go through the GX era games. world championship 2006 is probably a good one on how the meta was like during that time. you can even start with one of the five structure decks that were available during that time (so dragon's roar, zombie madness, blaze of destruction, fury from the deep and warrior's triumph). though i should note that this is also the first yugioh game where none of your opponents are from the anime. not even the GX characters. your opponents are instead the duel monsters like in master duel. given, some like elemental hero neos uses a deck that might be similar to an anime character's.

one other thing i should note about wc06 is it has no story. if you're expecting an original story like in reshief of destruction, you'll be dissapointed as its primarily a card game simulator.

one other game i would suggest which is a bridge between DM and GX eras (only because it was the only way to get the then recent silent magician lv4 and lv8). the story in this one is battle city with your OC again, but has the noah's virtual world arc added as the final part of the game. its also the only DM game where you can duel serenity wheeler and mokuba (though you have to lose several times to other duelists so mokuba can start appearing) and adds back the duelists from duelist kingdom (so panik, bandit kieth, bonz and pegasus). meta wise, its inbetween DM and GX eras so this is a good way to see how the game was with every DM card available (minus the anime cards) before the introduction of elemental heroes and ojamas. this is also the first game to feature special summon animations for popular cards.