The idea behind each of these pieces is that they were imagined to be built in a place of reverence to what they're depicting and so will often not just show the subject of the card in day-to-day activities but instead will show off the epic power or display a key moment in that subject's development or story beats
In total, eleven English sets received 1st Edition print runs over a roughly three-year span: Base Set (January 1999) Jungle (June 1999) Fossil (October 1999) Team Rocket (April 2000) Gym Heroes (August 2000) Gym Challenge (October 2000) Neo Genesis (December 2000) Neo Discovery (June 2001) Neo Revelation (September 2001) Neo Destiny (February 2002) (Plus a few promo cards with 1st Edition stamps) The sets that came after Neo Destiny (Legendary Collection, Expedition, Aquapolis, and Skyridge) did not have 1st Edition print runs
Flavor is the concept of evoking a specific feeling, providing a unique and distinguishable quality to the game and is accomplished either from unique synergy from some cards or even from non-functional parts of cards, such as the illustration or flavor text
Clingy MacGuffin: Magic Skin simulates this
And by intimidating your opponent with growing field presence, it becomes even easier to tempt (or force) them to destroy your cards, which is exactly what you want