Overview

This is an Aggro/Tempo Combo deck that focuses on keeping your opponent's board clean. Eventually winning through the combo of Clan Challengers + Grand Inquisitor as early as turn 5. The namesake of this deck is derived from the Magic: The Gathering deck, Splinter Twin, which had a similar game-ending combo.

While the deck has a game-ending combo, the rest of the deck plays an efficient game plan that can swap between an aggressive or controlling playstyle depending on the matchup. This is possible through a strong removal suite and a set of 3 drop units (Toro Calican, Fifth Brother, Death Watch Loyalists) that all present large amounts of damage if unanswered.

The Combo

With Clan Challengers and Grand Inquisitor, you can repeatedly ready Clan Challengers to deal increments of 6 damage. This means that if you play Clan Challengers on turn 4, on turn 5 you can then deal 21 total damage with just Clan Challengers and Grand Inquisitor. If you play Clan Challengers on turn 5, you can deal 15 total damage. Neither of these combos deal a lethal amount of damage, so you will want to get your opponent to either 21 or 15 health remaining at some point in the game so that the combo is a threat.

If you add in a single copy of Aggression or Keep Fighting into the combo turn, you can deal 30 damage with a Clan Challengers starting in play, or 24 damage out of hand. However, since this is a two-card combo you will not necessarily play towards this win condition due to its lower consistency.

Standard Combo with Clan Challengers starting in play:

1. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
2. Ready it with Grand Inquisitor's ability
3. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
4. Deploy Grand Inquisitor
5. Attack with Grand Inquisitor and ready Clan Challengers (3 damage)
6. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
   21 total damage

Standard Combo with Clan Challengers starting in hand:

1. Play Clan Challengers
2. Ready it with Grand Inquisitor's ability
3. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
4. Deploy Grand Inquisitor
5. Attack with Grand Inquisitor and ready Clan Challengers (3 damage)
6. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
   15 total damage

Aggression / Keep Fighting Combo with Clan Challengers starting in play:

1. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
2. Ready it with Grand Inquisitor's ability
3. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
4. Deploy Grand Inquisitor
5. Attack with Grand Inquisitor and ready Clan Challengers (3 damage)
6. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
7. Play Keep Fighting or Aggression readying Grand Inquisitor
8. Attack with Grand Inquisitor and ready Clan Challengers (3 damage)
9. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
   30 total damage

Aggression / Keep Fighting Combo with Clan Challengers starting in hand:

1. Play Clan Challengers
2. Ready it with Grand Inquisitor's ability
3. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
4. Deploy Grand Inquisitor
5. Attack with Grand Inquisitor and ready Clan Challengers (3 damage)
6. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
7. Play Keep Fighting or Aggression readying Grand Inquisitor
8. Attack with Grand Inquisitor and ready Clan Challengers (3 damage)
9. Attack with Clan Challengers (6 damage)
   24 total damage

While the combo only requires 1 card, it requires several actions, damaging a unit, and deploying your leader. Your opponent will have several opportunities to interact with the combo. Due to this, you generally only want to go for the combo if your opponent has claimed initiative, you are confident they cannot interact with the combo, or you have no other choice and will otherwise lose.

The rest of the deck facilitates this combo, which leads us to the rest of the deck.

The Gameplan

To reasonably threaten the combo, due to how action-intensive it is, the rest of the deck is designed to control the board and push damage to allow you more action flexibility. The deck boasts a suite of efficient units along with a large amount of removal. If your opponent’s units are removed each turn, they will have fewer actions and be forced to take the initiative earlier, which lets you combo without fear.

The combo has two main breakpoints of 21 damage and 15 damage. The deck functions like an aggro tempo deck, so reaching those breakpoints is much easier than you may think.

General Turns

Your ideal turn 1 is to remove or set up to remove your opponent’s threat. Stormtrooper and Rhokai are intended to trade away efficiently. Daring Raid and Force Choke are perfectly fine plays too. Bo-Katan is a strong unit that you can either ready with Grand Inquisitor to take an aggressive stance or save to take out a weaker unit. Generally, you will ready Bo-Katan on turn 1 to attack base if the opponent’s unit can trade with her. Otherwise, don’t ready her if she can cleanly remove your opponent’s unit without dying on the next turn. The end goal of turn 1 is to neutralize your opponent’s play. If they pass, you are often fine just taking the initiative.

For turn 2, ideally, you want to resolve one of your 3 drops for this turn after answering your opponent’s turn 1 play. Fifth Brother is the strongest play in a vacuum due to utilizing his ping effect alongside Tarkintown to answer most turn 2 ground plays while also pushing 5 damage to the base. Toro helps answer plays that Fifth Brother + Tarkintown doesn’t handle by presenting a harder-to-remove body, and sets up for future bounty hunter synergies. Death Watch Loyalist also pushes 5 damage while presenting a unit that your opponent cannot as easily ambush or trade into. Against aggro decks, you can also use this turn for more removal to control the board.

For turn 3, you have a lot of flexibility depending on the board state. You may want to develop more threats, remove units, or a combination. This will depend on the matchup and your 3 drops played. Fifth Brother allows you to double up Force choke with another 3 drop, or use Aggression to attack a second time while removing a unit. Toro synergizes with Jango or Guild Initiate plus Open Fire or other 3 drops. Death Watch Loyalist has the least synergy so you can just make the best play possible in general.

For turn 4, you have the option to further your board control through more removal or Krrsantan, or you can develop a Clan Challengers to threaten a combo kill. If playing Clan Challengers, generally play it as your last action for the turn. Immediately readying the Clan Challengers will depend on the matchup and if damaging it will cause issues for you. If your opponent is close to 15 health remaining on their base. It is often better to just hold the Clan Challengers in hand to still threaten the combo while also hiding the most info possible from your opponent.

Turn 5 is the pivotal combo turn, and if your opponent is at risk of dying to the combo, you can leverage that threat to gain an advantage on board. If your opponent is just passing to hold up removal or interaction for the combo, just attack with your other units and claim initiative to continue the pressure. If they run out of resources early or claim initiative, then you can just go for the combo to take the win or place them close to death. If you can’t combo, you don’t need to deploy Grand Inquisitor unless you can gain a very strong board. Saving his deployment for the combo is often the better play.

After turn 6, you will maintain a similar game plan, but you will want to end the game sooner rather than later. Remember that starting at 7 resources, you can present 24 damage to the base, from hand, with a Grand Inquisitor deployment alongside Clan Challengers and Keep Fighting.

General Matchups

Aggro
You cannot race aggro, but the deck has plenty of removal options. Just play the control deck, and you will eventually win once your opponent fully runs out of steam. Try to take as little damage as possible

Midrange
This can vary depending on the deck, but in general, lean into the tempo nature of the deck. Present a clock with your turn 2 play, and focus on removing their units and creating awkward scenarios. Finish with the combo if needed.

Control
You are the aggressor. Lean fully into racing and presenting as much damage as possible. Board in Wolffe, Ruthless Raider, and Force Lightning. Lightning helps with getting around sentinels, and can remove a large threat if needed.

Space Rush Decks
The worst matchup for this deck due to the lower quality of space options in Aggression. Mulligan for a hand that can handle space well and focus on the control game. Resolving a turn 2 threat can be helpful to help close later, especially if the opponent does not have much or any ground presence.

Boba Yellow and Green
Against Boba decks, focus on playing a control deck. Boba is mostly scary when the deck is maintaining a board presence. If you can consistently remove all of their threats, you can close out the game cleanly in the late game. Don’t focus on the combo since these decks have plenty of interaction options for it. Clan Challengers is just a strong unit in general for the matchup. This matchup can be tricky and there is a lot of play from both sides of the matchup.

Closing

Grand Inquisitor is a fun leader who allows many strong decisions on any given turn. While this deck has a premier combo, you do not have to rely on it every game. There are many instances where you will win with only a partial combo or no combo at all. The deck is flexible, but remember to assess when you are the beatdown or the defender to find the best success possible.