For Challenge # 135. Using a poison ring to kill someone doesn't quite translate into Magic-ese... and I didn't want to go for the same old 'tapped creatures' schtick. So instead, I figured I'd make a ring that somehow poisoned spells.

It works for me. But I can't help think that the reflexive nesting nature of this ability reminds me of something the Random Magic Card Generator would spit out.

I like the flavour! That's a good way to make "poison" work.

And the text is a lot clearer after the edit. Is the idea that you can activate this in response to a spell opponent cast (I think not with the current wording), or not? I can see advantages either way.

Using it in response to a spell cast would require jumping through too many hoops, so no. It's really only supposed to be used with your spells. I suppose there are some other corner cases like teaming up with another player in a group game, or ruining combat tricks ("If you're gonna cast Giant Growth, you have to do it now or the creature will die because of it.")

That makes this equipment kind of restrictive. More of a Johnny card by accident. Even cantrips don't do what you would like them to do here. But it does turn Healing Salves into Murder and that's kind of cool.

As an aside, this originally said 'spell or ability', but I figured that (due to the way this card operates) abilities would be too easy to turn on compared to the real sacrifice needed to toss a spell. So I got rid of the easy out to force the player to make interesting choices. Seems more flavorful that way, anyway.

Also, due to this card's restrictive nature, its costs keep dropping. Started at 4 and 4. I wonder if 1 and 2 would technically be fair. It asks quite a bit from the player...

I do think and is too much for something that doesn't do anything without another card.