original manehattan trio was neat, and i really liked that the team was built with a theme, but it lacked variety, i think that was it's downfall, all it's members had the same fans
Yeah, the theme was the best thing about it. From a competitive point of view, I can't look past Ponyville (two of the Mane 6!) and Changeling Kingdom (several very popular characters) – I wouldn't have been surprised to see both in the final, though it couldn't happen in the end.