[sushiboat]

Thanks, Vicious Love. Using your criteria, perhaps Jade Emperor (T'ien Ch'i) and Void Lord (R'lyeh) would be good. Also, the Oracle doesn't have full slots, but with starting 3 Astral, 4 Dominion, and 30 new path cost, it could afford to buy up to a higher Astral level and depend less on boosters.

Oversway, the general consensus on scales for most nations is that Order and Magic are necessary to be competitive. Those can be partially paid for by Misfortune, maybe some Sloth, and for a few nations some Heat/Cold. Dominion 6 or greater is also deemed a good idea. 6+ of any path is pretty expensive. Water 2 may be good to get an early start on clams for nations without fixed-water mages. For a SC, either Death or Blood will allow a life drain weapon.

The point about clam hoarding makes sense. If you have enough Astral income to cast Wish regularly, it wouldn't take much longer to get enough to empower the would-be caster.

Is a Wish-oriented strategy uncommon, or is it just easier than I think to cast Wish? I was under the impression that Wish is common in the late game with advanced players.