[Tuna]

Well, arco for example can benefit from a throw-away pretender with no paths, and take great scales instead, as they have access to all elemental magic, and astral and low-level nature from the sorcery areas.

They can get some insane firepower on the field, thanks to mystics/astrologers. However, what they lack in is protection for them.

Also, for a little added boost, their primary researchers are also level-3 priests, and can heal, so losing a pretender is at worst a 2-turn problem.

Then again, I prefer taking a high-death pretender for them, but I'm just me.