It's not a given that:
a) you'll get water magic in the game
b) you'll be able to level it up to expert
c) the spell might not even appear in the guild!
But overall, it's a very good tactic - even just having teleport allows you to annoy your opponent in a normal battle by eating up 2 stacks of archers at once)
And you're talking about phoenixes - you can't build them at all according to the rules! By the way, having "foreign" units in your army will take away your bonus for native land, so it's better not to bring too many along on a walk through the swamp :)

За всем следят машины благодати и любви.