Bounce (Spell)
Tactical concept · Temporary removal · Applies to all formats
Bounce is an effect that returns a permanent to its owner’s hand. It answers the threat for now, but the card can be cast again later.
Bounce is usually treated as temporary removal. It costs your opponent mana and tempo rather than a card.
How Bounce Works
A bounced creature loses everything attached to it, including counters and auras, and has to be replayed at full cost. Tokens are the exception in the other direction, because a bounced token ceases to exist and is gone for good.
Bounce can also save your own permanent from removal or reset a creature with an enter-the-battlefield effect so you can use it again.
Bounce vs Removal
Removal deals with a threat permanently, while bounce buys time. The best moments to bounce are when the target is expensive, carries auras, or is a token.
Bounce targets, so it does not work on a permanent with hexproof. It also does nothing against indestructible creatures that you need gone for good.
Strategic tip
Use bounce when it costs your opponent the most tempo: in response to an aura being cast on a creature, on a freshly resolved expensive threat, or on a token. Save it for those turns rather than firing it at the first cheap creature you see.
Good for
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