Screeching Scorchbeast
Creature — Bat Mutant
Flying, menace
Whenever this creature attacks, each player gets two rad counters.
Whenever one or more nonland cards are milled, you may create that many 2/2 black Zombie Mutant creature tokens. Do this only once each turn.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Fallout
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #3924
Screeching Scorchbeast puts a radiation counter on each opponent's permanent when it deals combat damage — that's a board-wide poison clock on a flying body. The Wise Mothman turns every one of those counters into a -1/-1 counter trigger, so the Scorchbeast isn't just threatening damage; it's threatening to shrink every creature your opponents control simultaneously.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
The Wise Mothman
The Wise Mothman converts each radiation counter Screeching Scorchbeast spreads across opponents' permanents into -1/-1 counters, making a single hit snowball into a board-wide attrition engine.
The Master, Transcendent
The Master, Transcendent wants bodies that pressure multiple opponents at once, and Screeching Scorchbeast's flying plus radiation-spreading does exactly that — contaminating permanents across the table while The Master accrues resources.
Zoraline, Cosmos Caller
Zoraline, Cosmos Caller cares about putting counters on things, and Screeching Scorchbeast's radiation distribution feeds that counter density while threatening evasive damage every turn.
The Ancient One
The Ancient One scales off permanents with counters on them, so the flood of radiation counters Screeching Scorchbeast generates across opponents' boards gives The Ancient One more fuel to convert into raw power.
Agent Frank Horrigan
Agent Frank Horrigan rewards aggressive, wide-pressure strategies, and Screeching Scorchbeast fits that frame — it flies over blockers and leaves behind radiation counters that compound punishment on anyone who doesn't deal with it fast.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Screeching Scorchbeast is a Commander card through and through — the radiation mechanic is designed for multiplayer, where hitting one player with combat damage spreads counters across all three opponents' permanents simultaneously. In a 1v1 format like Legacy or Vintage, where it's technically legal, the effect is far narrower and the five-mana price tag for a 4/4 flier with a delayed payoff won't compete. Oathbreaker is the one other format where Screeching Scorchbeast can flex the full multiplayer angle, though the faster pace compresses the window before the counters matter.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Current pricing data for Screeching Scorchbeast isn't available in this snapshot, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the live number. Given its near-75% inclusion rate in The Wise Mothman decks, demand is real — don't expect bulk-rare pricing if it's seeing that kind of play.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.