However, I did have some knowledge; I knew that tempo was very important (hence the "feast" strategy) and that there were very few artifacts (only 1 per castle zone).
Actually, I think the opposite; you seem to be confusing it with balance. Marik is consistently ranked number 1. And this is a "moosh" template, not a tempo one, which is why it's so popular among foreigners. It was used with both 133-point archmages and gold mines.
