[alansmithee]

I would never go drain with Ermor. I think Magic 3 is vital. I find keeping up with research to be one of the biggest problems for Ermor, because it's usually easier to get up the gold for castles/labs and buy mages than it is to get the gems to pop more out. To get two dusk elders a turn, you need 40 (unless you got a conj site for a discount). And that's also spending your gems on nothing but your two mages.