[Jasper]

Originally posted by Keir Maxwell:
As you never used them competetively this is a strange claim and I think its wrong - Air elementals made ID's look tame. Seasonal spirits could end the game before you could get enough ID's to do much. ID's were only good with magic items and that takes time to get. Seasonal spirits and air elementals were absolute massacre material and affected play far more than ID's in my experiance. Seasonal Spirits defined dom1 play for me.

Both air elementals and seasonal spirits had easy and effective counters if you were prepared. In my experience they weren't even in the same league as IDs, which didn't really have a powerfull and cost effective counter.

IMHO Air elementals and Seasonals were in practice only really nasty against new players who hadn't considered their effectiveness. Their window of effectiveness was brief, whereas Ice Devils were effective for the rest of the game.

Moreover, equipped Ice Devils were only a few turns slower than Seasonals due to ramping research totals. IMHO your claim about "the game being over" before IDs is exaggeration. Equipped Ice Devils cost roughly as much as two castings of Summer Lions, and would mop the floor with them -- plus they could lead, cast spells, and generate gems. Well worth waiting a bit for IMHO.