Deck Archetypes: Cybelotron

"Cybelotron" is quite a new decktype in VtES which emerged during this year's tournament scene, although the earliest incarnation was created/played successfully by Erik Torstensen in 2005. In "Magic the Gathering" terminology this a combo deck, it mixes a "Call the Great Beast" deck with components of a "Turbo" deck in a new way. Johannes Walch & Ben Peal finally brought it into its current, streamlined version. Ben's elaborate explanation, that came with the deck, of the deck's inner workings greatly eased up writing this article.

How to win with them
The core of the deck are the vampire "Cybele", the Daimonium card "Call the Great Beast" (or other cards that actually burn the vampire like "Antediluvian Awakening") and the "Soul Gem of Etrius". Basically the deck works like this (after "Cybele" has been influenced out):

1. Put a skill card on "Cybele" to increase her capacity by one (which skill one doesn't really matter). If you have a "Minion Tap" on your hand, you can move some of the blood (4-5) from "Cybele" to your pool, since she's gone anyhow in the next minion phase.
2. "Cybele" uses "Magic of the Smith" to equip with the "Soul Gem of Etrius".
3. Use "Truth of a Thousand Lies" (instead of "Freak Drive" as in the "Turbo" decks).
4. "Cybele" plays "Call the Great Beast", burns and the effect of the "Soul Gem" triggers influencing out a new "Cybele".

The second difference to a "Turbo" deck (other than the "Freak Drive" usuage) is that the burn-reincarnate cycle ends here and cannot be repeated the same turn, since "Cybele" cannot increase her capacity during the minion phase. The "Great Beast" gets superior Obfuscate and Serpentis plus a third discipline (depending on the actual deck flavour) as it's disciplines, so it can use all/most of discipline-requiring cards of the deck.

Nonethless after the cycle - which gained a second vampire and possibly approx. 4 pool with the "Minion Tap" - the deck then bleeds with both vampires, both at +2 bleed and considerable stealth if necessary. If there are more "Truth of a 1k Lies" available, they can also be used a +2 bleed modifiers, of course.

The next turn on the "Great Beast" a "Minion Tap" is played (gaining 5-8 pool), if the burn-reincarnate cycle cannot be repeated, otherwise a "Golconda" can be played on him (gaining 10 pool). In the next master phase the second master phase action should always be a new skill card on "Cybele" in order to be able to trigger the "Soul Gem" effect again in that turn. Take note that "Golconda" does not actually trigger the "Soul Gem" effect because "Golconda" does not burn the vampire, instead it removes the vampire from the game.

In this situation, where "Cybele" already has the "Soul Gem", she can bleed before untapping with the "Truth of 1k Lies" and then playing a new "Great Beast". In a turn this gives the deck a potential bleed for 9 (3+3+3), if the base bleed modifiers are used only, or up to 13 (3+5+5) if "Truth of 1k Lies" are used as bleed modifiers, too. Remember, "Truth of 1k Lies" can the only be played once during a turn, either as the bleed modifier or the untap effect. The good thing is with the "Soul Gem" you're kind of immune against "Archon Investigation", since if "Cybele" is burned by the Archon Investigation, she reincarntes via the "Soul Gem". Some variations use other bleed modifier cards like "Sense the Sin" or "True Love's Faith" in addition to "Truth of 1k Lies".

"Antediluvian Awakening" can be used to lower the pool size of each player, and - if no other player burns a vampire for the "Antediluvian Awakening", it can be used as burn effect for "Cybele" similar to the "Great Beast's" burn effect.

Bleed & Vote defense
Since the deck is a (more or less) pure combo deck, it neglects any direct defensive option, instead choosing to generate pool by playing "Golconda" and "Minion Tap"; in desperate situation it may even choose to rush an opposing minion with the "Great Beast" and hit him with a "Conflagration" or the +2 strength of the "Great Beast".

Combat defense
There's virtually no combat defense at all, but since the vampires are expendable/replacable (by "Golconda" at best, "Antediluvian Awakening" at worst) this is not as worse as it sounds.

How to win against them
The combo can broken by playing a "Sudden Reversal" on the skill card or a "Direct Intervention" against the "Truth of 1k Lies". Intercepting is hard, since except for the bleed actions, all other actions of the deck start at +1 stealth, and the deck has considerable stealth (Obfuscate) cards to offer.

One of the weak points of the deck are the two "Soul Gems" the deck has. If both of them are destroyed (or even better stolen), the deck has a serious problem. So stealing the card with a vampire's special ability or destroying it with "Canine Horde" works wonders. Unfortunately you cannot take the "Soul Gem" when one of your vampires diablerize its bearer (i.e. "Cybele") according to the "Soul Gem's" card text.

If you can generate enough pool damage faster as the "Cybelotron" predator's deck gains pool (especially in the first few turns), it's not too hard to oust the deck, since the deck has no defense other than pool gain. So instead of playing a "Sudden Reversal" or "Wash" against Master discipline card, you can also choose to play it against the pool gaining cards like "Minion Tap" or "Golconda".

Key Cards

• Cybele -- theoretically it could be any other 10+ capacity vampire who could play this role, but her specials (especially the extra master phase action), make her stand out.
• Great Beast -- not only used for bringing out a new vampire, it also triggers the "Soul Gem's" effect by burning "Cybele" after she has called the "Great Beast".
  
• Golconda: Inner Peace -- massive pool gain, and even required to bring out a new "Great Beast" (since the Beast is unique).
• Soul Gem of Etrius -- as in most "Turbo" (or similar decks), the motor that keeps the deck going forward.

Notable Examples & Variations
Since this is actually a variation of the "Turbo" & "Great Beast" decks, there are few variations to this, but the deck made it to three appearances in Lasombra's Tournament Winning Deck Archive (and making it to the finals in the Dutch ECQ 2007):

• "Cybelotron" by Andrew Kashpar (2007) -- adds "Nergal" as a vampire, and Obeah as its third discipline for the "Great Beast".
  
• "Cybelotron" by Ben Peal (2007) -- version with streamlined the library and made focus on the "core" business of the deck.
  
• "Cybelotron" by Johannes Walch (2007) -- this version introduced the mono-"Cybele"-crypt, making it more similar to a "Turbo" deck.
  
• "Summon the Serpent" by Erik Torstensen (2005) -- the original deck design but without the mono-"Cybele"-crypt, instead bringing new "Followers of Set" into play similar to a "Turbo Baron" deck.
  

Decklist

Origins 2007
Columbus, Ohio
July 8th, 2007
Sunday 11AM
2R+F
21 players

Deck Name: Cybelotron
Created By: Ben Peal

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 40, Max: 40, Avg: 10)
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12 Cybele ANI DAI OBF PRE SER THA 10 Baali

Library: (90 cards)
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Master (28 cards)
1 Antediluvian Awakening
2 Auspex
1 Barrens, The
2 Celerity
1 Direct Intervention
1 Dominate
4 Dreams of the Sphinx
2 Fortitude
1 Fortschritt Library
1 Giant`s Blood
4 Golconda: Inner Peace
4 Minion Tap
2 Parthenon, The
2 Redeem the Lost Soul

Action (19 cards)
8 Call the Great Beast
3 Entrancement
8 Magic of the Smith

Action Modifier (31 cards)
4 Cloak the Gathering
5 Elder Impersonation
4 Faceless Night
5 Lost in Crowds
2 Spying Mission
11 Truth of a Thousand Lies

Combat (3 cards)
3 Majesty

Ally (1 cards)
1 Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Equipment (2 cards)
2 Soul Gem of Etrius

Event (1 cards)
1 Anthelios, the Red Star

Combo (5 cards)
5 Swallowed by the Night