[Alpine Joe]

You probably want a pretender with earth anyway, so why not just use earthquake, or maybe rain of stones. The former isn't that much of a research deviation. Alternatively, have the lizard kings scripted to attack and just use poison slingers targeting the enemy frontlines. lastly, soul vortex, once you get it (you want darkness anyway) makes killing off the lizard kings very easy.

Reanimating is a great strategy with LA ctis if you use life after death, but you dont even really need a bless for the wyrms, as they are mostly useful for the fear effect. The tomb chariots are almost better, even without a bless. Throw down Darkness, RM, the national speed boosting spell, maybe haste, and you have quite an impressive army. With 20+ Lizard kings reanimating tomb chariots, you can crank one out every few turns. The MR boosting spell is perfect once undead mastery comes out, and you have the earth magic to cast army of lead where you really need it.