S n A pretender suggestions

[djtool]

yeah so i'm kind of intrigued with SnA but I havne't had much success with them. My original thought was to make a rainbow pretender to flood my gem income so I can start whipping out demons, spirits, or maybe claymen; working my way up to bigger and better things as I go along.

Problem with that is that I find myself sitting around researching for many turns or blow alot of money on mercs (if they're available and I win the bid on top of that) for early expansion.

So now I'm thinking I need a pretender that can win me those early provinces so my mages can chill at home and not have to worry about being needed to do any early battles.

thoughts?