Every pack contains 1011 Traditional Foil cards and 1 Rare or Mythic Rare Foil-Etched card
+1: Each opponent exiles two cards from their hand
Decks that want to play counters are almost always control decks, and control decks would much prefer to gain life rather than cause opponents to lose life, so all things being equal they would have preferred to play with Absorb but there were other considerations that forced most of them down the black road instead
#12 I feel like the original M EX's would have worked better for pocket, ending your turn on evolution without a tool, giving up all your prizes on one Pokemon seems like a lot #13 When the never ending natural creep of power makes the game not as fun as it used to be #14 this is fine for pacing on paper
Tapping them and untapping them through other means are always on the table as well, like crewing a vehicle or using cards like Intruder Alarm or Augusta, Dean of Order
The system isn't perfect and it occasionally pairs you up or down to ensure you find a match, but it generally keeps things balanced and helps prevent new players with a small collection from playing against completely maxed-out decks