It’s an interesting decision whether or not to materialize your deity. Not having mine materialized saved my bacon today. I had my main army far away from my empire taking out an AI when another AI showed up. A combination of my deity’s fireballs, towers and archers easily held them off. If they had their deity though it would have been a different story. The AI was real smart in avoiding some of my more defended cities, it goes for your weaknesses.
I am already thinking about my next game. I’m thinking of starting with a lot of spell books in a single path to get more powerful magic sooner. I went 4 3 this game, combine that with not knowing what I was doing and my tech was limited. I am still not at any summons.