Perilous Voyage

Bounce-with-a-rider has a long lineage, but this one prices its reward into a precise window: return an opposing nonland permanent, and if that permanent cost two or less, dig two cards deep on the way out. The split tells you exactly what the card was tuned to punish. Against a slow value engine or a fatty, it is a tempo trade, a turn of breathing room and no more. Against the early aggressive plays (mana dorks, one-drop hatebears, the two-mana threats that snowball), it is tempo plus card selection, which is the version that actually closes the gap. That threshold is the point: the card scales up against the boards where falling behind hurts most and stays a flat, fair answer everywhere else, so it never becomes a true Boomerang-style stall. The strict targeting matters too; this is a purely reactive tool aimed across the table, never a way to rescue your own creature or replay a value permanent for a second landing. Instant speed keeps the smoothing honest, letting it answer a haste threat or clear a blocker at the right moment rather than spending a sorcery-speed turn on it. The scry is the part worth dwelling on: a permanent that loops back to a hand is a card you have spent a turn on without gaining one, and the two-look dig is the small interest payment that keeps the trade from feeling purely defensive.