The reward
If it weren't for the plethora of support cards for specifically Treasure tokens, Gold would be objectively stronger
Sapphire has seen some good success in the meta, with its strong combination of powerful draw engines, item synergies and ramp cards
I do like the combination with damaging death triggers and setting off explosives like Pashalik Mons, Omnath, Locus of Rage, Dreadhorde Butcher, Perilous Myr, or Leyline Tyrant, is an inventive way to reach a solution
The Team Rocket executives are all nameless and use a generic "Executive" trainer class, while later games would give the higher-ranking villainous team members unique names and appearances
It has a large HP pool for survivability, it has a powerful Thunder Fang attack, which deals 80 points of damage with no drawbacks, and it inflicts the Paralyzed status effect on one of the opponent's active Pokemon