The goal is to have some continuity between Gateways learn-to-play experience and the actual experience of playing Lorcana at a store, and its beautifully executed
Personally, I think this is a great idea, as in the past there have been criticisms that too many cards in a single set have been serialized
But the portal it opens has lots of demonic arms and hellfire reaching out and tearing apart that human who's probably trying to make contact with the Phyrexians
Each artwork nods to a companion Cloud might select for the original encounter, Tiffa, Aeris, Barret, or Yuffie, turning a lighthearted pause in the saga into an affectionate snapshot that fans immediately recognize
For one Blue to function as a discard effect or a Lightning Bolt to each player is pretty good
The obvious corollary is that theres going to be downward pressure on the basic versions of serialized cards, as the value in new sets is now spread out and skewed in favor of super-rare chase cards