You should try the tourneys. They've decided to level the field a bit in the novice tourneys. And overall, tourneys are mostly fun (i prefer the smaller ones, though, the ones that don't have 100 people in it)
What you are experiencing in the gold league is a general thing. I'm experiencing the same, even in diamond 1. I don't know what the reason is, but my best guess would be that people played their account to the highest level possible, and then, with still 9 days of the season left, they bought a new starter deck, sent the high level cards to the new account and the low level cards to the old account. Now, they are playing the low level cards in the old account with a high rating, waiting for the time out on the cards to expire, so they can bring the new starter decks with the high level cards in it up to diamond in the last two days of the season. That way, they can get double rewards
I'm not entirely sure this is the case but since it started when there were 9 days left in the season and a time out on a card takes 7 days, ... it's the only logical explanation...