Look for accurate printing, proper card texture, clear holographic effects, and verify the source of purchase
Competition: Unsure (Im too old to play here...) As far as I'm aware The Pokecenter here only holds tournaments for Juniors and possibly Senior players, so Masters players are out of luck if you were thinking of competing here
Originally, flash was only tertiary in white, alongside red
Card draw, removal, and reanimation give him answers to almost everything, and starting at s even loyalty makes him hard to remove cleanly
This three-drop 2/1 flyer dominated play early on for all of those reasons and is still great today in all of the brews
And no, it's not because families are lining up at Mickey D's to get some sweet pulls