I can think in a couple of additional, although very focused, ways of using an awaken Pretender....
1) A design with enough magic to drop a broken Global Enchantment ASAP. This design allows a head start in research and can also save tons of gems in empowerments/item construction for getting the required magic paths online.
Playing Abyssia a fair option will be an awaken Solar Disc with F8 for having a
Second Sun shining and helping those nice heat dependant lava beings in their expansion. The downside is that 2nd Sun is an Evo8 spell and plenty research is required beforehand... It is also possible to go for F9 without severe penalties for Flaming Weapons.
2) A funky design supporting a
Stalk'n'Slash strategy (AKA
Hero Rushing in Warcraft III). I was thinking in an awaken Pretender with the Assassination ability for hunting down enemy commanders from the very beginning and crippling their early expansion. Unfortunately, the only natural born killer Pretender available is Mictlan's Lord Of The Night. It is also possible to keep him as a decent menace at all time constructing item upgrades in the Capital and using a stealthy scout as a courier.
Yeah, I know that this won't be a winning Pretender but at least sounds funny to me...
