Whispers in the Well — On the Case Infinity Power-Up Kit: Strategy Guide

Sapphire/Steel Detective tribal, Infinity-tuned. This kit is a Phase-2 upgrade on top of the On the Case Core kit. The Core layer fixed the Detective engine (Judy Hopps Lead Detective anthem, Nick Wilde Persistent Investigator draw engine, Doc Bold Knight hand-reload, Thunderquack lore item); the Infinity layer adds two anti-item disruption characters and a 1-cost cantrip-and-heal item the Core list cannot legally include.

Win condition: attrition through Resist-protected Detective challenges with item-banish disruption layered on top. Detective tribal stays the win condition. Beast - Hardheaded and Benja - Guardian of the Dragon Gem each banish an opposing item on entry — direct counters to Steelsong (~31% Infinity share), Belle Items, and Princess heal-stack archetypes that lean on Pawpsicle, Coconut Basket, and Maurice's Machine.

Three pace checkpoints — these are the turns that matter:

• Turn 3 — Benja - Guardian of the Dragon Gem lands: 3-cost 2/3 2-lore inkable Steel Mentor + King. WE HAVE A CHOICE: "When you play this character, you may banish chosen item." Banish their first item before it generates a turn of value.
• Turn 5 — Beast - Hardheaded follows up: 5-cost 4/4 2-lore inkable Steel Hero + Prince. BREAK: "When you play this character, you may banish chosen item." By T5 they've replayed the first item; Beast HH banishes the recovery. Two turns of disruption stacked.
• Turn 6 — Lead Detective Shifts in for 4 ink: with their item engine reduced, their pressure is diminished. Lead Detective's LATERAL THINKING ("During your turn, your Detective characters gain Alert and Resist +2") locks the board in your favor.

Pawpsicle is the kit's swiss-army-knife. JUMBO POP draws a card on play. THAT'S REDWOOD: "Banish this item — Remove up to 2 damage from chosen character." Pawpsicle cantrips on T1 for free card draw, fuels Scrooge UM's TREASURE FINDER item-cost-discount engine for the rest of the game, and banishes for 2-damage heal during their combat trick turn. Triple-mode utility at 1 ink.

Why this Infinity layer exists. The Core kit relies on Lead Detective's Resist +2 to survive song damage from Steelsong, but Steelsong recurs Pawpsicle and Coconut Basket every turn — out-pacing your healing. Beast HH + Benja break their item engine on the same turn they enter. Pawpsicle gives you a 2-damage heal back of your own to absorb their Songs. Scrooge UM's TREASURE FINDER stacks item-cost discount on top of the now item-dense deck for explosive turn-5/6 sequences.

Two-option blind alter (assumes Core kit applied).

• Option 1 — Item-engine keep (default vs item meta): Nick Wilde - Sly Fox Sleuth or Pawpsicle T1 plus Scrooge McDuck - Uncle Moneybags T2 plus Benja - Guardian of the Dragon Gem T3. Pawpsicle T1 cantrips a card; Scrooge T2 questing for 1 lore; Benja T3 banishing their first item.
• Option 2 — Tribal curve keep (default vs no-item meta): Nick Wilde - Sly Fox Sleuth + Daisy Duck - Ghost Finder + Judy Hopps - On the Case. Standard Detective tribal opener; Beast HH and Benja banish-ink against opponents with no items to disrupt.

Always keep: Pawpsicle in any opener. JUMBO POP draws a card on play; THAT'S REDWOOD heals 2 damage on banish. Even if you never banish it for the heal, the cantrip alone is worth the ink, and it counts toward Scrooge's TREASURE FINDER item-density math.

Conditional keeps:

• Beast - Hardheaded when you face a known item-meta opponent (Steelsong, Belle Items, Inventor mirror) and have a 1-2 cost Detective in hand. Beast HH alone without curve is a 5-cost play that's late vs aggro.
• Benja - Guardian of the Dragon Gem in any opener. He's a 3-cost 2/3 2-lore body even if BREAK doesn't fire — fine on-tribe Steel mid-curve.
• Scrooge McDuck - Uncle Moneybags when you have Pawpsicle or another item in hand. Scrooge alone is a 1/3 1-lore body; the discount engine needs items to discount.

Never keep blind:

• Beast - Hardheaded alone without other Detective curve — at 5-cost he's dead T1-T4.
• Louie - Chill Nephew alone (1-of, 4-cost) — toss back if your opener is already tight.
• Two copies of Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator (uninkable; one is dead in inkwell — same rule as Core kit).
• Hands with 0 1-2 cost cards. The deck wants T1-T2 deploy lines.

Ideal T1-T7 line: Nick Wilde - Sly Fox Sleuth T1 (1 ink, ink Pawpsicle for tomorrow's deploy) → Pawpsicle T2 (1 ink, JUMBO POP draws a card; remaining ink for nothing or hold for emergency) — alt OTD-friendly: Pawpsicle T1 (JUMBO POP draw, ink Sleuth instead) → Scrooge McDuck - Uncle Moneybags T2 → Benja - Guardian of the Dragon Gem T3 (banishes opposing Pawpsicle or Maurice's Machine; Scrooge quests, TREASURE FINDER discount armed for next item) → Judy Hopps - Uncovering Clues T4 (THOROUGH INVESTIGATION reveals a Detective from top 3) → Beast - Hardheaded T5 (5 ink, banishes second opposing item; 4/4 body) → Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator Shift 3 onto Sly Fox Sleuth T6 (3 ink Shift cost; CASE CLOSED draw engine online) + still 3 ink for a 3-cost body → Lead Detective Shift 4 onto Judy OtC T7 (4 ink Shift cost; Alert + Resist +2 anthem live).

The 17 cards going IN — Infinity-only anchors:

The 17 cards coming OUT (post-Core deck) — vanilla and off-tribe:

Net effect: ~80% of post-Core deck preserved. Curve unchanged in shape; item density net +6 (kit adds 4 Pawpsicle, cuts 2 Zootopia HQ which was a non-character slot). Detective count unchanged — Dewey/Louie are NOT Detectives but they're Sapphire 2-lore Support pieces that buff the Detective challenger lane.

vs. Steelsong (~31% Infinity share — confirmed inkDecks April 2026): Watch for: Pawpsicle (in their list), Coconut Basket, Steel damage songs Favorable. This is the kit's primary design target. Beast HH (5-cost) banishes Pawpsicle or Coconut Basket on entry — removing the sustain item the turn Beast HH lands. Benja GoDG (3-cost) banishes a cheaper item earlier on the curve. Two item-banish bodies at different costs let the pilot disrupt Steelsong's sustain on multiple turns. Lead Detective's Alert + Resist +2 anthem layers protection on top.

vs. Belle/Inventor Item Engine (Sapphire/Ruby) (Highly Favorable): Watch for: Maurice's Machine, Belle - Apprentice Inventor, Belle - Mechanic Extraordinaire The kit's most lopsided matchup. Beast HH banishes Maurice's Machine — the recursion centerpiece. Belle AI's free-play (WHAT A MESS banishes any item to play her free) still works on other items, but the BREAK DOWN return-cost-2-or-less-item loop is broken without Maurice's Machine on the field. Benja hits Sapphire Coil or Ruby Coil before the 3-item threshold is reached. Their plan stalls at T5; your Detective tribal closes T6-T7.

vs. Princess Tribal (Sapphire/Amber, Infinity) (Even to Favorable): Watch for: Aurora - Holding Court, heal lattice (Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jasmine, Julieta), Lost in the Woods Benja banishes any heal item Princess decks splash (Coconut Basket, Pawpsicle if running). Beast HH disrupts the heal lattice further. Lost in the Woods (-2 ¤ to all opposing characters) softens your Detective board's strength but doesn't banish — Resist +2 from Lead Detective stays the actual board protection, since Princess challengers' damage is reduced by 2. Even matchup; the kit favors when the Princess deck leans on Coconut Basket sustain.

vs. Blurple (Amethyst/Sapphire Control) (Unfavorable): Watch for: Let It Go, A Whole New World, Merlin - Goat bounce Let It Go clears the Detective board at the worst moment. Merlin - Goat bounces Judy LD or Nick PI — resetting both anthem and draw engine. Doc Bold Knight (Core kit) provides hand-reload after a bounce; Scrooge UM maintains item-density pressure even if the character board collapses. Acceptable losing matchup; play around removal by spacing Detective deploys.

vs. Toy Tribal (Ruby/Amber or Ruby/Emerald, Infinity emergent) (Neutral to Unfavorable, speculative — Set 12 spoilers, not final): Watch for: a Sid-named lore-on-Toy-death location, a Woody-named Andy's Toys anthem character The kit's anti-item plan is irrelevant — Toy Tribal's value comes from character deaths, not items. Nick PI's draw-on-challenge-banish synergizes oddly: banishing a Toy triggers BOTH Nick PI's draw AND the opposing Sid location's lore-on-Toy-banish. Pivot from challenge-aggro to passive-questing in this matchup; Lead Detective's Resist +2 reduces incoming challenge damage so your Detectives survive the Toy aggro hits, and Detective Tribal can win via raw lore-rate without challenging into the death-payoff cards.

Pawpsicle's three modes, in priority order: (1) JUMBO POP cantrip on play — free card draw at 1 ink, always valuable. (2) Item density for Scrooge UM's TREASURE FINDER — each Pawpsicle in play counts as an item; hold one in play minimum to fuel discounts. (3) THAT'S REDWOOD heal banish — banish for 2-damage heal. Best on a Detective at 1-2 damage during opposing combat trick turn. Don't sequence cantrip → immediate banish in the same turn; hold one in play to fuel TREASURE FINDER and emergency heal.

Item-banish sequencing vs item meta. Beast HH and Benja's BREAK triggers are your single biggest swing turn. Sequence: T3 Benja first (banishes their first item before T4 swing). T5 Beast HH second (they've recovered the first item; Beast HH banishes the recovery). T6 Lead Detective Shift — with their items reduced, their pressure is diminished and your anthem locks the board.

In a meta with few items in play (Lore Rush aggro, Mulan tribal), Beast HH and Benja's BREAK are dead text. Don't deploy them — bank-ink them. Lean on Doc Bold Knight (Core kit) to filter for Lead Detective + Persistent Investigator faster. Win on the back of Detective tribal anthem + draw engine without item disruption.

Scrooge UM's TREASURE FINDER chain. The discount applies to the NEXT item per quest, not all items. Sequence to maximize: T4, 4 ink available — quest Scrooge for the -1 trigger, play Pawpsicle (1-1 = 0 ink) for JUMBO POP draw, still have 4 ink for a 4-cost body. T5: 5 ink — quest Scrooge, play Thunderquack (3-1 = 2 ink), 3 ink left for Pawpsicle + 2-cost body. Always play your most expensive item under the discount.

Cards to keep forever from this kit: Beast - Hardheaded (5-cost on-play item-banish in Steel, splashable into any Steel build), Benja - Guardian of the Dragon Gem (3-cost on-play item-banish, dual-format-legal — splashable into Core too), Pawpsicle (best Sapphire 1-cost cantrip+heal item ever printed), Scrooge McDuck - Uncle Moneybags (best Sapphire 2-cost item-discount engine), Dewey / Louie (solid mid-curve 2-lore Support bodies splashable into Sapphire decks).

S12 watch list (speculative — Set 12 spoilers, not final): What Else Can I Do? (#163 Sapphire 5-cost song; cost-5+ characters can ⟳ to sing for free) is the highest-priority addition. Judy LD at 6-cost can sing it; the conditional Ward grant when sung by a character stacks with Alert + Resist +2 for a turn where the board is effectively untouchable on every axis. Gadget Hackwrench Resourceful Mechanic (#145 Sapphire SR) deploys Pawpsicle or Detective's Badge for free on entry while pumping Support +1 lore — accelerates the item-density setup TREASURE FINDER needs.

Tier 2 — Infinity LGS (~$30, +6 cards on top of this kit): +4 Sail the Azurite Sea (Sapphire 2-cost ramp + draw — "This turn, you may ink an additional card. Draw a card."), +2 Inkrunner (Sapphire 2-cost item that draws on play AND grants Alert). The deck now has proper card draw outside of CASE CLOSED triggers and Pawpsicle's JUMBO POP.

Tier 3 — Tournament Infinity (~$50): Full Sapphire/Steel Detective + Belle SbS hybrid — Belle's READ A BOOK ink-additional ramp paired with Detective draw-on-banish for raw card-velocity grind. +4 Belle - Strange but Special (Sapphire 4-cost 2/4 1-lore Princess with READ A BOOK and a +4 lore conditional once your inkwell hits 10). Drops some off-tribe Sapphire utility pieces for the new shell.

What to do with the cuts: Genie - Investigative Mind has trade demand for casual Genie deck builders — sell or trade. Hold Zootopia - Police Headquarters; the location is a casual-deck staple in Sapphire builds. Donate or gift Scuttle - Birdbrained, Black Heron - Real Bad Egg, and Jasmine - Soothing Princess — solid art for collection-display friends learning the game.