Dave Solberg took Emerald Steel to the North American Championship on August 30, 2026, and finished 5th to 8th in a field of 136. The full 60-card list is published on TCGplayer, and we've verified every card against the catalogue and priced the build at $216.92 from our daily feed.
- Three copies of Angel - Experiment 624 cost $112.29 alone, more than half the deck's total price.
- Elinor - Renowned Diplomat is the engine. Three exerted characters at end of turn means a damage ping, a lore, and a draw, every turn.
- Fifteen cards have Evasive. Any board that grants Alert to the whole opposing team shuts that down completely.
- 85% of the deck is inkable. The curve appears designed to flood the board early and avoid stalling for ink.
The honest reading of this list is that it is trying to do two things at once. It wants to go wide and fast like an aggro deck.
It also wants to grind with Elinor - Renowned Diplomat's end-of-turn trigger. Those are not contradictory goals here. They reinforce each other, and understanding that is the key to understanding every card choice in the 60.
What the deck is trying to do ------------------------------
The curve tells the story. Ten one-drops, thirteen two-drops, twenty at three. You're flooding the board, exerting everything, and letting Elinor - Renowned Diplomat do the work.
Her text reads: "At the end of your turn, if you have 3 or more exerted characters in play, deal 1 damage to chosen opposing character, gain 1 lore, and draw a card." That's a card drawn and lore gained every single turn once the condition is met.
The one-drops get you there fast. Darkwing Duck - Crime Fighter at 1 ink is in at four copies. Tod - All Alone at 1 ink is the same. They're cheap, they're bodies, and they exert to quest or challenge without costing you much when they're banished.
The Darkwing package ---------------------
Seven cards lean on having a character named Darkwing Duck in play. Launchpad - Trusty Sidekick at 2 ink draws a card when exerted, and the discard clause disappears when Darkwing is on board.
The Terror That Flaps in the Night at 2 ink deals 2 damage to a chosen opposing character. With Darkwing in play, that becomes 3. Darkwing Duck - Shadowy Superhero at 3 ink adds another ping when he enters play.
None of this is subtle. Get Darkwing Duck - Crime Fighter down early, protect him, and the 1-ink support cards start overperforming. That's the plan.
The evasive spine ------------------
Fifteen of the 60 cards have Evasive. Pegasus - Gift for Hercules at 1 ink. Mushu - Stealthy Dragon at 3 ink, who also draws a card when he quests if your opponent has more cards than you.
Vixey - Forest Friend at 3 ink, discounted to 2 if you have Tod in play. Jasmine - Fearless Princess at 5 ink, who gains Evasive during your turn and can take Challenger +3 if you discard a card.
These characters can't be challenged by anything without Evasive. They quest freely. That's how the board widens while staying intact.
Fifteen cards have Evasive. Any board that grants Alert to the whole opposing team shuts that down completely.
But here's the thing you need to know before you register this list. Alert reads "can challenge as if they had Evasive," which means your Evasive bodies lose their protection entirely against it.
Cards like Judy Hopps - Lead Detective and Angus - Mighty Horse grant Alert to your opponent's whole board. So does But I'm Much Faster and Infra-Pink Ultra Scan Specs. Against a deck running those, the Evasive spine is not a spine at all. It's just fifteen bodies without an edge.
Where the money actually goes ------------------------------
Angel - Experiment 624 costs 4 ink. Her first ability, UNTOUCHABLE, gives her Resist +2 while you have no cards in hand. Her second, GOOD AIM, lets you discard a card once per turn to deal 2 damage to a chosen character.
In a deck that is already discarding through Launchpad - Trusty Sidekick and Jasmine - Fearless Princess, GOOD AIM has targets to feed it. And a hand-empty state, which this deck can reach, turns her into a 4-ink body that's genuinely hard to remove through damage.
After Angel, Elinor - Renowned Diplomat at $10.52 each, four copies, is $42.08. Mushu - Stealthy Dragon at $7.66 each, four copies, is $30.64. Those three playsets account for $184.01 of the $216.92 price. The other 45 cards total under $33. This is not an evenly distributed price: you are buying three expensive playsets and a budget shell.
Strength of a Raging Fire sits at $3.53 per copy, four copies at $14.12. It deals damage equal to the number of characters you have in play. In a wide board state this scales fast. Angela - Night Warrior at 3 ink rounds out the pricier cards at $1.66 each, three copies.
She gives a chosen character Challenger +2 and Resist +2 until the start of your next turn, and she turns off Stone by Day for your Gargoyle characters, which matters specifically for Broadway - Sturdy and Strong.
The rest of the list ---------------------
Broadway - Sturdy and Strong at 5 ink has Bodyguard, which means opposing characters must challenge him before reaching your other characters. His Stone by Day drawback, which prevents him from readying if you have 3 or more cards in hand, is answered by Angela.
The Huntsman - On the Queen's Orders at 3 ink has Ward. That's a body your opponent can only remove through a challenge, not a targeted effect. Three copies.
Ursula - Deceiver at 2 ink strips a song from your opponent's hand when she enters play. Against decks built around songs, that's a disruptive tool.
White Rabbit - Late Again at 2 ink has Evasive and pays for itself with UNDERDOG if you're on the draw: 1 ink less on your first turn adds up when your curve starts at 1.
The Queen - Devious Disguise at 4 ink draws you a card on entry. The catch is that each opponent gains 2 lore. JEALOUS HEART gives her +2 lore while an opponent has more than you, so the card draw comes bundled with a built-in recovery mode.
The full list --------------
If you're building this deck, start with Elinor - Renowned Diplomat. Four copies at $10.52 each is the engine you cannot replace, and every other decision in the list flows from her end-of-turn trigger. Angel - Experiment 624 is the expensive finish. Pick her up last, once the shell is running.
This list suits players who want to go wide and generate incremental advantage rather than close games through a single threat. If you are looking for a faster finish with a lower price point, the Amber Emerald Mulan Aggro list that won a CCQ at $116 is the closer comparison.
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.
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Source: Dave Solberg’s Emerald Steel Elinor Aggro, North American Championship
