if you live near Freedom in Motion Parkour gym, our Pokmon trading card day is September 24th
As I already mentioned playing the events is the best way of farming cards for your collection and with the normal draft mode and sealed events, the game gives you good options of getting several booster packs and getting more than the paid value in a run if you reach the 50% win rate mark
Amethyst focuses on spells and abilities that manipulate cards in your hand
Printed proxies are for casual play and playtesting where your pod, store, or event explicitly allows them
Use Notion Thief to limit your opponents to drawing only in their draw step, and making any other effects that would give them extra card draw reward you with it instead.
Of course, some of these fell by the wayside with each rotation, but many have been a staple in their respective formats