Ever since I wrote about the Gruul Hokey Pokey lists years back, bounce decks have long been a favorite of mine. A wise man once said, "the fun part of playing Magic is playing the cards" or, something to that effect. Simple as it is, it's not wrong, which I think is why bounce strategies hook me so thoroughly. Hokey Pokey was simple, just play lots of dudes and go wide. It was a creature-based aggro-ish strategy, but that's not the only style of bounce deck out there. Sometimes, preventing your opponent from having any fun leads to more enjoyment. Sometimes, you just want to kill everything.

Dimir Chimera Control| Casual | James Heslip

• (18)
• 2 Shimmerwing Chimera
• 4 Drake Familiar
• 4 Dream Stalker
• 4 Nightscape Familiar
• 4 Riptide Chimera

• Enchantments (19)
• 3 Cradle of Safety
• 4 Disinformation Campaign
• 4 Reality Acid
• 4 Omen of the Sea
• 4 Trial of Ambition

• Lands (23)
• 4 Contaminated Aquifer
• 4 Choked Estuary
• 6 Swamp
• 9 Island

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Cost: $17.00 at the time of publication

The Core

Riptide and Shimmerwing Chimera give us the most consistent and economical bounce out of all our options. Their effect neither costs us mana, nor requires them to tap, nor is it reliant on the battle phase. Obviously, we prefer Riptide because of its lower mana value and better stats, but playing both gives us a higher chance of drawing into one or more during the course of the game.

The Backup

Unfortunately, both Chimeras are a little expensive when it comes to casting cost. So, we need some cheaper bounce effects to fill up our early turns while we draw into the mana we need to get our more consistent engine running. Drake Familiar fills these shoes well, bouncing an enchantment of ours once it's summoned. Dream Stalker is similar, and though it's not required to target enchantments specifically, that's what we'll be using him for. They both have merits in other aspects as well. Familiar's 2 power and flying makes it a respectable threat, while Dream Stalker's 5 toughness means he can wall off most early game threats.

Of course, killing threats outright is better than blocking them. This is where Trial of Ambition comes in. It's a decent Cruel Edict impersonator, and while we won't be casting any cartouches in our games, it will still find its way to our hand often thanks to our many bounce enablers. Reality Acid is also great at killing threats. Unlike Ambition, Acid is targeted. Though not ideal, it can be played the manner it was originally intended, slowly melting away whatever we enchant it with over the course of a few turns.

Control is all about card advantage. We want to have more cards and more options at our disposal than our opponent does at nearly every stage of the game. Killing enemy creatures over and over is a fine way to achieve this, but what control deck would be complete without a little card draw? Omen of the Sea not only draws us a card every time we play it, but we also get to scry for two beforehand each time! Talk about some amazing card selection! Arguably even better is Disinformation Campaign. Each time the Dimir enchantment hits the table we not only draw an extra card, but we also force our opponent to discard a card! While it's similar to Trial of Ambition in that it has contextual bounce conditions built in, we don't play any Surveil cards. Instead, we do what our deck is designed to do and cast this sucker every turn until our opponent's hand is empty and ours is overflowing!

Nightscape Familiar is the only card in the deck that is not specifically geared toward enchantments or an enchantment itself. Still, it's one of the most powerful cards we play. His cost-reduction ability is paramount to a strategy that forces itself to replay it's own cards every turn. Similar to Thunderscape Familiar or Goblin Anarchomancer in Hokey Pokey, Nightscape ensures we are able to play as many of our Blue enchantments and creatures as possible each turn.

Finally, we have Cradle of Safety. In testing the deck against friends, I found that I was extremely reliant on at least one of my Chimera's sticking. Even with all the card draw and single-instance bounces available, if a Chimera was answered I ran the risk of running out of gas and losing. Cradle is a repeatable instant-speed protection spell that prevents this by stops removal in its tracks. The stat boost is a decent bonus, but more often than not we'll be sending the aura right back where it came from so we have it ready for the next volley of removal. Nightscape Familiar is another high-value creature that cradle can protect, though his regeneration does make him more difficult to permanently kill.

Tips and Tricks

Because of his ability to Regenerate, Nightscape Familiar is also a spectacular wall, providing plenty of protection while we set up our engine. Just make sure you keep up enough mana as needed!

Don't hesitate to use Omen of the Sea's sacrifice ability for some extra card filtering. Sure, you lose the ability to bounce it, but if it finds what you need at any given moment then it has done its job. Used well, this could be the difference between a win and a loss!

Additional Options

Additional Options | James Heslip

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Barrin, Tolarian Archmage
• 1 Blightcaster
• 1 Brine Giant
• 1 Cache Raiders
• 1 Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea
• 1 Doomwake Giant
• 1 Elusive Spellfist
• 1 Grim Guardian
• 1 Shambling Suit
• 1 Steelclad Spirit
• 1 Stern Proctor
• 1 Tameshi, Reality Architect
• 1 Vedalken Mastermind
• 1 Whispering Wizard

• Enchantments (15)
• 1 Ashiok's Erasure
• 1 Aspect of Lamprey
• 1 Behold the Unspeakable // Vision of the Unspeakable
• 1 Fall from Favor
• 1 Medomai's Prophecy
• 1 Okiba Reckoner Raid // Nezumi Road Captain
• 1 Omen of the Dead
• 1 Parallax Dementia
• 1 Riddleform
• 1 Rune of Flight
• 1 Sisay's Ingenuity
• 1 Skywise Teachings
• 1 The Eldest Reborn
• 1 The Long Reach of Night // Animus of Night's Reach
• 1 Treacherous Blessing

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Pretty much everything I've included here is either an enchantment we could abuse through bounce effects, or a creature that does the bouncing. I like the idea of triggering the first couple ticks of a Saga, then returning them to my hand before they die, only to cast them again. There's a few good options for this, like Elspeth's Nightmare or Medomai's Prophecy, but Behold the Unspeakable // Vision of the Unspeakable has the most style points - especially if Vision of the Unspeakable gets the killing blow!

Cards that have effects that trigger when you cast noncreature spells, like Prowess, also have potential in the deck. I like Elusive Spellfist the most, but if you're looking for a quicker win condition than what we already have, there's better options. I played Brine Giant for a while and was happy with him. There's also Grim Guardian, who's constellation ability circumvents the need for combat entirely.

Doomwake Giant and Blightcaster both look extremely powerful on paper. I ultimately stayed away from them both because of their high mana costs, and what I think to be superfluous effects. We already have a lot of repeated removal that I doubt they'd really be able to shine the way I want them to.