OMG, what an incredible card the Mighty Ninja Jumper will be!!

To help you with Short Term Goal #3, have you considered sorting your cards in the battle screen to Lowest Mana? This is how I've had it sorted for ages, which means the 0 mana cards are always the first ones... and it makes scrolling through much easier because the low mana cards are at the top, and the high mana cards are at the bottom... so if it's a low mana battle I'm already looking at the cards I need... and if it's a high mana battle I scroll down to the bottom.

It's the Sorting drop down in the top right hand corner.

Totally agree that you've got to get yourself a low-mana Dragon summoner. I use Camila all the time and it gives you so many more options to play with.