With the release of each Star Wars Destiny set there are always a few pre-made character line-ups that are worth exploring. Within Spark of Hope we had Reylo, a character pairing made possible with the plot Temporary Truce. Cassian Andor (WotF) finally found his perfect Mill/Kill partner with Jyn Erso when she was released a set later in Across the Galaxy. In Faltering Allegiances we also have a few thematic pairings. Today on echobase we will be taking a deep dive and analysis on The Inquisitors.

The only way to use The Inquisitorius plot is to run Ninth Sister & Second Sister on the same team, as these are the only characters in FA standard with the Inquisitor subtype. I’d have liked to have seen a caveat line on the plot along the lines/or to the effect of: ‘You may include Purge Troopers on your team’. That way we could run the plot with two Purge Troopers alongside an elite Second Sister, much like the artwork on the plot would suggest. You can of course run that line up with an elite version of the plot United, and this leads quite nicely into the question: why would you run Inquisitorius over United?

United/We Stand is an incredible deterrent for your opponent to mitigate dice, as they know that you will get a chance to roll back in the dice removed as an after effect. In the mid to late game, it can effectively completely protect character dice (so long as you’re sitting on two resources) as the ability to reset a character for two resources is insanely powerful and a gift your opponent is unlikely to want to offer you.

The Inquisitorius plot acts as an additional card in your hand once per round to pseudo-mitigate an opponent’s die. We’ve seen the power of Taron come to the fore with his Power Action, and this plot, much like Taron’s PA, requires an action to blank an opponent’s die. Unlike Taron, this plot will stay in play once Taron’s partner is defeated. Pairing this plot with Salt Flats can be quite annoying for an opponent.

Characters:
Ninth Sister has three 3 damage sides, each of which are situational: a payside, a modifier and a situational special. As a character, I don’t rate Ninth Sister, but when she rolls hot it feels pretty good. Ideally, if that payside were just a straight up 3 melee we’d be cooking on gas. Second Sister is a solid character: pseudo mitigation on activation and a potentially blowout special. Her die sides are shockingly bad for a Skilled Duelist, but I’ve learnt a few tricks playing the Inquisitors that using her special on her other die for 3 resources, 3 shields, or 3 focus can be pretty bloody good.

Supports:
I’ve always preferred playing Villain Blue as it suits my play style. I’ve spent the last 4 or 5 month’s finally giving Palpatine – Unlimted Power a try and I feel at home with the Blue ability suite. Right now I feel that Villain ramp seems relatively unrivaled due to the combination of Merchant Freighter, It Binds All Things and Forbidden Lore.

Upgrades:
The Inquisitor Lightsaber is a really solid 2 drop upgrade that helps when you catch that modified side on Ninth Sister and a decent passive ability in which you can re-roll the die if it lands on a blank. Shien Training is a great upgrade; all resolvable sides are decent and it allows you to pitch an early Shien Mastery as you can bring it back later in the game. Niman Mastery is absolutely clutch on Second Sister as you really want to get her onto her special. Force Storm feels as brutal as ever. You are typically playing Palpatine’s Lightsaber for free.

I’ve tested various other abilities from Malice to Death Field with the Inquisitors; Malice was in there as a cheap upgrade to deal a damage to a character showing a blank (turned on by exhausting the plot) and/or to discard a card to help get Ninth Sister’s special online. Death Field, as strong as it is, didn’t make my final list as I found I was holding out to play it and it just jammed my hand on most occasions as I spent resources elsewhere.

After playing this deck a lot for the sake of writing this article I really can’t stress enough how badly I played this deck at first. It’s not as I first thought an ‘auto pilot’ deck: play upgrades, mitigate, try to win. This deck isn’t as cut and paste as it first appears. After 30-40 reps with the deck I learnt a few things.

There’s a patience that comes along when playing these guys. A lot of that patience resolves around Second Sister. Timing her activation: sure you just never know what your going to roll – you may end up rolling double melee and turning a BDLuke to a damage side, but those odds are so slim that almost every time you get to pseudo mitigate an opponent on activation. Patience also comes into play knowing when to exhaust the plot and when to mitigate from hand.

With Ninth Sister, I tend to resolve what I get. I’ll always start the round with a Ninth Sister activation just in case those paysides crop up. Resolving the special is strong; sure your opponent can block, but the cost is at 2 cards from hand. Eventually you’ll start to see your own card advantage as an opponent soon runs out of choices of cards to play especially if they blocked the special. Holding off and sitting on the Ninth Sister special also puts the pressure on your opponent to keep those cards in hand in order to block it. This means they’ll play sub optimally or spend the cards mitigating your other dice.

I’ve also learnt a lack of greed in the damage race when using Second Sister’s Special. Your options with her special in this character line-up include Discard, Focus, Melee, Resource and Shields; increasing a symbol by a value of one, or by two if an opponent has a die showing the matching symbol. Early game I like to turn Second Sister’s other die to resources to ramp, claiming either 2 or 3 resources. Sometimes I found myself flipping to Ninth Sister’s Discard side to swipe a few cards from hand to leave an opponent with sub optimal dice left stranded in the pool or sometimes taking 3 shields for defense when needed.

The Pseudo mitigation game:
This deck thrives on blanking and turning dice. We have seven cards at our disposal in this build that will force your opponent to either pitch to re-roll, or burn other dice to focus the blanked dice. Were not even on hard mitigation just yet. We’re just turning and blanking (I’ve included Second Sister as the 7th card here). This is a crucial distinction, especially as a lot of decks are running United / We Stand right now; blanking and turning will not trigger the United plot.

Pincer Movement feels quite strong right now – activate both of your characters, choose an opponent’s character and turn each of that character’s character and upgrade dice to sides showing a blank. This gains you tempo, and can potentially overwhelm an opponent. There is a weird queue that forms in the after activation ability with Second Sister with Pincer Movement and it goes like this:

Play Pincer Movement and roll in both of your characters. Blank one of an opponent’s character’s character and upgrade dice. Then, Second Sister’s on-activation will kick in; look at her roll and then turn an opponent’s die to a side showing a symbol which Second Sister’s die is showing. Most of the time, this is a non-factor as you can choose a die that does not share the rolled symbol and choose to ‘miss’ on her ability leaving your opponent with a set of blanks.

Acute Awareness is in there to help against Taron builds. If he blanks a die, play Acute Awareness and turn that die to any side. Alternatively it can be used defensively – if an opponent uses Niman Mastery or uses a focus side you can then use AA to turn the turned die to any side. You could blank an opponent’s die with the plot, they could then burn a focus, you then play AA to turn the focused die back to a blank. Etc etc.

The plot teamed up with the battlefield speak for themselves. In between all of this dice turning there will be an opportunity for some pretty brutal blowout Unending Hate plays. This card I have found to be the MVP of NPE’s within Destiny right now, having been the card player and on the receiving side.

Hard mitigation:
With this build we are packing 10 mitigation cards: Near Miss, Isolation, Fluid Riposte and Forsaken, plus I count Shien Mastery as a mitigation card. None of the events do anything special, each offer one for one value. Collectively, in between your mitigation and pseudo mitigation cards were looking at a deck with 18 mitigation options not including Second Sister, the Plot or the Battlefield!

During the build process I tested several cards and for one reason or another the following cards did not make my final list: No Mercy, Death Field, Malice, On Guard, Pushing Slash, Treason & Draw Closer. Maybe a few of these will match up with your personal play style and can be swapped in for cards that are in the list that don’t.

In summary I’ve enjoyed playing the Inquisitors. I do think after the fine tuning and all of my games with these guys that I would consider this a pretty competitive deck; we’re not talking tier 1 but we’re knocking on the door. I’d recommend giving them a shot, but as I mentioned earlier don’t dismiss them after one or two games. Work through it and keep on top of your sequencing. There’s something here with these guys and it may just surprise you.

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