[Jasper]

Blood magic does take a while to get going, but seems well worth it to me. As Alex points out Hordes from Hell seems quite good, and the bigger summons still make very effective Super Combatants.

The biggest blow IMHO against blood magic is the brutal power of paralyze. I haven't played around with it much, but judging from other's reports it makes spending a bunch on a single unit a mistake, unless you're sure you won't face Astral magic in battle.

Pythium w/ blood magic on the Pretender seems like it would be quite powerfull. Pythium is effective to begin with, and add to that Super Combatants backed by Paralyze to counter opposing Super Combatants, and Magic Duel dominance to counter opposing Paralyzers.