in the end, even when running mono, only 5 troops per color are needed. Summary of what I’ve taken away: Mana troops are key for hitting certain mana breakpoints; for tile damage, crit troops seem to have a very slight edge over ninja troops (but very slight). Ninja troops for Rangers due to the bypass effect.
I don’t have any answers myself, as I now have 3 Purple ninja troops… am still going to decide how many I will keep myself