[strategy] Crocodile's Tongue
by dasein2600@hotmail.com (Dasein)


Crocodile's Tongue is an action modifier in the Gehenna set. I think it
is one of the best cards in the whole expansion. Here is what it does:
 
Crocodile's Tongue [Gehenna:C]
Cardtype:  Action Modifier
 
Discipline:  Auspex
 
[aus] Only usable when an ally or a younger vampire attempts to block.
That block is canceled (the minion is not tapped). The blocking
minion's controller cannot attempt to block this action again. The
blocking minion can cancel this card by burning a blood or life.
[AUS] As above, but canceling this card requires an additional blood
or a life.
 
So basically this card lets you burn a blood off an ally or younger
vamp if they try and block, or two blood at superior. If they won't
(or can't!) burn the blood, then not only can that minion not block,
but none of the methuselah's other minions can attempt to block; the
action basically becomes unblockable.
 
Is this card really that good? I think it is. The only significant
weakness of the card is the 'younger vampire' restriction. This
basically means that to really use this card you'll need at least
mid-caps in your crypt, preferably with a few fatties, and some skill
cards certainly aren't going to go astray. Lots of people play smaller
vampires anyway, so an 8 or 9 cap vampire with a skill card should be
able to use Croc Tongue on most or all vamps on a given table, unless
there are some unusually fattie-based decks there.
 
But why would you want to do it anyway? Well it has really two
purposes:
1) To strip blood off a vampire before it blocks
2) To make an action unblockable by playing it on a vampire who can't
burn the blood to continue blocking.
I'll go through these in order.
 
Each of these is very useful. I will be assuming for the rest of this
guide that you are using this card at superior; if you're playing
larger vampires, superior Auspex shouldn't be too hard to come by, or
your vamp might have inferior but you put an Auspex card on him to
give him superior and increase his cap by one, which increases the
vamps you can use this against. I'll also assume you're using it
against vampires; allies are obviously completely boned by this card,
since they rarely have much life to burn (they'll be lucky if they
have any left after burning two) and they can always be affected by
it. (Hmm, Ambrosius isn't quite the blocker he once was with this card
around, eh?).
 
Anyway, onto the uses of the card. Well if you don't want people to
block you, threatening to burn two blood off a blocker is a good way
to discourage it. The blocking minion will be losing two *before* they
get into combat, and that's basically unpreventable; how many cards do
you know that can trash two blood off a minion for no cost and can't
be avoided (except by declining to block with anyone)? Now if they do
want to keep blocking, you'll want to be able to hold your own in
combat, and take some more blood off the bastard. What clans are we
looking at here? Clans with Auspex are: Malkavian, !Malkavian,
Tremere, !Tremere, Toreador, !Toreador, Tzimisce, !Ventrue (not
including whacky bloodlines, of whom I have little knowledge).
Malkavian and !Malkavian aren't really known for their combat
nastiness; their most threatening combat card is probably Coma, but
that is much better used in a combat where you're blocking not acting,
because as acting minion you strike first, and if you burn 3 for a
Coma and they S:CE (or even more humiliating, S:Dodge), you've come
out worse than he has. So Malks and !Malks aren't much going to want
to be blocked (though I'll have more to say on them later). All other
clans can do well in combat though, especially Tzimisce, Tremere and
!Tremere. Tzimisce have a wide variety of horrors (many of them
aggravated) to throw at guys in a fight, and have access to a lot of
intercept and untap (cat's guidance for example), which is great for
stopping hunts and beating down on hapless thirsty vampires. The
Tremere and !Tremere in combat can steal more blood off the hapless
blocker with Thefts. The !Ventrue have fortitude to prevent damage,
and Toreador and !Toreador are known for their gun-wielding multiple
strikes.
 
Another much crueller option however is to play a Change of Target
after they've burnt the blood for the Croc Tongue; you get to untap,
the block is cancelled, and they've lost two blood for nothing.
Attempt another action, and see how keen they are to block this time!
Keep this up and you'll soon run your opponent out of blood, at which
point your CrocTongue-backed actions are unblockable. You can also
play nastier cards after they've burnt the two blood, such as Kiss of
Ra; at inferior it makes them burn ANOTHER two blood, and no combat
occurs; at superior it takes the two off them AND sends them to
torpor. So you've spent three blood, but they've lost four and gone to
torpor, completely unavoidable. Sounds like a good deal to me! This is
a feasible strategy for !Ventrue, since they have both Auspex and
Fortitude (and Dominate, to play actions people will often want to
block, like Govern the Unaligned). This puts your opponent in a
'damned if they do, damned if they don't' position.
 
The other main use of Croc Tongue is to make actions unblockable by
putting your target methuselah in a position where he cannot block the
action due to his inability to cancel the Croc Tongue. How is this
done? Well one card that immediately comes to mind is Seduction; at
inferior, it lets you declare a younger vampire that cannot block the
action, and at superior, it lets you declare any vampire. As I
discussed earlier, Croc Tongue is only effective against younger
vampires in the first place, so you don't really have to worry about
having superior dominate, inferior will do. Your elderly vamp may have
superior dominate anyway, especially if you are playing Tremere,
!Tremere, or !Ventrue. You can now 'weed out' potential blockers that
have two or more blood on them, forcing a block attempt by a thirsty
vampire who'll run at the first sight of your Gene Simmons-esque
tongue. For example, say your prey has a couple of six cap vamps, one
on full blood and one on only one blood (not an unrealistic scenario).
You make some unpleasant action with a 7-cap vampire (like say a
govern at inferior), and modify the action with a Seduction, naming
the full six cap as the one that cannot block. The other guy tries to
block, you play Croc Tongue, no more blocking for you. This is only a
two card combo (not including the action, which could be cardless such
as a basic bleed, diablerie, etc) that costs no blood and makes an
action unblockable, irregardless of intercept. !Tremere are actually
perfect for this strategy, because they are the best blood-stealers in
the game; between Cryptic Missions, Terrell Harding and a Succubus,
you can strip the blood of your prey's (or predator's) minions,
leaving them weak and starving, then use Croc Tongue to make your
actions unblockable. Chuck in a couple of Masquerade Endangereds
and/or intercept cards to prevent hunts (can't have those guys getting
back up to two blood!), and you're laughing. You could have a few
small !Tremere burning blood with Cryptics (no age requirement on that
card, and you don't even need it at superior to take off the blood)
and a big vamp or two to force through damaging actions like Governs,
backed up by Seduction where necessary.
 
While we're talking about thaumaturgy, another card that comes to mind
that combos well with Croc Tongue is Loose Cannon. This is an action
modifier that is played only when declaring an action, that costs a
blood (doh) and requires an anarch (double doh). But it's thaumaturgy
effect is fantastic: if the action is blocked, you get to move two
blood from a non-blocking vamp controlled by that methuselah to your
guy. So if you have an anarch with thaumaturgy, you can declare an
action, play the loose cannon; if someone blocks, first you steal two
blood from a non-blocker, then you can play Croc Tongue; the blocker
now has to burn two blood or give up and go home. If they still want
to stick around, you can play Change of Target to really rub salt into
the wounds, or start fighting and unleash thaumaturgy combat madness.
And !Tremere are one of the best clans to go anarchs with; why?
Diversion (probably the best anarch combat card) gives thaumaturgy a
1-blood theft of vitae WITH a manuever at inferior (!!), and Ian
"All-Star" Forestal is probably the best vamp in the game to become an
anarch (because he effectively has every discipline in the game at
inferior, just imagine all those anarch cards he can use, go crazy
Ian!!).
 
Some people are wondering why I haven't discussed Malk and !Malk as a
clan to use this card. You're probably thinking "well it's obvious,
this card would rock with them, you perform an action, they try and
block, you play Croc Tongue, they burn the blood, then you add stealth
to your action via obfuscate". This sounds all fine and good, but the
problem with that strategy is that this could quickly lead to hand
jam. People are sometimes pretty unenthusiastic about blocking
Malks/!Malks at the best of times, because usually the action just
gets stealthed through and all you've done is helped them cycle cards.
The first time you play a Croc Tongue and then stealth through they'll
be doubly unenthusiastic about blocking, and may not attempt to do so
again. This could put you in an uncomfortable situation of not only
stealth jam but croc jam; having four faceless nights and three croc
tongues in your hand when nobody will come near your vamps obviously
isn't fun. However, one whacky deck idea that could work is the Croc
Tongue / Sleep of Reason deck. If you can somehow convince your
prey/predator to block your actions (by making actions they REALLY
don't want to be successful), you can drain blood off them with Croc
Tongue, CoT, and then start putting them to sleep. Sleep of Reason is
a DEM action that costs 2 blood and at inferior sends a younger vamp
with less than 2 blood to torpor, and at sup they don't have to be
younger (but they need to be younger to be tongued anyway). Of course,
the Sleep is the action you've been saving up your stealth for. And
I've heard that vampires in torpor aren't much good at blocking...
 
Toreador power bleed is another deck idea this could work; slap Aching
Beauty on a vamp with +1 bleed, and send them in with a Social Charm.
If blocked, play Croc Tongue and then Change of Target. See how keen
they are to block next time. Bleed bounce will obviously be a problem
for this deck idea, but Change of Target is great for that as well;
you're not at stealth, so just talk your grandprey into blocking;
he'll lose a pool from the beauty (if you've put one out), but better
than losing three or tapping a blocker before his predator's turn, and
you get to untap. Also, you could try and get some Auspex weenies to
play Revelations at inferior to strip the bounce from your prey's hand
before the big bleed/tongue/CoT madness begins.
 
So the viable decks I envisage that make strong use of Crocodile
Tongue are:
!Ventrue big dom bleed with tongue and kiss of ra to crush hapless blockers
!Tremere cryptic mission / dom bleed / croc tongue
!Tremere anarch madness with Ian Forestal going nuts with loose cannon and diversion
Malk/!Malk Sleep of Reason with tongues to put vamps low on blood
Toreador big bleed with aching beauty and change of target
 
The final aspects of this card I will discuss is how many to put in a
deck, and its possible use as a bluffing card. For decks reliant on
the card (those described above), I would say 9 or 10 is a good number
to have in a deck; this will give you a good number (given decent card
flow), without much chance of glut or hand jam. A deck that finds them
useful (variants of any of the decks listed above) could run with 5 to
8. But I think just about any deck with Auspex and large vampires
should have one or two; why? Because if you play one the first or
second time your prey blocks you, they will probably assume you have
quite a few of them in your deck, and be reluctant to block again,
knowing it could start costing them a great deal. Your prey could
decide to not block any of your actions and to move forward ASAP,
trying to bleed out their prey before you bleed out them. That of
course could be a good or bad thing depending on a lot of factors, but
is definitely something to keep in mind. It could also be a factor in
convincing those annoying Eagle's Sight people away from their
meddling cross-table interferences.
 
Anyway that's the end of this article. I hope people found it useful
and got them thinking about the many uses for this great card. I will
work on a deck based on the !Tremere Cryptic Mission / Crocodile
Tongue / blood steal&burn idea, and post it to the group in a week or
two for criticism.
 
cheers

Dasein