Normally that could make the games annoying to play or very luck dependent but with this format and the large card pool, it means you need to adjust your strategy based on what you get
[57] Sometime later, Tajiri remembered an incident while playing Dragon Quest II (1987), a role-playing game (RPG) for the Famicom (NES)
Adding authentication is also good for business
Gamestop can plausibly argue that it's just engaging in what economists call pricing equilibrium , raising the cost of the cards to better reflect their true market value, but as Rutherford points out, this also puts the cards financially out of reach for a huge chunk of the intended Pokmon card consumer market, who aren't in fact collectors flush with cash but children and teenagers eager to play a card game
While it reads like it gives all Slivers lifelink, it doesnt
You'd think this one would have been caught before going to print, but apparently not