Hello Thrones Community,
In just a few more weeks, the Tower of Joy Draft Set will make its debut at Castle Stahleck. and being a new era in the game’s history. In anticipation of this exciting moment, today I will share some more details about what’s in the set.
Available for each player, the draft starter includes playsets of a few neutral cards. Besides the basic economy cards necessary to build any deck, Faceless Man is a total wildcard able to fill in for any Trait synergies you draft. Unlike the Valyrian Draft Set, the Tower of Joy, by nature of the GOT card pool, relies much more on specific Trait interactions, and Faceless Man is just one of several cards in the set that help get these online.
Also provided are six agendas, offering a variety of ways to build draft decks, including agendas specifically themed around the bestow and shadow keywords. Finally, there are a whole ten plot cards available in the starter, featuring a mix of new cards and slightly modified versions of old ones. Reset the board with old favorite Pale Mare, finish the game with an extra power challenge thanks to Royal Decree, or build a fully custom plot deck with drafted cards!
Stannis Baratheon, self-proclaimed King of the Seven Kingdoms, appears at rare with a new Draft Only card. Stannis can react and kneel a character when any character gains power, making him a dominating board presence. Under his lead, the faction is focused on winning power challenges, rushing with renowned characters, and controlling the tempo with kneel effects. These themes are supported by the new common cards as well: Myrish Pirates can steal power or gold, Nightfort Ruins provides strength to power challenges, and Flaming Sword provides temporary intimidate at a cheap rate. There are some cards with specific Trait interactions, like the modified variant of Sellsails that can stand Mercenary and Raider cards, but overall, most Baratheon cards can stand on their own and support any other faction well.
After King Balon’s mysterious death, Euron Crow’s Eye has been chosen as the new King of Salt and Rock. His newest version, matching his faction’s themes, synergizes heavily with pillage and Raider themes. With several cards relying on the Raider trait, Greyjoy is more of a buildaround faction. Even Victarion Greyjoy, infamous for his devotion to both R’hllor and the Drowned God, returned to the Old Way and now cares about the Raider trait as well. Luckily, House Greyjoy’s new common Kraken’s Hatchet helps by granting any character the coveted Raider trait while offering a powerful stand effect. Another new common, Saltcliffe Marauder is a new Raider with bestow who, like his notorious namesake, provides stealth to allied characters. Finally, Stony Shore Thrall taps into Greyjoy’s choke playstyle by attacking opponents’ reserve.
Another successor of a mysteriously deceased monarch, Boy King Tommen Baratheon seems to care more about his Cats than governing the realm. Apart from feline shenanigans however, House Lannister doesn’t rely much on Traits, instead doing what it does best – money, intrigue challenges, and generating tempo with jumper effects. Even the new common characters are all about tempo plays: Eager Opportunist can ambush and bounce opponents’ smaller characters while Cruel Brigand works the opposite way and cheats your own characters into play for a bestow cost. A prime candidate to head a bestow deck, House Lannister also gains a new support location at common with Silverhill River. A tempo hit at first, it provides non-limited economy and can be sacrificed in the lategame to gain power on an intrigue challenge.
One of the factions with the fewest Trait references, House Martell’s focus on icon removal positions it as a great supporter to any faction. Appearing at rare is a new Arianne Martell, stealing icons and distributing them among your non-Martell characters. House Martell, as we love to hate it, is well suited to annoy opponents and hold up even against seemingly superior forces with a number of ambush and shadow tricks. Enabling tricky plays and forcing opponents into difficult situations are three new common characters: Vengeful Lordling reduces your ambush and shadow costs when he loses a challenge, Desert Freerider can grant or remove intrigue icons for a bestow cost, and Starfall Servant simply takes away a challenge icon when she enters play.
With Stannis taking his army south to rally the North, Melisandre stays behind with the Night’s Watch. Loyal to the Lord of Light, she can sacrifice characters to recruit enemies to your cause. Usually one of the most Trait-reliant factions, the Night’s Watch in this set supports a mix of buildaround themes like locations, shadow, reserve, and characters with one or fewer challenge icons. With such a wide mechanical range, it can be a difficult faction to center a deck around, but many decks might profit from splashing a few synergetic Night’s Watch cards. The new common characters also reflect this variety: Wall-Bound Knight can steal gold when entering play, Abel’s Washerwoman provides the pillage or stealth keywords by kneeling a location, and Tormund’s Horde are a powerful military monocon body with native intimidate and a Greensight effect.
Another new version of a king, Robb Stark has a buildaround ability utilizing non-limited locations, a theme appearing across several factions. Large locations like Strongholds play well with Robb, as he cares about the cost of the knelt location. House Stark is another faction heavily reliant on a multitude of Traits in the GOT era. Direwolf and Old Gods cards don’t usually play nicely with each other, let alone other factions. Wolf Dreams is a new common event aiming to mitigate this issue by providing a challenge buff and staying around as an attachment granting any Trait permanently. Another common that can slot into any deck, The Wolfswood can raise both initiative and claim for a more aggressive playstyle. Lastly, Merman’s Guard is a bestow character that can accelerate the game by standing a character and giving it renown.
Sent on a secret mission, Quentyn Martell appears at rare in House Targaryen. By returning to shadows, he can cheat any character with lower strength into play from your hand or shadows area. This powerful tempo effect plays right into the faction’s jumper and shadow themes. Similar to House Greyjoy’s Raiders, House Targaryen revolves around the Mercenary trait. Often synergizing with bestow, this is one of the faction’s main draft themes. Conveniently, Daenerys Targaryen now cares about Mercenaries instead of the absent Dothraki, opening her up for new synergies. Fittingly, there are two new common Mercenary companies. Long Lances provide a strong intimidating body for a continuous cost. The new Stormcrows can enter shadows from the discard pile and offers a minor but deadly burn effect. Support location Fighting Pit has you discard a card to put a character from your discard pile into play for free.
Another faction with Traits all over the place, the Tower of Joy Draft Set breaks down House Tyrell to the classic Knight and Army traits which are commonly found across factions. No one represents Knights better than The Knight of Flowers, who can stand a Knight attacking alone. Apart from Trait synergies, another Tyrell theme is revealing cards, enabled by the new Arbor Jester, who reveals the top two cards to give you card selection and a challenge buff, and Brightwater Cavalry, which allows you to stack the deck by drawing a card and then placing a card of your choice on top. The final new Tyrell common, Youthful Acolyte, features Tyrell’s challenge removal mechanic, removing one of your own characters and granting it renown for future challenges in return.
Brienne of Tarth has been sent on a mission to track down Sansa Stark. Representing her sword Oathkeeper, Brienne’s rare new neutral appearance gains renown while she has an attachment. Being a skilled fighter, she also gets stronger for each attachment she has. A second new rare, The Tower of Joy makes an appearance, buffing your unique characters and gaining power when unique characters die. In neutral you will also find some House Arryn, bestow, and location synergy, and a variety of utility cards. New commons include Wandering Knight, who grows with each location he visits and eventually becomes a strong tricon. Another growing body, Mummer’s Troupe gets stronger over time or distributes gold to allies. Then there is Maester of the Eyrie, who provides card selection by allowing you to reorder your top 3 cards.
In the neutral non-character section, Quill and Parchment is a new attachment with a blanking effect doubling as a challenge trick. This new take on classic card Nightmares should help keep those bomb rares under control. Finally, matching the Faceless Man from the Draft Starter, at common rarity there is also Face Mask, a free attachment granting any Trait to any character, a key card to bridge all of those Trait synergies commonly found across the card pool. There are several cards like this both within the set and in the Draft Starter, which can make cards with specific Trait needs playable. “Trait magic” tends to create wacky and broken combos – with the Tower of Joy Draft Set we’re embracing the insanity and look forward to the resulting chaos!
If you’re curious and can’t wait for release day, you can check out the full set with rarities now on CubeCobra. We hope you’re as excitied as we are and look forward to have everyone get their hands on this set soon at Stahleck! For more information about the draft, see our earlier article.
