[h3]TL - The game's currency is hostile towards the players (extremely long review about gems and not gameplay in specific)[/h3]
[spoiler]if you want the SUPER short story: I just found out today there's a gem cap and its pretty low. screw me saving my gems for a set I like and wanna pull rainbow cards for. this is on top of earning gems being a terrible experience[/spoiler]
While this is an [b]accessible gateway into Yugioh[/b], its one of the [b]worst ways to play it.[/b] I have 1000 hours in this game because I love playing [b]Yugioh[/b] but I don't love playing [b]master duel[/b] what made me finally post a negative review is the game's [b]currency[/b] not being too F2P friendly at ALL
[h3]Earning Currency is Rough[/h3]
Master Duel has[b] 2 primary ways to EARN gems. [/b]Battling in ranked or participating in its monthly event formats. Both have MAJOR issues.
[h3]Ranked: (Ranked-A)[/h3] For context I'm a[b] pure-archetype Mikanko[/b] OTP and my highest earned rank is [b]Master 4.[/b] I consider myself to be a competitive player.
Ranked has 7 divisions, beginner to master, and 5 sub-divisions within each rank (beginner only having 2 though). if you were to go from[b] beginner 1 to master 1[/b] somehow within the span of a ranked season (start of month to end of month) you would earn yourself 4,650 gems.[b] a ten pull of packs is 1000[/b] so by JUST ranking up you make a little less than 50 pulls. you have to be decent at playing [b]modern format/relevant[/b] Yugioh to get through [b]platinum,[/b] and [b]diamond + master[/b] require you to have mastery levels that require [b]a LOT of experience and hours to win matches[/b] in them OR simply[b] play a current meta deck/degenerate unorthodox strategy[/b] (I.E. hard stun trapslop or summon lock morganite) and be carried through.
that and you're required to have an [b]above 50% overall win rate[/b] the whole time or you move[b] nowhere or straight downwards.[/b] this means you'll be[b] compromising your morals heavily[/b] or just be stuck in gold forever for [b]wanting to play your pet deck(s) or just cards you think look neat[/b] (that aren't strong enough to beat a modern set on a consistent enough basis.)
[h3]The worst part? (Ranked-B)[/h3] you're[b] borderline PUNISHED for climbing ladder successfully too.[/b] every month's rank "reset" only drops you down by 1 major division. (If you're master you go to diamond, if you're diamond you go to plat, so on) but you [b]do not earn gems for the ranks you skipped.[/b] so by staying consistent and keeping a higher rank in a video game which SHOULD net you more or better rewards (and mind you, the ONLY actual rewards for ranked is gems. you can complete battle pass in other modes) you instead get[b] LESS gems per given season unless you retire for a couple months,[/b] purposefully go down a couple ranks, then spend hours and hours again going back up.[b] This is the only game I've played in memory that gives its best players LESS for being good at or investing time in the game. [/b]That's just IMPRESSIVE if anything. how is that even possible?
[h3]"okay, so don't play ranked then if you're a casual"[/h3] except for the fact that [b]between the times event duels are available,[/b] the only way to [b]complete your daily missions[/b] for 120 gems (1.2 pulls)[b] is by PLAYING "ranked"[/b] so you're [b]FORCED [/b]into the ladder system whether you like it or not. duels[b] only count towards missions[/b] if you manage to [b]win the due[/b]l or if you sit out your opponent's tun [b]without surrendering[/b] and the duel. if you forfeit to save time after completing some missions in the match it doesn't count them, and[b] if your opponent FFs before you can actually get some missions done[/b] (which is common in handtrap rock paper scissors rank) you don't complete em and[b] barely get rewarded for a standard win[/b] unless its [b]your rank-up match.[/b] [b] MISSIONS DO NOT COUNT AS COMPLETE IF YOU ATTEMPT THEM IN THE (barely existing) "CASUAL MODE" OR IN SOLO.[/b] this means it becomes harder to complete these daily missions in practice (some more than others) the higher rank you are, and casual players or pet decks haven't got the best environment to earn their 1.2 daily [i][u]generous[/u][/i] pulls of a pack (pity doesn't exist unless you do 10 pulls explicitly) are you starting to see the problem? [b]earning[/b] gems is time consuming, difficult, scuffed, and compromising.
[h3]event duels:[/h3]
I have less to say about event duels since [b]this is a more subjective topic.[/b] I'll just say I'm not a huge fan of the usual [b]banlists they create for them.[/b] these [i]SHOULD[/i] be a time to express yourself with a [i]gimmicky ruleset[/i] so you must get creative, and by proxy let weaker or lesser used decks and archetypes or strategies shine but it's usually slop in some manner.
I'm the Mikanko OTP guy, its my whole Yugioh persona. They're [b]banned in every event or HEAVILY crippled[/b] in some way that makes playing them not worth. that's [i]fine,[/i]they're admittedly [b]difficult for a lot of people or weaker archetypes to actually deal with. [/b]But let me know why my unoptimal rouge mikanko set is crippled in the current event while [b]literal Tier 2 and tier 1 decks are allowed to be played?[/b] (At the time of writing, the sets in question are Dracotail engine, clown crew, and elfnote engine) I have other decks obviously but its frustrating to see my less (currently) popular sets like [b]Mikanko, Lab, and Voiceless Voice[/b] be barred from playing these while whatever's[b] new, shiny, and strong is usually let in.[/b] These events are the main way to earn gets as you get like[b] 2k-3k from em each month[/b] [b](half a MAX-RANK climb)[/b]but the allowed cards list for them have NEVER felt coherent at all. Can't even play the "for fun modes" apparently. if you DO win a match in these event duels though chances are you earned a [b]couple hundred gems immediately which is nice. [/b]
[h1]The Punchline:[/h1]
But lets say you're a fantastic modern duelist. you hit master rank every season, you participate in the events and clean out the gems, and you're stockpiling them for a set in the future, or a rerun of some event cards you would like to have royal finishes of.[b] The game EXPLICITLY stops you from having more than 10 thousand gems in your inventory.[/b] you know, the ONLY CURRENCY IN THE GAME?? The currency that you not only use to buy card packs, but cosmetics and starter packs and such.
I already have all the cosmetics I think I would want that exist in the game right now. so there's no point in buying more and just letting them rot because I have no reason to display them. or maybe you're just someone who doesn't care about cosmetics at all. apparently if you haven't got like $60+ USD to drop at the exact time the pack you want is available if that was your plan, you're out of luck! if you go over the cap your gems are put in storage and if you don't use your current ones to claim your new ones within a month they are [b]PERMANENTLY REMOVED FROM YOUR ACCOUNT.[/b] because of how the pack system works, even 100 pulls isn't enough to safely guarantee a rainbow for whatever featured cards you want. Hell, sometimes it can barely be enough to throw together a whole modern set without needing to dig into your shard supply if you wanted to avoid using the shards. Why does this game genuinely have a CAP on the ONLY currency that exists in it so its easy to stockpile if you've already got what you want for the most part or are waiting for something specific, and it's a huge chore to earn them in the first place.
[h2]Your time on this earth is the most precious resource.[/h2] When it is spent it can NEVER be refunded, and I would encourage you to spend your time playing a game that acknowledges its casual player base, and respects the dedicated one. Master duel consistently does neither of those. ♥♥♥♥ you Konami. Genuinely.
