Is Conflux a broken castle?

In my opinion, there is nothing in the Conflux that could be considered a cheat; victory depends on the player, not on the Castle. The Academy, in my opinion, is not overpowered; Phoenixes are only strong in the early stages of the game (Fairies and Elementals are decent units). The idea that you can easily defeat another player in the early game is nonsense (unless they are a noob), and in the late game, all these Elementals are useless.