[Intro — pipe organ drone, a candle sputters. Haggard, whispered.] Shuffle up. Cut the deck. She's ready. [Verse 1 — slow, velvet flow, half-whispered] Candlelight on card sleeves, she's reading every rule, I watched her mulligan her nerves, go back to school. Tapping mana like a heartbeat — white and blue and black, Red and green beneath her fingers, no intention of looking back. She missed a trigger in her upkeep, and I swear I fell — The nerdiest thing I ever loved, and I loved it well. "Watch the stack," I told her — she learned to watch it right, Now she's slinging counterspells in the middle of the night. [Hook — dark, romantic, half-sung] She's the magic maiden, that's the gathering, That's the gathering of all my love. Sixty cards of prophecy and she plays every one like a glove — She's the magic maiden, that's the gathering, That's the gathering of all my love. [Verse 2 — the flow sharpens; she's dangerous now] Now she topdecks like an oracle, reads the board like braille, Holds up two blue mana and she makes my whole plan fail. Counterspell. Good game. She smiles with those eyes — Says "go to combat," and a whole army dies. She bolted all my creatures, left my life at one, Then leaned across the table — "baby, aren't you having fun?" Seductive? Please. She's lethal in a velvet glove, That's the gathering, baby — that's the gathering of all my love. [Battle Verse — the beat drops heavier. Pure menace. NICOL BOLAS.] Then came the Dragon-God, the Horned One, the Forever Serpent — Twenty-five thousand years of schemes, and every one perverted. God-Pharaoh, God-Emperor, the mind-ripper, Deathbringer — She looked that elder dragon dead-on and pulled the trigger. "You cast the Elderspell, you harvested the sparks of gods, You trapped the Gatewatch underneath your Immortal Sun — the odds Were never in your favor, though your ego couldn't tell: Gideon gave his life, Liliana broke your spell, Bontu ate your stolen sparks and left you desparked and done, Ugin took your NAME, old worm — you can't be summoned by no one. De-named. Depowered. Caged where no one hears you hiss — Ten thousand years of plotting just to die like this." She shuffled, cut the deck, and grinned with velvet spite: "God-Pharaoh got beat by a maiden. Now THAT'S a gathering. Good night." [Final Hook — bigger, the Deadbeats hissing underneath] She's the magic maiden, that's the gathering, That's the gathering of all my love. Beat the oldest dragon and she didn't even need a glove — She's the magic maiden, that's the gathering, That's the gathering of all my love. [Outro — whispered over fading organ] Shuffle up. She's ready. He wasn't.
