Interesting comment on the high death bless, I had not considered it. It would add that AN attack to each spider attack correct? I'm not sure that taking Growth 3 is worth it, nor Magic 1, I get back 200 design points comparatively, half of which go to sleeping...
I'm also not sure Machaka can leverage a blood economy that well (especially having to wait 24 turns?), though I have read the MA Ulm blood guide, so I suppose it would work about the same, however, it seems that you are spreading yourself kinda thin doing high bless, therefore requireing max spiders per turn, and setting up a blood economy at the same time. I understand you are looking to transition to blood mid to late game, but I figure you are going to be pretty far behind the real blood nations by then anyway, and if the only goodie you are getting is blood stones (which aren't to be overlooked) I find that its trivial for Machaka to have 4+ mages set to Gnome Lore/Ausperx/Hausperx/AP/... by turn 10. You do have to alchemize some to either death or astral if you don't get lucky with your early searchers. Lets say my gem income is never an issue, though clearly you can never have enough
