Whispers in the Well — On the Case Upgrade Kit: Strategy Guide

Detective tribal investigation midrange — engine restored. The stock On the Case starter is the closest Ravensburger has shipped to a tournament-viable deck out of the box, but the two cards that define the archetype are at 1-of and a third critical card is missing entirely. Judy Hopps - Lead Detective (the anthem) at 1-of, Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator (the card-draw engine) at 1-of, and zero copies of Doc - Bold Knight (the hand-reload). The kit fixes all three.

Win condition: attrition through Resist-protected Detective challenges. Your Detectives don't die in challenges; opposing characters do; you draw a card from each kill via Nick Wilde PI; you refill your hand and keep deploying Detectives until the opponent runs out. Lead Detective's anthem stacks Alert (challenge characters with Evasive) and Resist +2 (reduces incoming challenge damage by 2) on every Detective during your turn. Resist +2 is the actual board-protection layer — opposing 2-strength challengers do 0 damage to your Detectives, opposing 4-strength challengers do 2.

Three pace checkpoints — these are the turns that matter:

• Turn 3 — Judy Hopps - On the Case lands: 3-cost 4/3 1-lore Hero Detective. HIDDEN CLUES: "When you play this character, if you have another Detective character in play, you may put chosen item into its player's inkwell facedown and exerted." Drop her with Nick - Sly Fox Sleuth from T1 already on board → free ramp from a 4/3 body.
• Turn 5 — Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator Shifts in for 3 ink: UNINKABLE 5-cost. Shift 3 ⬡ onto Nick - Sly Fox Sleuth. CASE CLOSED: "During your turn, whenever one of your Detective characters banishes another character in a challenge, draw a card." Every Detective trade is now a cantrip.
• Turn 6 — Judy Hopps - Lead Detective Shifts in for 4 ink: Shift 4 ⬡ onto any Judy Hopps in play. LATERAL THINKING: "During your turn, your Detective characters gain Alert and Resist +2." Anthem fires; the board becomes effectively untradeable.

The Alert + Resist combo on turn 6. Lead Detective's Alert means your Detectives can challenge opposing characters that have Evasive (the keyword is offensive — it does NOT grant the ability to challenge ready characters; that's LONG RANGE). Resist +2 means a challenger dealing 4 damage now deals 2; a challenger dealing 2 deals 0. Combined with Persistent Investigator's CASE CLOSED draw trigger, every successful Detective challenge banishes the target, draws a card, and survives.

Out-of-box deficiency: the deck shipped 5 different game-defining cards at 1-of (Lead Detective, Persistent Investigator, Robin Hood Ephemeral Archer, Zeus Missing His Spark, Kristoff Mining the Ruins) and runs 9 non-Detective slots (Donald Ghost Hunter, Minnie Ghost Hunter, Headless Horseman) that don't trigger Lead Detective's anthem or Persistent Investigator's draw. The kit cuts all of those and reinvests every slot into the tribal engine.

Two-option blind alter.

• Option 1 — Detective curve keep (default): Nick Wilde - Sly Fox Sleuth (1-cost 2/2 1-lore Detective, the deck's only 1-cost Detective body) plus a 2-3 cost Detective. 2-cost Detective: Daisy Duck - Ghost Finder (2/3 1-lore Sapphire with Support) or Minnie Mouse - Ghost Hunter (2/3 1-lore Steel Detective with on-play Alert grant). 3-cost Detective: Judy Hopps - On the Case, Mickey Mouse - Detective, Basil - Tenacious Mouse, Francine - Eyeing the Evidence, Clawhauser - Front Desk Officer. Pluto - Clever Cluefinder (2-cost 2/2 1-lore Sapphire Ally — not a Detective himself, but his ON THE TRAIL item-recursion is conditional on a Detective in play) is the off-tribe utility option at the 2-slot.
• Option 2 — Filter keep (default OTD): Doc - Bold Knight plus Hen Wen - Prophetic Pig plus a Detective. Doc's DRASTIC MEASURES ("When you play this character, you may discard your hand to draw 2 cards") is the deck's deepest reload tool. Hen Wen's FUTURE SIGHT looks at the top of your deck on quest and stacks it.

Always keep: Nick Wilde - Sly Fox Sleuth in any opener. T1 deploy as a 2/2 1-lore Detective AND he's the Shift target for Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator's 3-ink Shift line on T5.

Conditional keeps:

• Doc - Bold Knight when your hand is borderline. Doc lets you discard your entire hand to draw 2 cards — keep him when you might need to bail out of a slow opener. He's also a 2-cost 1/3 1-lore body that absorbs an early challenge.
• Judy Hopps - On the Case when you also have a Detective 1-drop in hand. HIDDEN CLUES requires another Detective in play to fire — solo she's a 4/3 body without the ramp.
• Judy Hopps - Uncovering Clues in any hand. THOROUGH INVESTIGATION fires both on play AND on quest — "look at the top 3 cards of your deck. You may reveal a Detective character card and put it into your hand." The deck's only Detective tutor.

Never keep blind:

• Judy Hopps - Lead Detective (6-cost) before T5. Dead in your hand without a Shift target.
• Two copies of Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator (uninkable; one is dead in inkwell).
• Hands with 0 Detectives in the first 4 cards. The tribal engine literally can't start without a Detective on board for HIDDEN CLUES, CASE CLOSED, and LEAD BY EXAMPLE-style triggers.

Ideal T1-T6 line: Nick Wilde - Sly Fox Sleuth T1 → Daisy Duck - Ghost Finder T2 → Judy Hopps - On the Case T3 (HIDDEN CLUES triggers — put one of your own dead items into your inkwell for free ramp) → Judy Hopps - Uncovering Clues T4 (THOROUGH INVESTIGATION reveals a Detective from the top 3) → Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator Shift 3 onto Sly Fox Sleuth T5 → Judy Hopps - Lead Detective Shift 4 onto On the Case T6. End of T6: 4-Detective board with Alert + Resist +2 anthem live, draw on every challenge banish.

The 12 cards going IN — engine completion + filtering:

The 12 cards coming OUT — non-Detectives and 1-of legendaries:

Curve unchanged in shape: Detective density at 1-3 cost, anthem at 5-6, finishers at 5-6. Every replaced slot is now a tribal payoff, engine piece, or card-filtering instead of off-tribe filler.

vs. Amethyst/Steel Midrange (Even): Watch for: 4-cost mass-removal actions, character-lock disruption The biggest Core archetype (~18-22% share). Lead Detective's anthem is active during YOUR turn only — during opponent's turn, Resist +2 is offline. Their 4-cost mass-removal song resolves on opponent's turn; the Detective board is at base WP. Pilot answer: don't deploy 4+ Detectives on the same turn. Bait the sweep on a turn when only 2-3 are out, then refill via Doc Bold Knight's hand-reload and Nick PI's CASE CLOSED draw on the next challenge swing.

vs. Blurple (Amethyst/Sapphire Control) (Unfavorable): Watch for: Let It Go, Merlin Goat bounce, Whirlpool Let It Go clears Detectives. Merlin Goat bounces Judy Hopps LD or Nick Wilde PI back to hand — resetting both anthem and draw engine. Doc Bold Knight's hand-reload is resilient to bounce because it refills every turn, but the core Shift Detectives (Judy LD, Nick PI) must be replayed, paying their full Shift cost each time. Pilot answer: hold a second Judy LD copy for the re-deploy turn; Nick PI Shift cost is only 3 ink so the re-deploy is affordable.

vs. Princess Tribal (Sapphire/Amber) (Favorable): Watch for: Aurora - Regal Princess, Lost in the Woods Resist +2 (Lead Detective's anthem grant) makes most Princess 2-strength challenges deal 0 damage to your Detectives — Princess decks rarely challenge into a Lead Detective board because the trade math is unfavorable for them. Resist +2 makes challenges into your Detectives unprofitable; the Princess deck often avoids challenging at all, which means Detectives quest freely. Lost in the Woods removes ALL exerted characters but it requires Cinderella at Singer 5 to fire reliably; before T5 your Detectives challenge faster than the song can land.

vs. Ruby/Steel Challenge Aggro (Favorable): Watch for: Strength of a Raging Fire, early Rush bodies Resist +2 during your turn means Ruby Rush challenges deal 2 less damage. A 3-strength Ruby attacker now needs to be 5-strength to trade into a Detective. Aggro must over-commit to clear the board. The Thunderquack adds 1 lore-per-banish on top of CASE CLOSED's draw — even when a Detective falls, you generate value back. Doc Bold Knight discards a slow hand on T2 to dig for the Detective curve.

vs. Detective mirror (Even): Watch for: Judy Hopps - Lead Detective, Doc - Bold Knight The mirror is decided by who deploys Lead Detective first. Doc Bold Knight's hand-reload accelerates that race — discard a slow hand on T2, draw fresh, hit Judy LD by T6. Whoever assembles the Shift line first wins the next 2 turns of trades.

Doc Bold Knight — when to discard. Doc's DRASTIC MEASURES discards your ENTIRE hand to draw 2 cards. The 2-card downsize is real; only deploy when the cards in hand are genuinely worse than 2 random topdecks. Best use cases: opening hand with Lead Detective, Persistent Investigator, two 6+ cost cards, no early game — drop Doc T2, discard the unplayable hand, draw 2 fresh. Or T6 with 2 dead uninkable expensive Shift targets you couldn't deploy — Doc clears them.

Detective's Badge classification grant. Detective's Badge reads "⟳, 1 ⬡ — Chosen character gains Resist +1 and the Detective classification until the start of your next turn." The classification grant is the secret trick. The most common application: tap on Doc - Bold Knight (Knight, NOT Detective) — now Doc counts as a Detective for one turn. If Doc banishes a character in challenge that turn, Persistent Investigator's CASE CLOSED triggers. Same play works on Hen Wen - Prophetic Pig or any other non-Detective body in the build. This is how you cheat non-Detectives into the tribal payoff during clutch turns.

Against aggro-heavy meta (Lore Rush + Princess Power dominating locally): -1 Genie - Investigative Mind (5-cost 4/7 2-lore Sapphire Detective) / +1 Detective's Badge to 3-of. The 1-cost item provides a Resist anchor on Nick Wilde - Sly Fox Sleuth from T1; Genie's 5-cost arrival is too late vs aggro mirrors.

Against control-heavy meta (Blurple / Sapphire control dominating): -2 Hen Wen's Visions / +2 Putting It All Together to 4-of. "Chosen opposing character can't challenge during their next turn. Draw a card." Lock + cantrip beats top-3 reveal in a matchup where you need to disrupt their tempo plays directly.

Tier 2 — LGS-Ready (~$30, ~16 cumulative cards): +4 Sail the Azurite Sea (Sapphire 2-cost ramp + draw — "This turn, you may ink an additional card. Draw a card."), +2 Hen Wen - Prophetic Pig to 4-of (top-deck filter at max copies cements consistency), +2 of any Inventor 2-cost item-draw piece. The deck now has proper card draw outside of CASE CLOSED triggers.

Tier 3 — Tournament Power (~$40, ~25 cumulative cards): Full Detective tribal rebuild — essentially the AMT Ducktectives shell. +4 Darkwing Duck - Crime Fighter (Steel 1-cost 2/2 1-lore Detective for cheap pressure), +4 Strength of a Raging Fire (the missing Steel removal song; sung free off any 3-cost character), +2 Let It Go (Sapphire 5-cost song; sung free off any 5+ cost character — Judy LD qualifies). Win-con shifts to wider Detective tribal aggro with double-removal package.

Cards to keep forever from the stock list: Judy Hopps - Lead Detective, Nick Wilde - Persistent Investigator, Judy Hopps - On the Case, Judy Hopps - Uncovering Clues, Detective's Badge (splashable into any Sapphire deck wanting Resist support), Hen Wen - Prophetic Pig, Genie - Investigative Mind (4/7 willpower at 5-cost is great defense even outside Detective), The Thunderquack (Steel item synergizing with any banish-themed deck).

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 S12 addition. Top-2 dig with one card to hand, one to ink, plus a conditional Ward grant on all your characters when sung by a character. Judy Hopps LD at 6-cost can sing it; the Ward grant combined with Alert + Resist +2 from LATERAL THINKING creates a near-invulnerable turn — no targeted actions, no challenge targeting, Resist +2 on top. Lock the board for a full challenge cycle. Flora Strong-Willed Fairy (#141 Sapphire) stacks Resist +1 on top of Lead Detective's Resist +2 for a turn — every Detective effectively has Resist +3 during the turn Flora enters play.

Margin note (speculative — Set 12 spoilers, not final): Doc - Bold Knight is the kit's largest single-card cost (~$5.45 at Lorcast 2026-04-30 × 4 copies = $21.80). If S12 Sapphire draw-engine demand spikes Doc's price, the kit's already-tight ~20% gross margin compresses toward the floor. Re-price before the next inventory pull if Lorcast shows a >20% bump.

What to do with the cuts: Robin Hood - Ephemeral Archer and Zeus - Missing His Spark hold collector demand on the secondary market — sell or trade. Keep one of every cut card for Sealed/Draft pools (no 4-copy cap in Limited). Donate Ghost Hunter cards (Donald, Minnie, Headless Horseman) — strong franchise and seasonal appeal. Locations (Zootopia - Police Headquarters, Castle Wyvern - Above the Clouds) are great in casual location-themed builds.