[Agrajag]

If I ever attempt to win the tournament, I just send in a decent combat mage, the quickness from the trident can be quite helpful in the battlefield.
Other than that, I just send people to disrupt the other combatants.

Also, in SP, sending a decent assassinish unit can be quite useful, as the AI seems to love sending its pretender into the tournament, and often not equipped to handle combat (I've lost count of how many great mothers I've seen die in the tournament)