[Fantomen]

I've been using the mechanical giant a lot, I found that they're very effective raiders against astral nations due to mind hunt+magic duel immunity.

My favorite setup so far is to give him boots of quickness+flying carpet so he can bring along some henchmen like mechanical men or statues, plus whatever weapons and shield fits the bill. Against undead chaff for example I used herald lance and charcoal shield so he could cast quickened solar ray spam from behind statue bodyguards and then soak up the rest with the fire shield.

Zmeys I used in my latest game. From what I heard they would die fast so I was surprised when they proved both extremely effective and survivable. I used them as army support rather than raiders, with lycan ammy and luck pendant set to attack monsters to take down tough enemies on the battlefield.

Wendigo is just awesome, super cheap for a w4d4 mage/SC. Especially considering it's water gems. I simply make a "farm" province to let them eat and send them out when fully grown. load up with gear and go Soul vortex/quickness/kick ***. It's a bit weird that it's cheaper than Kokythiads, IMO the wendigo could be upped to 35 gems or so and still be a great deal.

Shishis are ok raiders and anti SC (against undead), but quite situational now after the nerf. They were in the right spot power wise from the start IMO, though I do agree with dropping to A2. But the stats should have been kept as was I think.

Grendelkin and treeants I haven't used myself but my opponent in Warthog spams them at me. So far not impressed at all. I've killed them off easily with Risen oracles and GoR:ed Umbrals, but I suspect this is more due to their lack of proper equipment and poor deployment than any problem with the summons themselves. I'm looking forward to see what i could make of them if I planned a strategy around them.

As it stands now though, I could hardly justify getting a Grendelkin over two wendigos, or a treeant over GoR:ing two of something (like gargoyles etc)

Never got to try or even meet a Ember lord yet, but I'm looking forward to it.