Empress is your bread and *er for most of the game. All ninjas are available free, will likely be your first lvl 5s after your main and are strong in other areas.
Minato also lists one of my favourite 'Fighting Matsuri' backup teams. Tobi is free later on in the game/you can work up to him, and is available in many events and also survival trial drops frags for him frequently. If you don't have GNW kankuro, regular kankuro works in it though isn't quite as good overall, lacking the ignite.
Other 'free' builds to look at:
"Constant Attack Empress": Hinata + Kurenai + Asuma (Bull/Rhino summon, 2,2,1,1,1 for talents).
First turn Hinata and use Kurenai to shield Asuma.
2nd turn use Main jutsu and attack the biggest threat/guy who will be trying to jutsu you and acupuncture with Hinata.
3rd turn main again
4th turn use Asuma jutsu (when chakra is >=70, it's free and has no cooldown, but you need to activate it first before you use Hinata again and Kurenai to heal/shield whoever needs it or else it will go to cool down)
5th Asuma again. Repeat until dead.
"Hidden Sand Support" - Gaara + Kankuro + Bakhi / Temari. Use Wind Enhancement for big damage, use Dance of Impetus to keep using hard hitting jutsu. Summons and main's chase vary depending on if you have Bakhi or Temari. Garage shields units, giving them some protection and is a superb tank, All ninjutsu and attack are buffed a lot by Main and barrier.
This post was last edited by Tzatziki at 2016-12-14 01:40