Top 4 PQ Report from Curio Cavern in Springfield, VA
Guest writer Jawa Jeff Glazer gives us his first hand account of his positive experience on the way to a top 4 finish at the Curio Cavern Planetary Qualifier in Springfield, VA on January 5th, 2025.
This weekend, I really enjoyed seeing the great variety of decks at the Curio Caven PQ in Springfield, VA. Out of my 7 matches during the swiss, I played against 6 different leader/base deck combos. The only repeat was Bossk Blue. I think this is a great sign for the game that people are trying all kinds of deck ideas.
With my final record at the end of swiss at 5-2, I made the cut into the top 8 (I was ranked 5th). The top 8 consisted of 3 Sabine Greens, 2 Bossk Blues, 2 Han1 Yellows, and my first opponent who was playing Anakin Yellow, and it ended up being a very favorable match for me. After winning, I advanced to top 4. The top 4 ended up being two mirror matches, me against one of the remaining Sabines, and the two Han1 Yellows faced off. In my final match of the day, I lost my first game, claimed victory in the second, and then in a nail biter lost my third match. Ultimately, when all the rankings were completed, I placed 3rd in my first PQ.
Besides a quick wrap up, I also wanted to write about the wonderful atmosphere and players at the PQ. First, the original event was capped at 64 players, which like most PQs filled quickly. So Curio Cavern started a waiting list. I added my name and was told I was 8th on the list. To be honest, I didn’t expect to get off the waiting list. Since the store allowed you to pay for the event on the day of, there was no incentive for anyone to alert the store they wouldn’t be attending even if they knew in advance. I figured people who got seats would hold them to the very end just in case they were able to make it. To my surprise, I got a call two days in advance to let me know I was off the waitlist and had a seat at the event. This means at least 8 people, knowing they couldn’t make it, took the time to alert the store so that others could participate. That alone speaks well of the community.
Unfortunately because of the relatively late notice for getting a spot, I ended up not playing something very innovative. Instead settled for an old standby with a Sabine ECL build.
When I arrived at Curio, there were others who were still on the waitlist or arrived just hoping there would be seats made available. Sure enough, some people who had registered didn’t arrive and so allowances were made for more people to take those seats. Nonetheless, there were still actually more than 64 people at the store trying to enter the tournament and so Curio brought in some extra seats and made room for all in attendance, so everyone got to play.
It was a tight squeeze and a long day and yet I can say that people were friendly and outgoing throughout the day. Win or lose my opponents were always cordial afterward. One of my favorite aspects of how tie breakers work is that when you lose to a player, it is still in your interest to have the person who beat you do well to increase your chances. I went into round 2 with a match record of 1 and 0. So my opponent was also 1 – 0. I won the match bringing me to 2-0 and my opponent was now obviously 1-1. And despite me giving him his first loss, he kept checking on me throughout the rest of the day, cheering me on knowing that the better I did, it was still better for him. It was both weird but awesome to get praise for game wins from a stranger I met earlier that day that I had beaten in the tournament.
I lost my 3rd match to a Han1 Yellow player, and I went into round 4 with a 2-1 record, and came up against a Sabine ECL mirror match. My opponent pulled out his Space Balls playmat and I immediately asked if I could take a picture.
The mirror is always tricky. I won the first game, which meant my opponent had initiative in the second game. He mulliganed his first hand, drew his second cards, and I could see on his face the initial disappointment. After we both resourced, he stated, “I claim initiative.” Both his first and second draws somehow missed giving him a turn one play; a huge disadvantage. But after that, he clearly still played for the fun. We talked while playing, bantering back and forth. Due to his poor luck, I was able to win game two to end the match, and we immediately began comparing decks to see what little differences we had. Discussed the decisions we made and how they had been playing out so far.
The rest of the day continued pretty similarly, with people who beat me doing so gracefully, and people whom I was able to beat, still shaking hands and expressing, “good game.” Many said they would be at the same PQ I plan to attend in two weeks, and I look forward to meeting up with them again.