You see, Hand to Hand started with a simple idea
Seeing it all written out like this makes it even funnier that Punishing Fire is on the banned list, to the point that I almost want to bump it up to A-tier
When the deck "goes off," you can sometimes have turns where you're cycling through 15+ cards while doing other shenanigans, which can take a while and isn't fun for the rest of the table
Paying 2 each turn just isnt feasible, although I could imagine a world where sacrificing it could be beneficial, but this is highly unlikely with the powerlevel being where it is
Core sets always had the issue that they werent as popular with players as other Standard sets, often lacking a creative theme for players to get excited about, or just not having many new cards
Chances are youll have the chance to buy in at $2 at some point still, so be patient