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Currently, the mass-restrain in the game is the promo Sherean Leviathan. I think it should be tried some more before there would be other mass-restraining effect.
The vinewhip staff is a very powerful item even though it is restraining only a single creature each round.
Most books take at least one tanglevine, so I would be careful when considering more powerful versions of that spell.

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I really like ehren in SWAP teams because Ehren+regrowth is just 9 mana, which is your channeling anyway.
If you want the forge then-
19
1) mana crystal + battle forge
16/1
2) leather chauses + Ehren + Regrowth
16/1
3) Champion's Gauntlets + knight of westlock (or a griffon) + face down enchantment (or Dorseus + face down enchantment without deployment if you want to heal Ehren faster)

Without a battle forge-
19
1) Ehren + regrowth
19
either 2) Dorseus + Hand of Bim-Shalla (and on 3rd round upkeep phase Ehren is fully healed) or 2) Alandell + Enchantment.

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Spawnpoints are basically giving up lots of mana now to get more mana and actions later. So the downside of bringing a spawnpoint is risking that your opponent will rush you and kill you (or at least gain a major advantage over you) when you low on mana due to casting the spawnpoint (at least with expansive spawnpoints such as a Lair). Druids are a sort of an exception to that statement, sine the tree actually protect the druid with the ability to transfer damage to it.
While usually taking down a spawnpoint with attack spells cost more mana and action than those used to cast the spawnpoints, and by the time it is destroyed it already provided some mana and actions, taking a spawnpoint with creatures is a pretty good option. So if you bring a Lair with 15 mana, and I bring Brogan Bloodstone with 15 mana, it's still possible for me to destroy your Lair and still have the advantage (and the bear strength and akiro's favor I will cast on brogan will remain even after the Lair is destroyed).  So just casting a big creature early could bring you more advantage than bringing a spawnpoint, since creatures are damage economy as they roll dice each round and that could be an even greater advantage early.

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Had an Adramelech Warlock that goes:
19
1) Double battle forge.
12/1/1
2) leather chausses + ring of curses + double mana crystal.
11/1/1
3) fireshaper ring + gloves of skill + hawkeye + magebane

I have this book ready for play, but didn't use it yet. I made it when it was very common to destroy battleforges early in my local metagame, but eventually I found out that if my opponent close the distance and use his actions to destroy my single battle forge (then it was usually with a double surging wave), then that gives me an advantage even greater than having the battleforge, so I usually use just one.

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This strategy is not so good against wizards, that will just destroy the mind's eyes too quickly with their arcane zaps. It takes lot's of actions to bring all of these spores and mind's eyes, so there is plenty of time to counter it. In addition, you need to generate enough mana to use all those thoughtspores in order for them to be effective.

I don't say it can't work, it sound like an interesting strategy, but it is very far from overpowered.

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I don't know German so I don't know what were the German comments, but generally comments about strategy are fine in my point of veiw.
I mean, one of the reasons to watch games is to learn from them and improve from them, and for that it is probably better to notice what mistakes happened in the game. I think that comments about strategy give me more ideas about how should I play when I am in a similar situation, so they might help me a little more in learning from games I watch.

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After seeing enough of these mage tier systems that people propose on these forums, you start to notice that no one can agree on it *at all*. It might be more informative to ask players what mages they are best at playing and what mages they are best at playing against.

Well, it not really true that there is no agreement "at all". I think it is quite a consensus that bloodwave warlord is the worst mage.

I don't have a ranking of the mages. The mage that is most likely to totally overwhelm his opponent is the necromancer (too many builds that just totally fail against a necromancer), but I am not sure this necessarily makes him the best mage.

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So far, with a wand and arcane zap as options, specifically with a wizard I didn't feel I need an extra spell prepared. It takes the same slot as a wand and cost the same, but usually I prefer the spellbind trait of the wand over the versatility of the tome, especially with arcane zap as an option that exist anyway. If only it was "mordok's crown" and not compete with the wand on the same slot, it could have been a more interesting option.