Striker feels a bit unrelated to Tongs. And honestly all the effects feel unrelated.
Tongs was made to support Striker. Striker cares about hand/top of deck, so Tongs lets you control some of that. Originally it was just going to be a Sextant/Navigator type effect but I wanted to think up something a little different.
The thematic idea for Striker is that he's a Smithy but sometimes he screws up, haha. And Tongs let you hold stuff, they're something a smithy would use. To me it all connects but yeah sorry if it's tenuous haha
Also Striker is a one-shot so it might be too weak. If Tongs provided a way to get a Striker repeatedly it would be fine
Assuming you have prepared the top of your deck, it's a DoubleHorse that you get to fire at the moment of your choosing, which is why it's one shot. You're right, you won't really be able to build your deck around Striker, but maybe he can get you a nice little spike, idk. I'll buy things for a spike sometimes even if that card isn't my whole strategy. Hostelry gets you a Horse for each Copper you discard on-gain, which is very similar to an overpay of $1 per Horse; so that's what I'm attempting to use for scaling/balancing.
but as it is it feels like Tongs would be a better card without the Worker.
To me they're symbiotic, but no one has to share my opinion haha. I do like Tongs even without the connection to Worker though, could be fun