In my experience, its definitely something to be aware of, but I was pleasantly surprised that the free-to-play aspects were enough to keep me playing
What happened to the Perfect 10 grade
On the other side, Drapion is way easier to set as it only needs Colorless Energy cards to attack
Thats not always a given for green decks, so I imagine Synchronization will be very good in some shells, though worse on average than Cultivate
One benefit to shopping at Pokmon Center is that they release exclusive sets on their site, most notably exclusive Elite Trainer Boxes
Many Japanese releases are exclusive to Japan, feature unique alternate art versions not available in English, and come in smaller print runs that make them more collectible over time