[llamabeast]

I can't remember offhand all of the buffs that CBM has given to Machaka, but they are significant.

National spells of course, which I agree are (deliberately) situational. Foul Sacrifice offers an alternative strategy at least, and perhaps makes a bless strategy more viable.

Sacreds are cheaper and have improved MR (which makes them much more feasible in the long term).

PD is greatly improved.

Sorceress has magicboost in battle - that's a big deal.

IIRC a number of other costs have been reduced.

I'm sure there's other stuff (most of it done by qm rather than me), but I think Machaka is much more powerful in CBM than in base game.