Mantis

Mantis is a fast, colorful card game about collecting matching sets of mantis shrimp cards. On every turn you draw a card and make one simple decision: score it by matching a color in your own scoring pile, or steal an opponent's entire pile of that color.

The catch? You don't know what color you'll draw — only three possible colors shown on the card back. Guess right and you profit. Guess wrong and your opponent gets the card instead.

Games play in about 15–20 minutes with 2–6 players.

Setup

Shuffle the entire deck of 105 mantis shrimp cards face-down in the center of the table.

• Each player draws 4 cards from the deck and places them face-up in front of them as their tank (personal display)

• Cards in your tank are grouped by color

• Leave space beside your tank for a scoring pile (face-down stack of scored cards)

That's it — no boards, no tokens, no complicated setup.

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On Your Turn

Draw the top card of the deck. Before flipping it, look at the three color hints on the card back — your drawn card will be one of those three colors.

Now choose one action:

Score

Announce "Score!" and flip the card:

• If the card's color matches a color already in your tank, move all cards of that color (including the new one) from your tank to your scoring pile face-down

• If the card does not match any color in your tank, add it to your tank instead — no points scored

Steal

Point at an opponent and announce "Steal!", then flip the card:

• If the card's color matches a color in that opponent's tank, take all their cards of that color plus the drawn card and add them to your scoring pile

• If the card does not match any color in that opponent's tank, the drawn card goes into their tank instead — you just helped them

Tip: Check the three color hints carefully. If two of the three hints match a big stack in your opponent's tank, that's a high-probability steal worth attempting.

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Winning

The game ends immediately when any player reaches 10 cards in their scoring pile. That player wins.

Important: Only cards moved to the scoring pile count. Cards sitting in your tank are not scored and do not count toward the 10-card goal.

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Strategy

• Read the card backs — The three color hints are your only information. Two matching hints mean a 67% chance of that color; all three the same means a guaranteed color

• Big tanks are targets — If you accumulate a large stack of one color in your tank, opponents will try to steal it. Score early when you can

• Stealing is high-risk, high-reward — A successful steal moves cards directly to your scoring pile and strips your opponent. A failed steal gives them a free card

• Watch the score race — Once someone has 7–8 cards scored, the game can end any turn. Shift from building your tank to aggressive scoring

• Tank diversity helps scoring — The more colors in your tank, the more likely a drawn card matches something for a score action

Mantis uses a race-to-10 model. The first player to accumulate 10 cards in their scoring pile wins immediately.

When recording in How You Rank, enter each player's total cards in their scoring pile at game end as their score. The winner will have 10 or more; other players record however many they had when the game ended.

Players are ranked from highest score downward.

When recording a Mantis match:

1. Enter each player's scoring pile count — The winner should have 10 (or more if a big steal pushed them past). Other players record their pile count at game end

2. The system automatically determines placement from scores (highest first)

Tip: Since the game ends instantly at 10, most non-winners will have between 3–9 cards scored. Record the exact count for accurate rankings.