[Yvelina]

> Pretender: Ghost King
> Magic: 2F, 3A, 2W, 3E, 3S, 5D, 2N

I think that 3S is asking for trouble. There are indy mages that will happily duel you, and they will have a pretty good chance of succeeding. And of course, once you start fighting players, you will have to keep your pretender well hidden. I'd suggest you lose the nature (you will get it from your sauromancers) and even the fire (you will get a fire random and access to banefire archers) and beef up the air and astral paths.

I would also not bother with Alt3. Alt2 is good enough for early expansion, especially since you do not have to worry too much about afflictions.

I would use Astral Probing as much as Dark Knowledge... but first and foremost, I would play Miasma rather than Standard. Recently I had a chance to observe Miasma in the hand of people who knew what they were doing, and I was impressed.