Cursed tomes, libraries, and book-devouring monsters are common features of card art and accompanying stories
In general, if you have a cheap removal spell in hand, its fine to give it the two +1/+1 counters
A 1/4 with ward 1 defends itself well, and just by attacking and conniving, you can boost Raffine and other creatures you control, and fill your graveyard for shenanigans and value
As long as neither player is manipulating their library or using their graveyard, using a Millstone does nothing but reveal information until the player being milled runs out of cards, but it took more explanation than you can possibly imagine to make players understand this
Im definitely always in favor of cards that can punish the prevalence of green ramp and this one offers a tangible reward in the form of your own temporary mana acceleration
For context, that means each pack in the box goes from $5.49 down to $4.66