Bounce

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Bounce
Mechanic
Introduced	Alpha
Last used	Commander Masters
Scryfall Statistics
cards
more bounce cards

A bounce effect or spell returns a permanent that is on the battlefield to its owner's hand. The origin of the slang is unknown, but it predates the card Waterfront Bouncer by years.

Description

Bounce is typically the quintessential effect that one considers tempo, even with that term being difficult to define. Unsummon has been around since the beginning of the game, and the understanding that it costs one mana has not really been contested for decades. The ability to expend a card to undo a player's turn of mana is powerful, but with severe diminishing returns; a player casting six bounce spells has probably done nothing else that game, but a player with four bounce spells and two reasonable creatures may be well on the way to victory. The other big advantage of bounce is that it works on nearly everything: regeneration, indestructible, and even new anti-exile clauses all fail to protect against bounce. The proliferation of "enter" triggers also means that bouncing can become a liability.

Creatures are the most common target, but Boomerang came soon after in Legends and could target anything; however, the ability to target lands (which only enter once a turn) was often as effective as destroying them en masse. Around the time of Time Spiral, "non-land" went from being a condition added to prevent exploits to the standard rider on bounce spells, and land-bouncing spells went to being a minority. From being new types, battles and planeswalkers are rarely called out as bounce targets, and due to their gameplay patterns they are often poor targets anyway.

Bounce spells being instant or non-instant has significant implications. If relegated to sorcery speed, it typically can only be good for pushing or stifling tempo, which is where adding a cantrip makes for popular designs. At instant speed, there are many more applications. Bounce effects can remove blocking creatures from combat. However, once blocked, any attackers will remain blocked for the duration of combat, which is how cards like Peel from Reality gains utility. Removing permanents from the battlefield can cause spells and abilities to fizzle, and returning the target to the hand is often a preferable alternative to them being sent to the graveyard or exile. A particularly niche case is bouncing a permanent during the end step when its owner's hand is at maximum size, forcing them to discard, which is another way to maintain cards parity.

Mechanical color pie

Blue is the primary color for bouncing arbitrary permanents. It sometimes bounces creatures via enter effects on its own creatures. R&D refers to such creatures as Man-o'-Wars, in reference to the first card with that design. These effects are strong tempo effects in that it adds to the board while consuming the opponent's mana, and as it's the player's turn their opponent can't immediately recast it. Few other cards in other colors do so proactively. As such, a lot of innovative bounce spell designs involve being multicolor, using the other color's effect to give texture.

White is secondary and can only bounce its permanents to protect them or combine effects. Green is tertiary and bounces its creatures and lands as a cost, often during the upkeep. R&D has discussed the possibility of giving red the ability to bounce the opponent's creatures , but after Stingscourger in Planar Chaos it has not been revisited. Part of this is the intended weakness of red, where large blockers are typically its worst enemy, the type of effect bounce is particularly good against.

Famous bounce spells

See also: Bounce land

• Boomerang
• Capsize
• Cyclonic Rift
• Disperse
• Evacuation
• Into the Roil
• Jilt
• Repulse
• Snap
• Unsummon
• Wash Out
• Wipe Away

Bounce to the library

"Bounce to the library" is the shorthand for "Put a creature/permanent on top of its owner's library (or X cards down)." It is also primary in blue, and once was secondary as a delaying technique in white. Blue does this as an unsummoning that goes beyond time, while white tends to do it flavored as a spatial banishment (and the creature physically returns later on by walking). The ability is an evolution of bouncing that maintains card parity, typically costing a premium similar to a cantrip (usually two mana). Some newer designs allow the owner to choose to put it on the bottom of their library, which is a way to prevent the caster from locking out their opponent from their draw step while still removing the target. Despite being an effect present since Mirage (Ether Well), the ability has not picked up a proper nickname. It is now officially referred to as "Return to Library", and has been removed from white.

Spell Bounce

There are a small number of cards that are capable of returning spells from the stack to either the player's hand or their library. Like "bounce to library", some recent designs also let the owner choose. These are often categorized as countermagic, and those that do not use the "if it is countered this way" phrasing are notorious for being able to answer (otherwise) uncounterable effects.