Praying Mantis
Praying Mantis is a 
Tier 4 Pet, available in the Star pack. At the start of turn, the Praying Mantis knocks out the nearest adjacent friends and gains a boost in stats. Leveling up the Praying Mantis will increase the amount of stats it gains.
The amount of stats won't change regardless of how many friends are knocked out. However, if there are no friends to be knocked out, Praying Mantis will not gain stats.
Strategy
Praying Mantis is the equivalent of 
Bison from Turtle pack, as both requires at least one "dead" space for them to buff themselves. It's mainly placed in the front or back of the team to make sure it will only knock out 1 friend.
It has good synergies with Faint pets. Knocking out summoners like 
Stork or 
Anteater will allow you to sell the summoned pets for extra gold, or keep them to be knocked out next turn. Knocking out 
Dove will give you stats and 
Blobfish for experience. In late game, pairing it with 
Spinosaurus is good for giving the team even more stats.
However unlike Bison, Praying Mantis' ability cannot be safely ignored. Once it's on the team, you will have to bring a sacrifice each turn for the rest of the game (or until the Mantis leaves the team). This means that you tend to lose gold on new sacrifices, and if they don't have good abilities, then it's 3 gold just for a meat shield.
Trivia
- The Praying Mantis' ability to knock out its own friends is a reference to how female praying mantises kill their lovers, in which the game manifests as allies.
