⠻⣦⡈⠛⢿⡌⢆⢂⠹⣿⣧⡄⡄⠹⡄⢆⡟⢄⠉⢟⣮⣷⢄⠐⢤⡤⢤⣬⣭⣭
⣷⣤⠙⣶⣦⠙⡌⢻⠂⠘⣿⣷⢹⠄⢳⠘⣿⡟⣿⡄⢳⡆⢳⠛⢢⠈⠉⠛⠛⠛
⢿⣿⣷⣀⠈⠓⠌⠂⠘⢆⠈⢙⣎⢣⠘⡆⢣⡛⣿⡇⢀⡙⠚⠶⠶⠿⠷⠶⠒⠒
⣾⠿⣿⣿⣦⣄⣁⣀⣠⡀⠡⠄⠳⡛⢆⠱⠈⢧⣿⡇⠸⠟⠉⠐⠠⠄⠄⠄⣼⣿
⣿⣷⣬⣉⣛⣛⠛⠿⠿⣧⣷⣦⣄⠘⢿⡆⠡⠘⣀⡇⢠⣶⣷⣮⣤⣤⣴⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⡀⢿⡀⠄⠉⡇⢸⣿⣿⣿⣉⣉⣉⣉⣉⣰
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡏⣿⣦⡙⠄⠄⠁⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⡙⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠁⣿⣿⣷⣌⠄⠄⠘⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣦⣀⡨⣝⡻⠿⣻⣿⣧⣄⠄⠄⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⡀⢻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇⢿⡛⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⠘⣿⣛⣻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣤⡿⢿⠿⣛⡃⠄⣸⣿
⡹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣼⣷⣶⣝⢿⣿⣿⣿⣧⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠟⣿⢇⣈⣼⣿⣿
⣿⣜⢿⣭⢻⣿⣿⣿⣯⢧⠙⢻⠛⣛⣛⠛⠛⠿⠿⠟⣛⣥⣶⣼⢏⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣎⠿⣇⢻⣿⣿⣿⡌⢷⣆⢭⣓⣒⣒⣛⣣⣶⠞⣵⣿⣿⣿⡿⣱⣾⡟⣵⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣤⣻⡘⣿⣿⣿⣷⡜⢻⣮⣛⣛⣟⣫⡿⣛⣴⣿⣿⣿⣿⢃⣿⣿⣷⣿⣿
⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣣⢹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣯⡙⠛⠛⠛⢛⣺⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇⣼⢫⣵⣿⣿⣿

The game is amazing, the solo stories are like watching anime. However, when you play against another person, their turn takes like 30 minutes. Konami should add a quicktime mode where there is a time limit for every turn, 1 minute or something.

There's a TL;DR below for anyone who needs it.

I remember playing Yu-Gi-Oh! when I was a kid. It was so so so fun dueling with friends using our billion card piles of cards that we called decks. Back then we didn't have many ways to play it on PC aside from some modded single-player games that had around 1.8 k cards in them and basically no modern archetypes. We enjoyed those. Years latter you can imagine my excitement when Master Duel was announced as an official Yu-Gi-Oh! simulator. I went in expecting to see Dark Magician, Summoned Skull and Gemini Elf normal summons. Oh boy was I surprised.

A friend of mine started playing at release while I was few weeks late. He already had knowledge of modern ways of the game. I did not. He helped me make my first deck which was Blue-eyes deck focused on bringing out Chaos Max. I couldn't beat him at all and when I finally did he explained to me what bricking means. I got into ranked and that's when the disappointments really started. Five minute turns (at least), cycling through 25 summons (I remember it being Prank kids deck), endless negates, opponents playing on my turn (I had no idea what quick effects and interruptions were let alone hand-traps). It was so horrible I was so close to uninstalling and never coming back. I really didn't have any reason to like the game at that point. Grinding for decks was good at first then the longer I played the harder it became to get the gems. I remember having my Blue-eyes deck for months and nothing else. Then I made my first deck that I really liked and it could somewhat compete. It was Lair of Darkness deck. The reason I liked it was it didn't have that modern feel to it. I was just setting traps and normal summoning most of the time. I used it for so long and I saved up a ton of gems. As I was climbing through gold ranks I started losing with this deck more and more as it is considered a rogue deck and I was so tired of being destroyed by modern meta decks. At this point I had to decide do I quit the game as it isn't what I thought it would be OR do I keep going and somehow find a way to enjoy it.

I decided to use my saved up gems and make a third deck, but this time it was going to be something competitively viable that I really like and could use long term. That's when I fell in love with Despia-Branded. What I did is I abandoned what I thought Yu-Gi-Oh! is going to be and started playing it for what it is now. I completely embraced the BS that it evolved into. What really helped was the fact that I loved Branded so much and never got tired of it in addition to it getting frequent support released which made me rebuild the deck 4-5 times by now adding in new combo pieces and overall new cards which always freshened it up for me. To this day I still play Master Duel a lot and it's my most played game on steam. The best way that I can find to describe this game is - It's a good game in a bad state. It is not beginner friendly at all and what you'll do most of the time as a beginner is simply not play the game since you won't understand it enough to compete with the seasoned players and competitive decks which is not what video games should be about. I do not regret my decision to keep playing the game as it brought me so much fun over the years but I can't in good faith recommend it to anyone that is new to this card game.

TL;DR

I don't recommend playing it if you are new to Yu-Gi-Oh! as you will get discouraged quickly by overwhelming mechanics and tempo of the game. If you know what modern Yu-Gi-Oh! is about then this game is fire and you should definitely play it. The only reason I was able to enjoy this game (eventually) as a new player is because I found a deck that I really liked everything about, was competitive, was getting a lot of new support cards released for it so it stayed fresh, I abandoned the old ways of Yu-Gi-Oh! and I simply refused to give up on it (somehow).