[Scott Hebert]

Originally posted by Blitz:
Pretender: Wurm
Cost: 75
Scales: Order 3 Sloth 1 Growth 1 Magic 1
Cost: 160
Fort: Castle
Cost: 80
Paths: Air 1 Nature 1
Cost: 100
Dominion: 5
Cost: 21

Total cost: 426 points (spend the rest as you wish)

Mm-hmm.

Now you got a much better expander,

Can you give me data showing this? Even aside from the tactical considerations (such as the difference in kill rate), the fact that the Shedu flies means that strategically you are less constrained in which provinces you attack.

and later in the game he can sit in the lab and forge rainbow armor instead of shroud of the battle saint!

Let's compare them, shall we?

Rainbow Armor:
Cost: 5 Air + 5 Nature gems
Prot 8
Def: 1
Enc: 1
MR: +3
Reinv: +3

Shroud of the Battle Saint (4E4S):
Cost: 5 Astral gems
Prot: 5
Def: 0
Enc: 0
MR: +1
Reinv: +2

Now that's the surface. Now, considering that we are talking about mages, that means the Enc will be doubled for the purposes of fatigue, to 2. This makes the effective Reinv of the Rainbow Armor +1, not +3. Assuming that Quickness is put up (and when we're talking about Arco's Mystics in Communion, this assumption is pretty fair), this Enc should be removed twice for 2 spells being cast per turn. This makes the effective Reinv of the Rainbow Armor -1.

There is also the fact that the Shroud costs half as much as the Rainbow Armor (which we'll ignore because of the better Prot and Def Ratings of the Rainbow Armor).

Finally, you have to consider that Arco has no easy access to nature gems to forge the Rainbow armor. The Shroud, OTOH, is much more easily obtainable.

He's trying to demonstrate that in order to get a earth 4 /astral 4 blessing on your mystics through use of a shroud of the battle saint, the Shedu is the best pretender choice.

Actually, I believe my statement was that if you wanted Earth magic, Astral Magic, and a high Dominion on your Pretender, the Shedu was the best choice. The E4/S4 blessing is only one ramification of such a strategy.

Why one would go to such lengths to achieve such a thing is irrelevant. Clearly the Nataraja is superior, even under the conditions most favorable to the Shedu.

This is not true from my experiences using both.

You could also achieve similar results with a Son of the Sun (the astral Version), which is of course available to arcoscophile.

Actually, the difference in point costs is 1 point in favor of the Son of the Sun, and that is negligible. Also, if you increase Earth beyond 4, it starts to favor the Shedu. The Son of the Sun also is nowhere near the early combat pretender the Shedu is.

No, even when seeking the allpowerful earth/astral blessing, the Shedu still sucks. Sorry.

Your tone needs work here.