Buying by the case increases your chances of pulling multiple chase cards, though its still not a guarantee for the rarest SAR or UR cards
The cards will be placed in a penny sleeve, toploader, and then sandwiched between shipping protectors (Ding Defender) in a bubble mailer with tracking
Pokmon paused in-person tournaments for almost one entire year, and when they came back, Expanded had completely disappeared from the official competitive circuit
Pokemon explains their banning as follows: Here is the complete list of banned cards in Expanded: The announcement is found here: The Banned List is found here: Update to Ban List for Pokemon TCG - Two Cards Added for Expanded Pokemon has released their quarterly update to the ban list and two cards were added
Market value: Around $125$140 raw
Thats pretty nice, as three mana will often net you something worth even more