Defending Rushes, a primer on avoiding the awake SC pretender

[ano]

It depends. In some cases awake pretender can help greatly and this is especially true for nations with broad magical skills, like Arco.
But, obviously, if you're sure you may beat a rush (good troops, bless, fast research), you don't need it.
There's another important point here, a psychological one. A rusher will in the most cases avoid meeting an awake pretender. Of course, jags do beat a PoD or a Wyrm but if Mictlan player has a choice, he will choose a weaker target. That's obvious, I think.
AND another point is that early war is always bad. If you lose, you're dead, if you win but are unable to kill your attacker (and you, most probably, are because he keeps recruiting his sacreds and knows your counters) then you both are far behind in comparison to other nations who were expanding and building castles. That's also obvious.
So, you need to not only be able to defend against a rush but also to show the potential rusher you're an improper target. An awake SC is in the most cases a good "go somewhere else, please" even for Mictlan.