Sometimes a decklist comes along that makes you crook your head sideways and utter a muffled ‘hm’. Far more rare is it that such a deck manages to take Top 8 at the Reutlingen WCQ, but lists registering copies of Super Quantum Red Layer are still doing so in 2025. This list appears to be a pile at first, but if we peel back the layers and look at some of the plays made during the event, it becomes obvious that its pilot, Jens Kothe, had some absolutely excellent game sense in terms of what both Maliss & K9 needed in a meta full of Yummy Mitsurugi. Surprisingly, that actually was Super Quant, and if not for some bad beats in top cut there’d be reason to see this list as far as Top 4. With that said, let’s take a look at why this list works, how it plays, and what could have inspired the use of these oft-forgotten Power Rangers knockoffs. Presenting: Maliss Super Quant K9.
We’re going to start by assuming that you, dear reader, know the broad strokes of what K9 & Maliss each need to get their gameplans kickstarted. K9 is looking for a free Level 5, or Izuna, and Maliss wants some means of getting to Maliss White Binder. Shockingly, Blue & Red Layer each help to get the independent engines there, able to help either in their own unique way. The way the engine helps K9 should be obvious, with Red being a free Level 5 starter that can then net a +1 by adding back and resummoning another Quant. Blue is a bit more curious, but recall that every Maliss in the Main Deck is Level 3. This means that spare Blues can turn into Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss, sending a Maliss starter, and allowing you to make Haggard Lizardose, to banish it (thereby Special Summoning it). Couple that with the strength of Emergency Teleport as a non-once-per-turn Special from Deck, and you have a stew going.
Part of what makes Quant especially potent is its flexibility, however, and that arises from three new cards it received in the most recent set of support, Black Layer, Super Quantal Fairy Zetan, and (this is the real name) Layer 19: "Preventing the Invasion! The Pitch-Black Super Quantum!!". Good lord that name is a mouthful. Layer 19 allows you to grab another Super Quant from Deck, if you control one, and Black Layer searches it when sent. Zetan meanwhile is a free extender that can be either Level 3 or 5, and can cycle through to make sure you see all your names. Because Blue both searches and shuffles back, you can repeat this over and over, giving the deck a serious grind game! E-Tele for Blue is does some serious work, adding Zetan, Tributing it for Red by sending Layer 19, Red adding Layer, and Special Summoning Black from Deck. The sequencing on these lines is important, but you get to do so much with so little.
The thing I find worrying about Kothe’s list, however, is the application of both Mulcharmy Fuwalos and Dominus Impulse (and to a lesser extent, Izuna). Impulse locks you out of using Fuwalos, and Izuna, but due to the speed of the game all of them are necessary, and necessarily require proper sequencing, to play at the highest level. I don’t like seeing the opportunity costs of cards like Impulse ignored, and the fact that the Attributes on the entire Super Quant engine actually fit inside its restriction tells me that this list is more keen to play into the long game with Quant, than it is K9. That’s an interesting choice, and goes far to showcase how K9 has quickly fallen by the wayside as a deck in its own right, and become a hangers-on for other strategies, here Maliss and Quant. That being said, if a player like Kothe is willing to play Impulse with 3 copies of the EARTH Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion, I wonder if we may see some resurgence of cards like Artifact Lancea with a similar disregard for its limitation as a LIGHT monster.
Impulse seeing play in a deck with more than half of its reactive handtraps being EARTH or WIND is troubling, and if there’s a clearer canary in the coal mine than a list like this I’d like to see it. Still, given the top deck of the format is a blend of LIGHT Beasts and DARK Reptiles, we’re a ways away from it receiving any hit on the banlist.
The one area of this list I have a few quibbles with is the Extra Deck. There are cards here like TY-PHON and Vallon that seem closer to flex slots than actual choices, and especially in the case of TY-PHON, most games where it’s made are already losing positions. I would be interested to see data on the subject, but while TY-PHON always feels like it could buoy a losing duelist and let them see another turn, it is never enough to play through established boards without other breakers, and this list doesn’t strike me as the type to benefit from its inclusion. I’d have much rather seen an extra copy of White Binder or Red Ransom in its stead, to help kickstart the deck on turn 3 or 4.
Another facet of the deck I’m interested in is the inclusion of Maliss Traps, a full 3 of them across the Main & Side. Many Maliss players at the height of the deck’s popularity cut literally every Trap possible, outside of maybe a single Maliss TB-11, it’s a welcome return to form to see these powerful cards once again find a home in the strategy. I’ve always enjoyed how they allow you to play going second, which is no doubt why there’s a Maliss GWC-06 in the Side Deck, and playing all 3 names even turns on the secondary effect of Maliss in Underground, which while rarely on can allow you to push for lethal in a fairly solved gamestate. Maxing out on March Hare means they can be readily banished from the GY, and therefore set up this circumstance if you’ve used up the HOPTs on other cards.
Looking at the Side Deck, one inclusion speaks to the state of the format: Retaliating “C”. If you’re not facing exactly K9, this card is a reasonable alternative to the currently-limited Dimension Shifter, which was a key piece of Maliss’ rise when it was released. Against Yummy Mitsurugi, they have both Mitsurugi Ritual and Yummy☆Surprise, which trigger the condition for the bug to be Special Summoned on their turn. Once it’s on the field, they need to either rapidly get to Ame no Murakumo no Mitsurugi, and wipe your board, or lose their entire grind game. Meanwhile, you can just Link it away and not worry about it, on your turn. This is another piece of tech that doesn’t work with Impulse though, which seems to be a theme, and I do worry unskilled duelists will lock themselves out of options if they mis-sequence their non-engine pieces.
On the whole, this list rules, and the Super Quant package feels incredible beyond my wildest expectations. I don’t love every minor choice, from Impulse being a dangerous to play card and a few Extra Deck slots perhaps warranting a change, but the crux of the strategy is sound. Red for 5s, Blue for 3s, and each to help Linkspam and pivot between the deck’s 2.5 engines.
The fact the Malisses are Level 3 is most profound now that the strategy needs assistance to find all its names, but that’s honestly alright given the strength of Cherubini. I do actually prefer this version for the archetype as opposed to the version with Backup @Ignister, largely because that monster asks a bit too much of your capacity to start with a Cyberse Link play, especially with Splash Mage gone.
This metagame has felt better than most in recent memory, and that’s largely because the floodgates have been taken out back and shot, and the top deck is one you can not just topple, but have fun doing so. With Phantom Revenge releasing next month I’m curious as to how the format might shift, as people are expecting for only Hecahands Godos and the Kewl Tunes to shake anything up. Still, one thing looms on the horizon, with the upcoming release of Spenta, the Magistus Sealer. That card dooms us to another 6 months of combo, and while we don’t have any confirmed date, it wouldn’t surprise me to see it in 2026’s Maze of Muertos.
How have you been enjoying the current format? Are there any other sweet packages like Super Quant that you’ve been adding to some of the off-meta options? In articles like these, do you want more specific combo breakdowns, or broader analyses of the deck’s play patterns? Let me know in the comments below!
