Take note of which sets are next in line to be removed from Standard or Alchemy and use cards from them sparingly
At their core, battles are permanents that enter the battlefield with a set number of defense counters
Aggressive interaction cards are helpful not only in the "immediately after the exchange of interaction triggered by an opponent's big action" scenario described in the previous section, but also when you are the "player who initiates the first big action." When the interaction cards in your hand are more aggressive, the winning pattern of "seizing the opportunity to push through with a preemptive strike" becomes more realistic, making it easier to go for the win at various timings, combined with the aforementioned winning pattern of "handling the offensive and deciding the game with a counter-strike." 4
A similar trio of Trophy Pikachus sold at auction for $325,000 (259,000) back in May, 2022, but that set only included one PSA 8 card - the other two were NM 7 and NM+ 7.5 and hailed from the 1998 Lizardon Mega Battle
It doesn't see any play in the first two so - as with so many expensive MTG cards - we turn to EDH to track down the cause of this price rise
Ikoria's Standard meant you had to constantly be aware of cycling with a Zenith Flare about to go off