Path to Gold! Part 3- I leave Gold League behind

This is actually the 3rd in a series- "Path To Gold" where I took one of my alts from a 0 rating Novice account to Gold (and beyond) in 3 steps:
0 rating to Silver- https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@axrho/does-yodin-still-rule-bronze

Through Silver to Gold!- https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@axrho/testing-grum-in-silver

After hitting Gold! I let the account 'rest' for a day then rented back up and attacked Gold League- to see how competitive it was and whether a couple of ideas I had would work....

How Did I Do?

As you can see- 111 Battles (Total) to go from 0 rating to 2,809. Total Record: 93-17-1 with a MAX streak of 24 wins in a row (through Silver- Silver League is, truly, Easy Mode). Of those 111 Battles, I played 32 Battles in Gold, going 29-3 before I broke 2800 rating and decided to advance to Diamond.
Grum, was pretty impressive in Gold. I didn't play him much after the start though- had other builds I wanted to test for my 2nd attempt at running up the ladder.

In those, rare, situations where I did field him though.... BRUTAL
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_0b3e74ace808746231aec1f8e4141b89&ref=rhosho1

and here's a 'fun' one where Grum runs over Kron like he's a Speedbump
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_b907eeb1f5d7931057733fda20348102&ref=rhosho1

Sure, I WON but How Did I DO?!?!

While Advancing through Gold- I got 2 Quests (Fire, Dragon) for a total of 13 chests.
I was also earning ~30 DEC/win (some Beta/Gold cards but not many) so those 29 wins represent close to 900 DEC in earnings while the chests.... well here's my Quest Rewards from my first Gold Quest:

Yep. 13 DEC, GF Heatsmith, 2 other Commons, a Legendary Pot and..... a Chaos Legion pack. Went ahead and opened it- wasn't too bad:

According to @peak-monsters monsters pack analyzing tool- ~$2.50 worth of cards. Add in the 2nd Quest Reward, the GF Common from this one.... almost $4.00 from rewards and about $2.50 in earnings means I pulled about $6.50 out of 32 games in Gold.

My best Builds (other than Kitty/Grum) were:
Life/Sneak
L6 Tyrus- 25/day
L5+ Shield- 25/day
L5+ SS Ass- 17/day
L5+ Time Mage- 2/day
L8 PelCon- 2.5/day
L6+ Stich Leech- 2/day
L4 Evangelist- 14/day

L4 Uraeus- 7
L5+ Pixie- 4
L5+ Tower Griffin- 8.5
L6+ Cutthroat- 4.5
GF Chicken- 15
Total- ~100 DEC/day

Water/Melee (Anti- Magic)
L6 Bortus- 35
L3 Baak- 11
L8 Bandit- 3
L6+ Seaweed- 2.5
L5+ EELS!- 10
L6+ Captain- 2.5
L6+ Turtle- 3.5
L6+ Crusty- 8
L4+ Mystic- 12
Total ~80 DEC/day (TBH- there's some overlap with the Life Neutrals and both decks also 'used' a L4 Daria at times- 20/day)

Then, there was the FIRE!
L2 Grum- 4
L6 Pyre- 20
L4 Lava Launcher- 6
L5+ Monkey- 4
and some... Stuff- Fire Elemental, Cerberus, L4 Tusk, Spy, Striker, Fineas, Supply Runner (5), Ooze...

Which is a Grand Total of 250 DEC or $0.75 'invested' against $6.50 'earned'- not bad! Although, TBH, I probably spent another $0.25 on POWER to cover the gap between those cards and what I needed for Gold I.
Doesn't change the fact- I MADE $5.00 playing a game (111 Battles) for 3 days (4- I took a day off in the middle)