I find that you should play Temple of Asyra fairly early or else you are not going to get a good return on your mana investment.  I would suggest Temple of Asyra with Harmonize (which you would have to add to your deck) during the first turn.  Of course, it will take you seven turns to regain your mana investment, but it will only take you two turns to regain your action investment. 

As it stands, you will not regain your mana until seven turns after you put out your Temple of Asyra anyway.  You are spending 20 mana for one Temple of Asyra and two Clerics of Asyra, and they are generating three mana a turn for two actions a turn.  Your preparation requires three actions (as opposed to the two actions of a Temple of Asyra and Harmonize combination) and you have to spend thirteen actions from the Clerics of Asyra to regain the 20 mana that has been invested (as opposed to no actions with the Temple of Asyra and Harmonize combination).

The maths is correct and whereas I agree that a spawnpoint should be cast as soon as possible, with Pentagram being the exception. I have seen a pair of Clerics and Harmonise on a Temple of Asyra be the core of Priestesses that win games and tournaments.

Well I have put the sword back in over the mage staff and recently have been gaining 4+ valor consistantly.
I want to try the shield and holy armor over a angel and it is more efficient sbp wise and it is a good way of protecting your creatures. What are your experiences with the shield/cloak/helm Beldin?
I don't like Metatron because he has really bad base stats and one really lucky hit can just destroy him. He also requires a lot more setup than Ehren.

Well from what I see that is 22 mana to create a valor engine. There is no mention of the auras you prefer for the book, which I would consider to be a big part of the book design. After 6 months research you should be able to shed light on which ones you prefer and what ones are the better ones etc. Without this in your description then one can assume that you are not working with them and using the paladin skin to unlock the schools and benefits of the mage; another thing that can surmised from your book list due to the splash of war in a mostly holy book and the opening does little to persuade the reader otherwise. I am only suggesting at this point that you might be correct in moving away from the Paladin to the Priestess due to the fact your book has higher mana requirements, however you have to evaluate what you are also losing in the process.

Now onto the sword/melee attack, I have always rated a mage based melee attack to be low down on the list of priorities of what I want to do in my turn. I would rather be using my actions to cast spells, furthering my own plan or mitigating the plan of my opponent, where it causes me problems. The melee attack short circuits that as it means I have to forgo any full round action, which is fine where there are other objects providing me with the full turn actions I am losing, however these also need to be correct and positively producing or you end up with too many actions and not enough mana to power them all.

On the note of Metatron. The set up you talk about is the core of your build and opening, maybe with the addition of a single Bull's endurance/Gator's toughness can boost him to where he needs to be ideally. With a Temple of Asyra and Hand of Bim-Shalla Metatron gets +2 Melee and Regen 2, +1 to either if you use the Hand's bonus on him. Where as Ehren requires a number of healing actions and the shift to heal him can be thwarted by a clever opponent giving him just enough damage so you pay more for him than you opponent does. Also Temple of Ifernia hurts Ehren more than it does Metatron.

@drrambo23 There is very few light based attacks here and tbh it is a shame Metatron does have light himself.

No and I realise this, however I felt this was the most likely next question to arise and headed it off before it came.

To add my 2 cents, there has to be a clear rule for this. From here players can build books accordingly. I will say that timed versus non timed are two different games. I will also say that indifferent games there is a banned list for tournaments, versus causal play where any card is allowed.

From this in a timed format without banning restore that arguably the Holy school has the edge. It can mitigate any to time game with a final quick cast on the turn going to time (I watch time like a hawk when timed) with an enchantment matrix of Reverse Magic, then plan Heal and Restore for the atleast 10 (12 in the case of a Preistess) life swing, 18/20 with average rolls, and any attack spell plays into that to increase that life swing. Bear in mind this is under perfect play conditions against a non Holy mage. Against a holy mage the Heal is arguably swapped for a Dispel to ensure the swing, with the Heal being cast a turn earlier to best mimic perfect conditions.

The last sentence is the exact supporting argument to Kelanen's post about how the he does then she does paradigm is unplayable for unless you know the thought processes of the TO and then it becomes an exercise of social engineering over Mage Wars. My personal view is keep the timed format as is, as any other just complicates things, and ban Restore.

I wonder what mages would get good millage out of a thornlasher. Beastmasters? Its the hard cast i think that makes that so tricky.
Guardian angel is a great creature, no doubt, but i find that especially now in the days of chant of rage and such, that they have lost some effectiveness.

Siren can get some good use off them, Beastmaster can too, especially in BG.

AW Is amazing at fixing mistakes like that. Plus now you get to deal with the lovely and friendly Alfiya Pope. Of big ol dragon fame! She's awesome!

Yup Alfiya is amazing, I got a copy of DvN that printed wrong, she fixed it for me and chucked in DvN alt mage art in with my package. AW customer service is awesome.

Yeah, I have a Dire Wold in several books. I like them, although I confess they don't see play as often as I'd like - mostly because of Spitting Raptor. Although the Dire Wolf is slightly better in melee, that spit acid option is golden!

I use Hunting Bow in a couple of Druid books, although Bleeds don't last long in my experience.

Bleed is a nice option but it is Living and non plant only. Also it goes away with Regen or healing. It really is an uphill battle.