Bone Shards made it a little better by being able to discard a card instead
And lets be honest, in a vacuum it is bad
While this card is equipped to a Fusion Monster you control: You can send this card and the equipped monster to the GY, and if you do, Special Summon 1 "Flame Swordsman" or 1 Fusion Monster that mentions it from your Extra Deck (This is treated as a Fusion Summon.) You can only use this effect of "Salamandra Fusion" once per turn
Sanguine Bond ($5.98) and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose ($12.49) both read: whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much
While you might be throwing out an All Is Dust or Austere Command from it once in a while, you're more likely to be playing smaller cards like an un-overloaded Vandalblast
What I mean by that is that you then have objectives youre given, if you manage to achieve them then you add more cards, and mechanics in pack-by-pack