I ran with story units for quite awhile.
I remember Lenna replacing Fina.
Didn't draw Exdeath for a long time, but I remember running Kefka for a quite awhile because of Hyperdrive.
Couldn't draw Bartz or CoD, so I remember running Artemios as well for a long time.
Couldn't draw Vaan, but got WoL as an off-banner gold on the banner directly following his release. Full break pretty much opened the game completely for me at the time.
Barblizzara came out of a silver chest from Wolfsgang Peak Explore. The only way to open those were to buy keys. I remember buying the 30 key pack for 1500 lapis so I could open all the chests on the first isle. Everyone said that was a crazy waste of lapis, but I have no regrets on that. Although long obsolete at this point, the resistance buffs from the silver chests were a HUGE advantage at that point in the game's life.
Cecil + Golem was as good as it got for tanking. WoL was just there for the full break.
I sure remember the incredible salt over WoL's near-rainbow crystal pull rate on his opening banner.