Konami’s official Yu-Gi-Oh! online simulator, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, brings the physical game to the modern digital age. The game has many of the rules that the paper version has all wrapped up in a single-game format. However, just like the paper version of any TCG, some people try to exploit the rules to gain an advantage. Currently there is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel exploit circulating that allows players to go first in every match they play, kind of.
A user on Reddit by the name of “Bleep2814” created a post detailing how players can cheat the system. In the post they state that “The game doesn’t recognize when you ALT+F4 as soon as you lose a coin toss (there’s a 5 second window in which you can ALT+F4, just reboot the game and re-queue with no drawbacks). You can repeat that method until you win the coin toss and basically always choose if you want to go first or second.”
The reason this is so powerful is that in the current metagame, players have an overwhelming advantage when going first. This is because many of the best decks in the game are combo decks. These decks have win conditions that involve setting up boards with a lot of interruptions and negates. Decks like Bird-Up, Zoodiac, Drytron, Eldlich and many more all win more games by going first. This exploit essentially gives those decks a huge boost in power.
Although this exploit seems to only work on PC due to the quick “Alt + F4” action, the same Reddit thread has reported that the exploit also works on the Sony PlayStation 5 as well. Players have been doing it on PlayStation 5 by hitting the home button as soon as they queue up and hit the close the app button as soon as the coin toss is loss.
Exploiting the game is highly discouraged as Konami can serve punishments for going against its terms of services. In the game’s terms of use under the section titled “Rules of Conduct,” it states that Konami has the right to terminate a player’s license to use and access the Application if they gain an unfair advantage through exploits.
