Not really. It totally depends on the play style of individual players and their hero rosters. Mana troops are only great if you can shave off a tile from heroes, otherwise damage wise crit troops are the best. Personally, I use a combination of both.
See this thread for further details:
That’s good to know as everyone keeps going on about don’t level anything apart from mana troops as they are the best.
Wow, and I thought my run was bad.
I did finally get one from HA9. Hoping to get another one or a yellow from it or ETTs during NT.
As for the cost… yes it’s excessive. But it always has been. As with so many other aspects of the game, don’t expect it to change.
It needs to change tho even tho there sat there cashing in on it all with a big fat smile. With all these pop up deals and event around every corner and the new hero’s coming in. How the hell are you ment to keep up with it all. It’s insane lol.
One day they might just be like well I fill rich enough now let’s shut the game and got liv it up.
Then all that time and money wasted.
Crit < ninja < mana the way I see it but depends on what you wanna use them for.
And you have to use what you have.
I just refuse to level my green and blue crit very far and keep gathering feeders for the day I get the mana troops.
Only mana troops have specific levels where they give you the edge in battle.
I could change my mind in the future. For now, I’m happy to keep working on my second and third sets of mana troops. 
I’ll Just level what I can and hope for the best then lol.
Plus just found out we hold no wrights to are acounnts. so if one day they just up and leave the game and shut it down then we lose everthing we built. With no care in the world. 