Both days featured a similar spread of decks in terms of popularity, although the exact percentages varied slightly. Combining the player counts from both events, Amber/Steel emerged as the most-played ink pairing, representing 23% of the overall Day 1 field. It was closely followed by Amber/Emerald and Ruby/Sapphire, which each accounted for 18% of competitors.
As always, popularity and performance did not perfectly align. The Top 16 decklists from each event were shared on Disney Lorcana’s Instagram, revealing that certain color pairs underperformed relative to their metagame share, while others exceeded expectations. For example, no Amethyst/Steel or Amber/Amethyst decks advanced to Day 2, suggesting that hyper-aggressive strategies may be poorly positioned in the current Infinity metagame. By contrast, Amber/Emerald posted an exceptional conversion rate.
To explore all that in more detail, let’s examine the eight most important deck archetypes in Infinity one by one, with the highest-placing representative deck list for each ink pairing.
Amber/Steel
Alex Kuik – Saturday main event champion
4 Akood et Emuti
4 And Then Along Came Zeus
4 Ariel – Ethereal Voice
1 Ariel – Sonic Warrior
4 Ariel – Spectacular Singer
4 Aurora – Holding Court
4 Beast – Tragic Hero
1 Beyond the Horizon
4 Cinderella – Ballroom Sensation
2 Cinderella – Stouthearted
4 Let the Storm Rage On
3 Namaari – Single–Minded Rival
4 Pete – Games Referee
4 Rapunzel – Gifted with Healing
4 Strength of a Raging Fire
3 The Bare Necessities
2 The Troubadour – Musical Narrator
4 Ursula – Vanessa
Steelsong deck is one of Infinity's most proven archetypes. Cinderella – Ballroom Sensation enables you to sing damage-based songs such as Let the Storm Rage On as early as turn two, allowing you to generate both ink advantage and card advantage in a single, elegant motion. Ariel – Spectacular Singer is the glue that holds the strategy together, acting as consistent card selection. With 20 Songs in the deck, Ariel finds one in the top four cards roughly 82% of the time, a level of consistency that gives the deck its smooth, almost musical flow.
The core strategy will feel immediately familiar to anyone who played Set 1–8 Core Constructed. Since then, however, several powerful additions have reshaped the archetype. The most important are Akood et Emuti and Ariel – Ethereal Voice. This new Song enables Ariel – Ethereal Voice to enter play as early as turn two, where she often becomes a steady engine that draws fresh cards turn after turn.
Amber/Steel began as the most popular archetype, representing 23% of the combined Day 1 field. Yet despite strong individual finishes—Alex Kuik winning Saturday’s main event and Jonathan Lam taking DLC Beijing with a similar Steelsong shell in the same weekend—the archetype’s overall performance in Dortmund was slightly below expectation. It fell to 22% of Day 2 and 13% of the combined Top 8. Even so, Amber/Steel remains a firmly established top-tier contender in Infinity, especially in a metagame where Amber/Emerald lists are increasingly trimming Snow Fort.
Amber/Emerald
Wiebe de Wit – Saturday main event Top 4
4 Aurora – Holding Court
4 Bobby Zimuruski – Spray Cheese Kid
2 Dale – Ready for His Shot
4 Elinor – Renowned Diplomat
1 Go Go Tomago – Darting Dynamo
4 Grandmother Willow – Ancient Advisor
4 Lady – Decisive Dog
2 Lady – Miss Park Avenue
4 Lilo – Escape Artist
1 Mickey Mouse – Expedition Leader
1 Mowgli – Man Cub
3 Mulan – Resourceful Recruit
4 Nala – Mischievous Cub
4 Nani – Stage Manager
4 Rapunzel – Gifted with Healing
4 Tramp – Enterprising Dog
4 Tramp – Street–Smart Dog
2 Under the Sea
4 Ursula – Deceiver
While a small number of Amber/Emerald players found success with discard-focused builds featuring Prince John – Greediest of All and You Have Forgotten Me, the vast majority gravitated towards the “Dogs” archetype. Its primary plan is deceptively simple: flood the board with cheap one- and two-cost glimmers, then power out an early Tramp – Street-Smart Dog to convert that wide board into card filtering and a towering glimmer, often discarding Lilo – Escape Artist for value along the way.
Many of the most successful lists, including Wiebe de Wit's, were inspired by a refined build featuring Aurora – Holding Court and Elinor – Renowned Diplomat, which had previously dominated an Infinity CCQ in Canada. Alongside Grandmother Willow – Ancient Advisor, the deck is well capable of developing three characters by turn two, followed by Elinor on turn three while immediately satisfying her condition of having three exerted characters in play.
Amber/Emerald began as 18% of the combined Day 1 field, and the deck overperformed with exceptional results. Its metagame share surged to 31% of Day 2 and an impressive 38% of the combined Top 8. While it fell short of claiming the trophy, it clearly emerged as the defining deck of the weekend, remaining as one of the strongest decks that the rest of the format must answer.
Ruby/Sapphire
Dillon Leduc – Friday main event finalist
1 Be Prepared
4 Belle – Apprentice Inventor
4 Fishbone Quill
1 Great Stone Dragon
4 Hidden Trap
4 Inkrunner
4 Liquidator – Iced Over
1 Lucky Dime
4 Maurice's Workshop
3 Oswald – The Lucky Rabbit
4 Pawpsicle
4 Sapphire Coil
4 Scrooge McDuck – Resourceful Miser
4 Sisu – Daring Visitor
4 Sisu – Empowered Sibling
4 Tamatoa – Happy as a Clam
2 Tamatoa – So Shiny!
4 Vitalisphere
Ruby/Sapphire is Infinity’s quintessential control strategy, less concerned with winning the game quickly but rather focused on assembling a sprawling card-advantage engine while systematically clearing opposing boards. In Dortmund, players were split between Item-heavy builds centered on Oswald – The Lucky Rabbit and Maurice's Workshop, and Action-oriented versions leveraging cards like Maui – Half-Shark and Olaf – Snowman of Action. In the end, however, the highest-performing lists were firmly rooted in the Item engine.
This deck uses Sapphire Coil to get reliable removal effects from Sisu – Daring Visitor and Sisu – Empowered Sibling, while the long-term plan is almost architectural in nature. Fishbone Quill accelerates ink development, which triggers Oswald – The Lucky Rabbit, which in turn fuels Maurice's Workshop. Left unchecked, this engine can snowball into absurd inevitability: drawing through most of the deck, assembling a board of 19 items and 17 ink, and ultimately earning 20 lore by playing Tamatoa – So Shiny! and Lucky Dime in the same turn.
All Ruby/Sapphire variants combined represented 18% of the Day 1 field and performed close to average. Their presence remained remarkably stable throughout the event, sitting at 21% of Day 2 and 19% of the combined Top 8.
Ruby/Amethyst
Luca Lazzara, 9-3 at Saturday main event
4 Be Prepared
4 Brawl
4 Chernabog's Followers – Creatures of Evil
2 Cheshire Cat – Inexplicable
4 Diablo – Obedient Raven
4 Elsa – The Fifth Spirit
3 Flynn Rider – Frenemy
4 Friends on the Other Side
1 Jebidiah Farnsworth – Cookie
2 Lady Tremaine – Imperious Queen
4 Madam Mim – Fox
3 Madam Mim – Snake
2 Magic Broom – Illuminary Keeper
3 Maui – Hero to All
3 Merlin – Crab
3 Merlin – Goat
3 Merlin – Rabbit
4 Scrooge McDuck – Ghostly Ebenezer
3 The Library – A Gift for Belle
Ruby Amethyst turns the act of banishing or bouncing its own glimmers into value. Cards like Diablo – Obedient Raven, Merlin – Goat and Merlin – Rabbit generate cards or lore when they leave play, while The Library – A Gift for Belle converts every banished character into an additional card draw. Together, they allow the deck to partially break the symmetry of Be Prepared.
Madam Mim – Snake and Madam Mim – Fox extend this engine further by repeatedly rebounding Merlin glimmers, and they’re become even more impressive with the addition of Scrooge McDuck – Ghostly Ebenezer. This slow-building boost threat can accumulate a wealth of cards, then be bounced by Madam Mim to effectively refill your hand. This substantially increases the deck's staying power.
Despite its enduring popularity, Ruby/Amethyst struggled in Dortmund. It accounted for 14% of the Day 1 field, dropped sharply to 5% on Day 2, and failed to place any players into the Top 32. The deck doesn't do anything unfair: It has no shift lines, no ink acceleration, no removal songs, and no characters that can be played for free. In a format defined by ink advantages and explosive engines, its fair game plan simply proved a step too slow to keep pace.
Emerald/Amethyst
Alessandro Danesi – DLC Dortmund Champion
2 Cri–Kee – Lucky Cricket
4 Diablo – Devoted Herald
4 Diablo – Maleficent's Spy
4 Diablo – Obedient Raven
4 Diablo – Spiteful Raven
4 Dumbo – Ninth Wonder of the Universe
4 Elsa – The Fifth Spirit
4 Friends on the Other Side
3 Genie – Wish Fulfilled
2 Madam Mim – Fox
2 Merlin – Crab
2 Peter Pan – Shadow Finder
4 Pull the Lever!
2 Snow Fort
2 So Be It!
2 Under the Sea
4 Ursula – Deceiver
3 We Don't Talk About Bruno
4 Wrong Lever!
Emerald/Amethyst is the ink pairing that ultimately carried Alessandro Danesi all the way to the trophy. Its central pillar is Diablo – Devoted Herald, a card that mirrors the opponent’s draws and, thanks to a full suite of Diablo variants, can be shifted into play as early as turn two with remarkable consistency. But unlike earlier iterations from the Set 1–8 Core Constructed era, this version is no longer solely dependent on Diablo as its primary card draw engine: Dumbo – Ninth Wonder of the Universe adds a second axis, turning every Evasive character into a source of fresh cards. Those cards, in turn, help control the board through efficient removal and well-timed challenges.
While many Emerald/Amethyst lists incorporated Prince John – Greediest of All and Sudden Chill, Danesi notably eschewed that discard package. In its place, he incorporated Snow Fort to protect Diablo – Devoted Herald from removal such as Let the Storm Rage On and Brawl, alongside So Be It! as a flexible action and Under the Sea as a devastating board reset. Danesi didn’t miss the discard package, and he told me that Dumbo was good enough.
Emerald/Amethyst began the weekend at 6% of the combined Day 1 field and performed well throughout. Its share rose to 8% on Day 2 before settling back to 6% in the combined Top 8. Yet despite modest metagame presence, the archetype ultimately claimed the highest prize of all, cementing itself as a premier and finely tuned contender in the Infinity format.
Emerald/Steel
Jamie Packham – Friday main event Top 4
4 Beast – Tragic Hero
2 Benja – Guardian of the Dragon Gem
4 Diablo – Devoted Herald
4 Diablo – Maleficent's Spy
4 Diablo – Stone Servant
4 Keep the Ancient Ways
4 Let the Storm Rage On
2 Lucifer – Cunning Cat
4 Pete – Games Referee
4 Prince John – Greediest of All
4 Strength of a Raging Fire
4 Sudden Chill
4 The Muses – Proclaimers of Heroes
4 Ursula – Deceiver
4 Ursula – Deceiver of All
4 We Don't Talk About Bruno
Emerald/Steel also leverages Diablo – Devoted Herald as a relentless card-advantage engine. Where it diverges from Emerald/Amethyst is in its heavier reliance on Steel’s removal Songs and Ursula – Deceiver of All. This enables explosive turns with doubled copies of Strength of a Raging Fire or Let the Storm Rage On, often dismantling opposing boards in a single swing. Diablo – Stone Servant is one of the most important additions from Wilds Unknown: it fills a gap in the curve, reliably contributes early lore, enables faster Diablo shifts, and even helps protect key Villains like Ursula from unfavorable trades.
The deck also leans into a disruptive resource-denial plan. Between discard effects and Prince John – Greediest of All, it can steadily erode the opponent’s hand while converting that disruption into card advantage. Jamie Packham’s list even has four copies of Keep the Ancient Ways as an additional lock-style element, shutting off key lines in specific matchups. All in all, with Prince John and Diablo punishing opposing Tramp – Street-Smart Dog, along with Let the Storm Rage On to remove Grandmother Willow – Ancient Advisor, Emerald/Steel is well-positioned against Amber/Emerald “Dogs,” especially when they are increasingly trimming Snow Fort.
Emerald/Steel began at just 3% of the combined Day 1 field but overperformed as the tournament progressed. It rose to 4% on Day 2 and surged to 19% of the combined Top 8. This suggests that the deck was well-positioned in Dortmund’s metagame.
Sapphire/Amethyst
Jacob Frank – Friday main event Top 8
3 Belle – Accomplished Mystic
4 Belle – Apprentice Inventor
4 Demona – Scourge of the Wyvern Clan
4 Dumbo – Ninth Wonder of the Universe
4 Elsa – The Fifth Spirit
4 Friends on the Other Side
3 Hades – Infernal Schemer
2 Isis Vanderchill – Ice Queen of St. Canard
3 Junior Woodchuck Guidebook
4 Merryweather – Feisty Fairy
4 Pawpsicle
4 Royal Guard – Octopus Soldier
4 Sail the Azurite Sea
3 Sven – Leaping Reindeer
4 Tamatoa – Happy as a Clam
4 Tipo – Growing Son
2 Wasabi – Methodical Engineer
Sapphire/Amethyst revolves around accelerating ahead on ink while setting up powerful midgame threats that quickly take over the board. Tipo – Growing Son and Sail The Azurite Sea are the engine pieces that make this possible, letting the deck ramp ahead of the curve. Merryweather – Feisty Fairy is a powerful play on turn three, especially against Amber/Steel, where her Ward ability can blank removal Songs. From there, Demona – Scourge of the Wyvern Clan provides a way to close the game.
While the shell may look familiar to Sapphire/Amethyst lists from Core Constructed, Infinity introduces several unique upgrades. Pawpsicle allows Belle – Apprentice Inventor to come down for free as early as turn one, while also stocking the discard pile for Tamatoa – Happy as a Clam later on. Belle herself can sing Friends on the Other Side and later shift into Belle – Accomplished Mystic, giving the deck a smooth progression from early setup to powerful midgame threats.
Sapphire/Amethyst started at 4% of the combined Day 1 field, and the deck’s performance was roughly around average. Its metagame share rose slightly to 5% on Day 2 and 6% of the combined Top 8, reflecting modest growth as the tournament progressed.
Emerald/Ruby
Marijn vanden Berghe, 8–4 at Saturday main event
1 Brawl
2 Chip – Quick Thinker
1 Cri–Kee – Lucky Cricket
4 Diablo – Devoted Herald
4 Diablo – Maleficent's Spy
2 Firefly Swarm
4 Gaetan Moliere – Clever Burrower
3 Hypnotize
2 Jebidiah Farnsworth – Cookie
2 John Silver – Alien Pirate
3 Lenny – Toy Binoculars
2 Lyle Tiberius Rourke – Adventurer for Hire
3 Olaf – Snowman of Action
3 Prince John – Greediest of All
1 Sisu – Empowered Sibling
4 Strike a Good Match
4 Sudden Chill
3 The Leviathan – Guardian of Atlantis
4 The Return of Hercules
4 Ursula – Deceiver
4 We Don’t Talk About Bruno
One of the most surprising developments of the tournament was the emergence of Emerald/Ruby, built around a dramatic two-card interaction that can swing games in a single explosive turn. The key sequence typically arrives on turn five. First, you need to ensure a card has been placed into your discard pile that turn, often through questing with Gaetan Moliere – Clever Burrower or by singing a Song. This leaves all your ink available to play The Return of Hercules, which enables you to play The Leviathan – Guardian of Atlantis for free. Your opponent can also choose to play a character for free, but that may not work out well for them.
Because The Return of Hercules has already been put into your discard pile as part of the setup, it counts toward the condition for The Leviathan’s effect. If at least one additional card was put into your discard earlier in the turn, you can then banish opposing characters with a total of 10 Strength or less, potentially including the one your opponent just played for free. This frequently clears the entire opposing board, especially against low-to-the-ground strategies like Amber/Emerald “Dogs.” The result is a massive swing that leaves the Emerald/Ruby player firmly ahead.
This flashy Emerald/Ruby strategy began at 2% of the combined Day 1 field, rose to 4% on Day 2, and ultimately failed to convert into the Top 8. Still, it earned plenty of attention on stream and delivered some of the weekend’s most memorable highlight turns. Marijn vanden Berghe came close to reaching the Top 32 with the deck shown above, and with further refinement, it may yet evolve into a serious contender in Infinity.
See You at the Next Disney Lorcana Challenge!
The weekend in Dortmund confirmed what many players had suspected going in: Amber/Emerald “Dogs” is a true top contender in Infinity. Yet in the end, it was Diablo – Devoted Herald and Under the Sea that helped define the tournament’s final chapter and ultimately carried the trophy home.
Across the field, Amber/Steel Songs, Ruby/Sapphire Items, Emerald/Amethyst Diablo, and a wide range of other archetypes all posted strong results, each finding their own moment in the spotlight. As the dust settles on Dortmund, the metagame is sure to continue evolving, with players refining lists, adapting tech choices, and searching for new edges in an increasingly intricate format.
Infinity will once again take center stage at the upcoming Disney Lorcana Challenge in Indianapolis on June 19–21 and at the upcoming Disney Lorcana Challenge in Manila on July 11–12. If Dortmund is any indication, the next chapter promises even more discovery, innovation, and high-stakes magical battles across the Grand Illuminary.
Until next time!
