Q: Can Repulsor Blast’s first point of damage remove a tough status card from an enemy, then its additional damage deal damage to that enemy?

A: No. The additional damage that Repulsor Blast deals is a simultaneous modification of its first point of damage. For instance, if a player were to discard 2 energy resources due to Repulsor Blast, they would deal a total of 5 damage to an enemy all at once, as the additional 4 damage dealt by the discard effect happens at the same time as the first point of damage. -(Official FAQ)

Q: Does order matter when discarding cards for Repulsor Blast? Or can you re-order as you like?

A: You should not manipulate the order that cards are discarded from your deck unless you are told that you can by card effect. -(Developer Ruling , Hall of Heroes)

The fact that this was included in one of the first few decks and had a 1 cost for potentially up to 13 damage (although rare) is legit nutty only see this kind of insane damage value without setup from other cards is star lord's Sliding Shot off the top of my head. If any of the cards from the core set didn't age well this one sure isn't one of those cards.