[Baalz]

Tupilak is fine for what it is - a relatively cheap niche spell which can be spammed with no preparation if ever a good opportunity presents itself. Ever been invaded by somebody who wasn't expecting assassinations and has critical mages without bodyguards? Knock out a couple communion slaves to throw the rest into critical fatigue mode, take out the guy who was gonna cast fog warriors for the big fight, kill the guy holding the sea king's goblet, cause the guy spamming bloodletting to burn through his blood slaves early, or kill a couple indie commanders thus unexpectedly splitting the enemy forces and the 5D per casting looks pretty cheap. Sure, it's a narrow niche, but not all *that* uncommon. Also, 5D is a hell of a bargain for taking out research mages holding skull mentors, clams, hammers, etc. Might even get lucky and kill a lab mage holding a ring of wizardry, etc. Like I said, it's a spell to spam when your opponent wasn't expecting it with no particular preparation or special research on your part. Take out ten expensive, cap only Abysian warlocks along with a couple boosters they were holding, then come back and tell me how spectacularly useless it is again. You might even get a shot at a tasty rainbow pretender strolling around site searching...its only level 5 in a school you may be researching anyway so it can come into play fairly early.