Mana Alliance

**Highest Ranked**: Charlie (Winner/18)

The Mana Alliance (commonly referred to as the 'Mana Four') was an alliance from Survivor: New Zealand.

This alliance was created and run by a tight quartet, which included two pairs from the two original *New Zealand* tribes. They controlled much of the merge, but turned on each other when they realised four players couldn't make it to the Final Three.

## History

### Pre-Formation

The red Mana tribe was formed on Day 1 of *Survivor: New Zealand*, where Clay, Esther and Jessie were ostracised from the majority of the tribe because they were labelled as oddballs. This gave the other six castaways the majority on Mana, which included Evelyn, Godfrey, Hughie, Laura, Natalie and Ryan. After winning the first two immunity challenges as a tribe, Mana lost for the first time on Day 8. The majority of six were weighing up their options when considering which oddball to go after. Clay was considered a valuable physical asset because he ensured the tribe won two immunity challenges, but they were didn't think it was smart to keep him through a potential tribe switch or merge. At their first tribal council, the majority of six work together and Clay was voted out.

The alliances choice to cut Clay proved to be to their detriment because Mana lost the following immunity challenge. The majority was split between voting for either Esther or Jessie, not knowing that Jessie had just found the tribes Hidden Immunity Idol. Natalie was also considering flipping on the alliance and creating her own majority, but didn't think she had enough solid connections to led a group and make a move. Not wanting to make the same mistake as the previous vote, they decided to divert their attention to Esther who was physically weaker than Jessie. This led to Esther's elimination at tribal council.

### Origins on Mana

When the tribes switched at the Final Fourteen, Evelyn, Hughie and Ryan remained on Mana whilst being joined by Alex, Charlie, Jackson and Jayne from the rival Tapu tribe. It originally appeared that the Mana castaways would be picked off because they were at a numbers disadvantage. However, Charlie and Jayne from Tapu formed a close relationship with Hughie and Ryan after the group made fun of Evelyn's poor attempts at flirting with Alex. When Mana lost for the first time on Day 13, this new group of friends worked together in order to eliminate Evelyn. After losing their second challenge in a row, this new Mana Alliance had to decide whether they wanted to get rid of physical asset Alex or outsider Jackson. The alliance assumed there would be another round of challenges before the tribes merged and thought it was in their best interest to keep Alex so they wouldn't go to tribal council again. At tribal council, they brought in Alex to unanimously eliminate Jackson.

### The Strongest Four

To the surprise of the Mana Alliance, the two tribes merged at the Final Eleven. After saving him at the previous tribal council, Alex told the Mana Alliance that he would be undyingly loyal to them. The alliance increased from four to six when Hughie and Ryan also managed to bring in Laura, whom they were aligned with on the original Mana tribe. At the first merged tribal council, this alliance of six voted for Jessie but she played her Hidden Immunity Idol after being tipped off by someone within the Mana Alliance. The Minions Alliance were worried when two votes for Jayne appeared in the urn, but were overjoyed when Russell was named as the first member of the jury. The Mana Four weren't sure whether Alex or Laura told Jessie to play her idol and decided to distance themselves from both players. Due to the dynamics on the rest of the tribe, the Mana Alliance still had the numbers at tribal council and they eliminated Lateysha.

Alex and Laura spoke to the Mana Alliance once the tribe returned to camp and they decided to work together as a larger alliance. This left a trio of Natalie's Minions in the minority, where Natalie decided to throw her own allies under the bus to the Mana Alliance. At the next two tribal councils, the Mana Four worked with Alex, Laura and Natalie in order to eliminate Godfrey and Jessie on Days 24 and 27 respectively. With only seven castaways left in the game, the Mana Alliance had to turn on each other and decided that Natalie was the easiest vote. However, Hughie decided to play the voting advantage he won at the previous reward challenge in order to make a big move. The Core Four voted for Natalie, but Hughie developed his own split vote by voting for Ryan in case Natalie was in possession of an advantage or idol. This was unnecessary because Natalie had nothing and was eliminated.

### Four No More

There were three pairs within the Mana Alliance by the Final Six; Charlie/ Jayne, Hughie/ Ryan and Alex/ Laura. After Laura won individual immunity, the Mana Four put up a front and agreed they would be going after Alex. However, both pairs approached Alex and Laura with the idea of blindsiding the other pair. Alex and Laura felt like they had power for the first time ever in the game. They thought Hughie and Ryan were more volatile and would most likely turn on each other. The pair ultimately decided to vote with the boys to eliminate Jayne and break her perceived unbreakable relationship with Charlie.

When Laura won her second individual immunity challenge in a row, the remaining members of the Mana Four wanted to vote for Alex. However, Ryan was voted out with the only vote that counted when Alex played his idol. When Charlie won the final individual immunity challenge, she decided to bring Hughie to the Final Three as her Mana Four ally. The pair agreed that Laura's two immunity challenge wins was less impressive than Alex's idol play and charming social game. Alex was voted out and became the final member of the jury when Charlie, Hughie and Laura worked together on Day 38. At the Final Tribal Council, Charlie won the title of Sole Survivor for her under the radar social and strategic game.