Added a note on RoS, thanks.
It's not unfathomable to do some of the same tricks in the early levels as one builds up to Mind Mage, granted that the choices are limited on the availability of feats. I haven't had the time or desire to replicate general theurge tricks that are available without Mind Mage, though I should probably hunt down those threads and at least reference them in the Links section. When I wrote this up, the general thought was to try and emphasize the class features and Psi-spell options.
Unfortunately I haven't had the ability to torment my PCs with a Mind Mage encounter yet for the sake of experience. Currently running Age of Worms, and while Zyrxog makes for a tempting candidate, it would end up being too many class levels, CR/EL, before getting into the more interesting class features.