VOTD-Still like it

[Sombre]

It isn't like they're going to kill your pretender the first time they cast it. They'll need to spam it, user penetration items etc and may still need more than one cast to get through.

Besides if your pretender already has an obscene number of kills then he's got you through the early game. If you're that worried about it you can also take an undead pretender. I don't buy the argument that you need a pretender throughout the game to kill ermor and rlyeh chaff. You have budget thugs and mages for that - you don't need huge SCs. And if you're fighting a chaff nation you certainly can make decoys from the thugs that you are using to kill said chaff in the midgame. They are also the units with the best chance of surviving VoTD and forcing repeat casts.