Comment by mcphage

Pokemon is significantly better at this than other trading card games (like Magic):

- The rarest cards in every set are usually just alternate art versions of other, more common cards from the set.

- They release products with more powerful cards that have become popular recently, to increase the supply.

- They release good decks based on what is popular in tournaments at a good price ($25-$40, iirc).

- They release copies of tournament winning decks at a really good price (like, $15 for the whole deck). These are proxy cards—they have a different back, they, don't have foil, the printing isn't as high quality. But if you wanted to try out a good deck, they're incredibly cheap.

TCGs are inherently predatory, but Pokemon seems to realize it's played mostly by kids.