[Shangrila00]

Well, I'll point out that Mari's Goetic Masters can natively cast Hellfire, Leech, Life for a Life, and Infernal Prison, with the last 2 admittedly a lot of research with limited reward seeing as how Mari has little reason to summon anything other than Fallen Angels. If you know how the enemy is going to raid, there's very little your blood hunters can't stop short of a full sized army except maybe Earthquake/Rain of Stones by a lifeless caster. (I can't think of any, are there?) Oddly enough, the removal of SDRs has signicantly weakened raiding on bloodhunters, since no longer are most hunters defenseless B1s carrying SDRs.

It probably ends up a matter of preference though, fortifying your own territory vs. using extra gems for more offensive punch.