I told him they came straight from Japan and I have an invoice for them that I can show him
I previously included Pokmon Trading Card Game for Game Boy Color, which was first released in North America in 2000 after having been released in Japan in 1998, on my list of the twelve games that had left the biggest impression on me
Read more about the Alpha and Beta versions on Wikipedia
You get a tournament-quality card (330gsm Black Core) often for less than the cost of the ink required to print a flimsy version at home
Amazing Rare Jirachis Dreamy Revelation reduces this to two cards, but you can take either of them into your hand, you dont need to reveal them, and Jirachi doesnt go to sleep after
The main problem we have here is that this creature just doesnt really do it in modern Magic (I could see this being an uncommon these days!), and the rate wasnt even really good enough when it was first printed, either