Commander is a different way to play Magic The Gathering
You will know what your foe's "real life" is at when you subtract the Fireblasts and Lightning Bolt or variants in your hand
I like this balance despite it not being accurate to the game after which it was designed, and I can see utilizing the first choice in this spell
If you do it every game and tutor aggressively to do just that, people will say Oh, thats ALL that deck does and will probably be NOT OK with it
That wont happen often, though, so youll need to be proactive because stalling until you naturally draw combo pieces is a way to let them get insurmountably far ahead and besides, you dont really need the combo anyway
Gray Merchant is a way to stay in a game, a way to end opponents, and an easy one to use at that