Bounce lands: Are they worth it?

[WWolfe]

As part of a mana base, do the pros of the original Ravnica block bounce lands outweigh their cons?

The biggest con to me is the potential tempo loss, especially early in a game.

The biggest pro to me is if you have a way to abuse the bouncing (resetting a Bojuka Bog or landfall trigger, etc.).

[Soren841]

There's not much pro at all. They're good with Blood Sun but in general they're rly bad.

[MonteTribal]

Depends on the deck and how they are used. The bounce lands were abused pretty badly in the modern Amulet Titan deck. Amulet of Vigor let them tap for mana before they bounce a target, giving two 'free' mana. They deck still exists in some form, but is much weaker without
Summer Bloom to turn two mana into six on turn two.

Without any synergies, they are okay. They are a little bit of a temp loss because you lose out on the mana an untapped land would give you. But they also are card advantage because they 'draw you a land'.

Very weak to Boomerang though, or anything that bounces or destroys a land.

[Soren841]

Without synergies they're actual garbage, sorry. They don't net mana and make you vulnerable to hand or land hate.

[Judaspriester]

Hmm.. for me they aren't bad. They gives you a nice advantage but slow you down at the turn you play them. On a lower powerlevel i would definitly play them. But with an increasing powerlevel I would suggest to drop them, unless you can abuse the effect (e.g. landfall or lands with etb trigger).

So if you need to be fast, drop them. If you can afford to be slow early on, they are nice to have.

[Morganator 2.0]

I'm assuming we're talking about commander. Ignore my rant in other formats.

Bounce lands are absolute trash. There is only one land that I despise more, which I'll get too in a second.

Any land that unconditionally enters tapped is bad. This includes Rupture Spire and it's derivatives, the three color tap lands (Seaside Citadel, Nomad Outpost), and the heal lands (Swiftwater Cliffs). The only time a land should be allowed to enter tapped, is when it has an ability relevant to your deck (Hall of the Bandit Lord and Path of Ancestry are good examples).

Lands that enter tapped are mana deceleration. They slow you down by a turn, delaying your actions. This is especially important when you have three opponents that are all ramping up. The upside to bounce lands is that you can keep a two land hand, and still have 3 mana. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a one land hand becomes 0 mana. Both of these issues are solved with mana ramp, and using lands that don't enter tapped.

Lands that have an ability when they enter, are small abilities that don't justify their existence (Temple of Malady, Kabira Crossroads). Which brings me to the land I despise the most:

Bojuka Bog. I hate it so much, because it is super overrated. It enters tapped, gives only one color, and has a sorcery speed ability that mildly irritates graveyard decks a single graveyard deck. In order for grave-hate to work in commander, it needs to either be instant-speed (Relic of Progenitus, Sentinel Totem), or a continuous effect (Rest in Peace, Grafdigger's Cage, Ground Seal), and (preferably) it hurts all players (exception: Tormod's Crypt, among others).

[Mostlynotgay]

If you look at the decks that consistently run Bounce Lands, you will see that they always run it with some ability to untap the land upon entering.  Or playing multiple lands in a turn.  The ability to produce two colored mana on a single land is really good if you can use it right away.  But absent that, it's actually a pretty bad mana accelerant because of how it works:

T1 - play a land.  1 mana available
T2 - Play a bounce land, bounce your other land.  0 mana available (unless you tapped first)
T3 - Play the other land again.  You now have 3 mana. 

As opposed to a normal turn.
T1 - play a land.  1 mana
T2 - play a land. 2 mana
T3 - play a land. 3 mana

These examples hold for whenever you play the land.  It's a land that can tap for 2 mana that doesn't actually put you ahead. 

If you're not running one of the "abuse the bounce lands" engines, then a bounce land is actually a detriment no matter when you play it. 

[MonteTribal]

If you look at the decks that consistently run Bounce Lands, you will see that they always run it with some ability to untap the land upon entering.  Or playing multiple lands in a turn.  The ability to produce two colored mana on a single land is really good if you can use it right away.  But absent that, it's actually a pretty bad mana accelerant because of how it works:

T1 - play a land.  1 mana available
T2 - Play a bounce land, bounce your other land.  0 mana available (unless you tapped first)
T3 - Play the other land again.  You now have 3 mana. 

As opposed to a normal turn.
T1 - play a land.  1 mana
T2 - play a land. 2 mana
T3 - play a land. 3 mana

These examples hold for whenever you play the land.  It's a land that can tap for 2 mana that doesn't actually put you ahead. 

If you're not running one of the "abuse the bounce lands" engines, then a bounce land is actually a detriment no matter when you play it.

I guess the biggest distinction between example 1 and example 2 is that: e1 only requires 2 lands in hand, while e2 other requires 3 to be lands.

[WWolfe]

I use to like them in my more budget builds (basically decks I was building but didn't want to drop money into before seeing if they work how I want) but I've found the tempo lose just outweighs the budget friendliness. I think I may still have some in a few decks that I just haven't gotten around to replacing for one reason or another but they'll be coming out as soon as I find the time to do so.

[ApothecaryGeist]

I like them for Casual Commander:  I always play the bounce land in a 2-color deck.  Seldomly, if ever, in a 3,4,5-color deck.  Being only a single land in the deck, you generally don't have to worry much about the tempo loss.  It sometimes makes the difference in an opening hand.  I find that the best ones are in the non-green color combinations.  Boros for instance needs all the ramp it can get.  And while Boros Garrison is not ramp per se, it can allow for 6 mana yet only 5 land cards.  Mildly good for colors without access to much ramp.

Happy Brewing!

[robort]

Not saying they are good or bad but I've never heard anybody say "I would have won but didn't because I played that bounce land".

[Soren841]

tl;dr no they aren't worth it.