The Manticore is Epic Dragon Splinter card that I currently have at Level 4. Most of my Summoners can only field a Level 5 Epic card, and the Manticore picks up an extra melee damage from level to 4 to 5, so it is something that is worth my time holding cards for and hoping to get it up that extra level. On the other hand, my Dragon summoner is a bit under the level of all the others, so the Level 5 Manticore is a bit wasted on me. Still, I live in hope that I will get the Dragon Summoner up a level (I think I am only a handful of cards short... but they are still a dollar a pop, I really should do it before they get REALLY expensive!).
Anyway, back to the Manticore... I generally play the Manticore as a habit in the second position if I really HAVE to play the Dragon Splinter. If you can't tell, the Dragon Splinter really isn't my favourite Splinter to play, but it does have some pretty awesome cards in it... but it is by far and away my weakest splinter.
... sidetracked again, Manticore. Second position, because he has that handy Reach ability... which means that he is usually poking away from behind a Lord Arianthus or a self healing tank. The Thorns aren't really that useful, he isn't usually being directly attacked, and if the tank position goes down... well, the Manticore is likely to follow soon after as he is pretty defenceless against Magic attacks and from everything else, he takes full damage... so the thorns will cause a little trouble... but not that much.
The Flight ability is pretty cool for those annoying Earthquake battles... on the other hand, this is measured against the lesser survivability of the monster... still, it is nice to sit behind a tank and not take Earthquake damage.
I ended up running quite a few battles with the Dragon Splinter with little success (as I had mentioned, it isn't my strongest splinter...)... In most of them, the Manticore just wasn't really contributing much to the battle.
Featured Battle
In this battle, we have the good old Sneak battle condition where all the melee monsters are able to attack the rear of the enemy formation. I chose the Death Splinter as my associated splinter for this particular battle, as I wanted to try out Undead Rexxie as well! Plus, that was the only support splinter on offer anyway.... This was a unrestricted mana battle at mana 99... so time to break out the big guns!
I lead with the Goblin Mech... who doesn't like the stompy Mech! He is completely weak against Magic, but I figured that there wasn't going to be too much Magic around with the Death and Dragon splinters being the only options for play.
Manticore, Dragon Jumper and the Black Dragon sit in their usual Dragon Splinter play order of 2/3/4. The Manticore is my least favourite of these guys... but at only 4 mana, it is worthwhile to have him there in the second position... I love the Dragon Jumper and the Black Dragon though... these guys are definitely my favourite Dragon Cards in my hand!
Undead Rexxie follows up... I pretty much never play this rotting version of the cute dinosaur! He hits hard, but he is slow... and gets chewed up in the front position before he gets a chance to attack... and I have no Death splinter healer (do they even exist?). As a final cheeky move, I put the Lord Arianthus in the rearguard.... all the better to Thorn people with!
Round 1
Phew... the OpFor has some higher level Dragon cards in their line-up... I do wonder if I'm going to get hurt badly here, I'm pretty happy that the Lord Arianthus is in the back though... he can take some punishment with his damage reduction, and Thorn the attackers back!
Undead Rexxie absolutely was wasted on smashing a single hit point monster though... The Goblin Mech at the front was a good gamble, with only a single Magic monster, the Armour of the Mech will be enough to survive the Lord Arianthus Thorns.
Round 2
Hmmmm... I noticed that the Sneak overrides the Opportunity of the Dragon Jumper, not sure I like that.... except when it makes the enemy Dragon Jumper attack the Thorns of the Lord Arianthus! Everything is much funnier when it happens to someone else!
The Manticore does manage to land the killing blow on the opposing Prismatic Energy, which means that the Goblin Mech is no longer being attacked by Magic damage! But Undead Rexxie misses the Dragon Jumper... stupid dinosaur... bet that the live Rexxie wouldn't have missed.
The Black Dragon lands the killing blow on the enemy Lord Arianthus... opening up the way to smash that enemy Manticore! Finally we see what the Manticore is good for, taking a Goblin Mech square in the weird shifting animal parts that don't know what animals they belong to....
Round 3
Dragon Flyer kills Dragon Flyer... some poetry is there! As is the sight of the enemy Manticore taking exactly enough damage from the Goblin Mech to knock him right out of the sky! After that, it is just a matter of smashing the Gelatinous Cube to make some delicious fruit jelly... flavoured by the blood of the fallen!
Conclusion
The Manticore isn't a great card... however, at only 4 mana it does have some decent attacking ability and health for it's mana cost. Still, against most other monsters or concentrated attack... it is going to come up short and on the ground. As a second position monster, it is okay... but I'm only going to play him if I happen to have the spare 4 mana... I would prefer to have the Dragon Jumper or the Black Dragon played first... or ideally both, and there is no way that I would play the Manticore if it excluded those guys!
I know that I'm talking a bit down on the little Manticore... but compared to the other Reach cards, he is much better... but I'm not really that much of a fan of the Reach cards in the first place!
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