On topic: I'll vote for vt under SoD; I've been playing with the HD mod for a long time and have never encountered issues with castles graying out or other bugs...
As for the idea that you must play mirror—absolute nonsense (especially in some specific turn). After all, the same templates are usually oriented toward the opponent, and that's where the beauty lies. I'm not going to play mm6 against Alex or Cobra, I'm not going to play Jebus Cross against Lizard, I'm not going to play mirror against Zhenya, I'm not going to play against Bayezid... actually, I won't play against him at all! If the opponent is stronger, I will strive for a more dispersive template that depends on the layout...