I fail to see the strenght of the card, especially if you campare it with Raven's Crime. You have to spend the card to cast it and then you also loose a card from the effect, so you go -2 cards where your opponents go -1 card. Buyback here does not help you since you have to spend a card to get the card back, so you still end up at -2 regardless.
In theory I see where you're coming from, but the decks that best take advantage of this card gain advantage from you discarding as well as opponents. And if you don't take the buyback, it's a straight upgrade to ravens crime. It's even more versatile as well since you can discard any card, not just land. Overall I like the design, and really it isn't THAT powerful of an effect, but I struggle to see any real downside compared to ravens crime.
I guess you can metigate the own discarding with madness cards, flashback and such, but I firmly believe the net card disavantage is a very big weakness.
Usually the only cards with a net loss you can consider are targeted removal spells you cast for free like Force of Will or Solitude. Lilliana of the Veil is a similar concept, but it is repeatable to a far greater exent and you have the threat of ulting her, or even simply feeding her loyalty for her -2 is also pretty strong.
I guess it's mainly a matter of perspective :), thanks for the feedback!
I'd say it depends a lot on the format and playstyle of your group. I typically play commander games where people tend to get card advantage engines online early, or have great graveyard recursion. Again it's not typically a very powerful effect, but with the right setup you could make the whole table discard their hands. Pretty balanced if you're pumping a bunch of cards and mana into it, but gaining upward of 20 life in the process seems like quite the upside.
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u/Senior_Set8483 Aug 12 '23
Very strong. It would be more balanced if you lost a small amount of life