Notes & Combos

DAY 1 MALISS <C> ANTI MALISS:

Stats: M5 to M1

• Total W/L: 23-6 (79%)
• Coinflip Rate: 11-18 (38%)
• Mirror Matches: 13 (45%)
• Times Lancea'd: 2 (+ 1 Chaos Hunter)

A BIG DISCLAIMER that this is probably not the optimal or ideal list in the long-run as the format stabilizes, but here are my early thoughts:

• Gamma definitely overperformed, even if I drew Driver a few too many times. Having an instant delete button for their opposing Maliss NS, extender, or even against handtraps on your own turn was a godsend.
• Lancea truly is the blowout of all time, singlehandedly solo-ing games going second vs the mirror, and singlehandedly instant-scooping vs my 1 Blue-Eyes and 1 Snake-Eyes matches. I think this slot can be replaced by Droll as Maliss usage slows down beyond the 1st week, but keeping 1 as a Crossout target might still be okay.
• Fuwalos underperformed in so many ways (even drawing into more copies feels terrible), but unfortunately it feels hard to cut the card since it forces turnskips in the best case, while leading to half-board compromises in the worst case.
• Engine ratios + Allure: 1x Allure was honestly for the vibes and helped me cut a third Chessy Cat, but it surprinsingly synergizes well with Gamma as people shotgunned Maxx C or Ash to the Allure. I am indeed playing TB-11, which felt sweet as a nice-to-have — less as a combo piece, more as a way to dodge Imperm and an extra search target. In future iterations/builds I may end up cutting this for another HT, but we'll see.
• Terahertz package was never used in any lines, as even in 1-card White Rabbit (TB-11 version), I preferred going for 2-material Apollousa + Firewall. I ended up cutting the 2nd target (Packbit) for Cerberus after getting owned by Chaos Hunter (which never came up again after).
• Linguriboh: In hands with a Dormouse starter plus any extender (ideally Hare), I recommend going for Linguriboh early to play around Impulse, as I got punished a few times for blindly going for the Decoder line. In general, I've been growing to value Ling a lot in the mirror, going so far to end on Ling + Firewall when I can. This is because on the opponent's turn, the Maliss traps signify a push + dodge, which gets neatly checked by Ling.

In general, this deck is beyond cracked and is a monster in so many different ways. Very excited to test different variants soon, including Millennium, Grass, and Striker to see how they feel + fare.