If you had to axe 3 of the most popular species from ME:A...

Ah, well if you're saying you had to lose three...

Drell, Turian, Korgan.

The drell as I already said have no special use. And krogan and turians primarily bring martial might which can be covered by humans and geth. Krogan are also expected to be unruly in confined spaces so that's a point against them too.

Besides, in a new galaxy we won't be top dog so a straight on fight may be unwise anyway. In which case we'd want to use subversion, deception and sabotage- things salarians, quarians and even asari are better at.

Sneaky sneaky.....I like it. 

Nice thread OP but very difficult question.

If I should remove three races probably:

1) Drells: I never particularly liked them or found them interesting. Probably it's BW fault for that but I can do without them.

2) Geths: I liked them better when they were alien machines but with Legion in ME2 and ME3 they lost all their appeal to me as BW was trying to make them more "organic" so that we could relate with them. Sadly they lost their exotic charm to me. Also I don't have any particular love towards AI races in general.

3) Quarians: This is difficult because I really like them but I feel them being back would be unfair towards the geth lovers. I'm on the fence with them IF BW takes the time to create a proper face for the quarians and give us a different perspective on them other than the one of the Flotilla (maybe Quarians renegades). Then I'm all for them being back.

I would pick Salarians, Drell and Geth.

Salarians: All Salarians are basically the same. The only differences between individuals is their level of courage. We all know they are intelligent, but what else have they really got going for them? They can be easily replaced.

Drell: I wouldn't consider them a main species so cut them. No question.

Geth: There story is done. They've gone from enemies to potential friends. We don't need more of that.

I voted...

1.- Geth, because if the ark left before or during the events of ME3 there is absolutely no reason for them to be in. They were still enemies.

2.- Drell, we have only met 3 of them, and only properly interacted with one. I think they would be a fresh change, but since is a dying species with no resources of their own there is little they can add to the Ark project.

3.- Krogan, they are a resilient species so I can see advantages to bringing them and, according to the footage, we know they are in. But if the ark left before the events of ME3... that means that the ones in the project still have the genophage, I don't want to go over that again... nor I want a "Oh! after centuries in stasis the genophage has waned away!"

My two cents 

I really hope something like this doesn't happen...

No Human "Axeing" option? You Humans are all racist.

I like the Geth, but this is a very good point. 

Drell and Geth were easy. Then there was a tie between Krogan and Asari. In the end I chose Krogan as 3rd, even though it's already confirmed they'll be in the game

From a story point of view there is not much reason for Quarians, Geth, or Drell to be there so it is a pretty easy vote. There isn't really a good reason for Krogan to be there either but they are awesome so I would have them. I suspect Quarians will be in the actual game however, just like Krogan they are too popular with a segment of the fan base so they will try to fit them in.

If the devs want to have some species make the trip, but still not waste too much time on new models etc they can just write the species into the story and lore but not show them in the game. This will leave them the option of bringing them back at a later date while still allowing a lot of emphasis put on new species.

Quarians, Geth Salarians. I think we've had a lot of the storyline/content involving the geth/quarians so I wouldn't mind not having more, Salarians because nobody could be as good as Mordin and any other Salarian they brought in would pale in comparison.