History YMMV / YuGiOhMasterDuel

*** Extreme Duel 5 is one of the least intrusive events, as it gives both players two Normal Summons per turn and doesn't impose any deckbuilding restriction. Expect lazy players to just play their usual ranked Decks instead of making the most of the extra Normal.

*** Level 3 requires one Tribute Summon, which is a mechanic rendered unpopular by PowerCreep. Most modern Decks won't perform a Tribute Summon except in the most dire of situations, unless they're focused on performing that.

*** The final Practical Task is a work in tedium and basically tells players not to rush it. Completing 10 Duels is routine, but destroying '''100 cards''' takes a fair bit of effort, especially when most popular removal effects don't destroy and destruction in battle is even more uncommon.

** The game being treated as an alternative to the physical TCG is already a divisive issue, but the effect the game had on ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' content creation is particularly nasty. Due to the game's visual attractiveness aspect and ease of access that makes it easier on the eyes compared to the look and general hassle of physical cards or unofficial simulators, a large number of existing content creators have pivoted to making ''Master Duel'' a major part of their output, which has frustrated fans who are only interested in the TCG and aren't especially interested in the digital game's weird format shenanigans.

* ContestedSequel: To ''VideoGame/YuGiOhDuelLinks''. Fans of ''Master Duel'' prefer the more standard rules, larger card list, and the crafting system that makes it very easy and cheap to build decks, comparing it favorably to ''Duel Links'' which is infested with bizarre Skill balancing, rampant BribingYourWayToVictory, and reliance on "nostalgia baiting" via usage of anime characters and storylines to keep players engaged. Fans of ''Duel Links'' enjoy the less powerful metagame that is more beginner and newcomer friendly and makes it possible for both players to properly interact with each other, the fact that that all the player characters and several {{NPC}}s are given voice-overs, and that it gives the player more of an anime experience, decrying ''Master Duel'' for its overwhelming complexity and card pool, extremely advanced power level that is dependent on ComplacentGamingSyndrome, a questionable banlist (especially in regards to the very contentious "Maxx 'C'", which is Forbidden in the TCG, being Unlimited in ''Master Duel''), and the lack of anime content.

* FandomRivalry:
** With ''VideoGame/YuGiOhDuelLinks''. Defenders of ''Master Duel'' over ''Duel Links'' cite the latter game's incredibly notorious BribingYourWayToVictory factor, bizarre Skill balancing, and reliance on "nostalgia baiting" via usage of anime characters and storylines to keep players engaged. Defenders of ''Duel Links'' cite the former's overwhelming complexity and card pool, extremely advanced power level, balancing choices (especially in regards to "Maxx 'C'"), and the lack of anime content.
** There's also a minor one with the core TCG playerbase, at least as far as ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' content creation is concerned. Due to the game's visual attractiveness aspect and ease of access that makes it easier on the eyes compared to the look and general hassle of physical cards or unofficial simulators, a large number of existing content creators have pivoted to making ''Master Duel'' a major part of their output, which has frustrated fans who are only interested in the TCG and aren't especially interested in the digital game's weird format shenanigans.

* AmericansHateTingle: There's a non-insignificant number of ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' TCG players who treat ''Master Duel'' as a card game format as inferior, citing not only the existence of Maxx "C" and its ramifications on the format as unhealthy but also its best-of-1 Ranked Duel system inherently increasing the luck-based factor of duels and its bizarre card pool updates that seemed to pander to certain meta-defining archetypes while simultaneously leaving behind support or other less impactful archetypes.

** Runick gets a lot more flak in ''Master Duel'' than it does in paper formats. This archetype is built around using Quick-Play Spells to mill and interrupt the opponent, and can accommodate floodgates to restrict the opponent's ability to counterplay. It requires some HighlySpecificCounterplay in a game mode that has no Side Deck so it's very difficult to prepare for without losing some strength in other matchups (also, good luck drawing the out if they've banished your outs), and it can be used as a hybrid with other archetypes to add some ConfusionFu to the mix. It's not a fun archetype to play against, and the limelight it got in ''Master Duel'' led to most of the important cards getting Semi-Limited (when the archetype instead wasn't touched by the banlist at all in real life).

** "Blue-Eyes", or rather "Blue-Eyes" ''players'' are the butt of many jokes. In a phenomenon similar to Charizard from ''Pokémon'', the monster is incredibly popular and constantly gets support, which leads to many players using their resources to build the deck and bring it to ranked... which is where many of the jokes come from, because despite the support, "Blue-Eyes" remains ill equipped to deal with most of the top decks in the game, leading to the deck's players being seen as the archetypical "Yugiboomer" that refuses to adapt and play better cards. This was especially exacerbated in Ritual Festival, where not only did they get a particularly bad Loaner Deck, but they faced a nearly-impossible matchup in the form of Nouvelles, which can stun Blue-Eyes players into submission with their versatile array of non-targeting Tribute effects.

* BrokenBase:
** As a new take on the ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' card-game, it was inevitable that arguments would pop-up between players regarding etiquette and playstyles. Below are some of the issues that generate the most heated discussions in the game.
*** Surrendering in the opponent's turn. Some players will argue that the opponent is not entitled to be able to complete combos and get a "legitimate" win if they play a combo-heavy deck that spends a lot of time setting up unbreakable boards, while others will argue that ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' is an incredibly volatile game, and that attempting to save time by jumping straight to the Battle Phase with a sub-optimal board just leaves you open to a comeback by the opponent. Both sides will accuse each other of being examples of "StopHavingFunGuys", and being upset at their opponent's actions. The issue is also muddled because of real-life etiquette, which encourages surrendering to save time, whereas ''Master Duel'' has missions that encourage Battle Phase-based interactions, such as destroying monsters in battle and dealing damage. Arguments were eventually quelled (or at least, significantly reduced) after the Battle Phase-based mission requirements were reduced by half, and being removed altogether a few months later.
*** Sandbagging[[note]]Staying in lower ranks by tanking your win rate[[/note]], "suiciding"[[note]]Losing on purpose in order to speed up the acquisition of gems in events[[/note]] and other strategies that run counter-intuitive to gameplay. Supporters assert that anything is fair in the pursuit of getting gems and increasing your own fun while playing the game, that staying in lower ranks increases the diversity of decks you can play and oppose, and that players that take issue with this approach are tryhards that suck the fun out of the game. Detractors argue that the players that use these strategies only take their ''own'' fun into account, leading to the lower ranks being filled with the same "meta" decks that these players complain about as players get frustrated with their own winrate, and that playing suicide decks runs counter to the spirit of the events, [[YouAreWhatYouHate sucking the fun out of the game]].
*** "Floodgate" cards are already a divisive topic in the normal card game, but it's especially bad in ''Master Duel'' where playing around them is much more difficult when you cannot have a Side Deck and thus must pack as many answers as possible to as many decks as possible into your Main Deck without affecting your consistency. Some players abide by them as excellent counters to common meta decks and their ability to quickly and easily win games due to shutting down their opponent's ability to play, while others consider them extremely unhealthy for a format where not everyone can run backrow removal and believe they need to be banned for how frustrating and unfun they are.
*** Playing [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome "meta" decks]] in Casual Match. Many people say that you get to learn to play with or against a strong deck without any stakes at hand, while others complain that if you're so interested in winning that you might as well play Ranked, since Casual frequently is full of people playing inherently bad or gimmicky decks without the stress of needing to win. Some argue that it's the best way to learn your combos against a real opponent, but is frequently balked with how people RageQuit if they feel they don't have any chance against a certain archetype, thus ending the duel prematurely.
*** In the midst of the dominance of the "Tearlaments" archetype, Konami made an extremely controversial banlist decision in the form of banning "Terraforming", a card that has been around for over 20+ years and has never been banned in either the TCG or OCG despite the increasing power level of Field Spells. Detractors complained that the ban unnecessarily punishes virtually every other deck in the game with minimal impact to the top decks, while defenders argue that a costless generic consistency card that functionally serves as an extra copy of any Field Spell in your Deck and is searchable by "Triple Tactics Thrust" is extraordinarily powerful in this day and age and deserved to be hit regardless of whether or not "Tearlaments" are specifically to blame.
** In the few debut years, Master Duel typically had a large wait period where cards would debut about 6-9 months after their physical introduction. Naturally, a portion of the fanbase complained discussing how the slow card introduction was problematic and that they should introduce cards faster. [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor Konami seemed to have taken to the problem to heart]] in a way that many had then took issue with. Later packs soon started featuring cards that were much more meta-defining in both the TCG/OCG, while simultaneously ignoring or leaving cards (or worse, full-blown archetypes or supports for previous archetypes) behind.

*** The March 2024 Cup was filled with Snake-Eyes Decks, followed by Superheavy Samurai and Labrynth, all of which had received support in the past few packs. This was ''before'' Bonfire and Arias the Labrynth Butler were added to the game.

* BrokenBase: As a new take on the ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' card-game, it was inevitable that arguments would pop-up between players regarding etiquette and playstyles. Below are some of the issues that generate the most heated discussions in the game.
** Surrendering in the opponent's turn. Some players will argue that the opponent is not entitled to be able to complete combos and get a "legitimate" win if they play a combo-heavy deck that spends a lot of time setting up unbreakable boards, while others will argue that ''Yu-Gi-Oh'' is an incredibly volatile game, and that attempting to save time by jumping straight to the Battle Phase with a sub-optimal board just leaves you open to a comeback by the opponent. Both sides will accuse each other of being examples of "StopHavingFunGuys", and being upset at their opponent's actions. The issue is also muddled because of real-life etiquette, which encourages surrendering to save time, whereas ''Master Duel'' has missions that encourage Battle Phase-based interactions, such as destroying monsters in battle and dealing damage. Arguments were eventually quelled (or at least, significantly reduced) after the Battle Phase-based mission requirements were reduced by half, and being removed altogether a few months later.
** Sandbagging[[note]]Staying in lower ranks by tanking your win rate[[/note]], "suiciding"[[note]]Losing on purpose in order to speed up the acquisition of gems in events[[/note]] and other strategies that run counter-intuitive to gameplay. Supporters assert that anything is fair in the pursuit of getting gems and increasing your own fun while playing the game, that staying in lower ranks increases the diversity of decks you can play and oppose, and that players that take issue with this approach are tryhards that suck the fun out of the game. Detractors argue that the players that use these strategies only take their ''own'' fun into account, leading to the lower ranks being filled with the same "meta" decks that these players complain about as players get frustrated with their own winrate, and that playing suicide decks runs counter to the spirit of the events, [[YouAreWhatYouHate sucking the fun out of the game]].
** "Floodgate" cards are already a divisive topic in the normal card game, but it's especially bad in ''Master Duel'' where playing around them is much more difficult when you cannot have a Side Deck and thus must pack as many answers as possible to as many decks as possible into your Main Deck without affecting your consistency. Some players abide by them as excellent counters to common meta decks and their ability to quickly and easily win games due to shutting down their opponent's ability to play, while others consider them extremely unhealthy for a format where not everyone can run backrow removal and believe they need to be banned for how frustrating and unfun they are.
** Playing [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome "meta" decks]] in Casual Match. Many people say that you get to learn to play with or against a strong deck without any stakes at hand, while others complain that if you're so interested in winning that you might as well play Ranked, since Casual frequently is full of people playing inherently bad or gimmicky decks without the stress of needing to win. Some argue that it's the best way to learn your combos against a real opponent, but is frequently balked with how people RageQuit if they feel they don't have any chance against a certain archetype, thus ending the duel prematurely.
** In the midst of the dominance of the "Tearlaments" archetype, Konami made an extremely controversial banlist decision in the form of banning "Terraforming", a card that has been around for over 20+ years and has never been banned in either the TCG or OCG despite the increasing power level of Field Spells. Detractors complained that the ban unnecessarily punishes virtually every other deck in the game with minimal impact to the top decks, while defenders argue that a costless generic consistency card that functionally serves as an extra copy of any Field Spell in your Deck and is searchable by "Triple Tactics Thrust" is extraordinarily powerful in this day and age and deserved to be hit regardless of whether or not "Tearlaments" are specifically to blame.

* AmericansHateTingle: There's a non-insignificant number of ''Yu-Gi-Oh!'' TCG players who treat ''Master Duel'' as a card game format as inferior, citing not only the existence of Maxx "C" and its ramifications on the format as unhealthy but also its best-of-1 Ranked Duel system inherently increasing the luck-based factor of duels and its slow card pool updates rendering it perpetually 9 months behind the TCG on cards (disregarding one-off imports that show up early).

** Mission progress isn't recorded and Festival rewards aren't handed out if you surrender, regardless of context. It is entirely possible to have a game lasting several turns before you realize you've lost, and conceding would be considered courteous in that situation. It may be an AntiRageQuitting mechanic, but the game is basically punishing you for being polite and/or not wanting to waste more time. This can be especially irritating if you're in a situation where you clearly cannot fight back and are close to losing, only for the opponent to make superfluous plays just to show off.

** "Master Duel Masochist" is a challenge created by content creator WebVideo/{{Cimoooooooo}} where the player attempts to climb to the highest rank of Ranked Duel with a deck composed entirely of cards pulled from a set number of Master Packs, starting from 5 Master Packs (thus comprising the starting 40 card deck) plus an additional pack for each win the player earns with the resulting deck.

*** Actual game notwithstanding, it is extremely common for the several highest ranked players in Duelist Cup Stage 2 to switch to default cosmetics and a shared generic player name (such as "player") in order to prevent opponents from immediately identifying their deck and thus counterplay to their strategy.

* SugarWiki/AndTheFandomRejoiced: The Time Travel 2004 event, which is an official implementation of the fan-favorite GOAT Format hearkening back to the earliest days of competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, has been met with very notable acclaim from much of the playerbase with many wishing that Konami would make the event ruleset a permanent playable format in some capacity.

** Legacy Packs, a.k.a. "free" card packs, acquired by spending tickets (as opposed to Gems) are generally terrible prizes; each pack only contains two cards, the card pool is almost nothing but garbage, and none of the cards you get from them can be dismantled for Craft Points. It is not uncommon to hear about players scrounging for Gems (mainly SR and especially UR) while simultaneously drowning in Legacy Pack tickets, or to hear of players complaining about multiple {{Junk Rare}}s from those packs that they can't dismantle to craft what they need. It also doesn't help that there are plenty of cards that are exclusive to the Legacy Packs, which can be a problem if there's one you actually need since the pool they pull from is so big and the packs themselves so small, which basically means that they have no chance of pulling them by opening Legacy Packs. To make it all worse, the game keeps track of which cards you got from Legacy Packs, but not how many copies of that card, and since cards you get from these packs can't be dismantled and the game considers identical copies interchangeable, that means you can never dismantle ''any'' copies of a card once you get it from a Legacy Pack, even if it came from somewhere that restriction shouldn't apply to.

** Legacy Packs, a.k.a. "free" card packs, acquired by spending tickets (as opposed to Gems) are generally terrible prizes; each pack only contains two cards, the card pool is almost nothing but garbage, and none of the cards you get from them can be dismantled for Craft Points. It is not uncommon to hear about players scrounging for Gems (mainly SR and especially UR) while simultaneously drowning in Legacy Pack tickets, or to hear of players complaining about multiple {{Junk Rare}}s from those packs that they can't dismantle to craft what they need. It also doesn't help that there are plenty of cards that are exclusive to the Legacy Packs, which can be a problem if there's one you actually need since the pool they pull from is so big and the packs themselves so small, which basically means that they have no chance of pulling them by opening Legacy Packs.

* SugarWiki/AndTheFandomRejoiced: The Time Travel 2004 event, which is an official implementation of the fan-favorite GOAT Format hearkening back to the earliest days of competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, has been met with very notable acclaim from much of the playerbase with many wishing that Konami would make the event a permanent format in some capacity.

* Sugar/Wiki/AndTheFandomRejoiced: The Time Travel 2004 event, which is an official implementation of the fan-favorite GOAT Format hearkening back to the earliest days of competitive Yu-Gi-Oh, has been met with very notable acclaim from much of the playerbase with many wishing that Konami would make the event a permanent format in some capacity.