Mali is IMO niche. I ran the numbers in a sim a few years ago that unless you start with fishing, seafood only starts are generally the slowest you can have (due to delay in getting a worker), but with Fishing are pretty fast if you only have to hook up 1 and can then get a worker immediately afterwards either via slavery or building at size 1. Provided it's fish - crabs or clams are just crap whatever happens.
If it is a grain, then sure it can work, the problem is that Agri costs more than Mining with the added inflexibility that if you also have seafood you're basically fucked. Rule of thumb is that unless you start with a grain any civ that starts without a tech is fucked.
Basically you saying that to pick Mali I have to look at my start (which may only be 9 tiles) and see a grain. And it has to be at least a 5 food grain really, dry rice or wheat isn't exactly going to cut it. That's not all that many starts, well less than 1/3 of the starts I've seen. Would I pick a civ on those odds? Picking blind, the answer is no. Picking sighted like here? No, because I want my opponents to have to take those risky odds while I pick a safer choice like Babylon if I can't see my food, or England/Rome if I know I have fish.
If it is a grain, then sure it can work, the problem is that Agri costs more than Mining with the added inflexibility that if you also have seafood you're basically fucked. Rule of thumb is that unless you start with a grain any civ that starts without a tech is fucked.
Basically you saying that to pick Mali I have to look at my start (which may only be 9 tiles) and see a grain. And it has to be at least a 5 food grain really, dry rice or wheat isn't exactly going to cut it. That's not all that many starts, well less than 1/3 of the starts I've seen. Would I pick a civ on those odds? Picking blind, the answer is no. Picking sighted like here? No, because I want my opponents to have to take those risky odds while I pick a safer choice like Babylon if I can't see my food, or England/Rome if I know I have fish.