Eater of Days

[Mikeymike]

9/8 flying, trampler for 4 with a horrible drawback. A very cool card, so how can we make it a good card?

Immediate combo-liciousness
Stifle (its killer CiP)
Illusionary Mask
Volrath's Shapeshifter
Time Stretch

Synergy
Equipment - especially Lightning Greaves and Fireshrieker
Berserk
Mindslaver (to help counter some of the drawback)

Non-combo deck ideas
Solitary Confinement/Squee
Draw-Go

Any ideas? Opinions? Gripes?

 

[Spiderman]

Good 'ol Pandemonium and Furnace of Rath.

 

[Mikeymike]

Ooo, that is pretty evil Spidey. Only if he had 10 power, that'd be game over....Glorious Anthem too perhaps?

 

[Notepad]

This will only have a mild chance of getting into tourney winning decks.

Sadly, this thing (like Plat Angel) will be a casual player's nightmare. Ala: "Don't wanna lose, kid? Better play more removal!" Sadly, these new Timmy-oriented cards are just forcing TImmies to play more like Spikes or Johnnies....sad.

 

[Spiderman]

Mikeymoke: That's probably why he doesn't have 10 power But still, have him come for 18 damage with the Pandemonium/Furnace, give him Haste in a variety of ways, and attack for the rest.

Or put Fire Whip on him to do the last 2

Heck, you can even Fling him at another player in MP!

SeFRo: Fortunately, tourney players aren't the only ones who play Magic. And hey, alot of people start out as Timmies... then they get into the game and see much more possibilities

 

[Master Shake]

I was suprised to look at this card. Obviously this deck never sees the deck if you are playing aggro (there are small, more effiecent creatures that do not force you to lose turns, and probably the game.) But, as Mike pointed out, my confinement deck could abuse the hell out of a couple of these. Many control oriented decks could, at at such a small CC.

I think that this card is going to dominate the prerelease, and probably end up being a good card outside of which.

Not to mention its great possibilities with Stifle and Stax.

 

[rkoelsch]

This will not see any serious constructed play as long as Astral Slide is still a viable deck. "ready to attack with your big nasty after 2 turns. Cycle.. slide.. Lose 2 more turns."

 

[BigBlue]

He'd have seen much more play if he cost more and was unable to attack or block for 3 turns...

Final Fortune turns feed him (without the drawback of losing)...

Hasted 9/8 Flying Trample for 4... and colorless too...

 

[train]

I'd mentioned stifling his ability and him having haste in another thread...

but flinging him, and all the anchantment damge are all really viable...

(haste)berserk, giant growth, fling... it's all good...

"and check it - I have a lifeline in play!!!..."

 

[Notepad]

Even through the drawback is two turns, I think it will not be mattering that much. For some reason, the high drawback of Phage cannot keep people from playing with her. The high casting cost of Akroma doesn't stop her. The apparent weakness of Platinum Angel certainly isn't stopping it from ruining casual games in MTGO.

Cool creatures, yes, but so powerful, that if you feel like playing casual, you have to play more and more removal. Face it, WotC is trying hard to turn us casual players into tourney players. If they keep up, we'll find ourselves having to go tourney style: "Metagame your deck so no possible threat can go unchecked." Blah!

 

[train]

I normally build decks that way... but still keep a theme to them... something fun...

"Like non-blue control..."

 

[Nightstalkers]

I'd donate it and keep phasing it in and out on my opponent.

I never said I was going to be nice about .\\agic strategies.


—Nightstalker Exterra

 

[Reverend Love]

I'm making a call here. When it's all said and done the deck using him will read Eater of Days as;

4 Opponent Takes an additional two turns

Quickly setting up the pain followed by Eater.

The Oracle has spoken.

 

[Rooser]

Frankly, I think this is a crappier Platinum Angel.

Hey, if you speed him out on turn three with a chrome mox, that could be game because they might not do much with those extra early turns and you just might beat the living daylights out of them.

Or, you might just give your opponent two extra turns for no good reason.

See, he's like Platinum Angel because in some situations he can just flat-out win the game for you - which means he could be decent sideboard for decks that won't be able to handle him.

However, where Platinum Angel beats this guy out is in the fact that Platinum Angel isn't a liability. If your Platinum Angels fails, oh well, no big deal. When Eater of Days fails, you've just given your opponent two extra turns.

What's better is that Platinum Angel doesn't need a back up plan. In fact, Platium Angel is the back-up plan. The best way to use Platinum Angel is to just throw two into any deck that might concievably get up to 7 mana. This way you have them available for those situations where they just flat-out win the game for you.

Eater of Days is not so versatile. By itself it is less likely to work and more likely to punish you when it doesn't. To better this situation, you need to play support cards, which in this case is just silly because cards like Eater of Days are best used as support cards.

Stax, of course, is the exception. In Stax, he just might be broken, just as he might in any deck that actually WANTS to skip turns, but those are extremely rare.

In the end I have to agree with the Reverend. Eater of Days is just not worth playing, even in casual formats.

 

[Spiderman]

I find it hard to believe that in an artifact heavy environment, there isn't some way to have a "back-up" plan if Eater of Days fails. Really, all you need to worry about is getting your 2 cards back from the draws and surely there's ways to do that.

 

[train]

you could even trash for treasure his butt...

but drawing isn't difficult... especially if playing blue...

 

[Mikeymike]

Originally posted by train
I'd mentioned stifling his ability and him having haste in another thread...

Sorry Train, I totally missed your original post. What can I say, great minds think alike!

Originally posted by Rooser
Stax, of course, is the exception. In Stax, he just might be broken, just as he might in any deck that actually WANTS to skip turns, but those are extremely rare.

In the end I have to agree with the Reverend. Eater of Days is just not worth playing, even in casual formats.

I don't know fellas, I think it might be a little too soon to write him off just yet. All it needs is one proper deck (a la Stax) and it becomes a card that people will have to find an answer to. For that fact alone I think an open mind needs to be kept for this card for future application in the competitive scene.

I also don't understand the Platinum Angel comparison. The Angel buys you time, the Eater wants the game over before your opponent can get their turns in or it doesn't care about the turns. The two creatures have totally different agendas.

It has that one necessary component of all strong combo cards - a low casting cost - but it is also a creature, so that most likely means it will have to be a synergy addition instead of being a key cog in a deck (unless you team it up with Illusionary Mask). Another component it shares with combo cards: lack of versatility.

Still, I think it comes down to Eater of Days at the worst being a very neat card that will be inspiring many different kinds of casual decks for a long time to come. And that is the reason I think it is a very cool card, not because its going to be a chase rare, but because it will be fun if you can actually a deck that wins because of this card (and its brethren).

Maybe its just me, as I'm a little biased towards cards that want you to build around their serious drawbacks. I suppose its the Johnny in me (who am I kidding, I'm all Johnny).

 

[Rooser]

Spidey, giving up two turns is a whole lot worse than just giving up two draws, especially in casual multiplayer.

As for every body needing an answer for him as soon as there's a good deck for him, I think you're wrong, because the only popular creature control that doesn't kill him is terror.

If he was a 7/7, and had untargetability or indestructability, he'd be good, but the fact is he's fragile and an extreme liability. I understand the appeal of abusing cards that seem bad but are atually good, I just think that this is one of the ones that's actually bad.

Another thing to think about is that 9 is a deceptively large power. Nine kills in three turns, but so does seven, which is why I say he might as well be a 7/7 anyway, it'd make very little difference. If he had ten power, well then that'd be a horse of a different color, because he'd kill in two turns. At first you see the 9/8 and think, "Wow, that's really big," but for practical reasons I think it's more efficient just to cast blistering firecat.

 

[Nightstalkers]

I agree with ex on this one, if you got him out (2 turn loss for u) and then if you donated it to your opponent (no turn loss because it didn't "come into play") he'd be all mocho and say that he's got a nice new 9/8 on his side that u "gave" to him. "Yeah, well I don't "donate unless its in my favor to do so." So while he's celebrating you do a quick phase in/out (Your opponent loses 2 life depending on the # of times you phase the creature.) and your opponent feels the burn of yet another "crappy" rare.

—Nightstalker Habuki

 

[Spiderman]

Rooser: It's true that it's worse in MP, the giving up two turns, and plus there's more people who may have answers to him, which makes untargetability/haste even more important to take out at least one foe. That's what makes Pandemonium/Furnace of Rath pretty cool.

As a matter of fact, today's preview card Arc-Bound Slogger reminded me of Modular, so one may get a 2/2 Modular dude into play, sac it somehow to give the counters to Eater, so that's 11, then attack for the rest (assuming you have Pandemonium in play). There's a lot you can combo with this guy.

Besides, in MP, you'd probably want to build some defense anyway so you're not taking two turns of hits from everyone (Island Sanctuary, Smoke, Propaganda, that white enchantment that redirects damage from you to a creature, etc). There's lots of ways in MP you can make him work.