[Jasper]

Originally posted by Chris Byler:
I don't think you need to invest in high Astral - most god SCs are primarily useful for early expansion, and don't want to take the field against players packing Paralyze, Curse, Horror Mark, Black Bow of Botulf, etc. Magic duel would be one more way of bringing down a Shedu with a "mere" 4 Astral (which is pretty cheap) - but you'd likely lose several mages doing it, unless you're Pythium.

IMHO Fighting Pretenders can be quite usefull later in the game, and in fact many pretenders are too vulnerable to use during expansion, but with some research and equipment can be fearsome.

Paralyze: Is broken, and I expect will be fixed.
Curse: You can survive being cursed.
Horror Mark: Is a rare and impotent threat.
Black Bow: Can be deflected, and can no longer target commanders anyway

Sure there's more risk later in the game, but you can also afford to lose your pretender more.

Then again, the Shedu isn't very usefull later in the game, so perhaps you're better off just taking Astral 3 and only using him for early expansion. Personally, I prefer to have my pretender usefull both early and late, and IMHO Arcoscephale really benefits from a high Astral pretender to protect Mystics from factions with stronger or more efficient Astral.