Even interactions with other cards aside, two of the life gain version would allow you to cast Gitaxian Probe for free, and three of the life gain version would actually gain you life.
THis is why I should not be allowed to post on forums at 3am
It is. It will trigger Drogskol Reaver, Sanguine Bond and other stuff that triggers on life gain (including Boon Reflection... hurray free Phyrexian mana!). Whether Socrates think its a bug or a feature is up to him, though.
It's really too bad you're aiming this squarely as graveyard abuse, because the way it reads, this really, really wants to just be a reverse Splice:
Pulse N (As you cast this spell, you may reveal a [instant/sorcery/instant or sorcery] Card with converted mana cost equal to or less than N from your hand. If you do, add that card's effects to this spell.)
Which we can tweak, I guess, for graveyard:
Pulse N (You may pay an additional N as you cast this spell. If you do, add the effects of target [instant/sorcery/instant or sorcery] Card from your graveyard with converted mana N to it.) With a potential "then exile it", as for flashback.
More wordy, but feels as clear as can be. Plus scaling Pulse rather than referring to the original card's CMC is more elegant: you scale Pulse to the CMC behind the scene, but you can still scale it up or down however you want, and even put it as X.
I thought Daxos was a champion (or was it oracle?) of all gods? Or did I misremember that?
There's a lot of link issues, especially, for some reason, in the Zendikar section. I'm not sure why several links seem to be intended for story articles only in that section, so for those I listed both the story and fixed card link.
You got Elspeth's family name misspelled in the Scars sction.
THis is why I should not be allowed to post on forums at 3am
Pulse N (As you cast this spell, you may reveal a [instant/sorcery/instant or sorcery] Card with converted mana cost equal to or less than N from your hand. If you do, add that card's effects to this spell.)
Which we can tweak, I guess, for graveyard:
Pulse N (You may pay an additional N as you cast this spell. If you do, add the effects of target [instant/sorcery/instant or sorcery] Card from your graveyard with converted mana N to it.) With a potential "then exile it", as for flashback.
More wordy, but feels as clear as can be. Plus scaling Pulse rather than referring to the original card's CMC is more elegant: you scale Pulse to the CMC behind the scene, but you can still scale it up or down however you want, and even put it as X.