Are there any good Mari Players out there?

[Spacepain]

I haven't posted for a while, but I'm getting back into Dom2.

Marignon default theme has really tickled my interest.
Right now, my nation set up is:

Moloch
9 Fire

Wizards Tower

1productive, 1heat, 1growth, 1fortune, dominion 7.

General Strategy is to build nothing but flaggellents as standard unit, and simontaneously building 2 iniates then 1 friar. This way, every 3 turns I have one Friar ready to go kill stuff with 21 flaggelents.
I keep iniates at home to research.
I build lots of Wiz towers and temples. They mean I can build more Flaggellents per castle, and increase number of flaggent makers.

Magic wise, I'm getting plenty of points for research, but I'm having trouble getting gems, and breaking into additional magical elements, I'm completely bound to Fire and Astral. Plus, I have no idea what to research.

I'd appreciate some ideas for what I should do magically speaking, and suggestions for tweaks to the rest of my game plan