Master Duel Rookie Guide!
When you're first start Yugioh Master Duel, the temptation is high to just spend all your free gems on anything that the shop promotes at the time. I'm here to advise you that maybe instead of jumping right into such, we instead try to be a little more optimal... then jump right into buying whatever you want.
First Step - What to Buy
There are many Archetypes within Yugioh and some of them do work better than others. Do some studying on what's meta, though if none of that interests you, you're free to try your hand at a Rogue Deck or something out there. While you may not win every match, you'll still have a strong sense of pride and victory when you do come out on top. However, a strong deck starts with a strong base, and these eight cards might just be what you need. The first on your shopping list should be one of the following (Listed by Most Value to Least in my own personal Opinion) :
Infinite Impermanence Set
Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring Set
Lighting Storm Set
Solemn Judgment Set
Triple Tactics Talent Set
Forbidden Droplet Set
Effect Veiler Set
Nibiru, the Primal Being Set
All these bundles provide you with 10 Master Packs with which you can get any number of random, but potentially powerful cards, and even if you strike out with pulls, you are guaranteed at least One SR Rarity Card (10 SR Dust if you don't care with a chance to be 30 if Royal Glossy). On top of that, you have a chance to find Secret Packs for cards you may already want which would eliminate having to craft one first. If anything, you should buy at least ONE of the bundles to help you get started. Once that's done, look at how many gems are left and get started on pulling from a secret pack.
New Packs are also always coming out so be sure to check them. They can have a combination of new and old cards and tend to be more geared towards updating an existing archetype while introducing a new one. They also might just be releasing good generic cards that can help to shape up a deck.
On top of that, if you feel like you'll enjoy using a structure deck more, then I recommend purchases three copies of the deck, looking what it has, removing what you don't care for to add in the extra copies, and crafting/Secret Pack pulling the rest of what you need. It might be cheaper than you know! Remember, a structure deck is 500 gems and you can get three for 1500 gems to get three copies of a card from it (or more from the older ones) and with that you can have a better chance to build the deck that works for you, on top of that, if you get lucky with pulls from a secret pack containing cards from the deck (or the archetype) you may even be able to construct a better deck than ever for much cheaper. Also, as a lil bonus, here are the numbers for ya.
All Eight Sets - 6000 Gems One Copy of Each Structure Deck - 6500 Gems Three Copies of Each Structure Deck - 19500 Gems The Feeling of Victory - Priceless (ImsorryIhadto)
Second Step - Deck Building
Deck construction in any TCG/OCG is important, it determines how often you'll have the chance of drawing what you need to win or what you'll need to survive. Your opening hand could spell victory or defeat, and knowing how your deck can handle things is just as important as knowing what your cards do. On that topic: READ. YOUR. CARDS.
Many a match is lost when someone notices they read the card wrong and have ended up in a situation where they are forced into an action they cannot reverse. There is no 'Oh I didn't mean to do that, can I take it back?' in Master Duel, and you have ample time to read and understand what a card does. When you've constructed a deck you like be it from having pulled cards from a secret pack, a structure deck brought it's bits used to make a deck in tandem with secret pack cards, Normal AND Secret packs used to make your deck, or even the complete insanity of just using Master Packs, take your deck into Solo Mode or Free Duel (if your brave) to see how well it does. Take the time to learn your combos, understand how your cards chain and such, and if you need to, look up guides and videos to better help your deck and deck-building skills.
One other thing you can do, if you need, is going through the Practice Tutorials that Master Duel has for you. Though a lot of it is REALLY BASIC, you might still enjoy a little,
Third Step - Ranked
So, you've brought what you needed, you built your deck, you tried it out and learned it, all that's left is to Duel. Take your deck into Ranked and do your best to climb. Find out what the Meta looks like and make adjustments to your deck to help you fight against it or turn it completely on it's head. If you start to suffer a loss-streak, maybe try building a new deck and see if you might have more luck with that, but the moment it stops being fun, it's time to put down the controller, mouse, or whatever else, and take a break. Tilting can lead to misplays, forgetting about the timing of your cards, or just plain exhaustion. If you're genuinely trying to play so you can participate on a Tournament Level, find ways to help de-stress and de-tilt so you can keep climbing, learning, and trying for the top. Don't compare yourselves to others either, you're going at YOUR pace and at YOUR time.
If you find, during a ranked match, you've already lost and see no point in continuing, don't. Surrender. No points are lost in Ranked, a loss would've been a loss anyway, no need to suffer through it. Though Surrendering forfeits your claims to any bonuses you might've gotten after the duel, you may wish to sit there an just let it happen. Dealer's choice. In my personal opinion, I don't enjoy wasting an extra two-minutes of my life to let my opponent Ego Stroke, so I'll just scope and go next. If you want to stick it out and get your rewards for your plays, go right ahead, you complete your missions even if you lose. It's all up to you to decide how you handle it.
Final Step - Post-Match (Ranked and Casual)
The Match is over! You've either won and are celebrating, or you lost and are trying to figure out what went wrong. There are a few things Master Duel allows you to do Post-Match.
For a limited time, you can grab the gameplay of your match and save it. Simply go to Duel ----> Then go to either Ranked Duel or Casual Match ---> Go to Match History ---> Click on the match you either just did or did a while ago ---> Click Play Replay or Save Replay if you wish to watch over the match or save it for future videos of your own, submission clips to those who upload such, or if you just wanna review things on your own. Your other options are to view the profile of your opponent, confirm their deck or Report (Max is 3 times per Day/Maybe per-opponent?). Confirming a deck is something you can do to see if you were just an unfortunate victim of Konami Favoritism (Not salt(alilsalt)) or if your opponent just had a really well constructed deck. You might also get inspired to try something similar or even take the deck and see if you can improve upon it. Viewing the Profile allows you to see the person you've faced and potentially 'Follow' them. You may find you enjoyed the match and want to follow them or maybe you'd like a rematch and you follow them and try to invite them for a round two. Just don't harass or spam them. Reporting should be reversed for the people who actually did something worthy that you can prove or at least have strong evidence of some wrong-doing.
I thank you for reading this whole thing if ya did and do certainly hope that I was able to help out in some form. Obliviously, this is for new players to Master Duel and potentially Yugioh as a whole. I'm no expert and alot of what I do here is casual play and opinion, granted my casual play is just Ranked cause... rewards, but yeah. I still do hope this was able to help, enhance, or simply just give ya little smirk or smile, even if it's at my expense ;u ;