Quick immortal question

[Foodstamp]

Originally Posted by Micah

The only downside? Hardly.

The phoenix still can't expand very well on its own and will never be able to take on large enemy forces by itself, which a real SC pretender can do. It also has no slots, so if you take it for F/A diversity you don't get to have a forge discount with it.

Sure, the phoenix shines when you're down to just defending your capital, but that's generally not a place you want to be at. The primary asset of the phoenix is just the diplomatic leverage of being a royal PITA to kill, not because you're a real threat. I don't think that anyone has won a competitive (non-noob/mostly experienced players) game with one, which seems odd for something with "no downsides."

I don't think there is much correlation between pretender choice and winning games. Scales and paths are probably a different story, but any experienced player could probably win with any pretender, as long as they get to choose the scales, paths awake, asleep etc.