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Also the challenge I didn't want them to reroll there attack also lol

Challenge them when you have initiative. You strike them first (and possibly kill them), and guard. If you didn't kill, you could use your quickcast for an attack spell (or use it in first quickcast if it is unlikely to kill the opponent). If you opponent is still standing, he could either attack back and give you a counterattack with that same reroll, or attack with something else so you wouldn't make a counterattack against the challenged one. If your opponent attack with something else, you could attempt to finish your challenged opponent with another creature.
Another way to prevent your challenged opponent from attacking your mage is using guards.

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Because not everyone plays a rush. And if you get out a GA or a few NVs, you can defend it rather easily.

If you try to go for a long game, the temple of asyra is just better. If you harmonize it instead of harmonizing a crusade banner, you could bring a creature every turn instead of two creatures only once.
Keep in mind that enemy creatures could probably get to your banner a lot before turn 9 even if the opponent didn't rush.

 

Killing you in 3-5 turns is a rush. Killing you in 10 turns is a slow win...

Even if your deck is uber-slow and wants 15 turns it can still Fireball/Boulder a banner before Turn 10, or it's fundamentally flawed.

I've currently got about 30 books, about 2/3rd of which are slower controlling books. All of them could easily take this out by turn 5, even with a Guardian Angel Guarding... It's worth it for them too...

I've never seen a game that ended on turn 3 or 4. A rush that rolls well could end the game by turn 5, and with avarage rolls on turn 6 (assuming everything goes as planned).

Now, about fireball or hurl boulder on a crusader banner, it has a few drawbacks-
1) A fireball or a hurl rock cost 8 mana and a quick action. The banner cost 7 mana and a quick action. to kill it will cost you more than the cost to create it.
2) A single boulder is not so likely to one shot a crusader banner, and a single fireball might fail in it as well. That would mean you just spent all that mana and all you got was making the opponent use that banner a little sooner.
3) Casting a fireball or hurl boulder require your mage to be within 2 zones of the banner, and that means you just went to the Paladin's face. Assuming the paladin is going for a melee build, going all the way to the paladin just make the game easier for him. Against melee builds it is usually safer to stay away as much as you can.

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Temple (from 1st set)
Pro's
- Cost 10 mana
- Can generate both mana and actions.
Cons:
- Not very durable
- Without a cleric, your only getting a creature every other turn
- It tend to favor smaller/cheaper creatures

I didn't try it with a Paladin yet, but with Priest melee builds I usually don't have the mana to use it more than once in two rounds. And when I have an advantage on the board, I usually prefer to wait another turn or two and then bring a medium or big creature.
The two later disadvantages you mentioned only apply if you try to use the paladin like a turtling priestess, in which case you would probably bring a cleric early in the game.

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People post a lot of strategy about "action economy" and "mana economy", but having tons of actions and mana isn't the goal of the game, killing the enemy mage is the goal of the game (of course, a lot on actions and mana could help you kill the enemy mage).
While there are direct attacks on enemy mage, usually mages do use some damage economy (and it is the main economy in rush builds).
There are three main types of damage economy-
1) Things that make attacks (usually creatures, but also conjurations). Examples - Timber Wolf, Grimson Deadeye and wizard's tower.
2) Things that enhance attacks. Examples - Hawkeye, Fireshaper Ring and Armory.
3) Things that deal damage over time. Examples - Magebane, Rot and Idol Of Pestilence.

In rush openings, often the only economy you use is damage economy, and usually most of it is of type 2 (hawkeye, akiro's favor) with sometimes one of type 1 (a creature or a wizard's tower). In long games you usually combine all three (or at least the first two). Necromancers almost always use a lot of type 3 damage economy (and they even have plague master as a mage ability).
Note that you having damage economy doesn't necessarily means you are focusing only the enemy mage, but they could also be used to target enemy damage economy (like when you attack an enemy creature with your own creature).

1) Things that attack. Many mages bring things that attack to the game. When you have a creature, that creature could attack once per round, and that could inflict damage. The more creatures you have, the more attacks you make. The stronger your creatures are, the more damage they make and the longer they stay to keep attacking. One downside of this type of damage economy is that it usually have limited range, so the enemy mage could try to run away from your creatures, or stay in a corner 3 zones away from the wizard's tower. Another downside is that your opponent could use guards to prevent you from attacking the enemy mage. Nonetheless, creatures on the board could also serve as guards, and if you have a lot more creatures on the board than your opponent then you could probably deal more damage each turn than your opponent. There are creatures like the Devouring Jelly, that even after they are on the board, you need to make effort for them to be capable of attacking the enemy mage (or generally the most desirable target), so you need to spend more mana and actions on positioning. There are also creatures like Crevere or Grimson, that could almost always target the enemy mage (or whatever target you want them to attack) unless effort is spent in avoiding them.

2) Things that buff attacks are usually handy. The way you try to damage the enemy determine the type of attacks you should buff.  Almost every strategy heavy on attack spells should use hawkeye (and probably some other attack buffs on the mage such as akiro's favor). If you use many Thunderift Falcons then Rajan's Fury should be a usefull buff. If you use a book that makes plenty of melee attack, then you should consider using Bear Strength. If you have plenty of canine creatures, then the Redclaw alpha might be useful. If you are going to use mostly one way of attacking, then you should probably buff that way of attacking if possible.

3) Things that damage over time are great. Except for bleed ant rot, most of the methods to deal damage over time are in the dark school. Magebane is even seen sometimes with non-dark mages, since it is just a quick action,  5 mana and 2 spellbook points, and it usually deal a vast amout of damage unless dispelled early (and if dispelled, it mean that the opponent just spent the same amount of resources you just used to cast it, and took damage on the way). Rot condition is one of the best conditions, and by itself it gives a good reason to take things that remove conditions (such as a wand of healing). Necromancers many times decide to meditate in the corner and play defensively and use Idol of Pestilence to force the opponent into attacking them. Generally, Necromancer is the best mage in using this type of damage economy.

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So far I had the chance to play the siren only one time, and it was plenty of fun. Basically my game was all about making my opponent's creatures useless (lullaby, chant of rage on familiars) and/or killing them by making them pass through walls (siren's call) or by pushing them myself in various ways. Tsunami was the finisher.
It would not have worked that well against a heavy  psychic immune deck though, like necro or holy with lots of knights of the red helm. Same for druid and the push aspect.

Theoretically, necro and druid seem two tough mages for her. The bleed conditions won't work against their creatures, the pushes and water attacks do nothing against plants, and undead can't be targeted by songs. Does anyone know how to deal efficiently with these two mages?

About siren's call, if all enemies are psychic immune, then your best use of this ability is giving one of your creatures +2 melee (for only 1 mana it could be a useful quickcast that saves you mana for the next round). You could also depend more on the songs that buff your creatures.
Against zombie necromancers, you just have to go for the mage (just like you wouldn't bother dealing with these zombies with any other mage), and with all these pushes you could more easily outmaneuver the zombies (that are either slow or lumbering). Against skeleton necromancers life are harder, but you could still attempt to go for the mage by positioning with your pushes to outmaneuver guards.
Against druids, you must have that acid ball + hurl boulder to take down the tree, otherwise you really might by in trouble. Ballad of courage is crucial against druid, as it prevents vines from hindering your creatures. Since the druid's creatures tend to be rooted, casting your terrain in their zone would make them roll less dice, and they can't just move to escape that effect since they are rooted.

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The problem with just buffing up goblin and orc strategies is that there is nothing from stopping the Dwarf Warlord from using goblins and orcs, just like nothing is stopping the Bloodwave Warlord from using dwarf creatures.

Obviously, the anvil throne warlord could use that synergy for his orc creatures. But the bloodwave himself is an orc, so the mage will get the synergy along with his orc creatures. For example, let say we have an effect that give all orcs piercing +2 for all attacks. For an anvil throne warlord this effect will make his orc butchers' attack piercing, but for a bloodwave it will not only make his orc butchers' attacks piercing, but will also make the mages attacks piercing (and a piercing hurl rock sound really cool) because the bloodwave warlord himself is an orc.

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I like the Idea of allowing warlords to somehow become soldiers, but I wouldn't do it by errata.
Just like the Warlock got the Demonhide Mask that makes him a demon while attacking, so could the Warlord academy expansion include a "Soldier Cloak" that allows Warlords to be counted as soldiers during attack resolution (of either their attacks or attacks against them). It could also allow them to benefit from their own battle orders as an additional effect. If you are a bloodwave with that "Soldier Cloak", it actually means that your mage could get veteran tokens, as the destruction of enemy creatures could happen during attack resolution
If you want to help the bloodwave warlord more, then you could just create spells that make synergies for orcs, just like you have Slaknir for the goblins and Redclaw Alpha for canine.

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I agree it should be augmented, but some augmentations by cards came in PvS (the "war mage only" bracers are awsome) and some promos (the bloodwave greatbow), that perhaps we should see if the cards are enough before going to errata. I think errata should be saved as a last resort.
Warlord academy is also probably coming soon, so more cards will be there.

Personally, I would like to see some fast soldiers.