Playing around with the 'Looting' mechanic.

I've always taken the looting mechanic to mean I make my discard choice(s) after drawing cards. If this is a variant, fine. But, why not try a variant of the original version. Maybe lower the overall cost and/or activation cost and add another discard at the end. So, you're discarding as part of the cost to draw an additional card, but you still "loot". It's not as elegant, but it makes you think about what to discard on both ends of the draw.

This is indeed meant as a variant of looting. Its the way it is because as the flavour text says, it extracts memories (cards from hand) to grant knowledge (cards drawn). Also, as worded you must have a card in hand to discard for the ability so if you have no cards in hand, it's useless.