Just like OP05 Awakening of the New Era, Monkey D
Before this, players were still running cards like Cloudshift and Acrobatic Maneuver, which come nowhere near the raw efficiency of Ephemerate
For an example of what Topps 1951 cards looked like, take a look below: For that series only, it was framed to be more like a game (a trading card game, perhaps?) , and each players cards could affect the game, such as drawing a strike or a ball card would mean your pitcher threw a strike or a ball, etc
Imakuni is a case as unusual as the man himself
I don't think we would have committed to such a heavy token infrastructure if token cards hadn't become the norm in booster packs
flip a coin and have the other player call heads or tails