Though there are ways to guarantee getting hold of certain cards in products such as Starter Decks, for example, which are pre-constructed and always have the same selection of cards but for the most part, players will be at the whim of chance when opening a booster pack
The +1 ability is perfect for Commander games to make all your opponents lose two cards every turn
You stockpile them and they persist across phases and turns until you spend them
Standard is a format where you can only play cards from certain sets that were printed in the past two years
One of the cards was last sold at auction in 2013, where it fetched $54,970 then a Pokmon card record, which has now been smashed by the most recent auction, held in Lynbrook, New York, in early October
Theres a separate Pokemon TCG title for more serious competition called Pokemon TCG Live