[Squirrelloid]

Festin: there are things to do besides d or b. And breaking into b is easy if you really want to do it. Why are you so obsessed with these two? You get death eventually, enough to bootstrap up to tarts (which is why everyone wants death), so its not like you're lacking that.

Jomon has pretty good astral, which is enough to base a strategy around.

I completely disagree with Illuminated One and don't know why you'd try for Falling Fires at all. GfH is good, but not enough to make racing down Evo right away worthwhile.

Here's the actually good spells you want early on:

Conj:
F: (2) Bind Scorpion Beast, (3) Summon Phoenix Power
A: (5) Dai Tengu
W: (5) Contact Nushi, Naiad Warriors, Naiad, Kaijin? (haven't tried, looks plausibly useful)
E: (2) Summon Ujigami, (3) Summon Earth Power
N: (0) Contact Jigami, (3) Awaken Sleeper, (4) Summon Bog Beast
S: (4) Summon Kenzuoko,

Alt:
F: (2) Blindness
A: (1) Aim, (4) Windguide
W: (2) Numbness, Personal Quickness (use with eagle eyes/aim and a bow)
E: (2) Earth Might, Armor of Achilles, Earth Meld, (3) Curse of Stones, (4) Destruction
S: (3) Body Ethereal
N: (1) Eagle Eyes, (3) Protection, Mossbody, (4) Swarm, (5) Wooden Warriors

Evo: Slime, Rusting Mist, lightning bolt, vine arrow, magma bolt, acid bolt, sleep cloud

Ench: Gift of Flight, Str of Giants, Dragon Master (combo with frost or fire drakes, or wyverns)

Thaum: Farstrike, Curse, Bonds of Fire, Panic, Paralyze

Much of that is even available without boosters. Note i've listed through Conj 5, Alt 5, Evo 3, Ench 3, Thaum 3. Overall recommendation on early research targets was Conj 5+, Alt 4+, Evo 2, Thaum 2, and Constr ++, which gets you most of that.