What to expect when faced with the unexpected #2: Edmontoguandon

We are back with another “What To Expect” article. Once again thanks to Jimbohi for his contribution writing this article! If you missed the first article about Einiasuchus check it out below. 

This time we are looking at the huge HP, swap in nightmare that is called Edmontoguandon! Edmontoguanodon (affectionately called “Eddie”) will stun you, take speed control, then maybe a rampage and stun and finally regenerate half that massive HP pool whilst running away only to come back and do it all again…

Imagine facing one boosted like this...

Thanks to 𝕯𝖗.𝕽𝖊𝖊𝖇𝖊𝖈𝖈𝖆 for the image!

Now let's start with the basics…

This is another relatively easy to farm dinosaur. It is made up of Iguanodon (an all-day common spawn on Friday, you can't miss them!) and Edmontonosauras (Local 3 anytime, slightly harder).  Also, you can dart the epic Edmontoguandon itself on Friday as it is also one of the daily spawns.

Eddie will surely start showing up early on in the arena due to only being an epic, but may fall off many teams as they build their teams. But what should you do when faced with a boosted super Eddie in the upper arenas? And are you missing out not having one yourself?  Let's look at the pros and cons of using Eddie!

The obvious first, as mentioned above, is that it is only an epic so chances are you will have it early on. And very much like our look last week at Einiasuchus, Eddie can carry you through lower arenas and sometimes all the way to the top! Piling boosts into won’t be a regret either as being “just an epic” leaves it available for many tournaments… 

Where does Eddie shine?

There are many situations where Eddie shines, but a great one is when followed by a bleeder! First you get the bleed on them, then swap in with Eddie for the stun, then SS to either take priority or finish them off. If by this point your opponent is still alive, a greater stunning rampage will finish them off! Or perhaps they try and swap in they are hit with the GSR straight away giving you the advantage to either hit them again with ss or an impact, then regenerate and run ready to do the same again. It can become a vicious cycle you don’t want to be caught in!

The next situation where Eddie really shines is when you have another swap in attacker directly to Eddie’s right. This will allow you to come in with the stun get a hit off, then Regenerate and run into the next dinos attack. This works especially well when Dracoceratops just happens to be the dinosaur to the right, as you can just keep stunning, hitting, running, hitting, regenerating, and swapping over and over.

Lastly, due to its huge HP pool and decent move set it can sometimes stand-alone by itself pretty well even without the swap in stun, with its ability to take priority with superiority strike. In addition, it can use nullifying impact on any evasive and cloak dinos (Indoraptor/Erlidom/Procerathomimus). It can cause problems because it can definitely withstand a couple of big hits and regenerate half its HP!

Now for the downsides of Eddie… The biggest one (by a long shot), is that if the stun misses there is a strong chance that it can cost you the match. The reliance on the stun landing is very important… Sometimes more important than 99% of stun’s out there, due to the fact that you are swapping into it and you will usually be slower. Missing that swap in stun as the slower dino means you are taking a double hit… usually big hits as well. Very often this means that its “game over” for Eddie and it's extremely difficult to recover from losing an entire dinosaur whilst doing no damage. If RNG is not on your side (or if you get Jimbo stuns) very often, this may not be the dino for you!

The second biggest con for Eddie is its reliance on moves such as swap in stun, superiority strike and another stun, so if you come up against an immune it's in trouble! You can’t take the speed advantage nor can you stun them so you are solely relying on dealing some damage and getting out of there. If you haven’t boosted it much then there is a chance you're not doing much damage either. Similar to Einiasuchus, the final downside is the Fusing and the coins… it's going to take a heap of time and coins to get this thing high enough to be a real threat.

As mentioned above, Immunes are the #1 counter to Edmontoguandon. Eddie cannot swap in stun you, nor can it take priority. For this reason, Magna is a great counter or even a budget Magna -Monolometrodon can get the job done!

Bleeders & chompers (Thoradolosaur & Spinotasuchus) are another great option, bleeding something with that much HP is going to hurt! The trick is to try and time the bleed so it happens when Eddie’s regenerate and run move is not ready!  Chompers will cut that HP down quickly so having a big hit ready is going to benefit you a lot, but with more risk as you could get caught in the stun and regen pattern.

The final set of counters are tanks. Anything with armor is going to cause Edmontoguandon problems as it cannot break through defense and only has nullifying to get through shields (so don’t try and instant invincibility as it will just nullify it away). Slowing or stunning it will help as you will need more than a single hit to bring it down and keep it from coming back, but if you know they have it be prepared for it! Don’t forget the biggest counter is keeping your fingers crossed that the stun misses!

We have seen more and more people using Eddie in the upper arenas. It's viable at many different levels of the game and works really well on a swap heavy team. Make sure to join our discord and let us know your favorite way to play Eddie and keep an eye out for more of this series!