New FAQ and Tournament Rules are Available for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game

The 2014 A Game of Thrones: The Card Game National Championship season has begun, and it’s time to once again update the rules governing battle. How must armies approach each other? What famous warriors are allowed on the battlefield? Are there those who have earned a black mark?

Knowledge before battle is just as important as your armor, so make sure to read the new FAQ (pdf, 15.3 MB) and Tournament Rules (pdf, 1.4 MB) before heading out to a tournament.

Click on the above thumbnails to download the FAQ (left) and Tournament Rules (right)

These changes will go into effect on August 1st, 2014.

A Word from the Developers

Hello A Game of Thrones players!

With the 2014 National Championship season fast approaching, we have been hard at work on the newest FAQ and Tournament Rules update. For errata and rulings, this update offers two new items. The first is an addition to entry 3.6, which now establishes that when a player is choosing targets for an effect that he or she has triggered, targets that can lead to a successful resolution of the effect must be chosen.

The second addition was made to address some confusion over when and how the deadly keyword resolves. To clean up this situation we have added a “resolve deadly” step to the challenge resolution framework action window to formally establish that deadly resolves as a framework step after renown has been awarded. An additional clarification on this point can be found in the Q&A section of the FAQ, on page 26.

In evaluating the metagame and the restricted list, we took a long look at the data reported on Regional Championships around the world, looked closely at numerous tournament reports, and examined the emerging metagame with playtesters.

One of the most common trends during Regionals season was an abundance of River plot decks. To check this flood, we have added Crossing the Mummer’s Ford (Spoils of War, 20) to the restricted list, with the intent of increasing the opportunity cost of running the River plot deck for card advantage, and thereby increasing the amount of plot diversity in the metagame.

Regional results also suggested that House Martell was performing slightly ahead of where they should be in relation to the other Houses, and that House Baratheon was slightly behind the curve. To combat these tendencies, we have restricted Bloodthirst (A Hidden Agenda, 119) (which tends to encourage unpopular character-light strategies) and the new Arianne Martell (The Kingsguard, 47), while simultaneously removing Melisandre’s Scheme (Reach of the Kraken, 9) from the list to assist House Baratheon.

Some ingenious combo decks following a pattern of self-discard followed by recurring combo cards from the discard and/or dead piles also started to make waves late in the season. To challenge this approach we have added two of the more popular facilitators, Desperate Measures (The Captain’s Command, 99) and Blessed by the Maiden (A Journey’s End, 118), to the restricted list.

When evaluating the emerging metagame, there were concerns that a couple decks—Conquest (Spoils of War, 1) rush with The Art of Seduction (Lions of the Rock, 52) and Greyjoy longships building a wall of STR with Naval Escort (A Sword in the Darkness, 48)—could be quite difficult to contend with in the new environment, and we have taken precautionary measures on each of those deck types.

We also discussed the possibility of removing the Fury plots from the list and came to the conclusion that the Furies did not have to be “all or nothing” with regard to their restricted status. And so Fury of the Lion (Ancient Enemies, 26), Fury of the Stag (Ancient Enemies, 27), and Fury of the Sun (Ancient Enemies, 30) are being removed from the list, while the other three Furies remain restricted at this time.

For the melee environment, we have added the aforementioned Desperate Measures (The Captain’s Command, 99) and Blessed by the Maiden (A Journey’s End, 118) to the list, as well as To the Spears (Princes of the Sun, 60), which was becoming more and more a staple card in the format.

As a whole, the changes to the restricted list were made to make the environment as engaging and enjoyable as possible for the National Championship season.

The Question and Answer section in the FAQ provides clarification entries on a number of topics the community has been asking about lately. Does Longship Maiden’s Bane (A Hidden Agenda, 105) retain the immunity granted by the House of Dreams (A Roll of the Dice, 119) agenda while the Longship is functioning as a character? Can you save a card that is being killed or discarded to pay a cost? Can 0 be chosen when interpreting “any number” abilities, and does a resolution of such an ability on 0 entities constitute a successful resolution? The answers to these questions, and others, can be found on pages 28-29.

Finally, regarding the Tournament Rules, we have added a special note to the card legality section stating that the A Dire Message chapter pack will not be legal for the 2014 North American Melee and Joust Championships.

Good luck to all players competing in all upcoming Regional and National Championship events, and to those coming to Gen Con, we’re looking forward to seeing you at the show!

Nate French & Damon Stone
Fantasy Flight Games

Thanks Nate and Damon!

Don’t let yourself be pulled into a fight without preparing first. Download the new FAQ and Tournament Rules today so you’ll be ready when it’s time to ride into battle.

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