After reading part 5, I thought it went the most ordinary way for a newbie just played for 5 hours. You are not supposed to be winning many (2-3) upped cards in AI5 in that short time. And that's the reason you can't become rich in 8 hours.
As for the decks used in each part, only the speed rainbow in part 2 is effective against the AI3. The Life rush could be used for an alternative, but undoubtedly it has a lower win rate. The mono-Aether deck is outdated, and should not be used to play against AI4+.
According to the ttw study, the fastest unupped AI3 decks had an average of 7/8 ttw. At this speed, you can hardly earn enough to up one card in an hour. This is also the reason why the newbies quit in this stage.