Ugh... No. I feel that you are completely misevaluating the card. I agree that Mind Rot is a straight-up 23rd card, but you're completely ignoring the fact that the Mind Rot part is not actually taking up a slot in your deck!
Disperse is legit playable, even if it's not too exciting, so the back end is completely upside! I <3
Recoil, but this card looks much better to me for three reasons. 1) The front side is cheaper, which makes it easier to use the card in reaction to something you... need to react to. 2) The discard is not tied to the bounce, which means you can actually use this to protect your own bombs from removal without hitting yourself. 3) Recoil only works as true removal if they have an empty hand. Consign to Oblivion works if they have one card in hand as well, which is a scenario that comes up much more frequently.
Plus, as I've said, I'm actively looking for another Disperse effect to better support
Demonic Pact.
Far // Away really doesn't help me with that. The fact that this is effectively a Dimir card is excellent for me, because that makes it that much more likely it wheels to the Pact player.
Edit: 4) Re: Signaling the discard. What's stopping you from Consigning their biggest threat on their end step, then clearing their hand on your turn? You can even get rid of problem permanents like enchantments this way if you time it correctly! And even if you do have to signal it. Let them play around it! Do you know how big of a burden keeping two throwables in your hand
at all times can be? You've effectively reduced their hand size by 2
without spending the
. That sounds absolutely great!