Given that MTG is made by Wizards of the Coast, it’s no surprise the game has some pretty powerful Wizards. Thankfully, this archetype isn’t so pushed that it’s easily the best typal archetype, but it still has plenty of gems. Curiously, over time, it appears many of these MTG cards, like Supreme Inquisitor, have fallen through the cracks.
Considering how many new cards get released nowadays, it’s hardly surprising that a 24-year-old card from Onslaught has been forgotten. This isn’t all bad news, however, as now Supreme Inquisitor makes for one hell of a surprising budget bomb.
MTG Supreme Inquisitor
While it does take a fair bit of work to get Supreme Inquisitor going, the upside is so worth it. By tapping five Wizards, you get to search an opponent’s deck and exile five cards of your choice. No matter what your opponents are playing, this effect will always be devastating, especially since you don’t have to guess and pre-name cards.
Unsurprisingly, Supreme Inquisitor’s exile effect is best against combo decks that have a number of core pieces. Any deck that’s vying for a Thassa’s Oracle win, for instance, can be hosed by this card. Similarly, any player using Gaea’s Blessing to prevent a loss to Mill can have their day ruined.
Even outside of combo decks, Supreme Inquisitor is just mean against literally any archetype. Exiling a deck’s strongest creatures, needed utility pieces, or best spells can easily limit a deck’s potential. Hell, if you really want to, you can be extra mean and exile five lands from a land-starved opponent.
Realistically, there’s only one major problem with Supreme Inquisitor, and that’s getting five Wizards in play. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of Wizards to play in MTG, and Five-Wizard-Typal is technically already an archetype. Not only does Inalla, Archmage Ritualist need a similar density of Wizards, but it opens up playing fantastic support cards.
Thanks to MTG Final Fantasy, it’s never been easier to flood the board with Wizards. Cards like Kuja, Genome Sorcerer and Queen Brahne, for instance, you can easily get five Wizards in play. While this is already powerful, since Supreme Inquisitor doesn’t need to be tapped itself, there are infinite combos available.
Exile All Libraries
Unfortunately, while combos with Supreme Inquisitor are technically possible, they’re either off color or rather intensive. That said, since going infinite means you get to exile each opponent’s library, it’s hard to ignore the potential. Thanks to this, even the need to dip into white to play Stonybrook Schoolmaster can still be worth it.
With five Wizards in play, including Supreme Inquisitor and Stonybrook Schoolmaster, you can go infinite with Intruder Alarm. Thanks to Stonybrook creating a Wizard when being tapped by Supreme Inquisitor, Intruder Alarm will trigger, untapping everything. This allows you to use Inquisitor’s exile effect again, and again, and again, until each opponent’s library is empty.
To make this combo even better, you’ll also get an infinite number of creature tokens. As always, you can easily turn these into other resources through sacrifice engines like Phyrexian Altar. Unfortunately, as powerful as this is, stepping into white limits where Supreme Inquisitor can be played, but there is a fix for that.
Technically, Stonybrook Schoolmaster can be replaced by Pestered Wellguard and Maskwood Nexus. Since Maskwood turns Wellguard’s Faeries into Wizards, you’ll be able to use the same loop while staying within Grixis colors. Admittedly, this does turn this into a four-card combo, and you’ll still need three Wizards on top of that.
Thankfully, since Maskwood Nexus makes all your creatures Wizards, getting enough in play isn’t too difficult. Additionally, Faces of the Past, alongside a sacrifice engine, can provide some extra redundancy in place of Intruder Alarm. Utilizing this extra redundancy, there’s a decent chance you might be able to pull this combo off and win out of the blue.
A New Old Wizard Typal Staple?
Considering how much potential Supreme Inquisitor has, even if you don’t go infinite, this MTG card seems incredibly underplayed. According to EDHREC, Supreme Inquisitor appears in just 1,092 decks right now, which feels like nothing. With Wizards being the 11th most popular Typal theme in MTG, this card could definitely see more play.
Realistically, the only real reason you wouldn’t want to play Supreme Inquisitor is that it’s a bit mean. Since it can completely shut down an opponent’s deck, you won’t make any friends playing this card. You might even end up with a target on your back, having the entire table turn against you.
If you don’t mind this risk, then Supreme Inquisitor is definitely worth considering for your next MTG Commander deck. Right now, the card is remarkably affordable too, selling for less than $1 on TCGplayer. If you ask us, this makes Supreme Inquisitor well worth remembering, if you’re ever building a Wizard-focused Commander deck.
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