They are currently riding a wave of interest, but once people have a chance to slow down, and were past the folks who instantly need a draft set of these lands, were off
Luffy has the cleanest early appeal because Impel Down resource acceleration is easy to understand
If you go for Rare Candy, you can chain up your Greninja ex every turn
Instead of getting flyers, you get 3/3s with trample, haste, and crucially melee
The Pokemon Company knew from the start of development that these would be the centerpiece cards of the set, and were unafraid to put some big, flashy moves on em
The card that I overrated the most from Aether Revolts Top 20 list was Metallic Mimic, as I thought it would make a big impact in Humans strategies for Standard