Bounce

Bounce is a slang term given to cards that return cards in the battle zone back to their owners' hand.

Details

It is the main form of Removal in the Water Civilization. Many of these cards have no restrictions on the cards that they can remove from the battle zone, so they can be effective in removing high mana cost cards for a small amount of mana.

Aqua Surfer
Water / Creature / 6 / 2000
Shield trigger (When this spell is put into your hand from your shield zone, you may cast it immediately for no cost.) ■ When you put this creature into the battle zone, you may choose a creature in the battle zone and return it to its owner's hand.

As it returns cards to the hand where they can be replayed, it can sometimes be seen as a weaker form of removal. However, it can be paired with cards that Discard your opponents hand, while also providing a tempo play where your opponent is delayed for a turn as they must spend mana in order to replay it.

Because it is only a temporary method of removal, it is commonly featured on lower cost cards.

• Before the Revolution block, the "バトルゾーンにある" (in the battle zone) text was removed from cards that bounce creatures. This change likely comes from the fact that other removal cards can also only target cards in the battle zone already (unless otherwise specified on the card.).

• It has little effect on creatures that don't get summoning sickness such as evolution creatures or creatures that have "speed attacker", as they can attack on the turn after they are put back into the battle zone. In addition, creatures that have a Come Into Play ability may also be re-used, however this also includes your own. It can prove quite effective against creatures with negative CIP abilities such as Explosive Fighter Ucarn.
• A Psychic Creature put into the hand is immediately put into the Hyperspatial Zone and can be treated as Fixed Removal. Due to this, Spiral Gate was restricted.
• Only putting a card from the battle zone into a players hand is called Bounce. Putting a card into your hand or deck from your graveyard is known as a form of Recovery. A creature such as Aqua Soldier that puts itself into your hand when it is destroyed is known as Sprout.
• Since they don't put creatures into a players graveyard, they can be used to bypass creatures with Destruction Substitution abilities that trigger when they would be destroyed.
• Many cards with a bounce ability have the word "スパイラル" (Spiral) in their card names.
• Coriles ability of sending a creature to the top of the deck is sometimes referred to as "deck bounce".
• Certain cards in the Fire Civilization that have speed attacker (such as Pyrofighter Magnus) bounce themselves back into your hand at the end of your turn. While this can be seen as a disadvantage due to needing to re-summon them each turn, they are kept safe from non-shield trigger removal.
• Don't You Dare Take Duel Masters For A Joke!, the 8th episode of the Duel Masters Victory season of the Duel Masters Anime referred to bounce as a term.

See also: Mana Bounce

List of famous Bounce cards

• Spiral Gate (Hall of Fame)
• Aqua Surfer
• Intense Vacuuming Twist (Conditional)
• Pythagoras, Geometry Squadron
• Aqua Burster
• Unicorn Fish and Fuuma Balzoo
• Riptide Charger and Surfer Charger
• The Strong Spiral
• Evolution Burst - Energy Spiral
• Spiral Drive
• Genius Janit, of the Hidden Blade (3 mana cost or below)
• King Tsunami
• Aqua Naruto Surfer
• Atlantis, Deepsea Evangelist
• Hide and Seek (Non-evolution only.)
• Persistent Prison of Gaia

More cards can be found in the Bounce category.

Trivia

• Aqua Bouncer's name is a reference to this ability, which it also features.
  • However, Lurking Eel (Known as "Bouncer Eel" in Japanese) has no such ability.