SUL Invitational 2024 - Tournament Report - Part 2 by Demian Coca

Published on Dec. 23, 2024

Hello and welcome to part 2 of my tournament report for the SUL Invitational 2024! In this article, I will go over all of my Modern matches that took place on day 2. Let this be our last look back at the golden era of The One Ring !

If you missed part 1 you can find it here.

 

Modern - One Ring to rule them all

I finished Day 1 with a very solid record of 6 wins and 2 losses. With the 5 remaining rounds being Modern, I felt very confident about making the Top 8—especially because almost all my teammates were also performing well, and it seemed likely we could support each other in the later rounds.

The reason I felt so confident about Modern was that, for the past three months, I had been jamming Boros non-stop. In my opinion, and in the opinions of many others, it was the best deck in the format: adaptable to all archetypes, with explosive starts that made it very difficult to beat. Over the last few weeks of preparation, I fine-tuned my list, carefully considering each of the 75 cards I chose to play. Here's what I ended up with:

I liked my one-offs Thraben Charm and Exorcise as they were both strong in the mirror match and, in general, very flexible cards. The card I was most uncertain about was Static Prison . During testing, our team doubted the popular opinion that this card should be a 4-of. I went down to two copies but kept losing to cards that Static Prison would have answered, so I gradually returned to four. While it’s true they could be a liability—especially in multiples—and with Thraben Charm and Exorcise being more widely played, they often only locked down permanents temporarily rather than removing them permanently. However, in most cases, Static Prison was efficient enough to buy the time needed to secure a win before having to sacrifice them.

The sideboard was heavily focused on combo (e.g., Belcher, Titan, Storm), with only a small amount of graveyard hate. I was a bit concerned about Goryo's Vengeance decks but figured they would represent a negligible portion of the expected meta. Overall, I was very happy with both my main deck and my sideboard plan.

Round 9: Pascal Grossmann, Boros Energy – 7-2

The team pairing came a bit too early—it was too soon for us to draw. I had yet to win a match against Pascal in any format. It ultimately took him mulliganing to six, then down to five, for me to finally achieve that. In both games, I had more cards, and the cards he drew didn’t align well against my game plan, so it was smooth sailing for me. However, our real battle was still ahead…

SB:

-2 Static Prison
+1 Exorcise , +1 Thraben Charm

 

Round 10: Tobias Grütter, Ruby Storm – 8-2

Traditionally, this is a bad matchup for Boros. However, I was well-prepared, with 10 cards to bring in after sideboarding. Luckily for me, Tobias was playing an outdated version of Storm that had only a single Nature's Claim as an answer to my two copies of High Noon . Still, I got completely destroyed in Game 1.

In Game 2, though, I was rewarded for including the High Noon s. Turn 1 Guide of Souls , Turn 2 High Noon , followed by Turn 3 and Turn 4 Ajani, Nacatl Pariah // Ajani, Nacatl Avenger , while Tobias struggled to even look for an answer.

My first hand in Game 3 would have been a keep against most other decks—it was very slow but had a solid long game. Unfortunately, that’s not what you want against Storm. I went to six, then quickly to five, and finally to four because I just couldn’t find any lands. My final keep was [[Olecot Pride]], Ajani, Nacatl Pariah // Ajani, Nacatl Avenger , and two lands. Ouch.

I played my two creatures while Tobias went Turn 3 Ral, Monsoon Mage // Ral, Leyline Prodigy into Manamorphose . At this point, I felt pretty much done with the match. But Tobias couldn’t find a winning line—he was one mana short despite having most of the pieces he needed. In the end, he cast a Wish with one mana up, and I was relieved to see that all he could manage was a Pyroclasm .

My board was wiped, and I was down to just two useless cards in hand, but at least I wasn’t dead yet. I managed to remove the Ral and, with nothing else to do, brought Jegantha, the Wellspring into my hand. On his turn, Tobias played a second Ruby Medallion .

I topdecked a land—which wasn’t great—but it at least let me cast my Jegantha. Tobias followed up with yet another Ruby Medallion . I took my turn, surprised that I still wasn’t dead, and attacked with Jegantha, bringing Tobias down to 9 life. On his next turn, he played another Ruby Medallion , completing the full playset.

I attacked with Jegantha again, dropping him to 4 life. On his turn, Tobias drew a Desperate Ritual but was unable to assemble the pieces he needed and ultimately conceded.

He was very unlucky—and I was thrilled that I’d listened to my teammates and put Jegantha back in my sideboard after having played without it for a long time.

SB:

-3 Amped Raptor , -4 The One Ring , -1 Exorcise , -1 Elegant Parlor
+1 Soul-Guide Lantern , +3 Orim's Chant , +2 High Noon , +1 Thraben Charm , +2 Untimely Malfunction

 

Round 11: Luca Fessia, Amulet Titan – 8-2-1

Luckily I get paired against team member Luca Fessia and can draw this round. I was pretty sure that I was locked for top 8 if I could continue to draw.

 

Round 12: Filipe Sousa, Boros Energy – 8-3-1

I actually decided to concede to my long time testing partner Filipe since it would lock him for top 8 and the loss would not be that meaningful for me.

 

Round 13: Lou Dumez, Broodscale Combo – 8-3-2

Draw into second place after the swiss rounds!

 

The Top 8

I was very happy with both my own performance and the team’s. We were already celebrating, as the Top 8 included three Birdwatch team members, plus unofficial team member Filipe.

1. Luca Fessia (Amulet Titan)
2. Demian Coca (Boros Energy)
3. Pascal Grossmann (Boros Energy)
4. Filipe Sousa (Boros Energy)
5. Lou Dumez (Broodscale Combo)
6. Tobias Grütter (Ruby Storm)
7. Simon Gerber (Belcher)
8. Andreas Sigrist (Boros Energy)

Going into the Top 8, I didn’t feel great about my matchups. Essentially, it was all tough matchups or mirrors—and, of course, there was a significant chance of a team kill.

 

Quarterfinals: Simon Gerber, Belcher – 9-3-2

My experience against Belcher had been very mixed up to this point. When the deck first started to gain popularity, I lost 9 out of 10 matches against it. I eventually realized that my sideboard wasn’t equipped to handle it properly and that I needed a narrow but powerful card for the matchup. That’s why I added two copies of Stony Silence to my sideboard. I also learned that the best way to beat Belcher was simply to be faster. I started mulliganing aggressively to very proactive hands featuring Guide of Souls and/or Ocelot Pride with additional backup pressure. Removing their blockers also became a priority, so I kept a lot of removal in the deck.

Like Storm, Belcher is a matchup where Orim's Chant is one of Energy’s strongest cards. I had three copies in the sideboard specifically for situations like this. The downside to playing a lot of Orim's Chant s, however, is that your Amped Raptor s can feel awkward. Because of this, I often sided out a variable number of Amped Raptor s against Storm, Living End, Titan, Belcher, and, to a lesser extent, even Eldrazi decks. This was something I disagreed on with some of my teammates, but it worked well for me and brought my win rate against Belcher back up to nearly 50%.

Back to the tournament: I wasn’t thrilled to see Simon as my opponent, but I felt prepared and knew what I needed to do.

Game 1 was very close, as these games often are. Simon used a Disrupting Shoal to counter my Turn 3 Ajani, Nacatl Pariah // Ajani, Nacatl Avenger , which would have secured me the win on Turn 4. Instead, he went off with Tameshi, Reality Architect and Lotus Bloom on his Turn 4 and killed me.

Game 2 was one of my favorite games of the tournament. I managed to prevent him from going off early, leading to a grindy long game where he assembled a lot of blockers. I finally pushed through enough damage just before he was able to find another combo line.

In Game 3, Simon kept a strong but risky one-lander, which gave me the time to assemble hate pieces and apply enough pressure for a quick win.

 

Semifinals: Pascal Grossmann, Boros Energy – 9-4-2

Oh boy, looking back at this, the recent bans make total sense. I will probably never forget Game 1 of this match. Roughly speaking, here’s what happened:

Pascal had the better start, essentially dominating every aspect of the game. He had a wider board, was the first to play The One Ring , and was ahead in every way. I was so far behind that at one point, he even said, “You know you can just give up, right?”

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from the ~50 Boros mirrors I’ve played, it’s that you NEVER give up. Facing a lethal attack the next turn, I topdecked a The One Ring and proceeded to chain three Rings in a row. I answered his Ring, making it impossible for Pascal to finish me off. Finally, I was able to play all the cards I’d drawn from the Rings, remove his most important threats with Static Prison , and barely stabilize with Guide of Souls and Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury .

I managed to claw my way back into the game, even taking the upper hand at one point. By then, we were well over an hour into the game, but since the finals were untimed, we kept playing until someone lost. And this was still Game 1...

Exhausted from the countless hours of Magic we had already played that weekend, both of us started making mistakes. I missed an entire attack step that wouldn’t have dealt damage (since he had Ring protection) but would at least have killed an Ocelot Pride . On the other hand, Pascal missed lethal at least once and thought he could flip an Ajani to win, only to realize he was missing a red permanent to kill me. Then, he drew into another Ring with a Amped Raptor , dragging the game out even further.

At some point, we both had a massive board presence and a Goblin Bombardment , turning the game into a bizarre mini-game. Pascal pinged my creatures, which I responded to by shooting at his creatures, which he countered by targeting mine... It felt like being trapped in a Boros Energy nightmare, and the game became a battle of endurance and concentration amidst an incredibly complex board state.

Remember that Ocelot Pride I failed to kill 50 turns ago? It became one of the main reasons Pascal got back into the game, allowing him to generate more tokens than I could and ultimately win the Bombardment battle.

After the Bombardment chaos, I drew a string of lands while Pascal managed to remove my Ring and Phlage. At one point, I was at 68 life, which bought me some time, but another issue loomed—we were running out of cards in our libraries. We started counting: Pascal had fewer cards left than I did, which forced him to stop drawing with his Ring.

The game ended with me at 6 life, activating my last Ring to draw my final cards and literally casting the last spell in my deck: an Ajani. I had cast every single card in my deck, and Pascal had nearly done the same. GG, what a game.

But wait… there’s more. Even though we had been playing for 1.5 hours, that was only Game 1! We moved to the feature match area so others could watch our epic battle. I was ready for my comeback, but unfortunately, my deck wasn’t.

Similar to our match during the Swiss rounds, one player dominated from the start, and this time, that player was Pascal.

I was of course rooting for Pascal in the finals where he faced Lou Dumez on Broodscale Combo. Lou took the crown in the end, triumphing over Boros Energy and becoming the second winner of the SUL Invitational - Congrats!

I went home exhausted but very happy with my result and deeply satisfied with the entire weekend. It was a very fun tournament—well-organized with a friendly yet highly competitive atmosphere. I’m already looking forward to next year!

As always, if you have any questions about this article or want to share feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can find me in various Magic-related Swiss WhatsApp groups or on X (Twitter) @MaclovioMTG. See you around!

 

// photos by Jonas Rudin.