An activated mana ability is one that produces mana as it resolves, not one that costs mana to activate
If my memory serves right, Jeremy only had 1 Pokmon to start and with 6 cards in hand, I thought it would be beneficial to set him back to 4 cards before he could play anything down
Side note: We could start talking about the impact of nostalgia and collectibles and how that affects things but let's stick purely with the design aesthetics
A quick note: a Magic: The Gathering card is defined as having a Magic card front and back, typically with the brown almost book-like design on the back, with exceptions for double-sided cards
There was no tier zero deck during this phase of the game, and people loved it
A Chaos Rising ETB, for example, currently has a market price of $79.99