"Huh? Was that a person? Nah, couldn't be. Heat must be getting to me."
Welcome to my 2nd attempt at building a list for the master bouncer.(1)* Roon is here to abuse all your favorite ETB triggers. Below are a few of my personal favorites with what's available.
ControlThe best offense is a solid defense in Roon's case. Below I'll go over both creature and non-creature control options for the repeatable options available to you with Roon.
Creature-based ControlAcidic Slime - A classic green staple. Creeping Mold on ETB. Though with my personal playgroup, have plenty of enchant/artifact creatures between Daxos and Breya to open up this card as a creature control option.
Angel of Serenity - When I first read this card, was somewhat underwhelmed. That was until I noticed it returned the exiled cards to HAND instead of battlefield and was instantly smitten. An absolute must in my opinion. Exile any 3 other creatures upon enter; then with Roon, return those 3 to their owner's hands (including your own in a defensive need to reduce the impact of a board wipes), and then exile another 3. Beautiful.
Aura Shards - Can't be directly bounced by Roon, but Naturalize off every ETB nonetheless, making this essential. Again with Daxos and Breya in my regular playgroup, definitely sways my personal opinion.
Bane of Progress - Going against artifact/enchantment-heavy decks? No problem. Bane of Progress resets the board, and since we're not running too many of either, shouldn't set us back too far. Someone follows up with Open the Vaults or Replenish? Just bounce Bane of Progress to fix that right up.
Duplicant - Enters, Unmake to imprint (which also bypasses any color protection). Then rinse and repeat.
Glen Elendra Archmage - No ETB trigger to be abused here, but Roon does well enough to still break her. Sac her to Negate, she returns with a -1/-1 counter from persist, and Roon bounces her back in without the counter to abuse persist again.
Lavinia of the Tenth - She casts a temporary Arrest on all creatures your opponents control with CMC 4 or less (especially effective against token swarm/elf/goblin decks) until YOUR next turn, in which you can just rinse and repeat. Effectively shutting down tokens and weenies so long as you invest your Roon triggers in it.
Perplexing Chimera - RedUndead40's favorite. This little fella sits around waiting for any spell of your choice to be cast, in which you get to trade ownership of this guy with them for that spell. Someone have a shiny Avacyn, Angel of Hope they're trying to cast? Nah. Give 'em a chimera. Boggarts love chimeras. Buuuuut, just use Roon to bounce TARGET chimera and return him to his OWNER's control, so yeah, guess they felt special for a moment.
Reclamation Sage - Another classic green staple. Naturalize on ETB. Again, really dislike artifacts/enchantments.
Reflector Mage - A truly unique ETB effect. On ETB, Unsummon target creature an opponent controls, and then they effectively can't cast it again until after you take your next turn. So you want to do this right before their turn. That way they won't be able to cast it for at least one turn. But if you activate during their turn, you'll still get the Unsummon; but since they'll be ending their turn when this happens, unless they take an extra turn or are casting creatures at instant speed, then you'll see another turn before they do and will be able to recast normally.
Stonehorn Dignitary - This guy brings a False Peace upon ETB. So dedicating your Roon triggers to this guy will effectively shut down one aggressive player from attacking altogether.
Noncreature-based ControlBeast Within - A well-known green staple. Destroy any permanent, instant speed, for 3. And the only trade-off is they get a 3/3 beast. Pesky planeswalker/creature/enchant/artifact/nonbasic land giving you problems? Make it a 3/3 beast.
Cyclonic Rift - Since its release with Return to Ravnica, this card has quickly found its way as a blue staple in EDH. For 2, it bounces a single nonland permanent to its owner's hand at instant speed. But for 7, bounces ALL nonland permanents your opponents control to their owners' hands at INSTANT SPEED. Your board state sees zero change, but everything they had is back in their hand now. Which if you put them above 7 before their end step(s), and they can't cast back to 7 or below, they'll be discarding quite a bit depending on how large of a nontoken board state they had.
Krosan Grip - A Naturalize that can't be responded to, so can't be countered. And most importantly, stops someone with an Aetherflux Reservoir, Exquisite Blood, and 51 life coughOlorocough from going infinite which is a real thing I have to deal with, making this a must.
Path to Exile/Swords to Plowshares - Everybody's favorite 1-drop creature exile instants. One gives them a Rampant Growth in return, one gives them life equal to its toughness.
Return to Dust/Sylvan Reclamation - I really, REALLY, have to deal with a lot of artifact/enchants. And these make sure up to TWO stay dealt with. But Sylvan Reclamation comes with the added bonus to cycle it for to find a basic land to replace it in a pinch.
(1)* - Deck description known to express opinion and should not be taken as an invitation to debate vs. Brago.
