Introduction
With the return of Open as the dominant tournament format for the year, I've taken some time out to look at the options added to Mantis decks. Admittedly, the Mantis gain much less than any of the other Great Clans during Open season, so I've decided to look upon our strongest deck types with an 'Open' eye, as well as the introduction of some cards that make other decks viable.

The METH
Like all military decks, the METH gains a number of events that can help it on its way to victory. A well constructed METH will be able to use Desperate Measures and Return of Fu Leng with impunity, even though they may harm their own provinces - it simply speeds up your own ability to finish your opponent. Solar Eclipse is a great card for dealing with Shugenja/Spell-heavy decks like Master of Five and Enlightenment, while not affecting your own style, and the inevitable Winter Warfare is again available. However, these are all things that all military decks gain, so what about Mantis-specific additions? Truth is, there isn't a whole lot. Hyobe is one, possible, option, but his gold cost is prohibitively high and his ability is limited unless you play a port gold scheme, and that doesn't suit the METH. The only real option is Daikua, who can save you Fate deck slots with his built in ability that is equivalent to a Sneak Attack. It will more than likely cost you your stronghold, though, so use with caution. And that's about it for the METH. It gains little more than the standard Open military events, and even Return of Fu Leng can bite you in the ass if you've already used Kaede Sensei......

Ratling
Unfortunately, the Mantis Ratling deck also suffers from the same symptoms as the METH in terms of military events - they are open to all. Enlistment, though, can be a monstrous card-drawing engine at times. It also suffers the loss of one of those events to its own cards - Solar Eclipse. As the METH frets the arrival of Return of Fu Leng after Kaede Sensei has been used, so too the Ratling deck frets the arrival of Solar Eclipse in a military standoff, as it negates the ability of the only ratling card to be added during Open - the Ratling Conjuror (A solution here is to use Final Words, the F&S event instead, but this won't stop innate abilities the way Solar Eclipse does). Debate rages over the conjurors usefulness, but I have won so many 'final battle' scenarios with the Rats because of this card that I wouldn't even consider leaving him out. The conjuror allows you to chuck cards from hand to add 1F to ALL rats in play. That's all personalities AND followers - strong enough to even help out in the early game, though he is essentially a late game card. Still, First turn Tchickchuk + Conjuror can still prduce a unit with loads of force on turn two. I play three of this guy. At his worst, he's still a 1F ratling for essentially 2G.

Ranged Attack
From what I can see, the Ranged Attack deck benefits little from Open. The only possible addition is Togashi Rinjin, with his ability to gun down weenies under Blackened Skies. Not a whole lot to see here, though use of Enlistment may help the deck when using ashigaru followers.....

Tricks decks
This category covers all of the Mantis trick decks - the decks we are so good at doing, thanks to high gold and province strength. It includes Honour/Dishonour decks, Sword-shuffling, and Kolat nastiness. The first card that LEAPS to mind is Yogo Asami. At 5G, she's off the box, and her ability to stall military and other tricks decks alike with that annoying bowing ability make her a certain addition to all of these deck-types. For dishonour, Martyr and Plea of the Peasants are back, though Scorpion get them too. Again, we don't gain anything that any other clan (who will usually do what we are trying to do somewhat better) is also adding to their decks.

Conclusion
All in all, the Mantis get practically nothing by comparison to other clans when Open tournaments abound. A couple of nice additions, but nothing that breaks us, or turns us into a top-tier-dominant clan.