Floodwaters

Six mana to bounce two creatures is a tempo trade no constructed deck has ever wanted to make at that rate, and the design accounts for that. The card's real value lives in the cycling clause: at any point you draw it dead, two mana converts it back into a fresh card, so the worst case is a slightly expensive cantrip rather than a brick. That dual nature runs through the cycling cycle this belongs to: each card pairs an expensive, situational effect with a cheap escape hatch, so a control deck can run a few copies knowing they are never a liability in the matchups where the bounce is irrelevant. The double-bounce mode exists for the games it does matter (clearing two blockers, resetting a pair of enters-the-battlefield threats, buying a turn against a developed board), and the cycling exists for every other game. Read it not as a removal spell with an upgrade attached but as a cantrip with a removal mode stapled on for the rare turn you need it. The asymmetry in how often each half gets used is the design's honest accounting: the bounce is the exception, the draw is the rule, and pricing the cycling at two means you almost always have the choice.