This week battle challenge picked a dragon card, so let’s review the Manticore

Like every dragon card in my opinion this card is OP. I strongly recommend new player to invest in dragon’s cards. They are usually stronger than other monster and you can use them with any element (even in a setting where mercenary are forbidden).

Why is it a strong card ?

So the Manticore has an amazing HP/mana ratio. At the level one, it gives you 6 hit points for 4 mana. I think only the Shadowy presence and the Animated corpse have a better ratio (among the card with less than 4 mana cost).

It has the reach ability which make it perfect to be on the second line and support the tank with one extra attack. Its many hit points and the fly ability, will make the Manticore hold the line for a while once the tank fall.

The Manticore will usually outperform its counterpart from other elements :

• It has the same stats than the Orc Sergeant from the earth element, but it costs one mana less
• It has more HP than the Luminous Eagle from the life element, but costs 2 mana less
• It has twice the HP count for the Magma Troll from the fire element for the same cost
  -It has more HP than the Electric eels from the water element for the same cost

So I will usually always recommend using Manticore on the second line.

Setting making it ever better

The Manticore can be even stronger in 2 settings :

• in small league game , this is one of the card with the highest HP you can have access to.
• in earthquake, its fly ability get quite handy.

Battle example

Let take this battle as example. It was a battle with small league setup so a perfect way for the Menticore to chine.

The setup

No healing
Small league
32 Mana cap (which is far enough to lineup only monsters costing 4 of mana...)

My lineup

Animated corpse as a tank. I like the cards with good HP/mana ratio and this the best you can get in a small league game
Manticore
After the melee units let’s put the magic one. I place them from the one with the highest HP count to the lowest to maximize the number of turn the units at the back can fire.
Serpentine Mystic
Elven Mystic
Then come some long range unit. I place the unit with the highest initiative at the back, to protect my tail as much as possible from the sneaky units.
Dark Atronomer
Fire Spitter

How it played out

The initial line up gave me some advantage of HP count (my favorite metric) : 28 for me (+6 armor HP from my summoner bonus) against 20 for my opponent

This HP unbalance allowed me to win the battle while losing only one monster.