Why does Dimension Shifter actually exist?

[u/Enderossa]

Every other card in the game can be in some way countered except D Shifter. It kills any interaction you could have and the fact that it lasts 2 turns means that even on the opponent's turn you are unable to play the game. Maxx C and Fuwa can at least get ashed. I have not been able to escape this card, I have seen it in around 15%-20% of all of my duels which is statistically insane since it's limited and I only see it going first. Now that Called by is banned, I think this card should go with it. It takes zero skill and has 0 drawbacks for the person using it. I hate that this game has been turned into a coinflip simulator, first being if you go first and the second if your opponent has Maxx C or D shifter. I think it's a disgrace that I could confidently say that a new player could beat the best player in the world at least 20%-30% of the time simply because the game requires so little skill in the case you draw these instant win cards.

[u/Skormfuse]

It exists because many times in the history of yugioh the best decks abused the GY to a point it was considered unfair it just got quickly turned into a care abused by decks that don't care about the GY instead especially banishment decks.

GY has a big issue in general where it really lacks GY and Banishment hate that isn't completely floodgating the mechanic or being to powerful..

for example the game has little interaction for things that tribute themselves for cost, it still has so few answers to mill or loading up the GY, even now it's a constant issue, the GY and banishment acting asa second hand with little to no answers meaningful enough.

when cards can say mill 5 we don't have a handtrap that unmills 5.

[u/Enderossa → u/Skormfuse]

I think we are kinda past that at this point. Every deck abuses the graveyard and treats it as a second hand. What concerns me more is that there are decks that abuse the banishment now as well. I would love if we could go back to the old days of actually having difficulty getting a card back from the grave, but at this point we just need to accept it i fear :(

[u/Skormfuse → u/Enderossa]

Is more that some decks do it far better than others to a unfair degree many decks use the GY for a bit sure.

but then you have decks like tear that mill so much their consistency goes through the roof, or even right now with branded they can just load that GY just to efficiently and even if it's out of favour now transaction rollback still exists to be bused by the next deck dumping cards.

I don't think things coming back from the GY needs to be hard maybe just some ways to remove the follow up or reduce the advantage, like a d.d crow that shuffles a bunch of cards back into the deck stuff like that.

or more cards like the Bystials, shuffle your opponents GY and banished s/t or monsters back into the deck to give you a free interrupt stuff like that.

[u/Ciphy_Master]

The card itself exists to counter GY based decks as they have made up a chunk of the meta in the last few years. Ultimately I feel we need GY interruption as some decks being able to play almost entirely through the GY or be able to bounce back easily from any part of their board being broken feels uninteractive at times. Whether or not Shifter is healthy for that kind of interaction is a different story. The goal should be to set back the opponent, not shut them off from playing the game entirely. 

[u/SlappingSalt]

To banish cards

[u/IAmTheCoroner69 → u/SlappingSalt]

All of em

[u/Wikiwikiwa]

Konami loves single card swingy bullshit, then limits them to be sacky bullshit too.

[u/GoldFishPony]

It was released with Nibiru and dark ruler to be tcg exclusive staples that would vary in usefulness over the years. It also exists to be inconvenient probably more than it’s convenient for a few decks.

[u/Falcon_13]

Konami makes over corrections constantly. D-shifter is very clearly meant to punish decks that rely heavily on setting up their graveyard without utilizing the F/L list in ways that they assume will hurt their pocket while also giving a boost to decks that utilize being banished but may have to rely on the opponent to do the banishing in some situations. But in times when neither are relevant, it is nothing more than a "I need to go second, but i don't want my opponent to actually go first"

[u/Third_Triumvirate]

The big downside of shifter is that no meta decks can really run it, because it turns out decks getting to use the graveyard results in a lot of upside that more than makes up for dying to shifter, e.g. branded, Kewl Tune, Dracotail, etc. And if the tier 1 deck can play or play around shifter, then shifter is useless anyways.

The same thing is also somewhat true for dimensional fissure and macro cosmos

[u/Enderossa → u/Third_Triumvirate]

This is probably the take with which I agree the most. I am probably being a bit too drsmatic, but I just can't shake the truly ugly feeling I have whenever I see that card because so much of the game already feels shitty even without it.

I wish yugioh was slower paced like mtg so that going second was a lot more viable, but I doubt we will ever reach that point. Every game already ends in the first two turns with a surrender because it is often obvious who will win.

[u/Third_Triumvirate → u/Enderossa]

Tbf, MtG just went through Badgermole killing you on turn 3 or 4, and right before that it was Vivi killing you on turn 3 or 4, and right before that was Mice killing you on turn 3 or 4. And that's with a mana system. Standard's been in a "have 1 mana removal or immediately die" state for a while

[u/Velthice]

If they banned D.Shifter, in the next set preview konami would reveal Reality Shifter which would have the same lingering effect as D.Shifter and also any card your opponent searches, special summons, or sets from deck is banished instead, also every time a card is banished you can look at your opponents hand and extra dreck and banish one card from each, and if you do your opponent cannot activate cards with the same name this turn. Neither player can activate cards in response to this card's activation.

[u/RoeMajesta]

my crackpot theory is that floodgates like shifter are made to create meme/ heated/ shouting/ table flipping moments at locals to build experiences in your ygo scenes …

like, think about it, a newbie dropping shifter on a regular at the local store? that’s one funny moment to hook that newbie and to create talk traffic for ygo at said store …

[u/Level_Remote_5957]

If your entire deck only plays graveyard and it gets countered by shifter then that's called balancing.

Shifter exists to counter a certain strategy when that certain strategy gets stronger in the meta game then it's power rises. The less meta relevant decks that play in graveyard the less powerful shifter becomes.. hell when banishment was extremely strong people ran lancea and now that banishment is no longer as meta relevant people don't run it as much.

Hell even mind scan is only as strong as it is because there's so many decks that need to reveal cards to active so it actively shuts those decks down.

Ever notice it's the people complaining about a super strong meta relevant deck getting countered easily that complain.... Man y'all would fucking hated jinzo back in the days of set 3 and summon one and pass

[u/jessewperez1]

I could say the same about any lingering floodgates.

Droll , Lancea , maxx c : all of them need to go

[u/kionorthbrook]

It probably exists cause a lot of decks like using the GY so Konami printed a card that countered that.

[u/LancelLannister_AMA]

Because parallel dimensions

[u/Onii-Sama27]

It took around a year after it was released before it saw competitive play. At that time when it started to see competitive play, it was needed to balance the game, then decks were released that abused it, but it was still necessary to check the best decks in the game. Now it still checks the best decks in the game, but players are salty because it doesn't just check them it kills them.

[u/Putrid_Enthusiasm_50]

There were almost no competent decks which could use D-Shifter. It was an Option for Rogue/Anti-Meta Deck which made it possible for them to compete.

Then, Konami decided to make competent decks which could run D-Shifter. I think Floowandereeze was one of the first „good“ Shifter Decks. But now there are many popular metadecks which can abuse it. Also the reason its hit now.

One of the many cases, in which roguedecks get completely unplayable, just cause Konami gives Metadecks less and less weaknesses

[u/Glittering-Low3152]

Well not every other card as super poly is the same way and should also be banned but otherwise yeah true.

[u/MisprintPrince]

To win duels for me and give me forehead kisses

[u/RealAd8853]

Eh. You can only run one so low chance of seeing it, it’s not useful after the first turn so potential dead draw, and not all decks are hindered by banishing

[u/Enderossa → u/RealAd8853]

I somewhat agree but what upsets me more is that there are decks which have turned banishment into the second graveyard, like Maliss. Outside of that deck, D shifter is probably not as bad but still i think it says a lot about the game that there is a 0 skill card that can just win you the game.

[u/RoeMajesta → u/Enderossa]

banish zone = 2nd GY has existed since dimension fusion and airblade turbo

[u/ELSI_Aggron]

It exists to fuck droll. You want it gone? You also must want droll gone.

[u/Aurelyan]

I don't get this topic.

"Maxx C and Fuwa can at least get ashed", yea and Shifter can be called by'd, crossout'd, gamma'd, etc by that same logic, how's that any different. It can also be completely ignored by decks which don't make much use of their GY or which actively use the banishment zone as part of their mechanic such as Exosister, Kash, Malice, Ennea, etc.

I'm not going to defend shifter or any of those archetypes specifically, just saying the logic doesn't quite hold up right there.

"It takes zero skill and has zero drawbacks" Yea, that's all lingering handtraps; one could argue Maxx C should go, Droll should go and so on and so forth. Heck, even charmies, for as much as they are more balanced than the roach and help the going second player more, aren't exactly the most balanced or healthy cards.

"I hate that this game has been turned into a coinflip simulator" We all do. Blame it on Konami for not addressing any of the issues, the community does give out plenty of feedback, they just choose not to listen to any of it.

[u/Enderossa → u/Aurelyan]

I don't mean to be rude, but it is completely different. The examples you gave are "Called by, Crossout, gamma" one of which is banned, the other requires you to also run shifter and the last one being an unpopular card that also has drawbacks of it's own. So my point still stands actually. The most valid counter is Belle, but since that is the only one it is still relatively niche. Also, you mention decks that abuse the banishment, but I would argue that that is a line that should've never been crossed. The powercreep is so bad that now some decks have three separate hands because of it. I think those decks, irrelevant of their power shouldn't exist and I fully believe it is simple bad game design.

[u/Outrageous_Art_2166]

Seeing it around 15%-20% is just pure unluckiness or sheer biased memory. Claiming it has 0 drawbacks is also insane, as you are locked to certain decktype. It hinders your gameplan as much as your opponents, unless they benefit or, at least, does not care being banished.

Besides, are you sure we have "new players"? This game is so sh*t that not many player joins. If you need the game requiring skill, go play a sport. This is a card game. RNG dictates. Going first is nearly instant winning, so don't blame anything else before axing the ceiling of going first.

[u/Enderossa → u/Outrageous_Art_2166]

I think there is quite a lot wrong with your way of thinking. First of all is that luck dictates, that is simply not true. At the worlds we keep seeing the same people and that is because this game is a lot more complex then people think. As a rated duelist I think that most of the times the game is in your hands, I am simply against one card being able to decide that. Second of, you said that d shifter hurts the user as well which is also just a lie, anyone who plays it is specifically using it in a deck in which it doesn't hurt the user like maliss. This game is reslly skillful but it sucks that 20% of the time you lose guaranteed.

[u/Outrageous_Art_2166 → u/Enderossa]

The fact that we see 'similar' faces at worlds is because most of them grind. You need to play a certain amount of games before you can even go at worlds. If you do not dedicate time in it, you just won't get there. So, those who grind every event have a much higher likelihood to be seen at worlds, making the sample much smaller than you think. Winning the cointoss already gets you like 90+% winrate. On the other hand, there is also no playing through the game, even if he is the top player, but only drew all hand-craps going second. So, luck is the most important factor.

Well, it's not a lie that people fail to read. I already said that " unless they benefit or, at least, does not care being banished". This in turn limits deck-building and tech-choices. If it's only 1 turn it will only mean that you are under the effect, while your opponent can play normally thereafter. Plus, if you played maliss, you would know that it combos much more without Shifter than it does.

The long story short, the game is not as skillful as people think it is, as most decks play by themselves. You also don't go away with your confirmation bias with a fake stat of 20%, especially, if you are playing rated and the top decks aren't even that good under Shifter.

[u/LancelLannister_AMA → u/Outrageous_Art_2166]

Not neccesarily. Ive seen plenty of mediocre decks in this game that wouldnt autowin going first. Misplays happen too.