I love reading about different strategies like this. Never heard of anyone trying this strategy before so I'm happy to hear it!
- Punipen
TBH it was just the build I was using for the run. It just happened to be rather strong against the octopus, particularly Incantation Headband since it both 1) removes rage gems, which the octopus wants and 2) enables more matches against the enemy darkness and fear gems, since they are both m-skill -- while also just progressing the normal strategy of spell spamming with accelerated m-skill gems.