[Uh-Nu-Buh]

I kind of like the idea of a single new pretender being made available who is just a big well-hung thug. No real magic, nothing special, just a hugely, oppressively, physically powerful mountain of pain to whomever gets in his way.

Make him extremely expensive so you can't afford much of anything else for your empire. Don't make him ethereal, radiate heat, or anything else like that. Just big, mean, and immortal. Minor regeneration maybe, to keep him from getting too many afflictions at once. No flight. Nothing esoteric or glamourous. Just raw physical power.

He would be overwhelming in the first few years, then gradually less powerful until you started outfitting him, then it would level out. You would still have the best SC, but s/he would be no more powerful than an army of mages. Less in fact. A single mage could instant death him easily, since his/her magic resistance would be fairly normal. That's why s/he should be immortal....

Making all Pretenders super powerful might be unbalancing, HoneyBadger; but making a metaphorical Elephant unit among infantry Pretenders would just be plain fun.