This reverse card idea is nice, but I don't think it should be tied to sect. We could get another deck in the future, with a Draw II skill that would read from a different kind of arcanum.

As for the issues with Nocturnal Sect, there is a few things that people should take into consideration:

1) Nocturnal Sect is insanely strong in PvP;
2) When compared to SCH, it's weaker in mitigation, in shielding and in DPS at 60, but it's actually quite competitive at level 50 content. If you analyze everything, the damage toolkit is fairly simple to use and it's pretty strong when you realize that Malefic has almost double the potency of Ruin/Ruin II; the shielding is stronger when crits are not happening; AST doesn't have anything like Sacred Soil at 50, but they can use Benefic II/Helios to heal through damage, while SCH only gets Emergency Tactics after level 50.

Anyway, they're quite similar and competitive at level 50, and this is my point: there's absolutely no reason to believe that Nocturnal Sect is anything beyond a situational stance - just like Fists of Earth or Fists of Wind, or even Topaz Carbuncle/Titan-Egi, all situational things used while soloing or in very specific duties.

Final Fantasy XIV is a raid oriented game, we can agree to that, but there are people who enjoy doing PvP and several spells/skills are there to serve this kind of playstyle. Think about Feint (LNC/DRG) or Haymaker (PGL/MNK) or Sleep and Lethargy (THM/BLM); status effects like Bind, which THM/BLM, SMN, ARC/BRD and MCH have are almost useless in PvE except for T7 so far, but are very useful in PvP. Nocturnal can be a PvP stance or something purely situational, used to do level 50 content in DF.

It sounds like a silly point, but we shouldn't forget that a lot of people started playing this game in Heavensward and have not done any of the 2.x content. They may choose to do so using the Duty Finder or setting up a new player static or even a pug PF group to do 2.x content without resorting to being carried by an unsynced group. And they may want/have to do it as a WHM/AST combo, which is perfectly fine for that kind of content.

Also, HW content, like primals (Ravana EX, Bismarck EX and Thordan EX), Alexander (Normal mode) and Void Ark, are easily done in Nocturnal Sect.

The only issue comes with Alex Savage. Well, it's really hard to say there's a problem with a stance that is only an issue in hardcore endgame content. And the issue is not about the healing capabilities themselves, but about the SCH DPS capabilities. This is something that will hardly change if they redesign Nocturnal Sect in any way, because this is not an issue related to healing, but something related to the fact that SCH comes from a DPS class, with a wider DPS toolkit and better MP management. The fairy helps with healing, we all know that, but it's being overestimated in several ways.

In my opinion, they should allow AST to change Sects in combat, because that will make all the problems go away. If they make it that you can’t stack your own regens and shields, it’s not going to break the game. Then we’ll be something unique, with two healing styles that can be swapped in combat, and all this mini-WHM/mini-SCH crap will end, since we won’t be locked in anything. Also, they should remove the +5% healing potency buff and make Nocturnal have the same +5% attack speed buff that Diurnal has. ROG/NIN’s venoms work exactly the same in their self buff and they only change special effects from skills, so having two instances that give the same permanent buff is not something new to the game.