My Favorite Pilot in X-Wing... the Inquisitor

The Grand Inquisitor

   Ok, full disclosure here... I am an Imperial ace player.  I am.  I enjoy TIE Swarms in pickup games, I really enjoy Outrider, Tycho is a blast, my 2 PTL EU ARCs and 1 Stresshog list is a blast... but I'm an Imperial ace player.  So when I went to Hoth... its three Imperial aces... when I play at the store and getting ready for something big, its three Imperial aces... and truthfully when I build a list it starts with at least an Imperial ace and I build up from there.  Now I don't think the TIE Adv Prototype is the best ship in the game... its not even the best Imperial small ship (hello, TIE/SF)... its not even my favorite overall.  But my absolute favorite pilot is the Inquisitor.  His pilot ability echos his in series characteristics of being a precise, careful, hard to hit, yet deadly foe that comes across a little delicate and a little overconfident.

  Now I know PTL is the obvious build for him and certainly Outmaneuver or Predator or any other number of similar EPTs are the "best" for him.  But I've not only become really attached to the pilot, I've become really attached to my build:

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Lobokai's Inquisitor 

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The Inquisitor (30)

TIE Advanced Prototype (25), Juke (2), TIE/v1 (1), Autothrusters (2)

  To me, it works extremely well.  I want to target lock every turn anyway.... autothrusters with an evade has gotten this ship out of so many jams (see my Hoth round 6 recap here) and Juke doesn't require you to spend the evade nor does it require you to go after the ship you TL'd.  Since I'm almost always towing along at least another ace that's PS 8 or higher, I can work the juke both ways.  Either pressure my opponent to spend a focus before another PS 8 pilot fires by putting more eyeballs in front of him, or have the other PS 8 fire (or have no choice if its a PS 9) first, often prompting a focus to be spent, making the juke ability effectively remove a successful evade since usually there's no more tokens to spend.  Even the several multi-focus building lists are hurt as they can spend multiple focus tokens to evade hits from a couple aces but then are much less likely to have them to spend when firing back.

  Now sometimes the Inquisitor crash and burns... but almost every time I feel like I got a little to caught up in arc dodging (too much Soontir in my past) and did not stay focused on setting up good long range shots.  There's a fair amount of solid internal synergy even within this small 30 point, 3 upgrade build.  Autothrusters works its magic at range 3, this pilot wants to stay at range 3... its so nice getting that extra 1 red and never giving the extra 1 green.  

   This build needs target locks to generate evades, and also wants that evade for both offense and defense (and is able to use it for both more times than not).  Against other ace builds the Inquisitor shuts down opponent's autothrusters, always gets 3 dice, won't trigger so many range 1 abilities other ships have (as its the attack, not the ship, that's at range 1), and has a great dial that allows for both high speed moves and is crazy agile at speed 1... allowing you to keep the range open as long as possible if you drop in on someone's six.  Plus, when you need them, you've still got a boost and a barrel roll option sitting on the card too.  I'm certainly not saying PTL is a bad move, but you lose some lethality when you go that route and willfully putting stress on can be a bad habit in the current stress control meta.

  I've had great success with the Inquisitor and this build in competitive, formal tournament like play and at the same time he's not likely to draw much ire in weekly club matches.  While he is certainly fragile, 2 shields and 2 hull is better than the TIE/FO in that it has the same damage absorption but is 33% less likely to take a crit,  Solid agility and a very different play style (he doesn't need to be range 1, while Backdraft, Quickdraw, Soontir, Vader, Ryad, Steele, etc all want to be there badly) allows you to keep at least 1 ace out of the way of the other.  And if there's anything I'd like to see more of, it's clear lanes and less likely bumps while trying to get into extra-red-die range of enemy big ships.

  Deadly, unique, agile, fun, sniper, relatively cheap... what's not to like?  Not to mention, IMO, the Grand Inquisitor was a rather satisfying season 1 baddie on Rebels and clearly is being channeled a little bit in Thrawn (who I know is the older character) in season 3.  Plus his cameo in season 2 as a Jedi Temple Guard was just cool and bit of a call back to Yoda's vision of Dooku at the end of the Clone Wars series.  Certainly I'd not say to pick a ship or pilot based just on lore, but I like doing so to at least some degree.  We play the game because its Star Wars after all.

  Again, not saying he's the best.  But I am saying that he deserves a bit more of a consideration than most give him and that at a lower cost than most aces he opens up more options on them while still bringing ace level input to a squad list.  He simply is fun to play.  Just remember his everything is best at range 3.  And since he should be generating a TL every turn anyway, he's an easy pilot to tag a range 2 or 3 missile onto.  Give him a spin and let me know what you think.