Budget Magic: I Had a $20 Random Encounter...
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Budget Magic! This week, we're heading to Standard to have a Random Encounter for just $20! I love cards like Unexpected Results, which can be super powerful when they work (and if you build around them) but can also go very wrong if you get unlucky. And Random Encounter is a good one! For six mana, it mills four cards, lets us reanimate any creatures it mills with haste, and then bounces them back to our hand at the end of turn. When things go well, a single Random Encounter can win us the game on the spot by giving us something like 30 mana value of creatures. But it's also possible to whiff and mill four lands, although thankfully, we can always flash Random Encounter back and try again in the future! How good is Random Encounter in Standard? Is it really possible to win with a deck that costs less than $20 and just four rares / mythics on Arena? Let's get to the video and find out!
Budget Magic: $20 Random Encounter
The Deck
Our plan today is simple: ramp into Random Encounter and trust that the creatures it gives us will win the game! In a perfect world, the first one will get the job one; but if not, one of the upsides of Random Encounter is that, much like Calibrated Blast in Modern, we can always flash it back and try again! Backing up Random Encounter is Breaching Dragonstorm, which is just another way to sneak one of our big, janky finishers into play on the cheap. And if we get super lucky, Breaching Dragonstorm can spin into Random Encounter and let us cheat multiple things into play!
Since Random Encounter is so important to our plan and costs a massive six mana, we've got some ramp to help us cast it as quickly as possible. Both Springbloom Druid and Summon: Fenrir add an extra basic land to the battlefield, and while not exciting creatures, they are creatures, which means we can put them into play with Random Encounter. This is more relevant than it looks. While ideally we'll Random Encounter into massive, game-ending bombs, it's not the end of the world if we hit our ramp creatures since they'll give us the mana we need to cast Random Encounter again the following turn!
For removal, we have two big creatures in Overlord of the Boilerbilges and Twinmaw Stormbrood. Twinmaw is pretty straightforward: our deck needs a removal spell, but we don't really want to play something like Get Lost or Scorching Shot since they are non-creature spells that don't work with Random Encounter. The omen mode on [[Twinmaw Stormbrood] gives us something like Scorching Shot but attached to a life-gaining 5/4 flying body. As a bonus, it's also a Dragon (the only one in our deck), which means it lets us pick Breaching Dragonstorm back up when it enters so that we can cast it again on a future turn.
Meanwhile, the original goal of the deck was to build it with zero rares or mythics (and also to be completely rotation-proof, which it is). But then, I realized that Overlord of the Boilerbilges is simply too good with Random Encounter to pass up. Alongside giving us a removal spell thanks to impending, Overlord of the Boilerbilges is perhaps our most powerful hit with Random Encounter. Thanks to its enters and attacks trigger and Random Encounter giving haste, every Overlord of the Boilerbilges represent up to 13 damage (which means if we hit two, we should just win the game on the spot). And in a pinch, we can also use the damage to control our opponent's board. It's really, really strong.
As far as the rest of our big finishers, they look a bit janky by 2025 Standards but are actually pretty powerful once we get them on the battlefield. Take Pelakka Wurm, for example. Sure, it's not quite Atraxa, Etali, or Valgavoth, but a 7/7 trampler that gains seven life when it enters and draws a card when it dies is still a legit way to close out the game. Plus, I've always loved Pelakka Wurm, back to its days as a rare way back in Rise of the Eldrazi. Coliseum Behemoth is more of the same, as a 7/7 trampler with a decent enters trigger.
Nurturing Bristleback isn't as big, but it makes up for this in other ways, like being landcycled to make sure we hit our land drop or the 3/3 token it leaves behind even once Random Encounter bounces it back to our hand. Finally, Diamond Weapon and Altanak, the Thrice-Called are just one-ofs but have massive bodies and some unique upsides, like Altanak being a ramp spell once we get a land card in our graveyard.
Finally, our mana base is about as cheap and simple as can be: a bunch of basic lands and four Terramorphic Expanse. While it looks pretty jank on paper, like a mid-powered draft mana base, we didn't really have any trouble hitting the right colors in practice thanks to Terramorphic Expanse and cards like Summon: Fenrir.
Wrap-Up
Record-wise, we went 7-4 with the deck, which is honestly better than I expected. While the deck isn't top tier or anything like that, it did feel pretty powerful considering its absurdly low price! Random Encounter itself was pretty hilarious. We had some games where it literally won us the game on Turn 4, and then we had other games where we had to resolve five copies before finally getting our opponent's life total down to zero. But the upside the card offers is immense.
While a lot of our creatures look pretty janky, it turns out that cards like Pelakka Wurm and Coliseum Behemoth are actually quite strong. It's just that nobody cares about them because they are somewhat worse than the best (and way more expensive) options, like Etali, Primal Conqueror and Atraxa, Grand Unifier. But in most cases, they are more than enough to get the job done. We even had some games where we simply ramped up to seven mana and hard-cast our finishers, and it still worked!
So, should you play $20 Random Encounter in Standard? I think the answer is a clear yes, just because of the price. At just $20 in paper and four rares / mythics on Arena, it's as close to free as you can get in Standard. Sure, it's probably not going to be the next Dimir Midrange or Izzet Prowess, but it can win a lot of games and do it in style, all without breaking the bank!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
