Run Behind

Tuck-into-library bounce has historically paid for its power with a sorcery-speed window or a narrow target clause, because putting a threat on the bottom of a library is a far bigger setback than a standard bounce. This one takes a different tack: the placement stays flexible, but the cost bends toward the exact moment you want to fire it. Aimed at an attacker, it comes down a mana cheaper, so the incentive is to hold it until an opponent commits to the swing rather than to spend it proactively. The wrinkle is that the creature's owner, not the caster, chooses top or bottom. Bottom is the punishing outcome; top is the merciful one, and the attacking player will almost always take the top, banking on a live topdeck to reload the threat next turn. That makes this less a hard answer than a tempo lever: you blunt an alpha strike for a turn, but whether the creature stays gone is out of your hands, and against a willing opponent it usually will not. Note the discount is conditional in a way that shapes how it plays. If the opponent declines to attack, targeting a creature on their end step costs full freight, so the card rewards reactive combat play rather than open-ended interaction on a quiet turn. It is built to punish overextension: once an opponent commits to an attack, it gets a mana cheaper to peel a swinging creature off the board, if only briefly.