MANTIS is a really simple card game. But when I say that, I mean it in a really good way! SCORE or STEAL. That’s it!

There’s one deck of cards containing 7 different coloured suits – red, yellow, pink, green, purple, orange, and blue. It’s a veritable rainbow of gorgeousness!

How To Play

The back of each card shows a rainbow icon and a circle with 3 different colours. Note that each coloured suit also helpfully has a unique design and symbol to make MANTIS non colour dependent). The front of the card will be one of the 3 colours shown on the back of that same card.

You each start with 4 cards face up in front of you (grouped together if the colours match).

On your turn, you take the top card off the deck and decide if you are going to try to use it to (a) SCORE cards matching one of the colours also present in your area or (b) STEAL cards matching one of those 3 colours from an opponent.

Then you flip the card.

If you have chosen to score and you have cards that match the colour revealed on the flipped card, it gets added to your matching cards and they are all flipped over to show the rainbow side. These then get placed underneath your area to form your score pile. If you don’t have the matching colour, the card gets added to your area face up as another colour to be SCORED (or STOLEN) later.

If you have chosen to steal and your opponent does have cards that match the colour shown on the flipped card, you take them but don’t score them yet!. If they don’t have any cards to STEAL, they get the flipped card added to their own area (again to be SCORED or STOLEN in due course!).

The first to collect 10 rainbows is the winner!

That’s it! SCORE or STEAL!

Pretty Darn Quick

MANTIS plays super fast. And although there is a big push-your-luck element, it’s luck of the fun, colourful type. And scoring in MANTIS s is a great feeling – a real “Yesss” moment if you have built up a solid collection of a single colour and your rainbow comes through for you. Similarly with stealing other people’s cards. It’s great! And the more players around the table, the more choice you have on the stealing front! The back and forth between players is fast and fun, and in a few minutes it’s time for a rematch. And that helps to soften the blow if any wee gamers are feeling a little put out by their cards being STOLEN!

There are also special rules for two players which work fine too – effectively, when you steal successfully, you get to have another turn, and the winning threshold is 15 rainbows.

Final Thoughts

This game is so pretty. The box (inside and out), the cards, even the mini comic inside by the Oatmeal explaining just the amazing colour receptiveness of the Mantis Shrimp (check for bonus educational content!), is an explosion of colour. Each suit also has its own cutely illustrated Mantis Shrimp type – check out Mr Romantic on the pink ones! – and the inclusion of symbols means that gameplay is not affected by colour sensitivities.

Easy to learn whatever your age, beautiful to behold, and pretty push your lucking action every turn – MANTIS is a fun little filler game that lets you play the rainbow whenever the mood suits!