's not your turn, a match that's literally half the length of a bout in [Other Card Game] feels twice as long.]
If that's your thing, then, cool. The YGO card game fanbase is a big one, and it's almost a wonder why it took so long for something like Master Duel to come along. The biggest piece of admiration I can have for this online iteration of the card game is the sheer breadth of cards available from the getgo, either in packs or by way of the game's card crafting system; Only about one card I searched for in the deck editor didn't show up. Even being older than 20 years old, the effort to implement this library of game pieces is appreciated, and something more games could stand to do. Being able to look up your favorite card from when you were younger and play with it has a great satisfaction to it. But I don't see myself seriously returning and investing more hours until more formats/playlists are available unless I'm playing with friends.
On its surface, Master Duel is a gateway for new players to enter the world of Real Ass Yu-Gi-Oh!, much like Hearthstone and Magic Arena were able to make complex card games accessible to the masses in the past. It technically serves that function, especially with it being free-to-play and on just about everything, but I have a hard time having a lot of faith or enthusiasm in it as an effective onboarding experience for anyone without a previous interest in the property.