Hi honey, want to go to the Grand Prix next weekend?
Tammy Ehrhart and Brock Parker have been living together and traveling the Grand Prix circuit together for most of a year now. (Billy Jensen and Dan Clegg also live in the same house in College Park, Maryland, with Matt Linde living across the street.)
Ehrhart smiled when I asked if they had been forced to play in the past. They had. It was the first round of day 2 at Grand Prix Atlanta and Ehrhart won, handing her boyfriend his only loss of the day – the one that kept him out of the Top 8. They spent the rest of their time shuffling in silence, but looking over at other, shaking their heads, and smiling.
Parker opened with a Psychatog and a Skywing Aven in game 1, but then he stopped playing land. Far Wanderings fixed up Ehrhart's mana-base just fine: two islands, two forests, and two mountains. She sent Rabid Elephant into Psychatog and Parker decided to fight. He discarded two and lost his graveyard to take down the elephant. Firebolt cost him another card and then Flame Burst finally finished off the 'Tog. Unfortunately for Ehrhart, she was out of gas. With no creatures applying any pressure, Parker had time to draw land, play Gravedigger, and then play out a couple fliers. Skywing Aven and Soul Scourge whittled away at Ehrhart's life total in a hurry. She scooped up her twelve lands and moved on to game 2.
Ehrhart used
Acceptable Losses to remove a
Puppeteer on turn 4 of game 2, clearing a path for her squirrel tokens. Parker randomly chose the
Rabid Elephant from her hand and, as if that wasn't bad enough, he played
Gravedigger to retrieve the
Puppeteer. Parker continued the card advantage slaughter by playing out
Concentrate and
Laquatus's Creativity. Ehrhart wondered aloud why she had only drawn five spells. Their roommate "Baby Huey" wished her luck and just walked away rather than watch the rest of the carnage.
Final Result: Brock Parker 2 - Tammy Ehrhart 0