At launch, there are 3 types of packs available to purchase at all times – including the Master Pack, which contains the majority of cards in the game – you’ll pull from a pool of 6,750 cards. Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel has a unique system of acquiring packs.
None of them are so hard that you can’t brute force your way through with any of the starters, so feel free to play through as much of the solo mode as you like right away, until you’ve earned plenty of gems and are ready to start building a stronger deck. For some of the missions, you can complete them both with the loaner deck, and with your own deck (playing against that archetype). The Solo mode runs you through a list of archetypes, giving you a brief story for flavor, a practice round to show you one of the main plays or combos in the deck, and then a game where you get to try the deck out yourself. Once you’ve finished the practice duels, you’ll need to build up some gems! You can start to build up your collection and currencies by dueling in the Solo mode to complete those missions, as well as earning some extra cards and getting to try out some loaner decks along the way. These early practice missions will get you started with a deck of your choice – the decision isn’t really important as you’ll be able to earn the others – and then will earn you some solid cards that you can use to fill out your early lists, like Raigeki and Monster Reborn. It doesn’t explain everything in depth, but don’t worry, you’ll be able to figure it out as you go in the Solo mode! These can be skipped, but if you haven’t played Yu-Gi-Oh! in a long time – or ever, you’ll probably want a little refresher on how things work. The first thing Master Duel will have you do is run through some tutorials.