[archaeolept]

well, taking drain gives you design points, but makes research slow. Usually the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, but w/ certain nations w/ very high research mages, like Bogarus, it can make sense. The Idea would be that you make up for drain by using those points to accelerate your early expansion.

In this case, though, Agartha has some very good summons fairly early in conj., so in theory they could try and ignore having good research and just aim for umbrals and tomb oracles. Which would be a strategy - however, really, Agartha still needs a bunch of research (like construction, and darkness), so it is still problematic taking drain.