Yeah, Venusaur has never been a powerful damage-dealer on paper, and has always relied on Frenzy Plant as a means to boost its numbers
While theyre useful to ramp out massive artifacts, they also work exceptional well in storm and similar archetypes that attempt to cast a flurry of artifacts by making 1- or 2-mana artifacts cost 0
While some cards feature the same artwork with three different color variations, the Full Art, Ultra Rare, and Alternate Art of these two Pokemon all offer unique portrayals
Mostly, this gives you a Zombie at the end of your turn if you lost 2 or more life, and losing life on your own turn isnt something that will just happen -- youll have to create situations to make that part work, and even though Black is always capable of doing that in Limited, it is highly unlikely you get a critical mass of those cards going that allows you to consistently make a Zombie, and you probably need to get at least two out of this for it to feel worth it
Tracking down rare Japanese cards individually can be challenging, as they are frequently scooped up in the West
Later printings of these cards gave the Pokemon a shadow, so the shadowless versions are considered the true 1st edition of English-language Pokemon cards