Erratic Explosion
Sorcery
Choose any target. Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a nonland card. Erratic Explosion deals damage equal to that card's mana value to that permanent or player. Put the revealed cards on the bottom of your library in any order.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Planechase 2012
- Price
- $0.08
- EDHREC rank
- #23982
Erratic Explosion deals damage equal to the converted mana cost of the top card of your library — which means it does nothing reliable unless you're stacking your deck with high-CMC spells or manipulating the top card. Outside of dedicated build-arounds, this is a win-more card that collapses against any board state where you needed removal three turns ago.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Erratic Explosion belongs in a narrow slice of decks — specifically those already manipulating the top of the library or running a high average CMC by design, where it can reliably threaten 8–12 damage to a single target. In Pauper, it sees occasional play in spell-heavy combo shells that can guarantee a high-CMC reveal, though even there it sits on the fringe. Legacy and Vintage have access to far more efficient burn and removal, so Erratic Explosion never competes in those formats outside of niche jank. The card is format-legal in several places but format-playable in almost none.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.08 bulk tier
At $0.08, Erratic Explosion is deep bulk — you'll pay more in shipping than for the card itself. That price reflects the narrow demand accurately; this is not a card that spikes, and there's no trajectory to watch.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.