How Do Instants Work in MTG
In a world where +1/+1 counter decks are as aggressive as ever, it's easy to look at outlast creatures as too slow and too limited
Strip away someones free Dockside Extortionist value, either by having their treasures enter tapped, or sacrificing it on X equals zero for just one white mana afterwards
It's excellent with sac outlets as a reanimation engine
A 2/2 defender isnt great, but if this card trades with any attacking creature, it has done its job and alongside one surveil trigger, Thoughtbound Phantasm becomes a well-sized blocker
That makes Recoil one of those cards that has a hard time being bad until the point when your opponent has extra lands they can hold in their hand in order to discard them, at which point most decks that run Recoil are either using that as an excuse to crank up the discard engine or more likely happy enough to have survived this long that they don't care