Ezekiel Murphy took a Sapphire Steel list to the CCQ at Warehouse 51 Games in Palm Harbor on July 18, 2026, and finished third or fourth. The deck costs $150.26 to build from cheapest printings. Nearly $118 of that is three copies of one card.
- This is a Darkwing Duck aggro deck with a Detective engine. It pressures early and converts challenges into card advantage late.
- Angel - Experiment 624 is 78% of the budget. Three copies at $39.12 each. Everything else is cheap.
- Fifteen copies lean on Resist, eight on Ward. Both keywords fold to straight banish effects and to challenge-based removal.
- Without the Angels, the shell costs about $32. Buy the cheap pieces first and decide whether the expensive ones are worth it.
The deck is built around two things happening at the same time: Darkwing Duck characters applying pressure while a Detective package finds cards and converts challenges into lore. When it works, players who have run it report that opponents feel a step behind on most turns. They take damage, they lose a character, and you draw a card for it.
Here is the loop that makes it go.
The Darkwing engine
Darkwing Duck - Crime Fighter comes down on turn one for one ink. It is a body. That is its job. Darkwing Duck - Drake Mallard arrives on turn two for two ink and brings Ward, meaning your opponent cannot choose it except to challenge.
Darkwing Duck - Shadowy Superhero hits the board for three ink and deals one damage immediately on play. Murphy is running four copies of each.
Launchpad - Trusty Sidekick is the glue. For two ink you exert to draw a card. You only skip the discard if you already have a Darkwing Duck in play. So the deck wants a Darkwing character present almost every turn, and the curve is built to make that easy.
The Terror That Flaps in the Night is the removal piece. Two ink, deals two damage to a chosen opposing character. With a Darkwing Duck in play it deals three instead. Four copies. At that price it is nearly free to run.
The Detective layer
Judy Hopps - Snowball Patrol costs two ink and has Resist +1. She also has Underdog, so if you are not going first on turn one, she costs one ink instead. Four copies. She is both an early body and a roadblock.
Judy Hopps - Uncovering Clues enters for four ink. When you play her and whenever she quests, you look at the top three cards of your deck and may pull a Detective character into hand. Four copies. She is the engine that keeps the Detective characters flowing.
Judy Hopps - Lead Detective is the top of the Judy curve. Six ink, Shift four. She gives all your Detective characters Alert and Resist +2 during your turn. That means your detectives can challenge even characters with Evasive, and damage they take while doing it is reduced.
Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator closes the loop. Five ink, Shift three. His ability: whenever one of your Detective characters banishes another character in a challenge during your turn, draw a card. Challenges become card draw. The more you challenge, the more fuel you have.
The expensive piece
Angel - Experiment 624 costs four ink. Her text reads: while you have no cards in your hand, she gains Resist +2. Once during your turn, you may discard a card to deal two damage to a chosen character.
Murphy runs three copies. At $39.12 each, those three copies total $117.36. That is 78% of the entire $150.26 deck.
Three copies of one card are 78% of this deck's price. The other 57 cards cost about $33 combined.
The GOOD AIM ability is a discard cost, which matters. The deck already has Launchpad - Trusty Sidekick asking you to discard unless Darkwing is present, and Angel asks you to discard to deal damage.
Murphy is running one copy of Develop Your Brain and one of Inkrunner to manage that tension. Develop Your Brain lets you see the top two cards and pick one. Inkrunner draws a card on play and can give a character Alert for an ink cost.
He Hurled His Thunderbolt is the big removal song. Four ink, deals four damage to a chosen character. Characters with cost four or more can exert to sing it for free, so Judy Hopps - Uncovering Clues qualifies. Four copies at $2.06 each.
Let It Go removes a character entirely by returning it to their player's inkwell facedown and exerted. Two copies at $3.91 each. The free singer threshold is five ink or more.
Darkwing Duck & Launchpad - St. Canard's Finest closes the curve. Seven ink, Shift five, Ward. Whenever it banishes a character in a challenge during your turn, you gain two lore. Four copies at $1.07 each. Pluto - Steel Champion rounds out the singletons: whenever another Steel character banishes a character in a challenge on your turn, gain two lore.
What stops it
Fifteen cards in this list carry Resist. Resist reduces incoming damage, but it does nothing against effects that banish outright. Eight carry Ward, which stops opponents choosing those characters except to challenge. That means a direct challenge still removes them.
If your opponent is running straight banish effects, neither keyword helps. The deck's Resist and Ward are real defensive tools. They are not a wall. Name the condition: against decks that challenge well and have unconditional removal, this list has to win before that removal matters.
The full list
How to build it
The shell without Angel - Experiment 624 costs about $32. The Darkwing curve, the Judy package, the songs and the Shift finishers are all affordable. If you want to test whether the Detective engine clicks before committing, start there.
When you are ready to complete it, pick up Angel - Experiment 624 one or two at a time. At $39.12 each she is the only card on this list that asks you to budget for her.
Buy Darkwing Duck & Launchpad - St. Canard's Finest first for four copies at $1.07 each, since you need them to sing He Hurled His Thunderbolt for free. Then work toward the Angels. Murphy's full verified list is linked above.
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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