⓪ Dark Pact ◎
Deal 1 damage to the hero casting this. If you do, deal 1 damage to a base, then that player draws 2 cards.
Note that I kept the option to turn it on the opponent because it only deals half as much damage to their base in this version and Sirlin clearly intended for that to be possible since he brought it up in his overview of Demonology. Dark Pact already targets, so it still does so in this version. I don’t know if there’s actually a way you could prevent the self-damage to Vandy (or Bigby), but just to make sure I added the “If you do” clause.
Ah, I hadn’t noticed that’s how you’d phrased it. I’m curious why you prefer that way, though… It seems like “a hero you control” would make it easy to only put the damage on heroes that still have levels and/or won’t see combat, putting Dark Pact right back into “this downside isn’t much of a problem” territory, though that would only be an issue after building Tech II or Heroes’ Hall. I’ll readily admit that it’s a more natural-sounding way of phrasing it, though.
Also, does the rest of it seem good, regardless of which hero takes the damage?
It is mainly a Nerf to dissuade early use. Teching dark pact to start is one of the ways demon can be so oppressive, flooding the board with cards. Dark pact and bone collector or nimble fencer is not an unusual first tech.
Upon consideration I’m almost inclined to leave the base damage at 2, for the reason it generally isn’t a real downside.