Since the young age of six, I have always enjoyed the Yu-Gi-Oh Trading Card Game. Out of all the things I could have done, the idea of making a personalized deck of cards to play with has always enticed me. The idea that this same stack of cards represented me was really cool, so when I heard there would be a virtual free-to-play version of Yu-Gi-Oh, I was overjoyed. After a couple hours of gameplay and many duels won, I concluded that the video game Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel is a certified great time.

At the start of the game, players start with five cards, with each turn having a player draw one card. The only time a player does not draw a card at the start of their turn is the first turn of the game. With that in mind, there are three different card types in Yu-Gi-Oh. First, there are the monster cards that can be summoned from your hand if they are level four or lower. For monster cards, which have higher levels, you need to tribute monsters that you have already summoned in order to summon them again. You can either tribute summon or normal summon once per turn. The second card type is spell cards, which can be played only on your turn unless they have a special lightning bolt sign. Simpler than that, are trap cards, which need to be set face down before they can be played. Only after the turn in which you set the trap card face down can you activate it.

With a really rough crash course through the rules of Yu-Gi-Oh we can finally talk about the actual hard part of the game. To obtain cards in Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel you need to purchase card packs. To obtain packs, you need to use gems which are a limited commodity, so you have to spend them wisely. Before buying any card packs, figure what deck you want to play. With the set goal in mind, set your sights on the special deals in the in-game shop and get those first. With that, you have bought some of the best cards in the game while giving yourself plenty of fodder for the next step. Likely, from the cards you obtained, you have a couple ultra rare cards that you can trade away for precious card cores. With the newly acquired cores, try making an ultra rare card for the type of deck you want to build and you are left with a secret pack. A secret pack is a pack with a high chance of having cards for a specific kind of deck, which is great for you since the other packs such as the master pack are really hard to make a proper deck from. With that, you start whaling (going all in) on the pack, and hopefully you can create the deck you want.

From personal experience, Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel is a fun game; though it is for more advanced players. To get the full experience, I suggest learning the game inside out from websites like Yu-Gi-Oh Database and Dueling Book.