For new players, Gems of War can be an uphill battle of janky teams until you meet that troop who puts your team on its shoulders and carries you through 1000 battles.
My PC Account: The Dragon Soul
My Switch Account: The Great Maw
Who was your superhero? Anyone who got Yao early, I am truly jealous.
I got The Dragon Soul from the first 3 gem keys which game gives to new players as the end of the tutorial to teach open gem keys. The Dragon Soul was my carry for the first few weeks - the other 3 slots on my team were dragons just to boost TDS, I barely used them. It was nice starting experience, I didn’t have any issues with souls.
For a long, long while I ran Knight Coronet teams. Pretty good damage output, all in all, and an easy troop to boost.
Then my MVP troop was King Highforge. Had me upgrading all my dwarves in no time 
Dragon Soul was my awakening on my main account
Glaycion/King Bloodhammer on my alt until I had the old Divine META.
I relied very heavily on Krystenax for a good chunk of my early playing. Stoneskin, self enchants, pretty good AoE damage, mana denier for enemy troop colors and summons a respectable meat shield. Great early/mid level troop.
Queen Mab. I spent $$ on her when she first came out, it was the first time I could PvP without losing more than winning. It was the first time I felt like I can compete, really made me enjoy the game and upped my play time by a lot. Used her until she got replaced by Infernus.
Had to think a bit on this one.
I would say started with a Knight team with Knight Coronet then a true damage team with Emporer Korvash, Marlith, Moloch and Spirit Fox carried me for a very long time!
I ran Titan with Mang, Goblin Rocket, Goblin and Boar Rider so often, that Boar Rider was still my most used troop after unlocking and using the skeleton key team for almost 8 months. (I did use Boar Rider on a beast team for awhile as well after Mab was introduced.)
Goblin Rocket was the straw that stirred the purple drank tho. I still use that rascal, but not as much as I used to.
Me too! Along with Dark Maiden as a general support troop/mana generator, and probs Ranger 
.
Infernal King + Sekhma (With Dark Maiden in the middle, and Bronzelock/Anu’s Sceptre/MC up the top, I think) was a combo I seem to recall using for harder battles, especially when Pet Rescues were introduced.
I ran a Centaur team in my early-mid levels for PvP with Artema, Herdmaster, Star Gazer and Bul’Tauros (before having a hero on the team was essential).
Then used a Flammifer(?), Dark Maiden, Yao, (Sekhma?) team in PvP for a bit.
Then MC(?), Ish, FG, Star Gazer 
after which Talents were introduced.
Didn’t get TDS until after 1000+ but Pharos was my first craft, and used him to finish some of the quests on Warlord III-IV, making them when more painful than they already were .
Occasionally used him in PvP, for fun, but wasn’t as quick or reliable as my main teams.
Emperor Khorvash/Valkyrie/Crimson Bat/Mercy carried me for at least 2 years. But it was a different game back then.
On gowdb.com you can see how many times you’ve used a troop in PvP.
My first legendary was Crimson Bat (then one of the best troops in the game) and I’ve used it almost 4,000 times. Every troop with more uses is from one or more long term meta teams.
When I got to about lvl 50 I went through all I had (which wasnt much) and I built knight coronet, satyr musician, shocktopus, baat daam dao with bard class. I spent all my time getting everything to trait the bard and knight coronet. Once I got it traited it carried me in pvp 3 trophy almost through lvl 1000
Pc/mobile I was lucky and got a Plague early on. I couldn’t trait him, and he took forever to get mana, but his debuffs helped me do more than I could have without him.
On Switch my first major score was Gargoyle from Halls of Guardians faction, he helped me get to mid game.
Kraken…long, long, long time ago. pre-4x speed
Ek
Valk
Bat
Mercy
Intrim2
Check out my win streak on that ish sometime 
Alchemist
Gob rocket x3
Those were the days. Then titania came along - even better!
Copycat. 
I was carried by
Treant
Alchemist
Valkyrie
Banshee
Yes, I’m old.
Celestia
Sylvanimora
The Dragon Soul
Draccos 1337
(Before the days of hero xp and class leveling)
Paladin
then
Elemaugrim
I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t get that random mythic by accident during an exclusive week that I didnt even know was a thing at the time.