[Verjigorm]

Additionally, Pythium's Communicants should be generally regarded as "disposable" since in any prolonged battle they are almost ensured to die since they have no magic paths.

Fortunately, they always have Communion Slave active, so if you put Master Matrices on your Masters you can cast a defensive spell on the first round. This generally requires a defensive posture--you need to make him attack your communion by putting it in the way of the thing he wants or guessing his target. This can be difficult as communicants, unlike other types of communions, do not have the ability to teleport/cloud trapeze.