Pointed Discussion

good way to keep either players mana or creatures taped out

Very flavourful, but sadly, not very powerful.

I imagine this was reasonably effective back in 1995, with Icequake, Sinkhole, and Strip Mine.

Also, is there really a difference between the Oracle text "and you tap that creature" and simply "tap that creature"?

I was hoping this card was errata'd in such a way as to read as such "enchant creature. During it's controller's upkeep, enchanted creature deals 2 damage to it's controller and becomes tapped. it's controller may pay 3 to prevent this effect."

if it did read that way, this card would actually be a very useful utility against infect decks, because then you're forcing your opponent to either take poison counters from their own creatures or waste mana to avoid potentially killing themselves.

however, this card was not errata'd in such a way and thus it is slightly disappointing.

2.5/5 for gorgeous art and neat flavor text in a lackluster means of black control due to it's cost compared to paralyze.

Would have been good for half the mana cost...

Or you could cast terror. Better things to sideboard against black and artifacts in my opinion.