Looking at the last ~10 modern sets (Shrouded Fable, Stellar Crown, Surging Sparks, Prismatic Evolutions, Journey Together, Destined Rivals, White Flare, Black Bolt, Mega Brave, Phantasmal Flames), its clear which have stronger fundamentals
You can find non-foil and traditional foil alternate-art versions of Cid, Timeless Artificer in Play Boosters and Collector Boosters
Its completely normal for a single turn to be composed of ten different actions that build on each other just to get a single pokemon evolution, for example, which sounds annoying but is satisfying in practice
Dont Stray too Far from Your Strategy Remember, your goal is still to win
There are also six cards that have been completely removed, either because of them using ante (a mechanic that has long been abandoned due to its close proximity to gambling) or because of offensive content
I've got a few extra bits and pieces to deal with organization, bulk, and color coding in my setup as well (more on that below), but if you're starting out as cheap as you can, you only really need the first two items on this list
