While Ravnica's shock lands were homages to the
original dual lands, the bounce lands were
iterations of the Karoo cycle from Visions. The
members of the original cycle produced only one
color of mana and required you to bounce an
untapped land, and were not considered the most
memorable as time went on.
The bounce lands, by contrast, got quite a lot
of attention. Not everyone liked the idea at
first. They seem pretty innocuous now, but in
sets where decks sometimes had tight mana
curves, almost always had major color
requirements, and could face opponents with
large complements of Stone Rain and Eye of
Nowhere, the appeal was not always apparent. The
thing that makes them good is that they are a
form of card advantage: one card gives you two
land plays, and for decks that can afford the
short-term tempo hit - decks that are either
even faster than the bounce lands, or much
slower - it gives you a degree of consistency,
similar to drawing more lands at the right time
than your opponent.
Of course, later years would see the release of
sets like Zendikar, with its lands that have an
effect when they come into play and its landfall
mechanic. A lot of us probably now know that
there are certain decks out there for the bounce
lands, but we may not remember that this was
actually always the case.
Today's cards of the day are the bounce lands
which enter play tapped, have you return a land
to your hand, but tap for two mana. These lands
are very effective when a tapped land is
returned or if they can be untapped from another
effect, though maintaining tempo consistently
requires careful choices during deck design.
Ultimately these work as acceleration, support
enters play effects for lands, and are excellent
targets for untapping which gives them a wide
variety of decks to be played in across multiple
formats.
Ah, the old rav bouncers. one of the few lands
that get worse with every draw (Especially
topdecks. You don't want to topdeck one of these
guys) but are still on the whole, considered
solid for the price of admission. You see a lot
of these in casual and EDH, and it's a
respectable play. The bouncing of a land is
still worthwhile in the idea that these lands
don't require them to be untapped. So go ahead
and play that last 1-drop before dropping this.
Also, If you've got a minute, I'm doing a
fundraiser for a car. I'm really in a bad way
without one folks. Take a look, share, or donate
if you can. I'd really appreciate it :D
