It's been forever since we reviewed this one.  It's been long banned (for good reason).  I would argue that this card is one of the top 5 best cards in the entire game.  This card won't come back, unless it has a really strong errata.  We've known this card to be one of the best staples of the early 2000's, but this card was not always a staple.  It would surprise you to know that in the year it came out, many competitive players kept it in the side deck (and not the main).

Keep in mind that when this card was made (in the 3rd booster set), graveyard based plays were not highly prevalent.  You had Monster Reborn, and that was pretty much it.  Sending your cards to the graveyard, by 2002's standards was often seen as a double-edged sword because there were very few ways to retrieve them again.  But things changed, and the ability to dump 4 monsters in the graveyard became broken.  First, in Pharaoh's Servant, you had Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted as more revival tools.  But it really got ugly in the Chaos era where you could dump lights and darks to summon either BLS Envoy or CED Envoy as soon as possible.  And then almost every deck theme after that used the graveyard too.  It's a shame because a card like this could have helped so many decks if it weren't overpowered for general use.

This card, on top of being a searcher, miller and deck-thinner gives you too much selection and has no real cost.  Here's an errata I would consider: Activate during your Main Phase 2 only.  Select 5 cards from your deck and reveal them to your opponent.  Your opponent adds 1 of those cards to your hand.  Then, among the 4 other cards, your opponent can select to banish any number of them (the remaining cards are sent to the graveyard).  You can only activate "Painful Choice" once per duel."

As it stands though, I'm giving Painful Choice a 5/5

Hello Pojo Fans,
 
Painful Choice, another banned card that was, and still is amazing. Get a card while the other 4 cards you pulled from the deck get discarded to the grave. This card would completely revamp the meta if unbanned.
 
There are too many decks that would plus like crazy off this card. Shaddoll, Burning Abyss, Lightsworn, and any deck that can benefit from grave play would run this card. Dark Worlds would rise up as well in play, Zombies would get a boost, DARK and LIGHT-based decks would get a boost as well. It thins any deck by 5 and is a 1-for-1, there's a reason why its banned.
 
This card was too powerful then, and is still too powerful now. Unless it gets errated it will stay banned.
 
Advanced- 4/5 (but banned)
Art- 4/5
 
Until Next Time,
KingofLullaby

This card is in the same boat as yesterday's Card. Painful Choice is a Normal Spell that 4 out of 5 cards in the grave while you keep one. In the format where this card isn't banned, stack your deck with cards that activate in the grave (not monsters, sorry Sinister Serpent). Breakthrough Skill, Galaxy Cyclone Spells and Traps like that. You could put some big Normal Monsters in the grave to revive later. Painful Choice is an excellent strategy card, but it can backfire, so good luck. 
 
Score: Banned/5
Yugi Format: 4.5/5
Art: 5/5 So Painful.
 
-WarlockBlitz