Amazingly, Book of Moon has only been reviewed once before, and it was long before its true versatility was realized.  This card is restricted to one per deck and with good reason.  Read on to find out what I mean if you don’t already know.

 

Book of Moon is a Quick-Play Spell.  This may be the most versatile of Spell types, given that it is Spell Speed 2 and can either be activated from your hand, or if set, anytime after the end of the turn it was set (like a Trap).  Given this cards effect of flipping a Monster facedown, this gives an incredible amount of diversity to its uses.  Some key uses (which you are likely already familiar with) are:

 

• Flip your opponent’s Monster facedown so it is easier to deal with on your turn
• Flip your opponent’s Monster facedown after they declare an attack on their turn – they can’t Flip Summon it since they already declared an attack with it, and obviously this prevents its attack against you from going through
• Flip your own Monster facedown to avoid LP damage in battle or get a Flip Effect off – a monster changing Battle Position, even face-up to face-down, does not cause a replay.  Extra nice if you already got the Flip Effect off once
• Help your Monster “dodge” an effect that can only hit face-up Monsters, like Smashing Ground or to cancel your own attack (like if you run smack dab into a Mirror Wall)
• Re-use certain effects (not just Flip effects); like absorbing a Monster with Thousand-Eyes Restrict, flipping it facedown to discard the equipped Monster, and assuming you haven’t just summoned it or changed its position that turn, Flip Summoning it and absorbing a second Monster.

 

There are probably several I am missing, or that fall into one of those fairly general areas (Book of Moon followed by Nobleman of Crossout and flipping a low DEF, high ATK Monster facedown so you can attack it and destroy it both fall under the first heading).

 

This card didn’t seem like much when I first saw it, but the amount of synergy this card generates with so many other popular cards, combined with its ability to be used at so many different points in the game means that you are hard pressed to find a real reason not to run it.

 

Ratings

 

Traditional       : 3.5/5-Not quite as good here since a lot of Monster removal just won’t care about the Monster’s position, and there is always the chance that the opponent will just chain with Imperial Order to negate it anyway.

 

Advanced        : 4/5-Even at one per deck, it’s general rating is such that few decks should go without it, and I am hard pressed to think of any serious deck that should not be running it.  It’s a defensive and an offensive card, as well as being very combo-friendly.

 

Limited            : 5/5-A very, very nice pick.  Its versatility becomes more important here, where there won’t be anywhere near as many combos for it available.

 

A parting comment: given this cards ability to help any “real” deck, it really needs to go completely.  While in and of itself it is just really good, as long as we have generic, really good cards, it becomes quite easy to slap several of said cards together to get a deck that has no real weaknesses and but still have many strengths.

 

-Otaku