you weren't around for the eReader Pokemon TCG era were you?
or for the eReader Animal Crossing cards? which this most closely resembles from what we know
I am aware of the Animal Crossing ereader cards' use in games (and I actually wasn't thinking about their uses in the games while I was writing my reply
), but their uses were so minor and insignificant. If you scan a villager card (like Peanut), you'll get a letter with an item from them that you could get normally in the game? What's the point of that? I could just play the game and get it. Or what about the cards with designs made by Nintendo? I can easily look at the design (in this day and age, on the internet) and try to recreate it within the game. And what about those town tune cards? Again, I can look at the letters for the town tune and recreate it. In something like Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer, they have more of a purpose and use than the ereader cards, and Nintendo is most likely going to use these cards for something in the next Animal Crossing (whether it is used in the same way as the ereader cards, I don't know). Of course, some of the cards were actually pretty cool (like the ones that gave you NES games), but overall, the ereader cards were pretty useless in terms of gameplay.
I know that there is some really terrible amiibo support for some games (Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, in specific) and more limited amiibo support for more obscure characters (like Little Mac or Diddy Kong), but even the ones that are only compatible with Smash have more substance than the ereader cards. I think being able to train and level up your own fighter in the game is really cool, and it can even allow for amiibo Smash Bros tournaments. Mario Party 10 has excellent amiibo support, in my opinion, and I love the Mario Kart 8 suits that amiibos like Captain Falcon, Samus, and Fox have to offer. Plus, Amiibo Tap is coming soon to the Wii U, so you'll be able to play segments of NES/SNES games with them. So far, I think the amiibos don't have that bad support (though I do hate Kirby and the Rainbow Curse and Hyrule Warriors' use of amiibos). There is also definitely going to be more coming to the amiibos in the future, so they'll keep getting more and more support over time.
Also, when I was talking about the pokemon cards, I was referring to the regular pokemon cards and not the ereader pokemon cards. The pokemon ereader cards actually did have a pretty cool use in terms of gameplay, in my opinion, but I still think that Nintendo could handle the Animal Crossing amiibo cards differently when it comes to distribution, especially with all of the madness we're currently experiencing of finding actual amiibos (not the common ones like Mario but the harder to find ones like Little Mac).
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That's not true, there were cards that linked with video games before and they were often random. It makes sense for them to make them random if they want to make extra money since people will have to keep buying the packs (if they don't just get the ones they need from ebay). This is different from amiibo because cards are cheaper to produce and they're planning on releasing a higher number, so it doesn't seem impossible to try to make people buy as many packs as they can.
It doesn't make as much sense if you absolutely need the cards to play the game (instead of just being a bonus), since otherwise you might end up being stuck if you haven't been getting any cards for a while and keep getting repeats. That doesn't mean that they won't do it, though.
I do admit that I did forget about their use in video games when I was writing the original post, but their actual use in video games were just so minor, insignificant, and random. I just wrote about it in another reply, so you could read what I said about that, if you want. I do agree with you that if they did make it random then they would make more money since people would have to keep buying more packs to get the last card they need to complete their collection or the card they want. Even with the cheaper production, I feel like they could just sell them differently, like by number and wave, because of their uses in games. Even though Happy Home Designer is just a spin-off, to get a better experience out of it, you'll need to buy more cards of villagers. Also, if they were randomized, I think it would make Nintendo's relations with customers about amiibo even worse. People already are struggling to find amiibos of more obscure characters (like Little Mac) and are angry at Nintendo about the production shortages, and if Nintendo were to randomize the cards, I feel like it would only make things worse.
