[Agema]

As far as I can see it, both the pro- and anti- D9 bless arguments are hedged under a vast stream of "ifs". IF you've been able to collect a huge stock of blood slaves. IF you don't get jumped by 3-4 adversaries. IF you cast utterdark and no-one removes it, IF you can expand freely because geography has been kind. IF no-one has been able to turtle. IF it's a large/medium/small map, IF etc.

All this really tells us is that lots of strategies are viable. The games everyone is talking about have had particular circumstances in game setup, what the other players have done and will also have depended how good they were.