[WraithLord]

I don't think taking a strong bless for mothers is good. The idea has merits I admit but it has two glaring drawbacks:
1. As mentioned by Amorphous. MH would annihilate your mothers thus shutting off that strat. I recently finished an MP game playing as MA Man (and Ctis). I lost *so* many mothers to MH that I stopped counting. I mitigated the problem by giving them MR boosters at times and by accompanying them with cheap monks and scouts. Still - the mother's attrition rate was extremely high.

Perhaps E9S9 bless would work but then you compound the 2nd drawback:

2. Strong bless always comes at the expense of something else. In this case it will come on the expanse of magical diversity on pretender and/or good scales. Either of those will cripple Man immensely.

Besides for a non-astral nation you'd have a hell of hard time forging shrouds early enough and fast enough.
Take a moderate bless if any. Strong bless for Man is not advised since you need to cover glaring weaknesses and thus can't afford one.