I played at a competitive level from when the game began until I went to college (around the time they finally got round to rotating Gardevoir out the format after Winning Every Fucking Tournament Ever). Used to be really good (got 3rd in the UK at one point) and even won trips to the world championships a few times but real life took over. It’s funny seeing the pokemon company finally taking advantage of online play near decades after stuff like RedShark was made to see if RockLock decks really were that annoying or not.
From what I gather of the current meta they seemed to have learned from their mistakes from the earlier generations given the deck variety although banning Lysandre’s Trump Card was probably a good idea of what’s to come later. For most of my life I always regretted not getting into Magic: The Gathering instead given I know far more IRL and NIRL people who’ve played that but the minor resurgence it’s had lately feels nice even though I refuse to touch another rare candy with a 50ft barge pole.
EDIT: If I was back home I could have traded my collection for a deposit on a reasonably sized McMansion but I’ve only myself to blame at this point.