I think even with 12 Mana the +1 live for all friendly monsters are more worth than the +1 Mana you can use for your monsters. In every case with a medium mana cap Malric is worse than Tarsa in all rulesets.

Ok with the Pelecor Bandit and Sabre Shark you have a point, you can play them both in one team, especially in low-mana-battles they can be really strong together.