Pointed Discussion

You may is what gives this card more than a wavering glance from me. Rather stiff art :/

Pros like me will use this to get rid of any overflow of lands we might have.

There are better loot cards out there for sure, but it's a pretty neat creature that's not outright bad. I like it.

If this had cost 1R and they had removed the 'you may' clause, I believe it would have been fairly costed enough to see some actual play as a not-so(but mostly)-strictly better variant of Goblin Piker. As is with many almost-playable Red cards, an additional mana gets tacked on and the card becomes worthless.

Meh, would have been much cooler without the if-clause:

When Viashino Racketeer enters the battlefield, you may discard a card, then draw a card.

Then casting this as the last card in your hand would have made it a cantrip.
This would have made an interesting red take on Elvish Visionary.

Like that it's just a worse variant of your average draw, then discard effect.

Last edition's Mad Prophet also worked like that...
I wonder if Wizards plans to make this the more common draw/discard variant for red.

I'd rather Rumaging Goblin.

What many people seem to be missing is what a huge enabler this card be in Ravnica limited with Scavange.

2/5.

Rummaging Goblin is so similar to this card, that they need to be compared:

Pros:

- Comes into play and immediately does the effect
- Has more power
- Isn't ruined by (and can take advantage of) "Return target creature to hand" spells
- You don't need to tap this down to activate the effect
- Isn't an activated effect (where cards like Arrest are useful)

Cons:

- This has no use after it came into play (where Goblin can activate it's ability once per turn)
- This can only be "activated" at sorcery speed (unless it gets Flash)
- This isn't in a useful tribal

It's hard to say which is better. In all truth, I'd play Rummaging Goblin over this, since the Tribal is important.

One of the more important things to note about him is that he is, in fact, a rogue. That means he can block and kill deathcult rogue, so if you're going to be up against some good Dimir agents, he can worth sidedecking. Maybe.

Does this combo with Gruul "bloodrush" cards? Will they get their +5/+4 bonus if I discard using this card?

I agree completely with Eternal_Blue. I think getting rid of the "you may" option and making this cost one mana less would have made it much more playable.
I like him as a Viashino and not a goblin. The other red tribes need some love.
Alternatively, he could have been given first strike and cost and been quite playable.