Sir Dan Saul Knight, I agree with your point of them having to be the same grade, however I normally end up with a glut of grade 1 3 star geists and same with the grade 2 3 star geists, I normally have a few 3 star champions in grade 1 and 2 prepared for this to take those champs to 4 stars, upgrade them to get my 100 emeralds from each then use them on a good keeper 4 star champ of the higher grades
Sometimes I will even take those geists to 4 stars each using useless 1 star grade 1 and 2 champs to sacrifice on them to get my 100 emeralds then use those 4 star geists onto a 4 star grade 1 champion to get it to 5 stars maxed for emeralds, even enlighten if I want to get another 200 emeralds then use it on a high grade champ I want to keep to get that champ to maxed 6 stars
I never take a geist up to 5 stars of grade 1 or 2 as they become worthless in those grades at 5 stars because they can only be used on 5 star champs of the same grade thus taking that wothless grade 1 or 2 champ to 6 stars so is only good for sacrificing for xp really once you have gained the extra emeralds from them
My league, we play to get to floor 55 or 60 without using emeralds to unlock our champs because the higher floored geists just arn't really worth it to us for the amount of emeralds it costs to get up into the 70's or 80's, the highest i ever saw any league get personally on my server was to floor 98
Thats just my own way of how I make the most use of my geists, if there are handy tips there you see, your welcome to use them