HarlanSweete published this Sapphire Steel Detectives list on July 22, 2026, and claims a Top 4 finish at a CCQ with it. You can watch him walk through the whole thing in his video "Two Top 4 CCQ BS Detective Lists! The Terror!".
We verified all 60 cards against the catalogue and priced every copy from our daily feed. The deck runs $203.68 for the cheapest printing of each card, and most of that cost lives in one place.
- Angel - Experiment 624 is the price. Four copies at $35.33 each is $141.32, which is 70% of the total budget.
- The deck is a Detective tribal engine. Darkwing Duck characters unlock the removal, and Judy Hopps characters find the pieces.
- Strength of a Raging Fire does the real work. At $4.96 each, four copies add $19.84 and scale with board size.
- Start with the cheaper shell. 46 of 60 cards are under $1.27 each. The expensive cards are exactly four, and you know them all upfront.
What the deck is actually doing
This is a character-based control deck. You flood the board early with cheap Detectives, use Darkwing Duck to unlock damage abilities, and let the Judy Hopps engine find what you need turn by turn.
The one-drops set the pace. Darkwing Duck - Crime Fighter costs 1 ink and comes in at $0.16. Nick Wilde - Sly Fox Sleuth also costs 1 ink, also 8 cents. Neither is doing anything spectacular alone. HarlanSweete's case is that together they give you a body in play by turn one.
Turn two is where the synergy starts. Darkwing Duck - Drake Mallard costs 2 ink and has Ward. He keeps himself safe from targeted effects, which matters because the whole deck wants a Darkwing Duck character on the table.
Launchpad - Trusty Sidekick shows why. He costs 2 ink. His ability reads: "WHAT DID YOU NEED? Exert, draw a card.
Then, choose and discard a card unless you have a character named Darkwing Duck in play." With Darkwing Duck around, Launchpad is free card draw every turn. Without him, it costs you a card from hand. Nine cents each. The payoff for keeping Darkwing Duck alive is immediate.
The Terror That Flaps in the Night closes the loop. It costs 2 ink and deals 2 damage to a chosen opposing character. With a Darkwing Duck character in play, it deals 3. Four copies at 15 cents each.
The removal package
This deck wants to banish things. It has several ways to do it.
Strength of a Raging Fire costs 3 ink and deals damage equal to the number of characters you have in play. Late in the game, on a wide board, that number gets large.
A character with cost 3 or more can exert to sing it for free. Four copies at $4.96 each is the second biggest line item in the budget.
He Hurled His Thunderbolt costs 4 ink and deals 4 damage to a chosen character. A character with cost 4 or more sings it free. Four copies at $2.30 each.
Let It Go costs 5 ink and puts a chosen character into their player's inkwell facedown and exerted. That removes anything, regardless of size. A character with cost 5 or more sings it free. Four copies at $4.31 each.
Darkwing Duck - Shadowy Superhero costs 3 ink. When you play him, you may deal 1 damage to a chosen character. That is a small ping, but it sets up trades and clears Resist. Nine cents each.
The Judy Hopps engine
This is where the deck finds its fuel. Judy Hopps - On the Case costs 3 ink. When you play her and you have another Detective character in play, you may put a chosen item into its player's inkwell facedown and exerted. That is targeted inkwell disruption. Nine cents each.
Judy Hopps - Uncovering Clues costs 4 ink. When you play her and whenever she quests, you look at the top 3 cards of your deck, may pull a Detective character into your hand, and put the rest on the bottom in any order. That is selection, not just draw. $1.00 each.
Judy Hopps - Lead Detective costs 6 ink and shifts for 4. During your turn, she gives all your Detective characters Alert and Resist +2. That protects the board and lets you challenge into things you would otherwise lose. 46 cents each.
Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator costs 5 ink and shifts for 3. His CASE CLOSED ability reads: during your turn, whenever one of your Detective characters banishes another character in a challenge, draw a card. A wide board that keeps winning challenges becomes a draw engine. 46 cents each.
The top of the curve
Darkwing Duck & Launchpad - St. Canard's Finest costs 7 ink and shifts for 5. He has Ward. During your turn, whenever he banishes a character in a challenge, you gain 2 lore. Four copies at $1.26 each.
And then there is Angel - Experiment 624. She costs 4 ink and sits at $35.33 per copy, which is $141.32 for the full playset. That is 70% of the total budget in one card.
Angel costs more than the rest of the deck combined. That is the build decision, and it is the only one that actually matters here.
Her ability text: "UNTOUCHABLE: While you have no cards in your hand, this character gains Resist +2. GOOD AIM: Once during your turn, you may choose and discard a card to deal 2 damage to chosen character." GOOD AIM pitches a card to deal damage whenever you want it.
UNTOUCHABLE rewards an empty hand with Resist +2. The two abilities pull against each other by design. You spend your hand to deal damage, then benefit from having no hand. It is a risk-reward loop built into a single card.
Francine - Eyeing the Evidence rounds out the three-drops. She costs 3 ink and has Resist +1. Five cents each. She survives one damage step that would normally banish her.
The full list and what it costs
Total: $203.68 for all 60 cards, cheapest printing, from our daily feed.
Where the money goes
The rest of the deck is genuinely affordable. Strip out Angel and you are looking at $62.36 for 56 cards. Most of those cards are under a dollar each.
The five dearest cards are Angel - Experiment 624 at $35.33 each, Strength of a Raging Fire at $4.96 each, Let It Go at $4.31 each, He Hurled His Thunderbolt at $2.30 each, and Darkwing Duck & Launchpad - St. Canard's Finest at $1.26 each. Everything else is pocket change.
If you want to play HarlanSweete's Detective list as he built it, start by picking up Strength of a Raging Fire. Four copies at $4.96 each gives you the deck's most scalable removal, and you can test the shell without committing to Angel.
When you are ready to go all the way, Angel - Experiment 624 at $35.33 is the card that makes the list his list. Buy one copy first, test the GOOD AIM loop, and add the rest only if the hand-management rhythm feels right for how you play.
Prices update daily. Price any list as you build it in the deck builder, which reads the same feed as this page, and every card above links to its own page in the card library.
Source: HarlanSweete
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