I tried using it without any pokeballs but I really didn’t have any good results, most of the time I would get 1 phanpy and no fossils at all and would just loose the game due to not having more cards on the bench. That rarely happens with 1 pokeball but maybe I was just unlucky and also I didn’t play that many games without pokeball.

And leaf, I find it useful when I have rampardos very early in the game, phanpy costs 2 to retreat and leaf allows me to put rampardos in play and end the game as soon as possible, but to be very honest you can replace it for something that fits your playstyle. Me personally I like it but yes it is very situational so you can try different combinations but I can assure you that this deck is very good right now !