@Jashro44 i dont recall explosions crom his body. At all. He has simply set things around him on fire. There is a flash and everything is on fire.
I also dont think Strange can react as fast. His feats are not speed wise on par with the shown speeds of Mantis attacks attacks or reaction time to threats. Mantis seems to outspeed or react to super human speeds of all the known Snakes. He can also disarm Strange of his teleport ring too. IIRC Strange needed the ring to open portals.
Strange never occured to me that he never used TK directly on others till now.
But then any object can be disarmed or used as a weapon.
Dropping a whale is not a issue though as Mantis can and does set you on fire with a thought.
I also argue while Strange may resist the telpathy, the catch is Snake was still mentaly manipulated and thrown into illusions. That will happen.
Also Mantis is a casual bullet timer and teleports way faster.