The first widely available foil card was a promotional card for Urzas Saga called Lightning Dragon, which was distributed at Urzas Saga prerelease events
Strong card flow, no one cares about life loss in Commander, and you can add loyalty counters to your other 'walkers without pulling planeswalkers and then you can add in +1/+1 counters to your stuff and counters onto Helix Pinnacle to win and then poison on foes and then also -1/-1 on their stuff
Just like the raw card marketplaces, graded cards have public/visible markets and private/hidden markets
Region Specific Crimps: Different regions package cards differently
It can be in Black decks with Cabal Coffers, in Green with Explosive Vegetation, in mono-color with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and with Red's love of Treasures
I was eventually able to get a small group together and we've been playing on a weekly basis for a few months now