[Mightypeon]

In MA Mans defense, Sleepers are comparable to Banes although a fair bit more expensive.
It also has a 2 decent evocations (Sleep Cloud and Storm of Thorns) of which one is quite early. It also has some ok Battlefield buffs, although your already spiffy troops do not need those as much.
If you wish to expend some gems, Nature has the very usefull Swarm and Howl Spells. Summoning Sprites also has significant niche uses. Last but not least it also gets Faeri Queens.
It is also a nice forging path. With regen gear, reinvig gear, and one highly usefull anti thug weapon (Axe of hate).

I think CBM was quite succesfull in boosting formerly weak nations such as MA Man and MA ulm into competetive levels, labelling MA Man as overpowered is quite the insult to the likes of Pythium or Shinuyama though.