Optimal motor controllers?

[Chris is me]

Lots of different constraints here. It's hard to go wrong between the Talons, Victors, and Sparks available. Even "outdated" controllers are pretty good and should be competitive.

Avoid Jaguars, if they are even still legal at this point. They don't have a great track record for reliability, and while later (black) Jaguars were better, there isn't much reason to use them over a Talon unless you desperately need to save money and they are donated to you from an old team.

Victor SPs and Talon SRXes have both served my team (228) very well this past year. Basically you use a Talon anywhere you might want to implement PID speed or position control on the controller itself, and a Victor anywhere you don't need that functionality. The performance is similar; cost and functionality are the difference makers. Keep in mind a Talon can be used as a regular PWM controller if you prefer.

Sparks are something I don't have direct experience, but my old team (2791) used them this year without any problems. The footprint is a little larger, but they are very inexpensive, robust, and they have some handy little features (limit switch input, the LED has a bunch of different pretty colors, some people prefer screw terminals, etc). The main downside is the larger footprint, which bugs some people.