I like the flavor, I can imagine the rest of the party saying “thanks but we will stick with torches”

This won’t be worth it in standard even if it’s regularly mana neutral. But I wonder if there is any sort of combo you can do once it becomes mana positive

If you have a full party then you can cast Coveted Prize for just , searching for this or an expensive card you want to ramp into (whichever you don't have), then putting this onto the battlefield for free and getting four mana