This card cannot be Special Summoned. This card returns to the owner’s hand during the End Phase of the turn it is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up. When this card is Normal Summoned or flipped face-up, flip 1 face-up monster on the field into face-down Defense Position.

Tsukuyomi… don’t you just love that name? Oh and by the way, Tsukuyomi is a male not female if the card was built around the actual Japanese mythology. Anyway back to the card, Tsukuyomi was banned in 2006 (correct me if I’m wrong); so 6 years… makes you wonder why it’s been banned for so long doesn’t it? Look at the card now and it really doesn’t seem that bad does it? I mean even BLS was back before this… why!?

The thing to remember in this case was the state of the meta-game during that time. Firstly, the monsters were weak in general; Breaker the Magical Warrior and Airknight Parshath was limited to 1. So during those times, Tsukuyomi was one of the easiest answers to anything the opponent had. The speed of the game was also slow; there were very few special summons and most of the monsters were summoned by normal summoning. Another factor was the amount of flip effect monsters played for its effects (which were powerful at the time). Older players would probably remember this but the use of flip effects monsters was so common that it was normal for players to main 1-2 Nobleman of Crossout in their decks. So Tsukuyomi gave versatility for the use of Nobleman, e.g. Summon Tsukuyomi to put opponent’s monster facedown, and then activate Nobleman of Crossout to remove that monster. These two factors were heavily strengthened by the fact that it was nearly impossible to destroy Tsukuyomi as it returned to the hand at the end of the turn.

The final reason, and the most important, was that Tsukuyomi allowed to reuse your own flip effects; especially along with Thousand Eyes Restrict and magician of faith. Just for those curious about the infamous Tsukuyomi lock just google Tsukuyomi Lockdown since I can't post links yet (There is no real point in me describing it; it’s quite straightforward).

Well now to the main question: Can it affect the Meta today? My answer is no; the Meta today is too fast and the monsters Tsukuyomi can hit have become limited with its 1100 attack points. As Tsukuyomi cannot be special summoned and can only be normal summoned, with the amount of special summons in today’s Meta, wasting the 1 normal summon we have each turn for something that doesn’t stay on the field is quite risky. In addition, the only staple monster that it can run over is Thunder King Raioh (800 defense points) but even then, Solemn Warning, Book of Moon, Dimensional Prison, Effect Veiler and Mirror Force (which is at 2) all stop this card and they are used as staples in most decks.

There are monsters that this card is great against (especially with Brionac gone); Shien, Laggia just to name some examples. It is also useful to put exceed monsters in facedown position to get rid of their materials. The down-side to this of course is whether Tsukuyomi can run those cards over; given its weakness to spells and traps. Though… why not use Gale or Grand Mole instead? Grand Mole isn’t affected by its attack weakness while Gale is also a tuner. Not to mention Maestroke the Symphony Djinn is capable of what Tsukuyomi does as well; yes it requires 2 lvl 4s but that could be easier than drawing the 1 Tsukuyomi you run (the only searching card for it is Sangan).

Now finally, re-using your own flip-effect monsters; it’s too slow… and there are only two potential targets I can think of. I doubt cards like Ryko will survive long enough to re-use with Tsukuyomi but I would be interested in re-using Gravekeepers Spy or Super-Nimble Mega Hamster to take advantage of. But in order to get into these situations where the re-use is viable is when you have to have control over the field, and Tsukuyomi doesn’t help in that regard. I’m sure that there will be situations where Tsukuyomi changed the game for you but most times it wouldn’t and personally I wouldn’t run this card unless the deck itself is slow (e.g. Rock Stun). I think Konami finally realized that even if Tsukuyomi is unbanned it wouldn't be able to strongly affect the meta (I don't think it will at all...)

So what do you guys think? Maybe the free book of moon effect is too good to pass up? Or do you prefer to run other cards?

P.S. Regarding Poll... CardCar D has come second both times, so I'll poll it again lol