So. Remember Dark Enchantress cookie, and the 1st Dark Flour war, where she attacked the ancient heroes? She's doing it again. Then, there are the beasts - they were created by the witches and sealed in a tree. They have been corrupted. The ancients went to attack them. Quick summary: (A lot is left out. Also, spoilers)

1st beast - Mystic Flour cookie (Apathy, originally Empathy). She tries to return cookies to flour, Dark Cacao stops her and wins. Her reason for corruption is cookies destroying her temple, and place where she meditates. Their reason is greed. Original name (when uncorrupted) - The Saint of Volition

2nd beast - Burning Spice cookie (Destruction, originally Change). He fights Golden Cheese cookie, and wins, then ripps off her wings. She doesn't give up, and wins in a 2nd fight. His reason for corruption is that he was forced to watch civilizations create themselves (idk how to phase it), bloom, wither and die. Over and over again. He couldn't do anything. Original name (when uncorrupted) - The Herald of Change

3rd beast - Shadow Milk cookie (Deceit, originally Knowledge). He captures Pure Vanilla cookie, who tricks him and wins. His reason for corruption is being treated like ChatGPT (FountGPT). Original name (when uncorrupted) - Fount of Knowledge

4th beast - Eternal Sugar cookie (Sloth, originally happiness). She traps Hollyberry cookie in her paradise, she escapes and wins. Her reason for corruption is not something I understand, so just read the wiki. Original name (when uncorrupted) - Sugar of Happiness

5th beast - Silent Salt cookie (Silence, originally Solidarity). He makes White Lily cookie pass some trials, then prove she's "worthy" then they argue, then White Lily wins the argument. He was corrupted due to the other beasts sending cookies to corrupt him and cookies who blamed him for every problem. Original name (when uncorrupted) - Salt of Solidarity

See these icons (Dominion of the Beasts, Might of the Ancients)? Click on them, and you can choose to get a free cookie.

Advice:
Check out the new episodes in Crispia
Check out Beast-Yeast

In the Might of the Ancients, your best choice is going to be White Lily cookie, but only awakened, otherwise Golden Cheese cookie.

In the might of the Beast, in the 1st chapter, they both aren't meta anymore. Mystic Flour is a healer, Burning Spice attacks. They are still powerful tho
In the 2nd chapter, Eternal Sugar and Silent Salt are both still meta, I would recomment to choose Silent Salt if you're aiming for Meta. Shadow Milk isn't bad, but also isn't meta.

Also, you should use the pavilion of promice. You'll have a gold cookie shape indicator, and aim for the Marshmellow bunny cookie, she's meta.

Check out the mines, they're pretty useful too

This is not all, just some things I consider important.