I , as a F2P am still quite competitive ( top 4 in single server , top 10 in merged server ) while mostly doing a balanced tactic. I always tend to calculate the cost of all ninjas, check if i have good ninjas to support it and check if its worth its cost over the power items in the events and only after that decide if i go for power or for the ninja. Tough i must say getting a early iruka and a early gnw tenten was probably never a mistake spending my first coupons on.

And no, not using water main tenten team for months now, mainly just because kage treasure hates me and i have no mabui or ao (even after 460 ss in kage)...so using lightning blitz or switching it to sage naruto wind main / fire main teams when i get bored of light blitz ( usually changing mains every week to keep it interesting )