Neko-Te

Combat with this weapon attached is not really combat: it is a slow form of attrition the opponent cannot reverse on their own. Every creature your equipped attacker or blocker damages taps and stays tapped, locked down as long as the Equipment survives, so a single creature can pin an entire defensive line over a few turns of trading blows. That permanent-tap clause is the real weapon; the one-point life drain on player damage is closer to flavor garnish than a clock. The lockdown is a property of the Equipment, not a counter or a one-shot effect placed on the victim, so the cage holds regardless of where the weapon goes: unequip it, move it to another creature, and the prisoners stay asleep, because what matters is only that the Equipment is still on the battlefield. The single point of release is removing the Equipment itself, and even then the freed creatures do not snap upright at once: the restriction simply lifts, and each one untaps on its controller's next untap step like anything else. That delay is the difference between a hard lock and a stutter, and it is the price of an effect that would otherwise be lopsided. The design rewards a grindy, defensive plan over a tempo one, since you need repeated combat steps to widen the lockdown and a durable attacker to keep tapping fresh blockers. The ninja-claw flavor tracks the mechanics cleanly: this is removal that disables rather than destroys, and the cage stays shut only while the weapon stays on the table.