Playing Pantheon, it seems Oak (whom I use), Regulus, Erebus and UB are pretty popular on both sides. Unfortunately I tend to get my face melted the first 10 levels or so whenever I'm with a regulus against 2xUB, UB+Ere, 2xEre, 2xEre + UB or 2xUB + Ere. Usually it's stun stun stun stun all the way through.
It just seems that they can stick together through the entire game (on zergfests like prison and Crucible obviously, but also in general) and still cover a great deal of the map. Fighting 1v1 never happens, and 2v2 is pretty much the same as 2v1 since I'm the only one out front. And since they all stack health, they can chase me forever unless I start running while still at 60% hp left.
From what I figure, going with starting minions is suicide since I need every extra hp I can get (Banded Armor and Scalemail from the start). I've tried putting the first points into shield and pentinence, but it doesn't seem to help nearly enough until level 7 or so. And running away doesn't really solve anything since they can take any lane and flag they want to, and move way quicker than me, making a back-and-forth flag/creep-trade in their favour.
So, what do any of you do? Most of my games involving only (combinations of) Reg, oak, Ere and UB are "over" by the time I hit level 10. It just seems that I can't create enough opportunities for regulus support to actually do anything useful.