Iterating on a Penny Pincher classic
Wanted to share my experimentations with the
Penny Pincher classic that is the bounce theme with some updates from 2024. This is coming from a
mid-low power cube environment where synergy is supposed to shine.
The archetype is mostly White and/or Blue based and is fun to design and draft around. Contrary to Blink, the need to use mana to get value from whatever permanent you are bouncing makes this less snowballing and more fair. Under pressure, you will have to choose between setting up your engine or your board.
Bounce



These four cards form the core engine in White. They are cheap, mostly evasive and open-ended. There are some other options, but these have been testing the best


There are a ton of ways to bounce permanents in Blue, I chose these to showcase a variety of ways you can go about doing so (and they happen to be my favorites).
This artifact is a single card engine for the archetype, it's just a shame that artifacts are off limits.
Another way to return to hand is with the fun Ninjutsu mechanic


While only working with creatures, there are still plenty of targets to gain value. This lets black get in on the action a little bit making the theme more broad.
Payoffs
There are a few explicit payoffs for returning cards to hand and these two make for great payoffs in the archetype.

Bonus points if you are on
Bouncelands, Penny Pincher style.
There are permanents that are fantastic to bounce, I'll try and showcase a few of them

Resetting a Saga after a chapter or two can be worth a lot. Could be nice to explore
removing counters from permanents too.



ETB permanents are the most obvious way to get ahead after bouncing them. Like mentioned, having to cast them again makes this strategy a big tempo loss that you have to be aware of.

Getting double value from your adventure feels so good. You also have the option of casting the creature side first absent other plays and still get the adventure down the road.
Double dipping on Hideaway is a fun little interaction (once again,
Bouncelands!).
Branching off
This is where things get interesting and you are rewarded for choosing open-ended variants of the bounce effects.



Bouncing to hand means you get a new cast trigger for your various payoffs.

Speaking of casting, it is now a lot easier to double spell and get triggers from your cards. The new Tarkir set will make this even more appealing.



The other side of returning to hand is that you trigger leave the battlefield cards.


Other than trigger landfall more reliably, the bounce effects can allow you to hit land drops instead of missing them, effectively reducing their casting cost or use the land to discard for value or Retrace.
Probably missed some stuff, but if you are in the mid or lower end of the power level spectrum, I highly recommend at least considering this for your cube!