At Your Disposal : Enkil Cog

Perhaps one of the strongest rares in the KOT expansion, Enkil Cog provides a very interesting angle for many decks to utilise, and many more tricks that can be quite interesting, or even deadly abusive to throw into a deck. This is one card to look out for in Vtes, as it will potentially interact with many cards to give you lots of surprises.

The Enkil Cog, once in play, acts like a mini Madness Network for one of your 10-cap (or higher) Vampire. And for those of us whom had been on the receiving end of Robin's Madness Network deck, we should know how deadly this means. Moreover, this card is free, gives a +1 bleed, and allows non-Malkavians to work like one in a Network. How very interesting.

This card will do many things when put with different deck strategies or arch-types. You can find many online tricks that deals with Enkil Cog now, mostly trying to abuse the card, creating multi-actions for the Vampire in question, and bypassing some restriction/problems that such fat Vampires tend to have.

Before the existence of Enkil Cog, fat Vampires of 10-cap and above, can technically enhance their worth of action with untapping techs (with Freak Drives, Forced March, or even Helicoptors), or offer extra actions by giving it to other Vampires, like what Alexandra does. This however, is pretty restrictive in 3 aspects - 1. The Vampire has to have the relevant discipline(s), usually FORTITUDE, which is why Freak Drives are so important; 2. The Vampire has to have the relevant special ability to work, and this is really rare, look at Masika or Alexandra, and tell me how many of such Vampires are around in the first place; 3. You probably have to have other Vampires to support this fat a Vampire, and they (normally) cannot be too big, which will restrict your discipline spread.

Besides that, even with the best draw, a Vampire can only do so many things in a single turn - 1 bleed action, 1 referendum etc etc, and you'll eventually run out of things to do, and you remain untap to prepare for the predator's attack. Not bad, but practically, it's actually essential, due to the heavy investment you put into this one big fat Vampire. And if the enemy doesn't attack, or you're unable to react or defend against the predator's attack or action, you've just wasted 1 Freak Drive, and 1 blood to power that Freak Drive. On the other hand, you have to be sure that you can take the damage or hold at least 1 wake card in hand.

Enkil Cog, at its lowest level, offers a partial solution.

Your Vampire now has more reasons to remain untap - you can bleed your prey after your prey has taken his action or before you take yours. You can now get 1 extra bleed action after you're sure that your predator is done with his minion phase and your Vampire is still untap. This is actually quite a big deal, given that most 10-cap and above Vampires have very good discipline spread and abilities, a single action at the right time where the target is least ready for it, can be devastating. It is also very possible for your Vampire to be tapped at the end of your turn, but using wake techs, becomes untapped along the way - such as a Black Sunrise, Eluding the Arms of Morpheus or even just wake, block, Majesty; and now if your Vampire happens to be untapped after your predator says "done", you can go do something nasty to your prey, hopefully penetrating or at least weakening his defense.

For example, you get a Vampire to attempt to burn your predator's Path of Lilith, he wakes his Enkidu and blocks you. You calculated this and managed to escape with a Majesty while Charismatic Aura an Immortal Grapple. Normally this would be the end of things unless a Psyche! is played. But now Enkidu can Earth Meld to untap, and then enter combat with you by tapping his Enkil Cog, or bleed you at a +1 Bleed. Or rather, he can just remain untap and force you to take into consideration what he can do to you now - forcing you to take a more defensive stance against him. The Enkidu doesn't even need to do anything. He could let you pass your turn and wait until he's sure that his predator is not doing anything stupid before he comes at you.

So, 2 bleeds, 2 enter combats, 2 referendums, 2 random actions (2 Sensory Deprivation...sounds scary). This function alone is deadly enough to take Enkil Cog seriously. Throw in a House of Sorrow and you have even more combinations of actions for your prey to ponder on. Psychologically this is a great tool for negotiation.

The basic way of utilising Enkil Cog is simple - Metro Underground, for example, allows you to untap a Vampire at the end of turn, consistently, at the cost of 1 pool. An even easier way will be Homunculus. Other less efficient methods such as Baseball Bat or Leather Armor are not really much of a point for the inclusion of this card. There are, however, 3 more rather interesting points that you can look at.

First, the actions that can be played by a tapped Vampire. Force of Will is a good example. A Vampire with Elemental Stoicism can play Force of Will every round and bleed for like, 4 or even more, without the necessity of any untap cards. This is highly efficient and very difficult to deal with. The online choice for this path is Nergal, but you can probably duplicate it with any Vampires that has the avenue to tackle Aggravated Damage and has FORTITUDE - like Spider-Killer.

Secondly, the defensive measures that you get, that is normally not available to you when you're acting on other Methuselah's turn - namely, Sudden Reversals and Direct Interventions. These kind of cards will go a long way in either keeping your Vampire alive (remove Rotschrecks or DI Entombments) or preventing your enemies from defending, like DI his bounces. This is quite deadly for power bleeders, and make it more difficult for your prey to plan his moves. You can also use the power of those out-of-turn cards such as Battle Frenzy if you fancy such little irritations to your opponents.

Lastly, there are interactions with Vampire's abilities or card abilities. There are probably countless permutations here to discuss - for example, Mistress Fanchion can Rutor's Hand after the predator has taken his turn and go torpor, and then coming out of torpor for free with Chantry - this is but a very simple (and easy to achieve since Mistress Fanchion has no problem getting the right cards) mechanics that Mistress Fanchion can exploit (Burst of Sunlight everytime you end your turn, and she hides in the Chantry, and then she can diablerize you immediately during her turn...). There is also Saulot's problem with Spirit Marionette, where he requires an untapped Vampire. Now Saulot can act during your target's turn when he untaps, forcing the target to decide there and then what he wants to do. Of course, simple abilities like Cock Robin's ability to untap after recruiting retainer is a no-brainer for Enkil Cog.

The potential of this card is boundless, but it does comes with a cost, its weaknesses are a problem to deal with.

First, it requires a 10-cap Vampire or higher. This practically dictates your crypt. And it is not easy to play fat Vampires.

Secondly, it requires a successful bleed in order to put into play, not always easy, depending on the Vampire you use.

Lastly, it is unique, so you probably will not have too many copies of it in your deck or it will dilute your card ratio, but anything more than one is technically a filler, so it is more inefficient as you put more and more of it into the deck.

This card is not invincible. Smear Campaign can get rid of it, so can the standard Direct Interventions. Moreover, after you slap an Enkil Cog on the table, your prey is usually going to either become quite offensive towards you, or play even more carefully. Generally that is not a very good thing.

Not to mention that it is a rare card and it is expensive. However, you could always just throw in a copy of Enkil Cog if you're playing with big fat Vampires that do intend to bleed once in a while during a game. It probably wouldn't hurt, even if played at the most basic form.

(o.o)y