What am I missing with Manos?

[Mikes]

As the title says. I often see Manos come up an almost an auto pick in certain crews, and often out of keyword, but I'm looking at his card and not seeing what justies a 10 SS cost outside of keyword.

 

Can anyone lay it out to me in terms a fool can understand?  

[TimH]

Front of his card the stats seem alright but then his abilities are great. Regen+2 helps alleviate his lower wounds total, he puts out a big 5'' aura that denies enemies all of their demise triggers (which can potentially swing certain match ups). Assassin is fine, he may not have the weapon profiles you'd expect to get mileage out of it with but he doesn't need to kill good models to get the fast, he can potentially pick something weak off at range with spirit barrage and get a refund on his action. His own demise is pretty great, handing out his personal upgrade card to ANY friendly, yes OOK he can't be reanimated but if the enemy invests time into killing him you get to give another model regeneration and his Spirit Lantern gets to stick around even after his death. Extended reach is a good defensive ability, especially as it is not limited to protecting himself, if he is close enough to the enemy they don't get their charge attacks against anyone. Siphon power is also a strong ability, due to his actions.

The Yari has good range and an acceptable 6 stat, no built in triggers and a disappointing 2/3/4 track but if you add in that Siphon power means he can take a free suit of his choosing you can consider this to be a much stronger 3/4/5 damage track with the aid of Siphon Life on a Ram. Reposition allows him an escape option, Marked by Ancestors is not going to see use OOK.

Spirit Barrage is a weaker Stat5 2/3/4 with no free boost, but ignoring friendly fires and with the option to have free built in Divine Strike via Siphon Power. This makes it a very effective tool for handing out AoE Staggered and for picking up the finishing blow on low health models to get Assassin activated.

His Leap is lacking any built in suits but once again thats what Siphon Power is for. This means he has a very easy 6'' leap available to maneouver himself around (coupled with his 6'' movement he can make some distance) and a ram triggerfor sudden strike can get him a free attack action, something you can plan around if you have a 5Ram or 5 Mask in hand.

 

[Maniacal_cackle]

I think Manos is overrated in a lot of crews. He has the downside of demanding a lot of attention - shaping your activation order and resources to get your value out of him.

That said it basically comes to leap allowing you to choose your battles. And he can move three times, and attack three times, or interact leap interact, or many other lines.

On top of that, leap plus gun kills a lot of important support totems, and with assassin he can run away to be safe after.

I just don't think he belongs in every crew.

[Regelridderen]

He is a neat little package, but I rarely run him outside Yan Lo. 

I see a point in bringing him with Torment, handing out Staggered while adding some much missed speed to the crew. 

In my Redchapel he always loses out, as I want to bank on Terrifying. Instead I bring Yin with some of the same mobility, and the ability to bank on Seamus’ Why Hello Love! Or else I bring Arrrchie, who have more synergy. 

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One of his biggest drawbacks are that he is alive. 

[Mikes]

Alright, thanks guys. I think I understand a bit more now. I still don't think he's all that and a bag of chips some of the people I've heard say but I do some see value in certain matchups.

[Regelridderen]

On 9/14/2023 at 1:58 AM, Mikes said:

Alright, thanks guys. I think I understand a bit more now. I still don't think he's all that and a bag of chips some of the people I've heard say but I do some see value in certain matchups.

Don’t underestimate him. He is a great model and can singlehandedly score a couple of point in just about any crew, but whether he has the synergy to work with the rest is another matter. He’s one of those discrete work horses that’ll always deliver, but rarely do anything remarkable.

[Maniacal_cackle]

Lol I just hired him in a McMournint crew on standard and he died turn 1 xD

A lot of crews will delete him from the map from 15+ inches away.

Meanwhile Archie was a boss and survived most of the game.  I'd say Archie is generally better if you can deal with the issue of leap not being built in (Whisper, tools for the job, or card draw help).

[Snorty Saiga]

I'd often take Manos just to counter crews with really annoying demise abilities e.g. Cadmus' Eyes and Ears.

Lantern of Souls is a pretty rare ability and Datsue Ba is not as versatile option as Manos in other crews.