Pointed Discussion

the effect is so appealing, but unfortunately it's so expensive :(

I can't imagine any deck where sacrificing three lands, and wasting an additional two mana every turn would be worth the ability to draw a card... half a star

i'm gonna use this in my druid highlander deck

I like the idea, but should be less expensive, as in cmc and to activate

Land Tax makes this awesome.

Ugh, way too expensive from the fact that you have to sacrifice a land, too.
The cmc should be 1, or 2 at the most, and you shouldn't have to pay mana to use it's tap ability.

2/5

Why the hell is it common?

Through an annoyingly long process of improbable card acquirement, you have procured a long combo with somehow large reliability. It is as follows
Gilder Bairn + Paradise Mantle + Training Grounds + Coretapper + This

A 5 card combo for infinite charge counters/self draw.

Fate Transfer + Darksteel Reactor
March of the Machines

It's important to note that this would not be a leading card for stuff, if anything, it'd be like a side card that it wouldn't hurt too bad to draw. I can only give it 2.5/5 though.
See also: Culling Dais, Serum Tank

Tricked out flashlight FTW!

This is so bad, it doesn't NEED Skullclamp in the same block to look horrible. Although. . . there it is.

If you want to sacrifice anything and get cards, use Culling Dais. You can fill your deck with Threaten-type cards, and just turn opponent's creatures into card draw.

At least you have the option to sacrifice land you used to pay the {2}, unlike a certain elemental I could name....

You're missing the part where the second ability uses Charge Counters and has no limiting factors like mana cost or a tap. All you have to do is load up the counters with some other effect.

No, that's okay, Magic, you can keep your little flashlight.

This is one of those weird cards where it sucks regularly but in EDH it somehow becomes acceptable

Not an auto-include, but very effective in slow decks in the days of Darksteel draft.

I really don't understand why the sacrifice a land clause was tacked on here. 1 card every three turns seems fine without it.

It's like a Jayemdae Tome that costs less to draw a card but makes you sacrifice land (which is normally a pretty harsh cost, but if a game goes long enough you might have enough lands out to not care). And every 3 turns you get to draw an extra card. There are cards that work with charge counters, so you could be drawing an extra card that way.

Also doesn't really feel common, since it's an artifact with multiple abilities and also gives quite a bit of card advantage over time (commons should be things like Cancel and Doom Blade that are fairly good but are 1-for-1s or occasionally 2-for-1s)

I'm working on a RG midrange Pauper deck. After scouring the Gatherer for decent card draw engines for such a deck, I discovered this. I'm also running Serrated Arrows, which prompted me to bother with Volt Charge. Proliferating the Charge Counters on this, though, seems like surprisingly good synergy. And the deck never needs more than 4 mana, so I have no qualms with sacrificing a land whenever I draw into one. At least that way, I'll rarely have dead turns.

Don't get me wrong, the card isn't great. I'm running it as a one-of. But still, 1.5? Harsh. There are more formats than standard or eternal, and this isn't even that bad in a slower Limited environment.

EDIT: And why do half of these comments completely overlook the fact that the first ability also let's you draw? It isn't one card every three turns. it's one card every turn, with one additional card every third turn. RTFC.

Combos with Herald of Leshrac and Gilt-Leaf Archdruid. :)

While green mages don't tend to look to artifacts; this is for them. Green ramp decks have the issues of:
-Too much mana in the mid->late game, nothing to do with the cards
-Continue drawing garbage

Combining this with a ramp deck can pull you out of that unfortunate scenario by turning those lands into cards. Every third activation creatures card advantage instead of filtering; though it'll be 6 lands/turns in before this actually makes an *extra* card. Still, it's an ok analog for that.