Maliss is one of the top decks in theYu-Gi-Oh!metagame. It has appeared in the top cut of many regionals and YCS tournaments, and for good reason. The deck is very powerful, and thanks to the low number of needed cards, it can have a very versatile main deck that can respond to anything your opponent does.
The Maliss archetype is based on the series Alice in Wonderland but with a cyber twist. It’s a unique take on an archetype. Maliss is a link-summoning archetype through and through, so if you love the link mechanic and shutting down anything your opponent does, Maliss is the perfect deck for you.
Terraforming x1
Metaltronus x3
Allure of Darkness x1
Harpie’s Feather Duster x1
Mulcharmy Meowls x1
The Side Deck is just a sample one. If you expect a certain meta, you’re able to adjust it as needed to accommodate it. This Side Deck was created with tournaments in mind, but not local events which may have different decks. It acts as a great base to start with though.
The Maliss engine is incredibly small, allowing youto play a ton of hand traps and other generic enginesto make a formidable deck. This particular decklist uses aBystial engine, which is the most popular engine to use with Maliss (but others such as Sky Strikers have been used in the past).
Key Cards
Maliss P Dormouse
Maliss P. Dormouseis your primary play starter. Banishing a Maliss monster is essentially the same as special summoning it, asall Maliss cards share an effect that lets them special summon themselves if banished.
Maliss P. Dormouse is the cardyou want to be spending your normal summon on if possible. A strength of Maliss is most of the cards can special summon themselves in some way, so even if your normal summon gets negated, you can still get monsters on the battlefield.
Maliss P. Dormouse’s effect isnot an on-summon effectand can be activated any time you want during your main phase. This helps to play around with effects that can negate a summon, as you never used the effect and can try again with a different copy of Dormouse.
Maliss P White Rabbit
The second-best main deck monster,Maliss P White Rabbitis generallywhat you banish off of Dormouse’s effect. White Rabbit generally ends your first banishing chain bysetting a Maliss Trap card from your deck directly.
You have three different options for Trap cards. They can eitherrevive a Maliss monster, interrupt your opponent by banishing a card they control, or get another Maliss monster into your hand.All Maliss Trap cards have an activation requirement of banishing a Maliss monster, and since they can special summon themselves upon banishing, they give you natural combo extenders.
Maliss In Underground
Maliss in Undergroundis the Maliss archetype’s field spell. Its effect is simple, banishing a Maliss card from anywhere. This essentiallygives you a free special summon of any Maliss monster upon activation.
Its passive effect is decent, although, it isn’t often you’ll be banishing your Maliss Trap cards as yougenerally want to banish your monsters instead. Itis a great way to easily close out a game, as a 3000 ATK boost is nothing to scoff at.
The banish effect only triggerson activation. That means unless you have another copy available, you won’t be able to activate that effect again.
Maliss Q Hearts Crypter
The best of the Maliss link monsters,Maliss Q Hearts Crypteris what you often want to link climb into. It’s one of the fewnatural interruption cards in the archetype, and trivial to make. It doesrequire exactly three monsters (and at least one Maliss monster) to create,no more, no less. So you can’t link into it with just one monster and a link-2 monster.
Youwant to make sure it’s always pointing to a monster, as that makes Maliss Q Hearts Crypter impossible to negate. Its special summon from banish effect is great, as itbecomes a 5000 ATKmonster, and combined withMaliss in Underground, becomes 8000 to bring an opponent’s life points to zero with just one attack.
Bystial Engine
TheBystial Engineis vital for extending your combo lines. After you link away your Maliss monsters, they get stuck in the graveyard. This is where the Bystials come in.All Bystials can special summon themselves by banishing a Light or Dark monster in either graveyard, andall Maliss monsters are Dark monsters.
This gets you aBystial on the battlefield and a Maliss monster banished which can then special summon themselves. With how easy this makes it to flood the battlefield with monsters, youcan link summon into anything you want. This allowsyou to play a big toolbox of Link monstersin your Extra Deck, as you’ll always be able to go into them for great monsters going first or second.
How To Play The Deck
A Maliss deck isall about getting monsters down andcreating a ton of Link monsters. Thanks to how easily you can recycle your monsters after using them as link material, you can keep the pressure up and make multiple boss monsters in just one turn.
Malisswants to go first, as you can set up a lot of interruptions to shut down anything your opponent might do, some of which cannot be responded to such asMaliss Q Hearts Crypter. Other Link monsters you want on the battlefield includeFirewall DragonandA Bao A Qu, The Lightless Shadowwhich can cut off your opponent from the combo, stopping their turn entirely.
Even if you’re going second, since Maliss doesn’t need to commit to a normal summon, you can play through a lot of disruption. If you’re going second,Accesscode Talkeris the link monster you want to make as it cantake care of a lot of your opponent’s cards.
Thanks to how small the monster package is,you can play a ton of hand traps for even moreinterruptions. You’ll haveAsh Blossom & Joyous Springsto stop a ton of combo starters and extenders, along withEffect Veilerto cut off a powerful effect. If you’re going second,Mulcharmy Fuwaloscan draw you a ton of cards, letting you get as many cards as possible into your hand to break your opponent’s board.
The general flow of Maliss is summoningMaliss P Dormouse,banishingWhite Rabbitand special summoning it,setting a Trap card,and then link those cards away. Afterward, you can useBystials to banish your Maliss cards in your graveyard to special summon them again.You can keep linking up until you have a formidable battlefield of Link monsters to stop anything your opponent tries to do.
