If you’ve opened up Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel in the last couple of weeks, you’ll probably have noticed that the meta is in a very weird place. The release of Maliss has sent ripples through the game’s ranked mode, with just about every player from Gold rank and above is running the archetype.
Maliss is an oppressive archetype that has seemingly infinite extending capability and is very difficult to deal with. It makes extensive use of the graveyard and the banishment zone, and it’s able to recover from just about any game state, set up and dodge negates, and just about anything else you could imagine.
It’s not entirely infallible, though, and there are a few cards that can make your matchup against Maliss decks a little easier. It won’t be entirely easy, mind you, no matter how many of these cards you slot into your deck, but it gives you a fighting chance before your opponent gets the opportunity to snowball right into a victory.
In this guide we’ll go over the best counters for Maliss in Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel, as well as a few tips that might make dealing with the deck a little bit easier.
Artifact Lancea is a monster hand trap that, as a quick effect, prevents both you and your opponent from banishing cards until the end of the turn. It doesn’t have a cost other than the discard, and it doesn’t draw any cards so it can’t be Ashed, either, though it is still susceptible to Called by the Grave, as you’d expect.
Maliss relies heavily on banishing and unbanishing cards, so turning off that ability effectively shuts down the deck’s combos — for a single turn, at least. You’ll need to make the most of your next turn and either set up plenty of negates or just win the game after popping a Lancea, otherwise you’re just delaying the inevitable. Still, it’s by far the most accessible and flexible card to help combat Maliss.
Imperial Iron Wall prevents both players from banishing cards, too, but it’s a continuous trap card, meaning you’ll really only get the most out of it if you’re going first. Still, once it’s live it can be very effective at shutting down Maliss’ capabilities, provided your opponent doesn’t draw into spell or trap removal.
Soul Drain is the other side of the equation, as it’s a continuous trap that prevents banished monsters and monsters in the graveyard from activating their effects. This won’t prevent your Maliss-wielding opponent from banishing their cards for cost, so it’s less effective than some other options, but it can prevent them from coming back from banishment, which is usually an effect activated by the banished card itself. The cost for this card is 1000 life points, which is really not much in the grand scheme of things, but like Imperial Iron Wall it’s only as effective as your opponent’s lack of spell/trap removal.
Chaos Hunter is a risky choice that nonetheless can be worthwhile depending on your deck composition. It’s a monster that allows you to summon it after your opponent special summons a monster, something that Maliss decks do plenty of. Once the card is on the field, your opponent can’t banish cards, and Maliss decks aren’t typically in a position to attack over it once interrupted.
The risk here is that your opponent may have a Triple Tactics Talent in hand, which they can then use to steal your Chaos Hunter and then link it off to continue their combos unimpeded. It sometimes even puts them in a better position, as they don’t have to work so hard to get material on the field. It’s still worth considering, just be aware of the pitfalls and use it carefully.
In addition to the specific cards above, there are a few interactions and chokepoints in the Maliss combo that can be exploited with the usual gamut of hand traps. Maxx C, for example, can act as pressure to discourage your opponent doing their full combo right away, buying you time to get a few cards on the field, while Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring can interrupt some effects — it won’t stop a competent player with a good deck, but less experienced players can get tripped up.
Ghost Bell & Haunted Mansion is a great option even when matched up against experienced players, as it can effectively shut down Maliss’ powerful field spell, Maliss in Underground, upon activation, its most annoying trap card, Maliss C GWC-06, and one of its Link cards, Maliss Q White Binder. None of this will fully shut down the combo, but they make extending it much more difficult.
Nibiru, the Primal Being, is worth running too, if you can pop it upon the resolving of Maliss Q Red Ransom’s revival effect. Again, this won’t shut it down entirely, and you’ll want to make sure they’re not running any traps that can just start up the combo again, but it’s a good option nonetheless, and one you should be playing anyway.
Maliss decks are almost always paired up with a package of Cyberse-type monsters and associated spell/trap cards, so manipulating or restricting Cyberse monsters can be a very good option for slowing down a full-power deck. Clockwork Night is a great choice if you don’t care too much about your own monsters being switched to Machine types, especially since it’s a continuous spell card that can be played without setting up first, while DNA Surgery does the same – albeit a bit more slowly, as it’s a trap – if your deck is sensitive to typing, since you can force a type that’s beneficial to you while shutting out your opponent’s Cyberse typing.
There Can Be Only One is another very powerful option if your deck is flexible enough to allow it, as it prevents the summoning of more than one monster of a single type. Since the entire Maliss monster slate are Cyberse monsters, this can prevent your opponent from building up material for Link summoning, drastically limiting its ability to extend and build up a board.
Of course, there is one other option for combatting Maliss… make a Maliss deck of your own. It’s a very expensive deck, with almost every important card in the deck being of UR rarity, but there’s no arguing that it’s the most powerful deck in Master Duel, and it will likely stay that way for quite some time. A new ban list is likely coming soon, but there’s no guarantee that it’ll hit Maliss, and even if it does there’s no guarantee it’ll impact the deck too much.
So why not enjoy the most powerful deck in years in the meantime? Mirror matches in Maliss are exciting and energetic, asking you to flex your piloting muscles and play mental games with your opponent. Maliss gives you a host of options for interaction, on your own turn and your opponent’s, and it’s very capable of going both first and second, which can’t be said of most decks.
It’s probably going to be a while before we see real competition for Maliss — Ryzeal and Live/Evil Twins both have some incredible support coming that put them both much higher up in the tier list, but it’ll likely be a few months before their Alliance Insight cards make their way into Master Duel.
