If anyone wants to add me my ID is: 765-344-085
I'm currently using the name SecretArgent (my usual go-to when character limits prevent my from using my normal handle). You may want to message me here or on Twitch (my handle there is Metric_Furlong) first so that I know it's you, since Master Duel has no in-game chat functionality.
Why play Master Duel?
Because it's surprisingly 'free-player' friendly and the client has good funtionality plus all the better CCGs are dead
I know nothing about Yugioh, where do I even start?
Best advice to start with is by working your way through the solo gates, to familiarise yourself with the game mechanics, learning to read card effects (I'm not being facetious here: 'no one reads the cards' is a long-running joke in Yugioh circles), and get an idea for what sort of playstyles you like as, while a lot* of the decks featured aren't particularly playable, they do give you an idea . Ignore the 'secret pack' alerts for now, you'll be able to get them again later (by crafting an SR or UR rarity card that's associated with them) when you've got more of an idea of what sort of deck you want to build.
For early purchases, you'll want to get the 'Bundle Deals' (located in the 'Special' tab of the store), which give 10 master pack boosters + a guaranteed UR staple card for a discounted price. Ash Blossom and Infininte Impermanence are the two highest priorities (since they can do work in every deck), then Lightning Storm and Nibiru, then Droplet and Solemn Judgement, probably in that order, but it's absolutely worth purchasing them all. Note: do not buy Master Packs outside of these bundles, they're a much less reliable use of gems compared to secret packs and selection packs.
The remaining staples you'll probably need to hard craft as you go along, unless you get very lucky. Some of the high early priorities:
Click to Expand
- Maxx C (UR) — the silver bullet 'handtrap' against any deck that special summons more than a couple of times. Since that accounts for approximately 95% of decks, you're going to want a playset of these. Note that, unlike some other monster 'handtraps', Maxx C needs to be discared specifically to the graveyard to work, so it can't be activated if there's an effect that makes discarded cards go somewhere else
remaining copies of Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring (UR) — stopping a search, draw, or send to the graveyard effect can be huge against most decks, especially with Branded decks in the format. The two top decks atm don't care much about being hit by Ash, but nearly all the other decks you'll run into will. Note that Ash can also negate Maxx C.
remaining copies of Infinite Impermenance(UR) — the handtrap that's actually a trap card. Incredibly useful, since nearly every deck in the game uses effect monsters, it can't get chain-blocked and, unlike Ash or Maxx, you can activate more than one of them in the sem turn. The column negation effect, when activated from the field, lasts the rest of the turn so be careful not to activate your own spells in that column.
Called by the Grave (UR) — banish a monster from a graveyard and negate all activated effects by cards with the same name for the next two (2!) turns (note: this includes your cards). Counters nearly all monster card handtraps in the game; mucks monsters with graveyard abilites; mucks effects that summon monsters from the graveyard; just an all-around powerhouse of a card, hence why it's limited to two copies per deck.
Other ones to consider later (depending on your deck choices) are Crossout Designator; Evenly Matched; Harpie's Feather Duster; the water and/or wind Kaiju monsters; the Bystials Magnamhut and Druiswurm; D. D. Crow; Dimension Shifter; Triple Tactics Talent; whichever Pots (Prosperity, Desires, Extravagence, Duality) your deck(s) can run; Psy-Frame Gamma; Dark Ruler No More, and SuperPolymerization (with Mudragon of the Swamp and Garura, Wings of Resonant Life for your extra deck as targets). There are others beyond this, but that's starting to get into more involved conversations about specific decks and the state of the meta-game.
For the extra deck, Knightmare Pheonix and Knightmare Unicorn are completely generic link monsters with good removal effects (Knightmare Cerberus also isn't bad).
For more dedicated Link decks: Accesscode Talker, Crusadia Avramax and Apollusa, Bow of the Goddess are strong generic boss monsters. Underworld Goddess of the Closed World can be made using an opponent's monster, good for getting rid of tough things and I:P Masquerena can set you up to bring out a powerful link monster on your opponent's turn for more disruption.
If your deck can make level 10 or 11 synchro monsters, Baronne de Fleur and Pyschic End Punisher, respectively, are extremely solid options. For XYZ decks, Divine Arms Zeus is a no-brainer, and rank 4 XYZ decks can also take advantage of Abyss Dweller and Bagooska
These are all very quite costly, so for some decent budget cards: Forbidden Challice and Lost Wind can both do passable Infinite Impermenance impressions; Paleozoic Dinomischus and Book of Moon can also provide some budget options for disruption.
Torential Tribute and Compulsory Evecuation Device have very strong effects for their easy crafting requirements, and see some play in full-budget trap-focused decks.
The Duel pass will refund itself in gems, incidentally, and so is a good investment if you're most of the way along it.
Okay, but what deck should I build?
Depends, really. Ideally you'd want to get a handle on what sort of playstyle you want and go from there as a starting point. Unfortunately the meta isn't in a great place at time of writing so options for 'pick a competitive deck and run with that' are a bit limited. The two main decks at the moment (Tearlaments and Sprights) are both very costly in terms of UR cards required and aren't in any secret packs, so would need to be hard crafted. This is also true of most of the handful of other decks that are worth talking about (Swordsoul; Exosisters). Branded is also very costly in terms of URs but does have a couple of secret packs associated with it (crafting Fallen of Albaz unlocks both) and can be built with Bystial cards in the current selection pack so if you're at or near the gem limit that's probably your best bet atm? Note that actually getting to the high ranks does require a good understanding of the game and the decks you'll be playing against, so it probably won't pay for itself for quite a while.
If you're looking for something a bit lighter on the fake-money wallet then it may be worth looking at the structure decks, Salamangreat, Pendulum Magicians, Blackwings, Zombies, and Dragonmaids all have playable decks out there, which buying three copies of their structure decks will put you some/most of the way towards.
take all of that with a grain of salt, obviously.