I'm fed up with people saying cards are good when they clearly aren't. People posting decklist explanations will always try to justify shit like Book of Moon, Torrential, or BTH by saying "It's a staple" or "It's so good!" Just FYI, whenever I see/hear explanations like that they translate to "DERP" for a reason. Oh, side note. I was watching an X-Saber deck profile like five minutes ago, and he runs three Book of Moon because "it's the best card in the game." His reasons -- Offensive, defensive, stops Tuners. Yeah, alright, sure. The guy also justified running two BTH by saying "Obviously." That guy's a total pro. Anyway;
Number One -- Why Book of Moon is NOT good right now.
If I had to sum up my thoughts on Book, it would be "GK LOL." Yes, I think in LOLcat. Anyway, against the now-tier one Gravekeepers (who don't run Tuners) and Plant Synchro (who, alongside GKs, like to set things), Book is useless. Especially for those people who run it in triplicate. It basically means that 8% of your deck is going to be dead. Last I checked, dead cards are not a good thing to draw into.
Before you go saying "But Fugglor, it stops monsters from using their effects," Book of Moon does NOT stop effects from resolving UNLESS the effect is targeting something and you flip the target face-down, or the effect needs to check a card statistic which isn't possible, because face-down. BECAUSE FACE-DOWN.
That means that it works against Dimensional Prison (which you see so often, right?) because it targets, and against Bottomless because BTH needs to verify an attack stat at resolution, but NOT against things like Spy (which will just activate anyway), Ryko (again, will just kill something, mill, and be primed to do it again), and Descendant, because like I'm trying to hammer into your brain, Book does not cancel effects, it just flips the fuckers ass-up.
I will give Book TWO things; it disrupts Synchro plays, and it stops attacks (only important because of Gladiator Beasts.) However, the only things you're going to want to block are Synchros, and GAME-CHANGING ATTACKS. That means if you're going to 1. be put below 2000 so your Warnings won't activate, 2. going to lose if you don't Book, or 3. going to be put in a horrible state in which you have no situational advantage or tempo. And, let me just say this -- Book is a -1. 99% of the time, you will lose card advantage. You can always destroy Equip cards (Armory Arm) or make plays with Fulhelmknight/Firedog, but unless you run Sabers or Flamvell variants you're not gonna make a lot of headway.
In summary; Book sucks because it
1. is dead against the top-tier (and therefore most commonly played) meta decks.
2. loses card presence.
3. takes up too much space.
It is useful because it
1. disrupts Synchroing.
2. blocks game-winning attacks.
3. messes up Gladiators.
I think it's worth siding, but definitely not maining. It ruins your matchups against GKs, and somewhat messes up your Plant Synchro match, but against stuff like Blackwings, where it can mess up Black Whirlwind, Shura, and Synchroing, and Sabers, where it blocks their Boggart Knight into Black Rose or Hyunlei plays, it's worth having in your arsenal. If you want good, non-situational disruption, get some damn Effect Veilers. They're about to plummet in price for you Brah-like players out there.
Number Two -- Why Torrential Tribute is NOT a staple.
I'm sure all of you who run TT are doing so because of the potential plus. But let me ask you something; how often do you not have any monsters on the field but have backrows when your opponent has two or more? Almost never against a good player. And here's another question; will Torrential save you from a game-winning attack? I'd rather run a fucking Book. It also misses the timing a LOT of times, and like Book, won't stop opposing effects from going off.
It sucks against Trap Stun, it sucks against decks who can Special Summon rapidly, and it sucks IN decks that CAN'T Special Summon. So, things like Gravekeepers, Scraps, Plant Synchro to an extent, and Hero Beat. Again, it's good in some things, like Blackwings and Quickdraw Plants, and it's good against Gladiators and all of the things it sucks in. Side it or don't run it, except in the decks it works in. Personally, I wouldn't even side it, because siding in one of something means there's a 2.5-ish% chance you'll draw it, and there are better things to side.
Number Three -- Why BTH sucks B.
How many cards do you see that are actually over 1500 in the top decks? I mean, it hits Blackwings hard, but it fails against Sabers (Fulhelmknight dodges), Gravekeepers (all of their monsters that they summon are below 1500 at the time of summon), AND Plant Synchro (Dandylion, Quickdraw, and Lonefire). It also can't get you advantage in any way. You know what's better? Regular Trap Hole. It might not hit Synchros but it kills just about all of the Normal Summons out there.
If you noticed that the second and third "Numbers" aren't detailed like the first one, it's because I got lazy and tired. I'll probably update this post sometime in the future when I get pissy about terrible players again.
P.S. -- The reason for the title is that whenever I watch an X-Saber decklist, they say "Bow-gart" Knight incessantly. "Bow-gart Knight is such a good card! OMG LOL WTF BBQ." It's fucking Boggart Knight. The "O" sound is like the "O" in dog. Baww-gart. You know what word is pronounced like "Bow-gart"? Bogart. As in Humphrey Bogart. Screw you guys, and learn to pronounce easy ass words like Boggart. Aslla Piscu, I can understand, and even Koa'ki Meiru to an extent, but Boggart is a god damn English word.
/rant
~Fugglor