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Moxonomy

Hotshot Investigators

Creature — Vedalken Detective5 generic manaBlue mana

A bounce spell stapled to a body, with a control check doing the balancing. The clause that makes this design honest is the parenthetical distinction: you can return any other creature, but you only get paid (a Clue) when you controlled the one you bounce. That splits one trigger into two modes. Point it at an opponent's threat and it's straight tempo, a 4/4 for six that undoes a turn. Point it at your own creature and it becomes a value engine, resetting one of your own enter-the-battlefield abilities while banking a card for later. The design is careful not to let you have both at once, which is exactly right: a six-mana body that unconditionally bounced an opponent's threat and banked a Clue would be underpriced, so the payoff gets gated behind the less aggressive line, rewarding the blink-and-value player rather than the tempo player who wants the bounce to hurt. That the recursion payoff is Investigate rather than raw card draw matters too: the Clue is deferred value, banked now but cashed later at a cost, so the reward never arrives at full strength on the turn you commit the body. It reads as a detective built for the patient blue deck that flickers its own creatures for profit, with a tempo fallback for the turns when there's nothing on your side worth returning.

Hotshot Investigators (mkm)
MKM · #60common
Pricing
Normal: $0.09
Foil: $0.04
Oracle Text

Rules text

When this creature enters, return up to one other target creature to its owner's hand. If you controlled it, investigate. (Create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "2 generic mana, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.")
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
Legal
Pioneer
Legal
Modern
Legal
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
Legal
Brawl
Legal
Historic
Legal
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
Legal
Standard Brawl
Legal
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
N/A
Pauper Commander
Legal
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
Legal
Penny Dreadful
Legal
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
Legal
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
Legal
TLR
N/A
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