Its had discard effects for opponents, and it eventually developed a minor theme around self-discard thanks to that and madness
Instead, If Szadek, Lord of Secrets would deal combat damage to a player, instead put that many +1/+1 counters on Szadek and that player mills that many cards. That means you can keep building with every hit, and if you buff up Szadek, you can mill out your opponents even faster
We've got plenty more MTG price stories for you - for instance this seemingly useless DnD card blew up thanks to a neat combo, and a common Lord of the Rings card got its moment to shine thanks to its place in MTG Pauper decks and the MTG Modern format
If you play it on Turn 1, your opponent either spends a removal spell on your one-mana 1/1, which pretty much guarantees youre trading up, or you get to untap and ramp into 4 available mana on Turn 3
However, don't fret