Heroic Intervention – Sevinne, the Boy Who Lived
July 13, 2020 by Zachary McDermott
Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived... come to die. Avada Kedavra!
-Lord Voldemort
To live again to die tomorrow
Hello, and welcome to Heroic Intervention, a biweekly article series aiming to take a pop culture character and turn them into a commander deck.
This week we are diving into a universe that is most like the Magic the Gathering multiverse than any universe we have trotted though yet, the Harry Potter universe! If you are a fan of the Potterverse? Then you know how rich in lore and notable areas the world is. With this deck I tried to encompass everything I could think of within the Potterverse, while still making a playable deck. Without further ado I give you:
Sevinne, the Boy Who Lived
The Chosen One
Sevinne, the Chronoclasm is the face card for the Commander 2019 Mystic Intellect deck. While being a unique and interesting legendary creature, Sevinne was out shined by one of the other playable legendary creatures from the same deck Elsha of the Infinite. Both Sevinne and Elsha are very good cards but Elsha is just a more powerful legendary than our wizard friend Sevinne. Today I am going to give Sevinne back the spotlight and brew this Potterverse deck around him!
Yer a wizard Harry
Sevinne and Harry Potter both have similarities that made it easy to draw parallels to them to bring this theme deck together. In the novels Harry Potter survived a deadly encounter with one of the most powerful wizards in his universe and was given the title of “the boy who lived.” Of the large number of other legendary creatures, I could choose for a deck, Sevinne and his ability to survive all damage that would be dealt to him most relates to Potter. Take note this ability that Sevinne possesses prevents damage. This is important flavor wise because Harry Potter is not invincible. The damage is prevented by the life force of his mother, thus an invincible creature would be a bit of a flavor break. The other reasons that drew me to Sevinne is his creature type HE IS A WIZARD! There are many other legendary wizards I could have chosen from, but none had that ability to prevent damage like Sevinne.
The Order of the Phoenix
Once the commander was selected, I needed to establish what kind of deck I would expect Potter to be at the helm of. A spellslinger build seemed like the most obvious of choices but did not feel completely right. Harry will be casting spells in this deck, but Potter was never alone in his efforts he always had help. Building a Wizard tribal deck, with a spellslinger subtheme made the most sense to me. The first person Harry meets that helps him to learn about his other life is Hagrid, a half-human half-giant that is gamekeeper at Hogwarts. The card that came to mind right away that best personifies Hagrid would be Galecaster Colossus a Giant Wizard that reads “Tap an untapped Wizard you control: Return target nonland permanent you don’t control to its owner’s hand.” Hagrid is a huge help to his friends and even when he cannot do something directly, he is able to help in other ways, much like Galecaster Colossus. Need to remove a pesky permanent on the board or want to tempo your opponents out of the game? Call on your dear old friend Hagrid to help. The next person that no Harry Potter deck would be complete without is Hermione Granger. The card I found that best fits our theme is Adeliz, the Cinder Wind. Another human wizard (witches are depicted differently in the Magic universe). Adeliz has flying and haste and whenever you cast an instant or sorcery wizards, you control get +1/+1 until end of the turn. Granger is a very by the books character at the start of the series and towards the end of the Harry Potter series breaks rules to save her friends and to do what she needs to do. These two ideologies are best compared to the Izzet ideology, thus fitting Adeliz very well in the Magic universe. The Potter trio is completed with the addition of Baral, Chief of Compliance as our stand in for Ron Weasley. Ron in my opinion has sort of an inverse reaction to the events in the Harry Potter books than Hermione does. Ron starts out very emotional and spastic, but as time goes on and he matures, Ron becomes more careful and calculating. Baral being blue shows this kind of change in card. He makes spells cheaper to cast and allows you to loot. Some honorable mentions are Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind as Dumbledore and Goblin Electromancer as Dobby! I know Dobby is an elf, but Electromancer is on tribe theme, so just go with it! I will leave the rest of the order for the readers to decipher, tweet me with your guesses and I will tell you if you are right!
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
The most iconic of sites for a story to take place is the school of Hogwarts, this huge castle that sits on the edge of a cliff side. The site is far more than just the school. There are many other locations that are important to the story like, The Room of Requirement. The Room of Requirement is what its' name suggests a room that appears to those in need and contains whatever that person requires, for us that room is a sanctum…. Jace’s Sanctum makes all our instant and sorceries 1 less to cast and whenever you cast an instant or sorcery you scry This fits our deck by making all the spell cards you cast cheaper and lets you put cards to the bottom of your deck that you might not need during that turn. Another iconic area in Hogwarts is the Chamber of Secrets. I could not find one card that fit the chamber exactly, however the item in the room, the Mirror of Erised is something that I can work with. The Mirror of Erised shows the user their hearts' deepest desire. The Magic Mirror is the card in the deck that will represent the Mirror of Erised. The Magic Mirror is a 6UUU legendary artifact that costs 1 less to play for each instant and sorcery in your graveyard. It also has the added bonus of giving us an unlimited hand and draw a card for each counter on the mirror. While it might not show you your hearts' desire, it will get you closer to it each upkeep! Secrets of the Dead is the final stop on our road trip around Hogwarts. While not exactly in Hogwarts Little Hangleton graveyard is too important of an area not to depict in a deck. Hangelton is the resting place of the Riddle family and the resurrection site of Lord Voldemort. Secrets of the Dead does not resurrect anything, but it will allow you to draw a card whenever you cast a spell from your graveyard.
The Deathly Hollows
The last section for this article will outline the three most powerful items in the Harry Potter universe, The Cloak of Invisibility, The Resurrection Stone, and The Elder Wand. It is said that Death created these items and a wizard possessing all three would become the master of death. For our purposes, our Deathly Hollows will be Whispersilk Cloak, Catalyst Stone, and Runechanter’s Pike. The Cloak of Invisibility is used to make the wearer invisible; Whispersilk Cloak does that for whatever creature it is equipped to as well as giving that creature shroud so it can not be the target of spells or abilities. The Resurrection Stone allows the user to call upon loved ones that have passed on. For this deck I felt like Catalyst Stone best fit this item. Catalyst Stone makes all your Flashback spells cost 2 less to cast, while not bringing something back on its' own. It makes the ability that brings spells back cheaper. The Elder Wand is said to be the most powerful of all wands in the Potterverse, capable of casting spells impossible by any other means. There are plenty of wands in the Magic universe, but none that really exemplify the raw power of the Elder Wand. Runechanter’s Pike however gives the creature it is attached to +X/+0 where X is the number of instant and sorceries in your graveyard. Equipping this to any of the creatures in our deck is sure to put a dent in someone’s life total.
All Was Well
Thus ends another week of Heroic Intervention. I hope you enjoyed my selections for this Potter themed deck! would like to hear back from you. What did you think of my build, would you build this deck, was it on theme? Feel free to contact me @NekroZach on Twitter with your thoughts. That is all for this issue of Heroic Intervention join us again in two weeks for our next fusion of pop culture and commander.