Shuriken

The risk is the whole point. Most equipment grants a static bonus and stays put; this one is a throwing weapon you literally let go of, and the catch sits in the same line as the reward: throw it, deal 2 damage, and unless a Ninja was holding it, you hand the weapon to your opponent. That clause is what separates a generic two-damage ping from a tribal payoff. In a non-Ninja shell it is a one-shot Shock that costs you the artifact, a Pyrrhic exchange you take once and regret. Strap it to a Ninja and the control-transfer clause simply never fires, so the same activation becomes a repeatable, retrievable removal engine: tap, throw, deal 2, re-equip next turn, throw again. Few equipment wire a mechanical drawback this directly into a creature type and then hand you the off switch for playing on-theme. The activation reads as a tap ability rather than a tempo loss, so a Ninja that stays untapped can sling the blade before combat, picking off X/2s and softening up blockers. The design predates the era when Ninjas became a supported Commander and cube category, and it remains the rare equipment whose text rewards you for committing to a tribe instead of splashing it as colorless utility.