Mantis Tribe

## Overview

*The Mantis Tribe is a group of proud warriors. Led by the four Mantis Lords,  they swarm their opponents from all directions and issue challenges to those they think are worthy.*

The Mantis Tribe tries to win bases on other players' turns and are well-equipped to do so. They will swarm onto one base on their turn, then when it breaks on others' turns they will swarm off it onto somewhere else.

### Details

#### General

* Name: Mantis Tribe
* Author: Berryl
* Complexity: 4/5
* Version: 1.3
* Last updated: May 2, 2023

#### Special details

Featured in the Hollow Knight custom expansion

### Breakdown

Mantis Tribe has 12 minions and 8 actions, more minions than standard. They have a total minion power of 29, or an average of about 2.4 per minion. Among their actions, there are:

* 3 play-on-minion actions: 2x Mark of Pride, Mantis Claw
* 3 play-on-base actions: 2x Throne Room, Challenge
* 2 standard actions, 1 of which directly affects one or more minions (in **bold**): **Pincer Attack,** Stockpile

### Minions

* **1x Traitor Lord (4):** Special: Before a base scores on another player’s turn, play this minion on a base where you have a minion. You may destroy a minion of printed power 3 or less and transfer any number of power counters on it to this minion.
* **3x Mantis Lord (3):** Talent: If you have another minion here, choose an effect that has not been chosen with the Mantis Lord talent yet this turn:
	+ Reduce the breakpoint of another base by 3 until the start of your turn.
	+ Place a +1 power counter on each of your other minions here.
	+ Move another of your minions to or from here.
* **4x Mantis Warrior (2):** Ongoing: After you play another minion of printed power 2 or less here, you may place a +1 power counter on it.
* **4x Mantis Petra (2):** Special: Before this base scores, you may either draw a card OR if it is another player’s turn, move this minion to another base.

### Actions

* **2x Mark of Pride:** Play an extra minion of power 3 or less on a base where you have a minion, then play this action on it. Ongoing: At the start of each other player’s turn, reduce this base’s breakpoint by your number of minions here until the end of the turn.
* **2x Throne Room:** Play on a base. Talent: Play an extra minion of power 2 or less here. Special: Before this base scores, you may use this card’s talent.
* **1x Mantis Claw:** Play on one of your minions. Talent: Move this minion to another base. Give it -2 power until the end of the turn.
* **1x Challenge:** Play on a base. Ongoing: This base’s starting breakpoint is 0. During your turn, this base cannot score.
* **1x Pincer Attack:** Special: Before a base scores, destroy a minion there with power less than or equal to your number of minions there.
* **1x Stockpile:** Choose a base. Draw a card for each of your minions there.

## Clarifications

* **Mark of Pride:** You cannot play this on a minion already in play.
* **Challenge:** For abilities that relate to a base's breakpoint, the breakpoint of the base this card is played on is still 0 even during your turn.

## Strategy

### General

Attempting to win bases on other players' turns is extremely challenging. Not only are you giving them the opportunity to overtake you or disrupt you, but you don't get first priority in scoring or a choice in the order bases score. However, it comes with the opportunity to gain tempo advantages when you get the first crack at new bases, or to waste others' turns by forcing them to play where you want them to or risk not getting VP. If executed correctly, this sort of "Come At Me" strategy can prove very effective, despite it being very unorthodox.

Many of this faction's abilities can spam your minions out and benefit from stacking many minions on the same base. This plays well with wanting to leave enough power out that bases are very close to scoring (or go past the breakpoint) on other players' turns. There are several ways to add power on other players' turns so that bases stay under their breakpoints on your turn but then go past them on others' turns, including Mark of Pride, Mantis Claw, and Challenge; usually one or more of these will be involved in a successful Mantis Tribe attack.

Generally, you should try to lead bases off with Mantis Warriors to power up the Mantis Petras, who want to bounce from base to base and stay in play. The Mantis Lords can be played at any point to augment the Petras, provide remote breakpoint reduction, or spread and converge as needed. Traitor Lord drops in at the end to either lock down one base or score another in the order you want them to. The faction is equipped with enough surprises from hand that opponents have to be cautious trying to overtake you.

### Partner Suggestions

Partners who focus on persistent power rather than temporary power will benefit Mantis Tribe a lot. Those with a competent specials kit of their own, or good sifting to find that of Mantis Tribe, will also complement them well.

#### Published

* **Dinosaurs:** Armor Stegos are perfect for Mantis Tribe's strategy, and War Raptors are much easier to stack here. If others don't play your game, you can drop King Rex + Rampage or similar big plays to secure solos.
* **Teddy Bears:** Snuggly Bears play very well into swarm tendencies, especially with Mantis Warriors powering each of them up. Teddy Bears' control kit will also make Mantis Tribes' traps even more difficult for opponents to navigate.
* **Ninjas:** This faction has an extremely well-rounded specials kit with even more ways to swarm on in phase 3 and control the board more effectively. Mantis Tribe offers a host of good targets to use with Invisible Ninja and Ninja Acolytes.
* **Mythic Horses:** As far as swarm-on-swarm goes, Horses are probably the option that benefits Mantis Tribe's playstyle the most, with a good amount of persistent power, movement options, and even one more special to round out the deck's kit.

#### Custom

* **Vessels:** Siblings being freely playable works really well with Mantis Tribe's swarm tendencies, especially with Mantis Warriors to give the Siblings a head start on equity.

## Author Notes

I think this faction executes its unorthodox way of breaking bases pretty well. Trying to condense Come-At-Me into a single faction rather than a 40-card deck is quite difficult, but I think it ended up working out. The current draft of the faction is somewhat weak to other specials-oriented decks, but I think that can either be accepted as a weak matchup or worked on in future versions.