This is probably better idea than the Waste Not variant.

­Lightning Rift costs mana for a reason.

It is worth noting that cylcing is even on card usage, so generally the only cost associated with cycling is mana - allowing you to produce mana by cycling is going to inevitably lead to infinity or at least arbitrary size.

While that's not bad I just think that each of the two effects alone is exciting enough and unless you want to make one of those ugly Disciple of the Ring mythics out of this I suggest splitting this into two cards.

I can definitely see the concern with the mana portion of this that it can lead to infinite casting concerns, or at least give significant power.

I see the concern with both abilities, the Lightning Rift argument is a very valid one. Some triggered abilities just need a mana cost cause they are either very easy to trigger or can influence the whole battlefield. That is a card that does a lot for basically no extra cost apart from paying once. I'm a broken record already, but I have to repeat that concern again: We got tons of triggered abilities in every rarity, way more than I've ever seen in a set, and I really don't think that is good design.

I can agree that we don't want to overdo the triggered abilities, but it makes sense to me that cycling as a trigger is going to be a staple theme on some portion of cards. Maybe just not as many as we have designed around it.

Could an altered version of this more similar to Lightning Rift fit the UR01 creature/cycling matters slot?

Something like:

Whenever you cycle a card, you may pay 1. Then 2 damage.

Basically, it would be Lightning Rift on a stick, but it only counts cards you cycle instead of any player.

That would be the third "When you do a set thing, burn something" card in the skeleton just of the top of my head. If this goes in, we should cut the discovery-themed triggered burn.

I like the fact that this has options in general. Maybe earmark this design for a rare/legendary down the road?

We defiantly cant make this at uncommon. I dont even think we can make Lightning Rift at uncommon.

Did you guys read the suggested change? :P It's like you're responding to the card as is instead of what I actually suggested.

If it still deals damage (as you suggest) my comment stands: We have too many of these effects already.

I just dont like cards that can repeatedly kill other cards. Mass removal is one thing but being able to just repeatedly shoot down creatures each turn is another one of those things that just isnt fun. Plus its one of those cards that can just get out of hand at uncommon in limited. The idea can defiantly be used for a rare down the line.