Pointed Discussion

On the german version the discard is not random.

so can you activate this is you have no hand?

Of course not, 1919.

@1919: no you can't; discarding a card at random is part of the activation cost.

In Soviet Russia, the card discards you.

Mike Tyson

Easy to play around. If you have only one card or certian cards in your hand, the discard isn't random at all. Use cards like Basking Rootwalla or Fiery Temper and suddenly those 1 mana counters aren't looking so terrible after all.

If red had card engines, this card would be fun and intersting. But since drawing cards is one of the only things limiting fast red decks, and slow red decks are usually more combo-oriented to handle random discard, this card can't find a place. One card is almost always worth more than a +1/+1 counter, unless it's a land, but you can't even guarantee you lose a land to this all the time.