Hello everyone! Today I go over the Wax On, Wax Off event this week in which the Desert Mantis and Monk are added to the game. The Mantis in particular is going to have an excessive amount of synergies, particularly with Valkyrie, and this video shows what is likely the most broken combo with it.
Also, don’t forget Emperor Khorvash is the only legendary in the event key drop pool this week. If you still don’t have him yet or want to get him up to mythic, now is the week! 
That does seem pretty silly. And I had to tell people Mantis wasn’t bad …
Would love to try it out…but I am short a few Arcane stone for Justice 3rd Trait. And 60 Runic stones is also quite a lot! Looks very cool! 
NowayJoe2Go
You only need a fully traited Queen Mab to make it work. The other 2 would also help to have traited, but having Justice traited has basically no effect on the team.
Man that code goes fast. 
Btw, the Mantis will be the missing link to my soul blade problem. I could get yelllow, or Blue but not something that did both, except one of the Guardians and they cost a lot to get up.
Problem with this team is it fails against Manticores…
Just spam skulls.
True. But you can’t freeze them for Justice’s boost and you can’t hit them with Mab. And them not being frozen means you’re at risk if things go south with the gem spawns.
I don’t get at all what you need the Mantis for in the team you showed. If it’s just to charge Valkyrie you’re better off without, as it has just one less mana cost and blocks one of her colors, and after Valk casts you’d have Justice up which does practically the same thing but with an additional stat buff.
I saw you cast Mantis exactly once in the video, and it was really just to show what it does - you would be better off casting Justice instead at that point.
It takes Brown mana and puts it towards starting the loop.
Also has Armored to sit in front of the more important troops, costs less to start than the other troops, and has Air Link to improve Yellow intake (although it admittedly blocks Valkyrie).
Although, yeah, we could also use Alchemist.
Which hardly helps because you have double bonus on yellow (which you’re blocking) but none for brown. Also casting it at the start of the match (without Valk ‘preparing’ the board with blues) is quite risky and will most likely result in a miss, and a costly one at that, since you don’t have any enemy frozen yet.
If you’re desperate to cover brown, just put Alchemist there, it only blocks red (which you don’t have a bonus for) and is less risky. Or just put Mercy in for a chance of immediate kickstart.
What I’m saying is, sure, Valk/Justice/Mab is a very good combo, but Mantis has nothing to do with it. He is practically just sitting there, so calling him ‘broken’ is silly. You could shove almost any non-blocking troop there instead for a similar result.
Someone else did mention that’s a lot of gems for a low cost… should have added it was on two colours that really didn’t need more spamming… another blue maker? seriously?
@sirrian you watching this?
Not sure if Mantis is broken but it’s definitely under-costed and makes too many gems… a 9 mana gem creator should make 6-7 of each, and be a gamble…
Justice probably is broken and Mab has always been one of the strongest troops…
I suspect @tacet’s video didn’t do Mr Mantis justice - having another easily charged blue/yellow maker to fit the combo is an extra piece to make sure the loop almost never fails…
It already is a gamble. I’m pretty sure someone already mentioned experiencing 10 misses out of 10 cast.
But it doesn’t, and it even does the opposite - Mantis interferes with the loop. He’s blocking the yellow you’re supposed to make with Justice (which Valk would get otherwise), and casting him is more likely to break the loop compared to Valk (which would be up instead if he didn’t block her).
I tend to agree with both sides of the argument. Mantis does seem a bit over-powered in terms of cost versus gems created, but it also doesn’t feel like an essential part of the team showcased here. It’s really Justice + Valk + Mab that’s doing all of the work, and it seems like a better front-line attacker or tank might be more effective. Mantis clearly doesn’t make the team; it’s more a demonstration of the synergy between two very strong troops (Justice & Mab).
It is mainly justice having a 4x boost ratio. It needs to be 2x due to 2 stats.
In the video you posted, that would have made no difference. That’s been my experience with the team as well - quickly freezing the entire enemy team then being able to spam an AoE and attack and armor boost basically indefinitely is the main source of its power. Ending the battle with all your troops at 100 attack instead of 120 wouldn’t really change anything.
Every guardian other than Sacrifice can do that though, particularly Courage with Jarl Firemantle and Justice with Queen Mab. All guardians in general would need a rework to prevent their infinite loop combos.
After playing both for a while, I prefer Gorgotha to Mantis when leading the Valk, Justice, Mab team. Same colors with FAR better defense. You lose the air link for extra yellow mana, and he takes longer to fill, but if the engine stalls he resets the board instead of typically giving the opponent a board loaded with blue/yellow which they are likely to use to power a Korvash, Manticore, or Mab.
No really just spam skulls. Blue mana fills Justice, Manti drains it, then you can still set up a convert with Valkyrie and you really don’t have to think about it
It blocks Valkyrie from getting the yellow she needs, as said, early on. The team is faster with a brown or green troop that has no overlap with the rest of the team. Archer hero w/Cauldron or Farsight Orb works best
It’s also actually kinda squishy and you can’t afford to have it stunned by Manticore as easily as something with more HP/armor. Like a hero. Or actually Archon Statue, surprisingly.
Blocks Valk’s red. So ehhhhh. Unless you feel like putting Valk in slot one. I wouldn’t recommend that though
Yeah basically this
The “probably” is unnecessary. Justice flat out is broken.
Aye, aye.
People, I would like to point you in the direction of Jainus, who has begun acting as my secondary mouth.
That would be half of the problem. The other half being that it can spam skulls for only 12 mana. With Valk and the Lion banner, that’s two blue matches, no surge needed.
Suggested steps?
1: Justice needs to cost more
OR
2: Halve its scalling
AND
3: Remove the ability for Guardians to target skulls.
