Clan said I was crazy for gemming pirate flag and barb statue. Here's why I did it
The pirate flag and barb statue are the most useless items to spend gems on. Here's how I would rank in gemming usefulness: builders, special event boost, barrack boost, spell boost, hero boost, speed up builder/upgrade, buy loot, speed up troops/heroes/spells, resource boost, shield, and lastly pirate flag and statue.
Now, since I started CoC my goal was to have the most powerful base possible without spending any money. Currently I'm a late-ish th9 and with all 5 builders. I had about 2k gems leftover. Now I had a few choices. I could boost barracks and go after loot, but I never had trouble keeping all 5 builders busy and I rarely have 2 hours of solid free time. I can speed up an upgrade, but at th9 2k gems is Not gonna get me very far. Maybe shave a couple weeks off an upgrade, and remember it takes Months of cutting trees to get that many gems. Or I can be very wasteful and just buy loot. But again I can get that much loot in a day or two while saving that many gems take months.
So.. I gemmed the decorations. These two are permanent and will always be a part of my base. Why spend months and months diligently cutting trees and hitting achievement all so that I could shave off a few days of looting and upgrading? It made no sense to me. So I spent 1k on a permanent fixture that only about 1% of the entire CoC population has: the pirate flag and the barbarian statue. I'm not saying anyone else should do what I did. I'm just saying that was the best choice for me and remains as a nice little reward. Now... I still have 1k left.. maybe I'll boost a barrack sometime...