Reading through this, I think an interesting point gets brought up:
- How much is 1 point CC damage capability worth (in terms of cost theory)
- How much is 1 point of player damage capability worth
- How much is the added flexibility of being able to choose either worth
Once that gets ironed out, you can balance this against lightening, UG, and other bolts.
Honestly at 10 points to opponent, its not something you can build a deck around in and of itself. E.g. UG can actually KILL an opponent with no outside help. This card cannot.
Lastly, there is the "instinctive" mechanic to look at. This is tricky since it depends largely upon the mechanic it is being linked to. In this case, it is linked to card drawing... As far as I can tell this does next to nothing in terms of balance cost since it will effectively mean that it gets used the turn after it is drawn. Short of an opponent with mirror shield in play, there would be no reason not to use it asap anyway. Thus its an amusing, but extraneous mechanic that won't really add much to the card aside from a thematic feel.
If you link "instinctive" to something else, however, this could be a significant balancing mechanic. E.g. if it instead responded to an enemy playing a weapon or shield. That would be pretty cool, and could be used as balancing feature to some extent.
One other interesting thing you could do here (which I've been toying around with myself) is to have it make use of an equiped weapon. I.e. it could do, say, weapon damage + 4 or something like that.
