[chrispedersen]

Its a niche spell that has several uses.

The first, it can act in a manner similiear to a well of pestilence. Even passing through the province will horror mark enough units usually to make summoning horrors safe in an ensuing combat.

Secondly, if you have dominion sculpting, like I said in my original comment, goingn from drain 2 to magic 3 is well worth the cost of losing one turn of research for each mage.