Whitemane Lion
The bounce that reads as a drawback is the entire point. Flash plus a mandatory return-a-creature clause means the cheapest creature you can aim the trigger at is itself: it goes home to your hand, ready to be recast for the same two mana and re-fire the same enters-the-battlefield trigger. That self-return redeems an effect that would otherwise tax your own board, and the flash is what makes it sing, because pulling a creature back to hand in response to a removal spell or a board wipe is protection at instant speed. The return is chosen on resolution rather than targeted, so it slips past hexproof and shroud on your own creatures, which matters when the thing you are saving is the one the opponent is trying to lock you out of touching. The 2/2 body is incidental; what the card offers is a repeatable hand-and-stack manipulation tool that costs two mana every time you want it. Save a creature about to die, re-trigger a value enter by replaying the Lion itself, flash in as a blocker and rescue your best attacker before it trades: the return cuts in different directions depending on what you point it at. Each loop costs mana and a spell cast, but it is card-neutral, since the creature you bounce comes right back to your hand. A long line of cats and clerics has done variations on this self-bouncing trick, but few wear the function this plainly: body, cost, and clause all line up to do one job at instant speed.

Rules text
Format Status
More formatsFewer formats
Other printings
- The List#PLC-22
- The List#C14-96
- Dominaria Remastered#35
- Dominaria Remastered#277
- Time Spiral Remastered#50
- Eternal Masters#37
- Commander 2014#96
- Duel Decks: Venser vs. Koth#2









