How to Counter Mantis Hero In Marvel Rivals

Mantis may be kindhearted and optimistic, but don’t let her gentle nature fool you—she is a powerful Strategist in Marvel Rivals, capable of disrupting enemies and empowering her team with telepathic abilities. Her mental manipulation skills make her a valuable asset, allowing her to influence fights, heal allies, and control enemy movement.

While Mantis isn’t a frontline fighter, she can heavily punish careless opponents who underestimate her, making her a difficult target to ignore. To counter her effectively, you need to understand her abilities, recognize her strengths, and use the right heroes to shut her down before she takes control of the fight.

In this guide, we’ll break down the best strategies and hero picks to counter Mantis, helping you prevent her from using her telepathic powers to turn the tide of battle.

How to Counter Mantis In Marvel Rivals

Although Mantis is classified as a Strategist, her healing isn’t her primary strength. What makes her dangerous is her ability to lock down a single target with Spore Slumber and boost her teammates’ damage with Allied Inspiration, making them much more lethal in fights.

Fortunately, Mantis lacks mobility, making her an easy target for aggressive Duelists and Vanguards. However, her crowd control (CC) abilities can quickly turn the fight against you, so it’s crucial to approach engagements carefully.

Key Strategies to Counter Mantis:
• Bait out her CC before committing – If you rush in without caution, she can disable you with Spore Slumber, making you an easy target for her team. Forcing her to use her abilities first will leave her vulnerable.
• Use anti-CC heroes – Champions with crowd control immunity or cleanse abilities can completely negate her main advantage, making it easier to take her down.
• Pressure her early – Since Mantis lacks an escape tool, keeping her under constant pressure prevents her from controlling fights or enabling her teammates effectively.

By forcing her to waste her abilities, countering her CC, and applying constant pressure, you can shut down Mantis before she can manipulate the battle in her team’s favor.

Countering Mantis as a Duelist

As a Duelist, your main goal when facing Mantis is to eliminate her quickly to prevent her from empowering her team. Since her greatest strength lies in her ability to buff allies and disable enemies, the best way to counter her is to bait out her abilities before committing to an all-in fight. Picking high-mobility heroes is crucial, as it allows you to evade her Spore Slumber and reposition effectively.
• Black Panther is one of the best Duelists against Mantis, as he excels at flanking and dodging abilities. His Spinning Kick and Spirit Rend not only allow him to close the gap quickly, but also provide overhealth when hitting enemies marked with Vibranium Mark, making him more durable in fights. With his swift movement, he can dodge Spore Slumber and eliminate Mantis before she has a chance to support her team.
• Winter Soldier offers a different approach to countering Mantis. Instead of diving into the backline, he can pull Mantis toward his team using Bionic Hook, forcing her into an unfavorable position. If she tries to use Spore Slumber, she can only disable one target, limiting her effectiveness and making her an easy focus for follow-up attacks.

Key Strategies Against Mantis as a Duelist:
• Force her to waste her CC abilities – Baiting out Spore Slumber before engaging makes her far less effective in fights.
• Use mobility to avoid her abilities – Picking agile Duelists like Black Panther ensures you can dodge her crowd control and close the gap quickly.
• Pull her out of position – Using abilities like Winter Soldier’s Bionic Hook forces Mantis into the open, making her an easy target for your team.

By pressuring Mantis, forcing her into bad positions, and avoiding her CC, Duelists can quickly eliminate her and prevent her from controlling the battle.

Countering Mantis as a Strategist

As a Strategist, you typically won’t need to engage Mantis directly. Instead, your role is to support your team by healing and preventing them from getting locked down by her Spore Slumber. The best way to counter Mantis is by using abilities that negate crowd control (CC) and disrupt her from influencing fights.

One of the best picks for dealing with Mantis is Cloak and Dagger, particularly Cloak. His abilities are designed to protect allies from CC and disrupt enemy abilities, making him an excellent counter to Mantis:
• Dark Teleportation – This ability shrouds allies in darkness, rendering them immune to incoming damage and CC effects, which directly counters Spore Slumber and prevents Mantis from disabling key teammates.
• Terror Cape – This blinds enemies, making it difficult for Mantis to accurately land her abilities and significantly reducing her effectiveness in fights.

Key Strategies for Strategists Against Mantis:
• Focus on supporting your team – Keep your Vanguards and Duelists healed, ensuring they can dive onto Mantis without fear of getting locked down.
• Use CC protection abilities – Heroes like Cloak and Dagger can completely negate Mantis’ crowd control, making her far less effective.
• Disrupt her ability to control fights – Abilities that blind, silence, or weaken enemy accuracy can make it much harder for Mantis to land her abilities, reducing her overall impact.

By keeping your team healthy, countering her CC with protective abilities, and disrupting her precision, Strategists can significantly limit Mantis’ ability to turn fights in her favor.

Countering Mantis as a Vanguard

Vanguards have a significant advantage against Mantis due to their high health pools and strong defensive abilities. Since Mantis relies on crowd control and quick escapes, Vanguards with barriers and dive potential can completely shut down her ability to control fights.

The best way to counter Mantis as a Vanguard is to use barrier abilities to block her CC and chase her down before she can reposition.
• Magneto is one of the strongest counters to Mantis, thanks to his multiple barrier abilities:
• Metallic Curtain creates a rectangular shield wall that blocks incoming abilities, preventing Mantis from landing Spore Slumber or other disruptive attacks.
• Metal Bulwark is a more advanced version of his barrier, providing protection from all angles and even applying to allies, ensuring that Mantis can’t disable key targets.
• Hulk is another excellent pick, as he also has a powerful barrier ability.
• Indestructible Guard functions similarly to Metal Bulwark, creating a protective shield for himself and nearby teammates, neutralizing Mantis’ ability to stun and disrupt.
• Incredible Leap allows Hulk to dive in and out of fights, making it easy to chase Mantis down and prevent her from escaping once she’s exposed.

Key Strategies for Vanguards Against Mantis:
• Use barriers to block her CC – Shields like Metallic Curtain and Indestructible Guard make it nearly impossible for Mantis to land her stuns effectively.
• Close the gap quickly – Mantis lacks mobility, so using dive abilities like Hulk’s Incredible Leap ensures she has nowhere to run.
• Pressure her early and often – Since she relies on supporting teammates from a distance, keeping her under constant pressure prevents her from influencing the fight.

By using barriers to neutralize her CC, diving onto her before she can reposition, and keeping her locked in combat, Vanguards can easily shut down Mantis and prevent her from supporting her team effectively.

Conclusion

Mantis may be a supportive Strategist with powerful crowd control and team buffs, but she has clear weaknesses that the right heroes can exploit. Her lack of mobility makes her an easy target, and while her Spore Slumber can disable opponents, she struggles against heroes with barriers, high mobility, or CC immunity.

Whether you’re a Duelist diving in to eliminate her, a Vanguard blocking her abilities, or a Strategist disrupting her control, there are multiple ways to neutralize Mantis before she can impact the fight. By pressuring her early, forcing her to waste her abilities, and limiting her ability to assist her team, you can shut her down and prevent her from turning the tide of battle.