Pros: F2P is alright. It's not great, you'll find your ability to make pet decks or do FOMO is limited. But you can easily make a competitive deck and some casual decks. They do give you a LOT of free gems in the beginning, which sucks because you may not really know what to use them for.
Another pro is the effects are pretty nice.
Cons: There is a heavy focus on professional play. The solo modes are very weak and have very little replay value. Neither casual nor solo modes give you credit with the exception of the "duel 3 times in solo mode" because that's . The special events aren't bad in theory, but in practice again it's professional play focuses so there will usually be a meta deck or 2 that just runs rampant over anything else. They do give some loaners, but the loaners are often lacking much needed support. tl;dr: bery big focus on ranked play
Another con is that a lot of games are best of one. So you are definitely subject to the mercy of RNGeesus on getting a good starting hand, going first, etc. Honestly it makes actual games where you both feel on equal footing and are having fun few and far between.
Last con is that there is a HUGE learning curve and unintuitive gameplay. Unless you know the decks being played and what their typical combo lines, it's pretty impossible to know what your opponent wants to do. It's not like, say, Settlers of Catan where you can see the player going for longest road, the player trying to get wood, etc. For example, one extra deck card is called Dark Magician of Destruction, and he is just in the extra deck waiting to come out at any time as long as the player controls a level 6 or higher spellcaster + activated a spell card. So you need to keep that in mind when up against Diabelstar, Shining Sarcophagus, or really any deck that has a lvl 6 or above spellcaster that's easy to bring out. Another example is playing the hand trap Nibiru by not summoning 5 or more times in one turn. So you need to know which decks Nibiru works well with and which probably won't be there.
So truth be told I can't really recommend the game unless you're very familiar with yugioh or really want that nostalgia.
