Yeah, with careful placement Elmer falls to the starter hand at a really high rate. When you just want to farm tokens I'd take an all beastman (sylph and the four named beastmen) hand to the Indolent Imperial. It's easier to abuse the ascending rule than it is plus, the remember that nothing beats 10. Not even 11 or 12. I haven't found all the NPCs you could play against yet but at present the only one that really ruffles me is Landenel in South Shroud...