Hello Thrones Community,
we are proud to announce the Tower of Joy Draft Set! It has been about 9 years since Fantasy Flight Games first announced the Valyrian Draft Set, finally enabling this alternative game mode for the LCG’s second edition. With the LCG model consisting of non-randomized pack releases, having a draft set available tied back the game to its CCG roots and instantly became a staple for tournaments and side events. Now, almost a decade later, we as a community have nearly exhausted the supply of Draft Packs, and so it is time to lay the Valyrian Draft Set to rest. In the absence of further draft support by FFG, we have taken up the task to provide a new, unique draft experience to succeed the Valyrian Draft Set.
A Game of Cards
As a reminder for those unfamiliar with draft, in this game mode, each player starts with an identical Draft Starter containing faction cards, special agendas, and a basic selection of plots and deck cards. Then, each player opens a number of randomized card packs, picking one card each, and handing the rest of the pack to the next player in line until each pack is exhausted. From the Draft Starter and drafted cards, each player then builds a 40-card deck to play a Joust tournament with.
This results in an exciting experience, combining the rush of opening booster packs with the challenge of building decks on the fly. Instead of choosing a faction and deck you want to build upfront, you have to adapt to whatever cards the packs provide, and compete with several other players without knowing which cards they’re looking for. And instead of relying on meta decks, all players are on even footing by pulling from the same card pool.
The Tower of Joy Draft Set follows the formula of the Valyrian Draft Set, coming with a completely new Draft Starter as well as randomized booster packs to draft from. The card pool consists of a mix of GOT-era cards (from Forgotten Heroes up to the Sea of Shadows cycle) and newly designed Draft Only cards. However, this new set is not just a re-hash of the FFG one. There are some new aspects unique to this set which we hope you will enjoy!
A Clash of Decks
Before we get into the set itself, let’s dig into the numbers for a moment.
The new Draft Starter consists of a total of 25 cards:
- 6 agendas, double-faced
- 10 plot cards
- 3 copies each of 2 economy locations
- 3 copies each of 2 neutral characters
Faction cards aren’t included, but we assume that everyone participating in a draft will have access to those one way or another. Almost all of the starter cards are new designs, except for a handful of FFG-era plots that make their return with new art and some slight modifications. Welcome back, iconic cards Feast or Famine and Pale Mare!
The draft pool consists of a whopping 261 cards:
- 80 common cards: 8 for each faction and 16 neutrals
- 100 uncommons: 8 for each faction, 16 neutrals, and 20 plots
- 80 rares: 8 for each faction, 8 neutrals, and 8 neutral plots
- also one more card??? 🥧
This means the Tower of Joy Draft Set is just a bit larger than the Valyrian Draft Set. However, unlike Valyrian, there are a ton of new Draft Only cards in this set! Each faction receives three new commons and one new rare card unique to the Tower of Joy Draft format. There are 40+ new cards appearing in Tower of Joy Draft Packs, on top of the completely new Draft Starter. In total, that’s a whopping 60 completely new card designs! What’s more, more than 20 of the reprinted cards in the set are modified versions with slight mechanical twists to make them synergize better within the draft set. Want to use Randyll Tarly to kneel Moon Door? In the Tower of Joy Draft Set, you just might! Another cool aspect is that with the new card pool, for the first time, the shadow and bestow keywords are present in draft and can be built around!
Finally, here’s what to expect when opening a booster pack. In the Tower of Joy Draft format, each player opens four Draft Packs containing 15 cards each:
- 7 commons
- 5 uncommons
- 2 rares
- 1 ✨foil✨ card of any rarity
Yes, you read that right, each Tower of Joy Draft Pack will contain a guaranteed foil card! And the best part? All reprinted cards pulled from this set that aren’t modified will be legal to use in your constructed decks – including foils! So crack some of those packs to bling out your decks! Unlike each other slot in the pack, foils can come in any rarity, meaning you might have to make some difficult decisions especially if you open a foil rare in addition to your two rare slots!
After drafting, it’s time to build a deck from whatever cards you drafted. In the Tower of Joy Draft format, you build a deck with a minimum of 40 cards in the draw deck and exactly 7 plot cards in the plot deck. The twist is that unlike constructed formats, you are allowed to play as many copies of each card in your draw deck as you can draft! So go ahead and try to collect every single The Holy Hundred you can get your hands on!
The Winds of Autumn
We hope you’re as excited as we are to try out this new set, and we’re hyped to share that The Tower of Joy Draft Set is planned to officially debut at Stahleck 2025! Let’s celebrate this new chapter in the history of the only game that matters by breaking some attendance records in the draft side events. We look forward to see many of you there to share this new experience!
Anyway, that’s all we’re showing today, but stay tuned for more previews and updates!
