For one way to keep this alive long enough, you can try using Magic Reflector to prevent your opponent from destroying it using card effects
Clear, well-lit portraits and action shots tend to print best because the subject is distinct against the background
In fact, if I remember correctly, the person started off with something like a clothespin, or some other useless item, and continued swapping it with other people at the convention until someone eventually traded him a Magic card for said item
This is great mana to card draw ratio when you are around four or more, so starting there I'll typically add in this into my card draw section
It hits around halfway in my chart
At first I did all the card backgrounds and details with CSS, but I found some good quality card assests and decided to add those instead so it would look higher quality and like actually Pokemon cards