TL;DR In my experience first Jungle Elves deck is bad - what am I doing wrong and how to play it?

I've played a couple of games using the first faction deck of jungle elves and here are my thoughts:

• Archer - I'd rather have him shoot through only my units, but through walls as well, because as it is, phoenix elves' archers are superior

• Lioness - 2 atack is nice, but these die so easily and I rarely had more than 2, which resulted in rarely making more than 3 moves anyway, which makes their ability more of a drawback, because they have to move after the movement phase, and thus may potentially block every other unit...

• Lioneer - the cost of 3 is a lot for such a squishy thing. It's ability sounds interesting, especially when you can charge right next to the enemy sumoner, add Abua Shi-s bonus and roll 4 dice on attack, but that costs mana, which is already tough in this deck, and can be blocked by anything, even a zero-cost unit, standing in your way... The worst part? It can't be moved by Chant of Haste.

• Makeinda Ru - overall nice, but for 6 mana I'd rather have more HP and/or consistent 3 attack always or maybe have her ability work also after one space movement

• Shikwa - Rarely did I have the opportunity to kill one unit and then attack again. Now, this makes an interesting combination with Abua Shi's ability, but, again, it costs mana which is hard, because she also costs 6... as much as a much better Makenida Ru. Way overpriced.

• Miti Mumway - For what he presents, I'd say he should cost 7. His ability rarely can be used to actually wound anything, because all it takes for the enemy is to stay diagonally... or just send in a melee champion. If only he could trample champions (or at least champions cheaper than him)...

• Abua Shi - His ability costs mana, which I tend to find hard to come by as elves, making it rarely usable. Also, I was quite often forced to expose him and defend with his attacks - one HP more would be nice. Also, his ability not counting as an attack would help

• Chant of Deception - it potentially could be nice to swap a Lioness rushed to the last two rows with, say, Makenida, Lioneer or Miti - this one's situational, but I see the potential

• Chant of Haste - doesn't move even a single Lioneer. If only it moved Commons up to a total of 4 cost instead of always three...

• Chant of Life - costs mana, so no... I'd rather have it heal one wound for free

• Chant of Negation - interesting and helpful, but sometimes can help the enemy more than it helps me (like when fighting tundra orcs, which have lots of "dwarback" abilities)

• Chant of Salvation - has potential, but I won't ever depend on it.

• Starting position - yes, this is on the list as well... With lionesses moving after the movement phase, one of them is blocking one of the archers, which in turn blocks Abua Shi, which in turn blocks another one. That's bad.

So... these are my thougts based on my experience playing both as and against jungle elves. I'm not pro, I'm probably not even good, so I'd be glad for some advice on how to play them, or some tips on what I'm doing wrong... Or, if so it is, a confirmation that this deck is just bad :P

Also, does the expansion containing Jungle Elves have ay cards that can significantly improve this deck? I'm inclined to buy it because it also has Cloaks, whom I really like.