Curse of Chains

A pacifism effect that works through tapping rather than a flat combat restriction. Where the more famous white Aura simply declares that the enchanted creature cannot attack or block, this one re-taps the body every upkeep, so by the time combat rolls around the creature is once again sideways: it untaps in the untap step as normal, then the Curse's trigger goes on the stack at the beginning of the upkeep and lays it back down. The result is the same lockdown, reached by a different route. The wrinkle in that route is timing. Because the creature does untap and the trigger uses the stack, the controller gets a window in response: a mana dork or any other tap-to-activate body can fire off its ability before the Curse resolves, so this is not the silence on activated abilities it might look like. It taps the creature at the beginning of each upkeep, the opponent's included, which on rare occasions matters when something else wants the creature untapped on a turn that is not the controller's. The hybrid white-or-blue cost is the design giveaway: this is an answer built to live in either color, two camps that lean on tempo and prison effects more than on hard removal. It leaves the creature on the battlefield, so it does nothing against a body that threatens by merely existing, and it dies to any enchantment hate. For pinning a single problem creature without paying the premium unconditional removal demands, though, the every-upkeep tap is a quietly thorough lock.