Let me tell about myself first. I am a true farmer in coc. But in last season, my clan was in push and they want me to reach atleast crystal.
I had 4 builder with 660 gems. So I had a little calculation in mind. Crystal - 250 Gems, Master - 1000 Gems, Fire Fighter - 100 Gems, with this I can get my 5th builder. So I decided to involve in the push.
Let me explain my journey from Gold 3 to Masters 3.
When I start my push, I was just 1450. Till 2200, with giant healer combo you can achieve easily. Never look for loots during push. See the trophy, if it is more than 25, go for it. From 2200 - 2400, I use balloonions. 24 balloons (lvl5) and 40 minions (lvl3) with 2 rage and one lighting spell to clear the cc troops. From 2400 - 2600, I use 8 dragons and 20 minions. This is the way I reach masters in just 4 days.
Things to be taken care:
You will find lot of inactive bases after 2200 with the pumps full. Definitely you can take more than 200K gold and elixir if you get in, but you will lose the trophies. Please don't go for it. You will lose more than 25 trophies which is very hard to take back.
When going for balloonions, you can surely win any th8, 2 stars 90% and even a complete 100%. For th9, if the AD is not centralized, then you can even attack a th9. Don't go for th10.
For dragon and minion attack, you can surely 100% th8 base and get atleast one star in any th9 base.
Be careful in sniping the th. You will just get 4-10 trophies. But you will lose more than 30 if they revenge you. Try to be online as much as you can. Once you get attacked, during the period of shield, complete all your works. Don't be ON and OFF.
One more interesting thing is, I keep my th outside. I know the top people will 100% my base if I keep my base inside or outside. So I kept it outside. If someone just snipe my th, they just get 5 trophies and If I revenge then I get more than 30 trophies. (There are many th8 and th7 who keep searching to snipe the th. Let them snipe, be ready to revenge them 100%.)
Clash on

Good luck
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