Praying Mantis – funny card game – criticism, test and review

The card game by Ken Grohl and Jeremy Posner from the house “Exploring Cats – Crazy Card Games” that made it to my list of recommendations for the game of the year 2023 should be something special and induce a special appeal. Is this the case with the praying mantis?

This is how the card game Praying Mantis works

Each player first places four cards face up on their screen (called a “fishbowl”). The starting player now decides whether he scores by taking the top card from the draw pile, turning it over and putting it in his fishbowl if necessary, or whether he steals a card from another player after drawing it and then puts it in his fishbowl. The back of the card from the draw pile helps when scoring or stealing, because one of the three colors shown is also the color of the mantis (see below for an explanation of the name).

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It is important to decide out loud before you draw what you intend to do: score points or steal. If you decide to score and already own a praying mantis of the same color, you put all the cards of that color on your score. If the heist is successful, the cards must first be placed in your fish tank and can only be scored when you score the next point. However, if you do not have a card of that color, your opponent puts it in his fishbowl. If you have a deck of 10 cards, you win the game.

Get started quickly with Mantis

The special thing about the game: there are no complicated rules, you learn the game very quickly and the incentive to play another round and take revenge for a possible defeat is very great.

Whether this was in fact a team game remains questionable. It is more than just an ordinary card game in a positive sense. Unfortunately, it has to be criticized that this is yet another example of a bogus package: the 105 cards fit easily into a smaller box!

About the game title Mantis: This refers to an animal. There is actually a praying mantis or praying mantis with that name.