+
+
+
This section contains the rules for the Tower of Joy Draft format.
+
+ Draft is an alternative game mode in which each player starts with an
+ identical set of starter cards and a number of randomized card packs.
+ Players then pick additional cards from the draft packs to build a deck.
+
+
+
Prerequisites
+
+
+ To play a Tower of Joy Draft, each player needs 1 Draft Starter,
+ 4 Draft Packs, and a full set of 8 faction cards.
+
+
+
+ The Tower of Joy Draft Starter contains a fixed set of cards that
+ are available to each participating player and can be reused
+ between draft events.
+
+
+
+ The Draft Starter contains the following cards (Tower of Joy 262-281):
+
+ * These cards are slightly modified from their original prints. See
+ “Modified Cards”
+
+
+
Setup
+
+
+ Players are arranged in pods of 5-8 players. The Tower of Joy
+ Draft format is designed for pods of 8 players. When splitting
+ uneven numbers, keep in mind that larger pods mean more
+ cards to pick from during draft. For less than 5 players,
+ alternative draft formats such as Winston draft or Pick-2 draft
+ are recommended.
+
+
+
+ Make yourself familiar with the Draft Starter to have an idea of
+ the agendas and starter cards available. Then set the Draft
+ Starter and faction cards aside for now.
+
+
+
Draft Process
+
+
+ - Each player opens the first Draft Pack and looks at the cards inside.
+
- Each player picks 1 card from the Draft Pack and sets it aside in a personal face-down pile.
+ Each of these piles is called that player's Draft Pool.
+
- Each player passes the remaining cards from their Draft Pack to the next player to their left face-down.
+ The next player may pick up and look at those cards after they have passed their own pack.
+
- After each player has picked a card and passed their pack, repeat these steps of picking and passing until
+ there are no remaining cards from the first pack.
+
- Between packs, each player may review their Draft Pool and Starter.
+
- For the next draft round, each player opens the second Draft Pack.
+ Repeat the previous steps to draft the pack, this time passing remaining cards
+ to the next player on the right instead.
+
- Repeat for the third and fourth Draft Pack, passing once more to the left
+ and finally to the right again until all the packs are exhausted.
+
+
+
Deckbuilding
+
+
+ After drafting all the cards from the Draft Packs, each player
+ builds a draw deck of at least 40 cards and a plot deck of exactly
+ 7 plot cards from their combined Draft Pool and Draft Starter.
+
+
+
+ For deckbuilding in the Tower of Joy Draft format, faction
+ loyalty is ignored. This means that as long as your faction card
+ or agenda allows including cards from a given faction, you may
+ include both loyal and non-loyal cards from that faction in your
+ draw deck and/or plot deck.
+
+
+
+ Draw deck limits are ignored as well. You may include any
+ number of copies of each card you draft in your draw deck.
+
+
+
+ Plot deck limits still apply. This means you may include a
+ second copy of a single card in your plot deck, but only if it does
+ not have “Plot deck limit: 1”. (Plots from the Draft Starter implicitly
+ have a limit of 1 since you cannot draft additional copies)
+
+
+
Playing with Drafted Decks
+
+
+ Finally, play a tournament using the drafted decks. The
+ conventional win conditions apply: a player wins when reaching
+ a power total of 15, or when each of their opponents have been
+ eliminated by having no cards left in their draw deck.
+
+
+
+ Between games, each player may freely adjust their draw deck
+ and plot deck using cards from their Draft Starter and Draft
+ Pool. Even switching factions or agendas is allowed, as long as
+ the deck stays legal according to their faction/agenda
+ combination.
+
+
+
Modified Cards
+
+
+ The Tower of Joy Draft Set contains a subset of cards that are
+ slightly modified variants of the original card.
+
+
+
+
+ 
+
+
+
+
+ Modified cards are specific to the draft format and have the
+ “Draft format only” designation. The modified portion of these
+ cards’ text boxes is colored orange to be obvious at a glance.
+ The only exception to this rule is Jousting Contest (ToJ 279) from the
+ Draft Starter, where the changes are limited to the income,
+ initiative, and reserve values while the text box is the same as
+ Jousting Contest (Core Set 14).
+
+
+
+ For the purposes of Tower of Joy Draft, the original versions of
+ these cards are ignored and the modified versions are the only
+ variants that exist.
+
+
+
Card Rarity
+
+
+ The Tower of Joy Draft Set contains the following rarities from most common to most rare:
+
+ - common (C)
+
- uncommon (U)
+
- rare (R)
+
- hidden (H)
+
+
+
+
+ Each Tower of Joy Draft Pack contains 15 cards of the following rarities:
+
+ - 7 common cards
+
- 5 uncommon cards
+
- 2 rare cards
+
- 1 foil card of any rarity (hidden rares only appear in this slot)
+
+
+
+
+ Each card’s rarity is noted on the bottom right, next to the set
+ number (e.g. “R148” for Magister Illyrio (ToJ 148)
+ meaning this is a rare card).
+
+
+
+ IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Tower of Joy Draft Packs
+ distributed at Stahleck 2025 have faulty rarity collation
+ due to errors on the printer’s side. These packs frequently
+ consist of 14 rare or 14 common cards + 1 foil; rarely contain
+ uncommon cards; and often include repeat copies of the same
+ foil cards within packs in the same display.
+
+
+
+ To verify that you are playing with packs of the correct
+ composition, check the front of your Draft Packs for the
+ line “2026 Edition”. If your Draft Packs don’t have this line,
+ they are faulty and are ineligible for draft unless all players are
+ aware, all are playing with faulty packs, and the TO explicitly
+ allows using these packs.
+
+
+
Card Legality
+
+
+ Only cards from Tower of Joy Draft Starters and drafted cards
+ from Tower of Joy Draft Packs are legal to use during draft
+ format deckbuilding.
+
+
+
+ Cards from the Tower of Joy Draft Set that are identical reprints
+ of cards from other sets and do not have the “Draft format only”
+ designation are legal to use in other formats according to those
+ formats’ rules. This includes foil cards.
+
+
+
+ Unique, “Draft format only” characters without modifications
+ may be chosen as your Hand of the King in the Hand of the King
+ variant format when played at the Tourney of Stahleck.
+
+
+
Frequently Asked Questions
+
+
+ This section provides answers to a number of common
+ questions that are asked about the Tower of Joy Draft format and
+ cards from the Draft Set. The entries are presented in a
+ “question and answer” format, with the newest questions at the
+ end of the list.
+
+
+
General Questions
+
+
What do I need for drafting?
+
+
+ Each player needs one Tower of Joy Draft Starter and four
+ Tower of Joy Draft Packs. The Draft Starter is reusable between
+ events whereas new Draft Packs are needed for each draft.
+
+
+
Does loyalty matter for deckbuilding?
+
+
+ No, all agendas provided in the Tower of Joy Draft Starter allow
+ you to include cards independent of loyalty.
+
+
+
Do card limits apply to deckbuilding?
+
+
+ Card limits only apply to the plot deck. Your draw deck may
+ include any number of copies of each card you draft. Your plot
+ deck must include exactly 7 cards, of which one may be
+ included twice unless it has "plot deck limit: 1" or is part of
+ the Draft Starter.
+
+
+
Can I use cards from Tower of Joy Draft Packs in my constructed decks?
+
+
+ Yes. You may use drafted cards, including foils, for constructed
+ formats IF they are also legal in that format anyway. Any card
+ with the "Draft format only" designation is NOT legal in GOT
+ Standard by default. One exception is the Hand of the King
+ variant format when played at the Tourney of Stahleck: here you
+ may use a unique, non-modified, draft format only character
+ from the Tower of Joy draft packs as your Hand of the King.
+
+
+
Can a player lose the game by having no cards left in their draw deck?
+
+
Yes.
+
+
How many cards should my draft deck include?
+
+
+ The draw deck must have at least 40 cards.
+ The plot deck must have exactly 7 cards.
+
+
+
Card Questions
+
+
+
+
Is this just Valar Morghulis?
+
+
Yes.
+
+
Can I use it in my constructed decks instead of Valar Morghulis?
+
+
Ask your Tournament Organizer.
+
+
+
+
Does City of Ice do anything if I don't have a City plot in my used pile?
+
+
+ Without a City plot, City of Ice's Reaction
+ has a "Limit 0", so it cannot be triggered.
+
+
+
+
+
Does Face Mask do anything during setup?
+
+
+ No. You don't get an opportunity to trigger Face Mask's
+ Reaction, so you cannot name a trait.
+ You can still setup Face Mask to draw an extra card though.
+
+
+
+
+
Does Faceless Man do anything during setup?
+
+
+ No, see Face Mask (ToJ 257).
+
+
+
+
+
Can I use Fighting Pit to discard and then immediately put into play the same character?
+
+
Yes.
+
+
+
+
Is it intended for Hot Pie's +1 STR effect to last indefinitely?
+
+
Yes.
+
+
If a character with a pie token leaves play and later returns, will
+ it still have the +1 STR?
+
+
No, the effect will wear off once the character leaves play.
+
+
+
+
Can I use Melisandre's Gambit to put into play another copy of
+ the same character I killed?
+
+
+ No, the name of the character put into play has to be different
+ from the one killed.
+
+
+
+
+
Does Quentyn's Action take STR modifiers into account?
+
+
+ Yes, legal targets to put into play with Quentyn's ability are
+ determined based on his actual STR, not his printed STR.
+
+
+
+
+
Does “out-of-faction” include neutral cards?
+
+
+ No, out-of-faction specifically means non-neutral cards of a
+ faction different from your faction card.
+
+
+
+
+
Can I include out-of-faction locations without bestow?
+
+
+ Yes, Seeking Fortunes allows you to include both cards with
+ bestow, and locations (bestow or not).
+
+
+
+
+
Does it make a difference which of my three factions I choose as
+ the main faction?
+
+
+ No, but for tournament statistics it might be preferable to choose
+ the faction that is most represented in your draw deck as your
+ main faction.
+
+
+
Card Changes
+
+
+ If you haven’t played with Tower of Joy Draft Packs
+ distributed at the Stahleck 2025 tournament, you can
+ ignore this section.
+
+
+
+ Due to issues on the printer’s side, the first print run of the
+ Tower of Joy Draft Set had faulty pack collation, requiring us to
+ order a second print run. We have used this as a chance to make
+ some minor fixes and changes to “Draft format only” cards.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Now has flavor text.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Now has flavor text.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Old: “After Arbor Jester comes out of shadows”
+ New: “After Arbor Jester enters play”
+
+
+
+
+
Card text was improperly formatted; Item is now properly formatted as a trait.
+
+
+
+
+ Old: “You may ambush non-unique Drowned God or Raider characters from your dead pile”
+ New: “You may ambush Drowned God or Raider characters from your dead pile”
+
+
+
+
+
Now has "Plot deck limit: 1".
+
+
+
+
+ Old: Mercenary. R’hllor. Smuggler. The Seven.
+ New: Mercenary. Raider. R’hllor. The Seven.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Old: 1 STR.
+ New: 2 STR.
+
+
+
+ Old: “After a card enters play during the challenges phase, kneel Stony Shore Thrall to choose an opponent.”
+ New: “After a card enters play during the challenges phase, choose an opponent.” and "(Limit once per round.)"
+
+
+
+
+
+ Old: “After Stormcrows comes out of shadows”
+ New: “After Stormcrows enters play during a challenge”
+
+