FALCON PUNCH!

Compared to sending cards to the Graveyards, returning cards to a player's hand is often an overlooked strategy. However, there are certain advantages that come doing so. For one, you can avoid destruction-based negation, and reduce your opponent tempo. Bouncing a Tribute Monster for example, would usually cost the player who summoned it another tribute to re-summon it. I know many players who cringle when they attack a face-down monster only to realize it was a Flip Flop Frog.

So why would anyone ever want to bounce their own cards? Two words: Mist Valley.

Mist Valley Falcon 
(Winged Beast-Type/WIND/Level 4/ATK 2000/DEF 1200)

This card cannot declare an attack unless you return 1 card you control to its owner's hand.

Mist Valley Apex Avian
(Winged Beast-Type/WIND/Level 7/ATK 2700/DEF 2000)

When the effect of an Spell, Trap or Effect Monster is activated, you can return 1 face-up "Mist Valley" monster you control to its owner's hand and negate the effect of the card and destroy it.

Mist Valley Thunderbird 
(Winged Beast-Type/WIND/Level 3/ATK 1100/DEF 700)

When this face-up card on the field returns to the hand, Special Summon it. This card cannot attack during the Turn it was Special Summoned by this effect.

Seeing the combo yet?

Using Apex Avian and Thunderbird, you potentially have infinite negation at your disposal, barring Counter Traps of course. What's not to like about that?

Using Falcon and Thunderbird, you basically have a 2000 ATK Normal Monster. While that may not sound as appealing, it could prove quite useful in a deck built around the Apex Lock. But perhaps a better way of using Falcon would be with Big Band Shot. You could equip to an opponent's monster and return the Equip Spell to your hand for the cost of Falcon. The equipped monster would then get removed from play due to Big Bang Shot's effect. Did I mention that although a replay would occur, you would not have to repay the cost in order to attack again? Not sure about you but this sounds awesome to me.

Although the Mist Valleys are currently small in number, there is a good chance their ranks will get a boost in some of the upcoming sets as what happened with some of the other Duel Terminal/Hidden Arsenal archetypes. But let's leave that up to Konami.

Remember players, the game ends with you.