Greetings, fellow Kaijudo duelists!  For today's article, I'll be taking a look at an important card in today's meta that has recently resurfaced after months of being overlooked.  Those of you like me who have been playing Kaijudo for a long time probably have fond memories of the Evo Fury meta where decks like Blurple tempo, Dark Saber-Bolt, and Cobalt Control reigned supreme.  For those of you who might not be familiar with this important time in the game's history, feel free to check out my past articles from that time period.  [ccProd]Screeching Scaradorable[/ccProd] saw a peak amount of play during these few months, but quickly fell off the map as Dragonstrike Infernus released.  Recently, Shattered Alliances released and began taking over, along with a surprising resurgence in Screeching's playability.  This article will be taking a look at why this card is seeing more play and how it has been affecting things.

In Evo Fury, numerous factors came together to make [ccProd]Screeching Scaradorable[/ccProd] one of the most powerful cards of the time.  First, it was an incredibly aggressive meta up until Cobalt Control was discovered, and even then, that deck was a lot more aggressive than current control decks.  Blurple (Water/Darkness) was the tempo deck of the time, and used Screeching along with [ccProd]Gigabolver[/ccProd], [ccProd]Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow[/ccProd], as well as possible [ccProd]Gigastand[/ccProd]s and [ccProd]Dark Scaradorable[/ccProd]s to evolve into [ccProd]Hydra Medusa[/ccProd].  It also used a lineup of Cyber Lords to evolve into [ccProd]Emperor Neuron[/ccProd].  Cobalt Control had its own evolution line, as did Dark Saber-Bolt and Mono-Fire Rush, other popular decks of the time.  The Blurple tempo deck had potentially crazy early-game progressions and Screeching gave the deck a ton of answers to the cheap bait for evolutions that everyone was running.  When DSI released and every match featured control and greedy dragon decks, Screeching had nothing left to kill and [ccProd]Lyra, the Blazing Sun[/ccProd] had overshadowed the evolutions Blurple was running anyway.

Tempo made a comeback with Megabugs in August, but the most popular version of the deck, LWN, didn't run Darkness.  In addition, the deck was built to counter the control decks of the time, so it's not certain that a card like Screeching was even wanted.  However, it's clear that something happened between then and now to put us in a meta where Screeching thrives.

Use in LWD Tempo

This deck has been consistently performing well at Kaijudo Master Challenges across the continent, highlighted by a win from Joe Bass in Texas and a couple second place finishes.  The most common version of the deck has been using [ccProd]Cyber Scamp[/ccProd], [ccProd]Lost Patrol[/ccProd], [ccProd]Keeper of Laws[/ccProd], and [ccProd]General Finbarr[/ccProd] along with the control "staples" from those civilizations to create a deck with versatile lines of play that can punish the greedier, more generally high-costed control and ramp strategies.  A tempo deck utilizing Darkness has finally become tier one again, and with it, [ccProd]Screeching Scaradorable[/ccProd] is back at the top tables.  Screeching gives this deck an amazing answer to rush.  With mono-Light looking like it's not going anywhere anytime soon, this is actually incredibly relevant.  Megabugs have a fairly difficult time dealing with a deck like mono-Light, but the disruption that a turn four Screeching offers can often just put the time away.  It's also important to note how much 3000 power matters in those matchups.  There's almost a 100% chance that Screeching is going to be able to kill something in the subsequent turns after its effect has been used if the rush player keeps attacking.  If they don't, that's fine too; they'll either give you turns you need to stabilize or cards like [ccProd]Piercing Judgment[/ccProd] and Lyra can allow Screeching to find another way to eat their little guys.

Use in Control/Ramp

Before LWD tempo was even popularized, Screeching was seeing play.  Directly after Shattered released, LWDN [ccProd]Eternal Haven[/ccProd] decks like the one I used to get first place at ARG's KMC began using Screeching.  Though Screeching is obviously a great answer to rush decks, it's not really as if the deck needed that kind of specific answer; there were plenty of Shield Blasts and other removal spells that could have fit the bill.  What it took was the release of some level two or less creature that would give control and ramp decks an insanely difficult time when trying to get rid of it.  We got that very card in the form of [ccProd]Cyber Scamp[/ccProd].

[ccProd]Cyber Scamp[/ccProd] is not only a major player in the LWD tempo variants; it's been able to punish control players in a variety of decks including LWF, LWN Megabugs, and Blurple.  Scamp punishes control in a way that [ccProd]Keeper of Laws[/ccProd] does, is also incredibly hard to get rid of, and can start breaking shields much earlier.  If there's no blocker on board to stop it, it's going to cause some havoc.  For that reason, as well as its continued use against mono-Light and other random aggressive decks, Screeching found yet another home.  Against the mirror match or decks like dragons, the card obviously suffers as it has nothing worth banishing (outside of [ccProd]Lux[/ccProd]), but it's just too good against the things it is good against.  A turn four Screeching gives a control player hope against a lot of crazy Scamp progressions that would otherwise just win the game.

Effects on the Meta

Besides [ccProd]General Finbarr[/ccProd] simply being one of the best cards in the game, Screeching is one reason I think tempo has been so prevalent in recent events.  With a tempo deck being able to run Darkness again, we see the same thing we saw in the Evo Fury metagame where Blurple just had an insane matchup against the rush decks that were being played.  LWD tempo doesn't auto-win against them or anything, but it can often feel like an auto-loss when Screeching is dropped on a [ccProd]Rodi Gale, Night Guardian[/ccProd] or [ccProd]Prism-Blade Enforcer[/ccProd].  The LFN "Naya" Blitz deck that had been gaining some popularity also suffers.  LWD tempo can use Screeching in the mirror to deal with [ccProd]Aqua Strider[/ccProd] and [ccProd]Cyber Scamp[/ccProd], but mostly it just ensures that decks faster than those tempo decks don't steal as many games.

I do anticipate that [ccProd]Screeching Scaradorable[/ccProd] will continue to see play in the future.  As the card pool expands, we'll get to see civilizations being used in all types of decks, and Screeching will still have a home in those tempo decks with Darkness.  As rush gets more powerful, decks like those will need answers.  In addition, Corrupted creatures look poised to shake up the meta right before the Championship at the end of November, and the lower-level creatures of that type can easily be answered by a Screeching drop.  Only time will tell if these predictions are correct, but I don't see the meta reverting back into something that will allow the card to fade back into obscurity.  If you have any thoughts on this card's impact, be sure to leave a comment down below.  Until next week, Play Hard or Go Home!

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