In an ideal cryptographic scheme, decryption should be linear if you have

the key, and 2^k (where k is the number of bits in the key) if you dont.
A quantum computer is wildly different from an ordinary one and its
barely possible to use it for Tetris, but it performs much better in
probability-related or optimization-related task solving. The list of tasks,
which might be dramatically sped up using quantum computing, is quite
long: logistic optimizations, DNA sequencing, stock market predictions and
cryptographic keys brute-forcing.
It is worth mentioning that everything in the quantum world is
complicated and it takes much effort to read an answer given by a
quantum computer. However, each task runs several times, and it doesnt
take too long. Therefore, its possible to obtain a final answer (read:
encryption key) by comparing results of these runs.
Quantum computers work because they can have multiple internal states
at the same time, through a quantum phenomenon called superposition.
That means that they can attack different parts of a problem
simultaneously, split across possible versions of the universe. They can
also be configured such that the branches that solve the problem wind up
with the most amplitude, so that when you open the box on Schrodingers
cat, the version of the internal state that youre most likely to be
presented with is a smug-looking cat holding a decrypted message.