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I feel stupid for asking, but why amy I hearing so much about Elderad and Mr Kains avatar?
I understand that elderad is an amazing psycher. But he seems so static, not much use in a lot of mech armies. I always use a Farseer on a bike.
And the avatar. He's great for counter assaults and makes unit fearless. Again a great ability but kinda hard to use in a mech list.

Am I wrong in assuming that these guys would work in a mech list? I run a bike heavy list so it's hard for me to think outside that box. Are people running this combo with guardians?

I have no idea why this myth that mech armies use Eldrad/Avatar continues to propagate. Eldrad/Avatar is used in groundpounder and hybrid lists. There is no reason for either of them to ever appear in a true mech list.

If your running mech, use an autarch or a farseer on a bike.

I use a farseer and the Avatar in my footslogging Eldar and a rarely lose with them. I would take Eldrad but people complain too much.

In my mech Eldar, both the Avatar and the farseer have no place.

The avatar is usually used in conjunction with troops on foot like a firebase of guardians with weapons platforms to make them fearless and discourage any assaults against those troops because the avatar is really good in assaults. Eldrad is just the best psyker there is. The ability to use the same power twice and to use 3 powers in one turn is just great and he has toughness 4.

I agree with the IntotheRain that they are best in hybrid or mostly foot troop lists. In a mech list they just get left behind and with no fire base for the avatar to protect or Eldrad to cast his powers on they really are not useful.

There are no absolutes in list design, plenty of things work well for plenty of people, and those same things don't work for others. I think you can reasonably limit your options into clusters of effective units, but what you want to play is ultimately up to you.

I've used Eldravatar in mech lists, I've used Autarch on jetbikes, and I've used farseer on jetbike, and I'm next going to try Eldrad and an Autarch on jetbike. All of them work pretty well if designed efficiently and they fit your play style. I just like to experiment and see what I like, and what works for me doesn't have to work for you or anyone else for that matter.

So back to your original question, why do some people take eldravatar in an otherwise mech list? I've used it to excellent effect because:

They are good for points denial.

They suck up the same firepower that needs to go at your skimmers, diluting your opponent's firepower effectiveness.

They provide fearlessness which can be good when facing Fear of the Darkness and similar psychology attacks.

They are a nice resilient scoring unit that is awesome at holding your own quarter (or straddling the line) when all your skimmers zoom off to other places.

Eldrad is awesome in a mech list for providing guide and doom (and fortune to the avatar) to your other units. We all know all the reasons why he is a great psycher. The avatar provides very nice protection to him. One of my opponents commented post game how he wasn't able to deepstrike Oblits and raptors to take out Eldrad as he had planned because the Avatar made it too difficult for too little reward. There are much fewer units that can take out eldrad and the avatar than those that can take out eldrad all on his own (or even Eldrad and Harlies or Autarch).

One of my favorite tricks is to keep depleted jetbike units near the avatar so that they don't run away to all on your own tests.

Even in a tri-falcon list, you can just run Eldravatar straight at your opponent to make him deal with a nasty combo. However, usually the autarch will work better in these lists.

It's not a perfect solution, and it has its own issues (namely mobility). But I've used Eldrad and the Avatar in many different mech lists to great success. One last thing to consider is that it has the perception of being cheesey, but I play with people who like to compete with highly tuned lists, so this isn't so much an issue for me.

Ebon nailed it.

I would like to add that a canny opponent used to playing against "highly tuned" Mech Eldar (no criticism there, I run the same thing!) will learn to use the differing mobility to divide and conquer. While they are dead hard, Eldratar are also a nice chunk of points that can be taken out when the Falcons are frustrating your efforts elsewhere.

Similarly, if the Eldar guy makes drastic moves with his skimmers in turns 1-2 and isolates them from the Eldratar, you can concentrate fire, get the passengers out and kill them before Eldarad/Avatar get there to support.

Finally, if you can get the Avatar off to the side where most Eldar troops won't be passing by him should they fall back, his best feature is neutralized.

A good Mech Eldar player combines his forces well and protects each unit with another vehicle/power combo. To beat them, you need to throw this off and take the force apart piecemeal. Same goes for Mech including the Eldratar.

All that said, I'm a "highly tuned" sort of player that still won't field the Eldratar in a Mech list. It's just too ridiculous. But in the infantry-heavy future of 5th ed.? It will be _everywhere_, so learning to deal with it is important.

By the way, I hereby coin the phrase "Eldratards" for those that use this combo. I'm one of them, but the label's too good to resist.

We call it Master Blaster. Who run Bartertown? Masterblaster run bartertown!

Oooh, that's good!

Any day with a Beyond Thunderdome reference is a good day. By the way, if you've ever wanted to fight in a real live Thunderdome, there's one at Burning Man. Pretty freaking cool. You're supposed to use padded swords, but they look the other way when you drop them and hit each other.