Eidolon of the Great Revel in Mono-Red
Standard Deck Help forum
Posted on July 10, 2015, 1:29 a.m. by Wabbbit
Am I missing something here? Why would you play a card that punishes playing low cost cards.....when the majority of the cards in your deck are low cost!
UpperDeckerTaco says... #3
Bc in a mono red aggro deck, you're trying to push as much damage as possible as fast as possible, and you have 20 points of life and in a mono red deck, they are a resource. It essentially makes most of your opponent's spells a burn spell to themselves. I would advise watching some red decks from some tournaments to see how they run. That card is the real deal. That's why it's also played in modern. Just trust me. Aggro decks forget that their life total doesn't matter as long as it's not zero because you look to do anything possible to get your opponent to 0 as fast as possible. And the Eidolon, can do some serious damage.
July 10, 2015 1:35 a.m.
The mission of the deck is to get your opponents life to 0 as fast as possible.
If you have on out at the right times, you can force them to play nothing and leave themselves open, or take damage from Eidolon. That can add up quick. Ride it out with the rest of your burn and your life lead and it doesn't matter if you ping yourself for 2 here and there.
July 10, 2015 1:36 a.m.
Servo_Token says... #5
For the same reasons that Golgari Grave-Troll is good. It utilizes your resources in a manner that gives you tactical advantage over your opponent. You're diminishing your supply of something, but in doing so you are gaining a huge advantage over your opponent because the 'drawback' isn't really a drawback, just a conversion of resources.
July 10, 2015 2:01 a.m.
KillDatBUG says... #6
I bet you also think that Necropotence is bad because "muh life total"
July 10, 2015 3:01 a.m.
I don't understand how this question can be asked so often lol
July 10, 2015 3:50 a.m.
New people start the game every day. It took me almost 6 months of goofing around with the game to understand why Shocks were good.
July 10, 2015 4:02 a.m.
It's pretty understandable why newer players would be confused about eidolon I think. I remember back when I first started playing I would have thought it would be a terrible card for a deck like burn.
July 10, 2015 6:54 a.m.
Thanks for all the answers, although I bet I won't see the power until I play with the card. It's in top tier decks, so it's obviously there for a reason. I'm not new to the game, I'm just picking back up after a year or so not playing ;).
It STILL seems kind of weird to me, because literally every spell in your deck is going to be hurting you. I realize that red decks don't care as much about their life total, but rdw also needs to cast lots of spells. By the time you cast just six spells in this deck, you basically kill yourself. But I suppose the balance of damaging your opponent with it, while not caring as much about your own life total, makes it a powerful card.
@KillDatBUG: Necropotence is much easier to see why it's strong. Just at first glance a card that basically says "three damage to me whenever I cast a spell. Three damage to my opponent whenever they cast some spells" seemed a little weird.
I think I'll playtest one of those RDW decks. I haven't gotten to test many of the tier one standard decks yet.
July 10, 2015 11:22 a.m.
Oh shoot! I thought Eidolon of the Great Revel did THREE damage whenever a player cast a spell with converted mana cost three or less. Okay, makes more sense now.
July 10, 2015 11:34 a.m.
It's really much easier to understand once you see it in action. Think of it this way:
Whenever you play a spell, you lose 2 life. But since literally EVERY spell in a Burn deck deals damage, you'll be paying 2 life to hit the opponent for 3 or more, so it's still a good deal.
Whenever an opponent plays a spell, they lose 2 life. Except their spells aren't all geared towards hurting you. They pay 2 life to draw cards. They pay 2 life to put out mana dorks. They pay 2 life to drop creatures that'll only attack the next turn. They even have to pay 2 life to kill your eidolon!
At worst, playing Eidolon of the Great Revel will deal 2 damage for two mana (assuming it gets killed immediately upon entering the battlefield). At best, it'll make sure the game is over twice as fast - so fast you won't even remember you had a life total in the first place. As the others said before me, burn players don't care about their own life as long as it's not zero. As long as the other guy's life total drops faster than yours, who cares if yours is dropping?
July 10, 2015 12:19 p.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #15
I guess we now know who's been around T/O for a while
CapnMooMoo says... #2
Because you are doing more damage than you are taking faster than your opponent can do the same versus you. Since you are the aggressive side, you can invest 2 mana to do 5 damage and take 4 yourself, and provoke an answer that makes them take 2 more damage, so you trade up 5 damage.
Or at least that's the hope.
(Sorry if this doesn't help, I don't know how better to explain it.)
July 10, 2015 1:35 a.m.