Why is Conflux often banned in tournaments?

Question

I've heard many times that Conflux is an overpowered town. Some of its strengths are indeed a thing to consider:

• Phoenixes are good 7th level creatures (when upgraded), creatures of levels 1-3 are also good. However, many other towns also have strong creatures, for example, Castle with its also overall strong creature line.
• A lot of units are immune to Armageddon, making the Drageddon tactic strong as Conflux and weak against Conflux. However, I didn't see Armageddon as a popular spell. Finding the Grail, which is the only way to get Armageddon in Conflux, is also rare, and probably indeed deserves a decent reward.
• Elementals are immune to Mind spells and to Bad Morale.
• Conflux caster heroes are strong, especially some of them, like Luna. Still, other towns also have heroes that are too good and hence banned.
• Magic University allows getting the desired magic schools quicker if gold is available.

However, just as many other cities, it has its downsides:

• While Elementals are unaffected by negative morale, they are also unaffected when it is positive (like the Undead).
• There are no ranged units without upgrades, which can take time.
• Elementals cannot be resurrected and have vulnerabilities to certain spells.
• Level 4-6 units are not so good.
• Conflux is generally rather expensive. Most of its strengths don't pop up unless a lot of resources are available.
• While it is easy to clear the map with some of the Conflux tactics, this city is vulnerable to an early rush, especially when resources are scarce.

A similar list of pros and cons could be written for any town in the game. This town has never appeared really overpowered to me, yet it is banned in tournaments when possible. But I am not a professional player, so I am asking:

What makes this town overpowered rather than just an interesting addition to the game?

Answer 1

• Incredibly strong earlygame. Between Sprites 9 speed no retaliation and storm elementals ranged attack conflux can clear out neutrals in no time with no losses.

• Very fast scouting, they have the fastest lvl 1 and lvl 2 units.

• Armageddon strategy, four units are immune to it (fire elemental(and upgrade), phoenix (and firebird), magma elementals and magic elementals). So pretty much your entire lvl 4-7 lineup is immune to armageddon.

• It's possible to build the firebird dwelling in week 1. Their high speed and growth makes them very strong

• Magic university is the best building in the game. it's basically free levelups for your heroes giving them the most important magic schools.

• I don't understand why you would say lvl 4-6 is not good. fire eles are average for their level, earth eles are weak, yes. But magic eles are very powerful. They are a magic immune hydra.

• Ranged upgrade for air elementals can be done on day 1, it costs 1.5k gold and a few resources + a storm elemental costs just 25 extra gold. This makes conflux pretty much impossible to be rushed as you have 10-20 lvl 2 ranged creatures with no melee penalty and stats akin to a lvl 3 creature.

• Also don't underestimate sprites. Yes, they die fast, but they are very fast, flying, no retaliation and have massive numbers dealing a lot of damage.

• Strong heroes. Monere starts with offense and logistics, several of their casters start with a desireable magic school.

• Elemental vulnerabilities and inability to ressurrect can be a disadvantage, but that's countered by their immunity to mind affecting, the no negative morale (you can mix them with whatever you want!) and their immunity to certain spells.

• Phoenixes guarantee you first move.

• Very fast build order. Their dwellings are very cheap (only the lvl 7 dwelling costs more than 3k gold) and you don't have to build any non-dwelling to access any of the creatures.