Welcome once again! I've received some great feedback on my last few articles, which I'm eternally grateful for! Today's subject is one of my new favorite characters in the game:
Kheprius, the Scarab Master
Kheprius is a blue twenty health savior contender with 0/1 for his stats and is an Alpha. Already in this series we've seen how strong the other contenders are with their value up front. Gearwin is a card drawing machine, Entropy gives you the most deckbuilding freedom, Kheprius is equally as powerful, but in a much more subdued way. From the start of the game (20HP) he has "When an effect you control would return one or more Clash cards to its owner's hand from play, put a Scarab Counter on target Clash card you don't control.
Opposing Clash Cards with Scarab Counters gets -1/-0 for each of those counters on them.
Action : Remove three Scarab Counters from among Clash cards you don't control. If you do, draw a card."
Kheprius's twenty text by itself gives him a ton of value, board control, and hand refill. Being able to control how much damage you are taking both on your turn and your opponents turn is key. That first line of text is crucial to understanding how to build Kheprius. being able to return clash cards on both players turns to net scarab counters is your path to victory, explicitly during your opponents turn. Kheprius (to me) is the second contender to be an almost exclusively reactive over proactive deck. Sharing a similar playstyle to Krung. Now, much like other counters matters contenders, the question comes up of what do you do once the counters are gone or your opponent stops playing as many clash cards? Kheprius's ten health ability can help! "If the Portal is open, opposing Clash cards get, "Trigger - Defeat: Move all Scarab Counters on this card to another Clash card you control". Much like Gearwin, Kheprius has excellent late game aggro control. However, instead of growing his own stats, he shrinks the opponents! Diminishing their size, making them unworthy to battle him (see what I did there?).
The MVP
Now, with Kheprius's text and strategy laid out, we can get into the main deck and the key cards you have to see early to get the Scarab counter engine started. Now, the best card in the deck without question was a pretty "eh" card prior to the reveal of Ancient Alphas as a set. To the point where I opened a ton of her and had no idea what the point of her was. Her text doesn't seem to work well with her contender, and the effect wasn't great either at the time. Now, we have the engine of the deck. Seeing one of her is good, two is amazing, three you may be unstoppable. The card in question: Haven, Sensing Danger. Haven is a one drop powerhouse in this deck, while her stats aren't great it's not the reason to play her, her text box is. she reads "Counter - Attack: You may return this card to your hand. If you do, ready one resource you control." This is a repeatable engine on your opponents turn as you activate each Counter - Attack separately, triggering your contender each time. As I said, more than one Haven are just as good as a clash buff in this deck. Being able to put one to two scarab counters a turn during your opponents turn is difficult to deal with if they don't have removal for her. Additionally, if they stop attacking after they realize the combo, you're still preventing damage in a way by them not attacking you! Plus, if you want to use that tempo against them, use Kheprius's action and start drawing cards for each three scarab counters you have!
Kheprius-free Kheprius
As great as Kheprius's contender card is, his clash cards (of the ones we've seen so far at the time of me writing this) aren't great. Most are quite bland, with two exceptions Kheprius, the Scarab Weaver and Kheprius, Emerging Threat. These two are worth running for the deck. Scarab Weaver gets a +1/+1 while he's blocking a clash card with a counter on it (not just a scarab counter, so you can run a bounty package as well), and Emerging Threat can play a one cost clash card for free when he enters (such as Haven) as long as you bounced a clash card to hand. Plus, he always makes sure when opponent's clash cards leave play (in any way) he'll make sure the counters get passed around to the ones left behind. As a result of these two being the only Kheprius clash cards I feel are worth running, Between Realms may not be worth running. This could turn out to be wrong though as the set isn't out so I'm keeping an eye out for more Khep cards to include. But believe me, if more Khep cards are shown that are good enough to run, Between Realms will be an amazing clashground for the deck.
Down With the Sickness
Now, Kheprius is pretty good by himself, but what if he brought along a mysterious friend with him? Though I would warn you, physical contact might end poorly for you. A strong Pestilence package in the deck is a great way to take advantage of returning friendly clash cards, with most of Pestilence's cards giving minus stats, these can stack up if you play them over and over again in the same turn. My list runs the Unholy Trinity as I call them: The Infectious (4x), Mayhem Maker (3x), and Devious Servant (4x) along with The Wastelands (3x) to take advantage of it on your turn. The Wastelands also serves as a great scarab counter engine on your turn if the Pestilence cards get removed.
Reject Modernity, Accept the Ancients
With Kheprius being an Alpha, we can take advantage of some fun cards to buff him and bring along some friends from the far future (to Kheprius) to help him out. New York City is obviously a great aggressive clashground to get in some extra damage, Sonoro, the Awakened Breaker is a powerful clash card that draws you a card, Khagan, the Dragon is well...Khagan, and Mean-Streak, Blink of an Eye can help protect engine cards such as Haven or Pestilence to ensure the scarab counters keep rolling.
I Just Started Blasting
Kheprius has an equally amazing clash buff at his disposal that can potentially act as an uninterruptible removal card. Obelisk Blast costs one blue resource and reads "Target Clash card gets +1/+1 until end of turn and you may choose one-
Choose a Clash card you control, activate its Trigger - Enter.
Choose a Clash card you don't control with a Scarab Counter on it, activate its Trigger - Enter as if you control it."
With how strong this deck is with Trigger Enters, you will oftentimes be choosing your own Clash cards, but can definitely get value off of opponents Clash cards if they aren't careful. The dream is to choose your own Khagan in play and send the attacking clash card to Oblivion before it even deals damage.
The Living Cloak
Kheprius has an amazing legendary card in the upcoming set as well that will be a must have for anyone wanting to play him competitively. Scarab of Eternity is his contender weapon that costs four resources, three of which must be blue. It attaches for four blue but is reduced by one blue for each scarab counter on opponents clash cards. Also, if Kheprius didn't have enough text on his contender, the weapon gives him "Action: put a scarab counter on target clash card you don't control." Allowing you to have a second engine that is hard to remove. And lastly, the card also gives him +1/+1 (making him a 1/2) with "Trigger - Attack: Detach an attached Scarab of Eternity. This gets +1/+0 for each scarab counter on clash cards you don't control until the start of your next turn." This contender weapon is a monster when it comes out. If your opponent doesn't answer it quick, they are going to lose in the blink of an eye. With you attaching it each turn and crushing their life total down as you keep yourself alive with the counters reducing power and your board having favorable blocks.
Wrap Up
Closing this article up, Kheprius is a blast to play with a ton of plays that will definitely catch people off guard. My list feels very tight for substitutions (apart from Between Realms) as this feels to me like the ideal core he wants to run. As always, I've linked my decklist for you to view!
Written by The Pest
https://www.deckplanet.net/alpha_clash/deck/9b3888aa-41f5-49e8-aeb7-c055c73ae1e0