the problem there is that mictlan can only count on 1 water/turn, unless he's willing to alchemize his also limited astral income. might as well rush construction 6
Actually, one of the things I most like about Mictlan is how many variants on strategy they have. I don't personally rush for the ID/AD and instead count on mere mass of blood (after going quickly to const 4 for SDRs) to guarantee me a good selection of the blood summons. (especially under zen's mod, which ups the price and lvl of the ID, and improves the heliophagii).
As to taking blood on my pretender, I'd have to say I don't tend to do that. blood is by far the cheapest to empower, and spending so many design points on Blood 6 seems a waste, even though the bless effect is quite nice for the micts. blood 4 I could see, though for a Moloch I'd really rather have A4 to make up for Mictlan's prime elemental deficiency and to give a very strong boost to the Moloch's indy-fighting abilities.
And I don't usually go for early game fiends, as it takes so many of my capital only mages to summon sufficient numbers. However, fiends are great, and it really is a viable alternative; certainly, if I were not to take a blessing strat, I would summon them.
As to not taking death, ehh, this has been argued before. Even death-3 has never really bothered me (other than by making my large armies starve)