[Saxon]

If you are going for thug/SC pretender with an underwater nation, you have to go for amphibious. I have set up a couple of great SC before and dominated the ocean, only to find it tough to get them on to land for the mid to late game. Sure, SC are more vulnerable late game, but you want to be able to raid as an underwater nation. An SC that can eat PD on land is a nice threat.

I lean towards a dormant pretender who will be able to use the high level magic later (after you have researched them) and provides good scales. Getting them out of the water is not an issue, since they will mostly stay at home.

Going for the Monolith and teleporting into Mictlan’s home province does a have a certain ring to it, don’t you think?