It might seem really odd but the most successful combat pretender I made, so far, was a plain Ancient Kraken.
The thing just would not die. Since it didn't have any picks in magic I recklessly send it in to duke it out with independants and enemies alike. Indep set to 9 nonetheless. With whatever few units it could recruit in the province previous it expanded the empire faster than I could defend it. After a while I gave it an amulet of airbreathing and sent it onto dry land where it fared even better due to the lack of angry "teleporting" tritons.
Eventually it did die, going up against a cadre of heavy cavalery, but with so many priests around it jumped right back two turns later. With such a cheap pretender I could afford very good scales.
Never eat squid again!
