well a short solution to your problem is get SOB, where the Ol wins no matter what

To second what Corbon said, Beast upgrade is nothing to laugh at. I've seen some people argue that the Beast upgrade is the worst of the three since they are the fewest in the dungeons and spawn cards, but my group absolutely fears upgraded beasts for two reasons:

1) It seems that most dungeon level leaders are beasts, and usually tougher ones to begin with. Upgraded level leaders makes them really work to get that 2CT/100 coins.
2) Upgraded beasts in outdoor encounters really sucks for the heroes, especially if they are melee heavy, primarily because of the Soar that razorwings have. Keeping them completely away from melee really helps a lot and my heroes fled most of the encounters they had that were heavy razorwings, and fortunately for me, Alric can reinforce with razorwings, making his fight that much more challenging.

-shnar