A Game of Thrones Collectible Card Game (sometimes referred to as AGoT) is a collectible card game produced by Fantasy Flight Games (FFG), the game is based on the A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series by George R. R. Martin. A number of base sets have been released for the game, each with a number of expansions. The game's primary designer is Eric Lang and the lead developer is Nate French:

Sets & Expansions

A Game of Thrones CCG
	A Game of Thrones Card Back The Red Viper.
Players	Two1
Setup time	< 5 minutes
Playing time	< 60 minutes2
Chance	Some
Age range	13 and up
Skills	Card playing; Arithmetic
	1 Some optional rules allow more players.; 2 Games may take much longer depending on a deck's play style and the number of players.

A Game of Thrones: Westeros Edition
- A Sea of Storms
- Westros Premium Starters
- A Flight of Dragons
A Game of Thrones: Ice and Fire Edition
- A Throne of Blades
- Ice and Fire Premium Starters (Greyjoy VS Targaryen)
- A Crown of Suns
A Game of Thrones: Valyrian Edition
- A Tourney of Swords
- Valyrian Premium Starters (Stark\Baratheon VS Lannister\Martell)
- A Reign of Kings
A Game of Thrones: Winter Edition
- A Song of Twilight
- Winter Premium Starters (March 2006) (Greyjoy VS Targaryen)
- A Song of Night (May 2006)
A Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms Edition (September 2006)
- Expansion (November 2006)

A set contains 240 cards. An expansion contains approximately 150 cards.

A booster pack contains 11 cards of which 1 is Rare, 3 are Uncommon and 7 are Common. A booster box consists of 36 booster packs. 6 Booster boxes comprise a case.

A Starter Deck pack contains XX fixed cards and YY Random cards including 2 rares.

A Premium Starters pack contains 2 pre-built decks. 10 brand new cards, and a number of reprinted cards.

A Draft Pack contains 1 draft card, 5 plot cards, 6 house cards and ?? Locations

Cards

House

Selecting a house is an important necessity when first constructing a deck. Different houses excell in different areas of play and it is vital to choose the house that best represents the playstyle of each deck in order to maximize that deck's playing ability.

AGoT decks can be built using 1 of 6 houses represented by a House Card:

Stark
Lannister
Baratheon
Greyjoy
Targaryen
Martell

Cards may be played out of house (a Baratheon card in a Targaryen deck for example) but with the added hinderance of a 2 gold penalty to play each out of house card.

Alliance

With the use of an alliance house card, one can play cards from either of the two houses specified on the alliance house card without having to pay any gold penalties. To help compensate for this advantage, a player using an alliance house card requires an additional 5 power to win the game and cannot play any cards indicating them as "House X only" in their textbox. Also, since alliance house cards were only printed in the Ice and Fire block, they are strictly limited to Classic play.

AGoT decks can be built using 1 of 7 alliances represented by an alliance House Card:

Stark/Baratheon
Baratheon/Greyjoy
Lannister/Greyjoy
Lannister/Targaryen
Martell/Targaryen
Martell/Stark
Stark/Targaryen

Agenda (optional)

Decks can also add optional Agenda cards to their House cards. Using an Agenda often results in a trade-off between a bonus of some type and a penalty, often in the form of requiring an extra 5 power in order to win the game.

Defenders of the North
Heir to the Iron Throne
Kingsguard
Knights of the Realm
Maesters of the Citadel
Night's Watch
Small Council
The Twins
The Wildling Horde
Threat from the East
Treaty
War of the 5 Kings

Players are limited to one Agenda per House card and cannot play Agendas with an Alliance house card.

Plot

Plot cards are generally regarded as the defining feature of the Game of Thrones CCG. The seven card plot deck which is kept separate from the random draw deck adds a strategic element to to game. Plot decks are built prior to the game and are revealed singly in an order of the player's choosing. This allows a great deal of customizable strategy aside from randomly drawn cards. Plot cards are often balanced with trade-offs. For example, a high gold plot may have a very low inititive; a high claim plot may have next to 0 gold and/or initiative.

The possible attributes for a plot are as follows:

Gold
Initiative
Claim
Traits
- Others
- Kingdom
Plot Ability Text

Character

A common element in CCGs, characters are the cards that represent units from armies down to single characters. Generally characters are the main focus of an AGoT deck because they are the card type that is used to participate in challenges, and thus garner the power necessary for a win.

The possible attributes for a character are as follows:

Name
Gold Cost
Unique
Traits
- Ally
- Ambassador
- Army
- Asshai
- Bastard
- Brotherhood
- Clansman
- Creature
- Direwolf
- Dothraki
- Dragon
- House Clegane
- House Dayne
- House Florent
- House Frey
- House Goodbrother
- House Harlaw
- House Karstark
- House Reed
- House Tully
- House Tyrell
- House Umber
- Ironborn
- King
- Kingsguard
- Knight
- Lady
- Lord
- Maester
- Mercenary
- Messenger
- Night's Watch
- Qartheen
- Queensguard
- Rainbow Guard
- Sand Snake
- Septon
- Traitor
- Unsullied
- Wildling
Keywords
- Stealth
- Immune to Events
- Immune to Character Abilities
- No Attachments
- Renown
- Limited
- Deadly
Artwork
Artist Credit
Doomed
Endless
Character's ability text
Bonuses
- Influence Provider
- Initiative Bonus
- Gold Bonus

Attachment

Attachments are a card type that are used exclusively to modify other card types or place modified stipulations or effects on other cards. An attachment may not be in play unless it is attached to the proper type of card. The most common type of card for an attachment to be played on is a character card, although some may be played on a location or even another attachment.

The possible attributes for an attachment are as follows:

Name
Gold Cost
Unique
Traits
- Banner
- Condition
- Creature
- Crown
- Decree
- Item
- Retainer
- Skill
- Title
- Warhorse
- Weapon
Keywords
- Setup
- Deathbound
- Immune to Events
- Immune to Character Abilities
Artwork
Artist Credit
Attachment's ability text
Bonuses
- Gold Bonus
- Influence Provider

Location

Locations represent places from the novels. They are most commonly used to provide additional income of some type, be it gold or influence. Other locations may have a wide variety of abilities to assist their controller or hinder the opponent.

The possible attributes for a location are as follows:

Name
Gold Cost
Unique
Traits
- Battlefield
- Dorne
- Dragonstone
- Free Cities
- Iron Islands
- King's Landing
- Lannisport
- Stronghold
- The East
- The North
- Tourney Ground
- Warship
- Westeros
- Winterfell
Keywords
- Limited
- Deathbound
- Immune to Events
- Immune to Character Abilities
Artwork
Artist Credit
Doomed
Location's ability text
Bonuses
- Gold Bonus
- Initiative Bonus
- Influence Provider

Event

Event cards represent special actions or happenings in the course of the game. Certain events may be restricted to play by a specific house, and some may only effect characters of a specific house. Event cards generally have a play restriction or a cost of some type which may be paid in influence, gold, or possibly by kneeling a character, location, attachment or house card. Attributes of an event may include:

Name
Unique
Story Event
Endless
Artwork
Artist Credit
Keywords
- Deathbound
- House {Stark | Baratheon | Targaryen | Martell | Lannister | Greyjoy} only
Event ability text/card effect
Doomed

Rules

AGoT games are played with 2 decks. A 7 card Plot deck and a 60+ (40+ for draft) card draw deck of Characters, Attachments, Locations and Events. During the game cards will often end up in other "decks" including the Discard pile (cards discarded from play) and the Dead pile (cards that were killed). Normally, unless you use an Agenda card, you may only have 3 copies of any one card (determined by the name of the card) in your Main deck. Only 1 copy of a card is allowed in your Plot deck.

How to win

A player must claim 15 power tokens in order to win The Game of Thrones. Using an Agenda or Alliance along with playing other cards during the game will sometimes raise or lower the number of power tokens you need to win. Power tokens are placed onto either your house card or a character card in play.

How to lose

A player is eliminated from the game at any time he has five or more Doomed cards in his dead pile. If all but one player is eliminated from a game, the remaining player wins the game.

Resources

Most cards require the player to pay a cost to play them using the following types of resources:

Gold
Influence

Setup

The Setup phase occurs once during the game. Each player draws 7 cards from the top of their Deck and then chooses any number of cards totalling 5 gold or less and places them face down onto the play area. Each player then draws back up to 7 cards in their hand. Each player then reveals their face down cards.

Rounds

This is a very general description and many cards will influence how these rounds play out. A Round is broken into 6 phases:

Plot - Each player chooses and reveals 1 plot card. Count initiative (roll off for tie).
Draw - Each Player draws 2 cards.
Marshalling - Count gold. Spend gold to play cards from hand in turn.
Challenges
- Military - Try to kill each others characters.
- Intrigue - Try to discard cards from each others hand.
- Power - Try to take power token from each others house card.
Dominance - Each player counts the total amount of strength for each of their standing character. The player with the highest toal strength claims 1 power for their house card.
Standing - Each player returns all of their cards to the standing position.

Keywords

Renown- When a player wins a challenge, all of his participating characters with Renown claim a power.
Stealth- For each attacking character with stealth, you may choose one of your opponents character without stealth; that character cannot be declared as a defender during the challange.
No Attachments- Attachments may not be played on this card. If attachments are ever on this card, they are immediately discarded.
Limited- You may play one limited card per round, unless a card effect lets you play additional limited cards. This does not count for "Put into Play" effects.
Setup- Only attachments with the Setup keyword may be played during the setup phase. They must be attached to an eligiable card.
Immune to Character Abilities- A card with this keyword may not be effected by any card effect coming from a character.
Immune to Events- A card with this keyword may not be effected by any card effect coming from an event.
Deathbound- A card with this keyword is sent to the dead pile rather then discard pile when discarded from play.

Informal Deck Types

Deck builds are often referred to as being either Nedly or Jamie. A Nedly deck, named after the character Eddard "Ned" Stark, is defined as a deck that has a theme which is relatively true to the story contained in the books that AGoT is based on. A Jamie deck, named after the character Jamie Lannister, is a deck that is built to win by any means necessary using any combination of cards that may make no sense at all in the context of the books. For example having two houses in a Treaty that are actually mortal enemies in the books.

Here is an incomplete list of various informal names given to describe the general mechanics or theme a deck may use.

Army
Burn/Disintegration
Character-lite
Cheese
Control (Character/Location)
Discard
Dominance
Jousting
Kneeling
Melee
Murder
Night's Watch
Power Grab/Power Rush
Revenge
Save
Stark Kids & Wolves
Story Event
Trait Manipulation
Tully
Unopposed
Warship
Weenie Rush
Wildling

Community

The AGoT community is defined by mature good natured players who go out of their way to help each other. Players are also united by their love of the GRRM books it is based on. AGoT is often played by adult CCG players with very few younger than 18. Some players attribute this sense of community to non-cash prizes for placing in tournaments. AGoT is rarely played by cut-throat attitude players. AGoT is a complicated CCG and its players tend to be highly intelligent and creative. One of the big draws to AGoT is the ability to create a Theme Deck that is tournament ready and can compete sucessfully.

Competition

Night's Watch

Within the context of the Game of Thrones tournament environment, the Night's Watch are Tournament Organizers officially sanctioned by FFG.

Prizes

Gold Dragons

When you buy booster packs, or starter decks, you get a set number of gold dragons. There is 1 gold dragon on the back of the booster pack. There are 2 gold dragons on the starter deck. Gold Dragons are also awarded as the main prize for tournaments. You get 80 Gold Dragons for first place, 40 Gold Dragons for second place, and 20 Gold Dragons for third place. You may redeem these Gold Dragons for past promo cards, booster packs, or other AGoT related products such as card binders, stone house cards and power counters.

Promo Cards

Promo cards are special cards given away to participants in FFG sanctioned tournaments run by members of the Night's Watch.

Tournaments

Classic Format Tournament

A Classic tournament deck may contain any card from any set as long as the card is not banned.

Standard Format Tournament

A Standard tournament deck may contain only cards in latest sets. Currently cards from the Valyrian block and newer along with promotional cards P20 (?) and higher. FFG has changed the way they identify promo cards and are now including the icon for the set they were released to.

Draft Tournament

40+ card draw deck. 5 card plot deck.

1 Draft pack
4 Booster packs
3 Crossroads
3 Minor Fiefdoms

Sealed Tournament

Starter Deck pack
2 booster packs

Promotional Tournaments

FFG will on occasion release special theme decks. These decks are particularily brutal and challange the skill of deck builders and players. After you win a game against one of these decks your prize is the deck. Cards found in one of these special decks can never be used in a standard/classic rules deck. They also have special Skull icons printed on them to indicate they are not legal.

Wildling Deck
Circle of Spies

Banned Cards

The Things I Do For Love
Counterplot
Alleys and Whispers

World Championships

The AGoT World Championships are held yearly at Gen Con Indy. One of the prizes for the world champion is the opportunity to design their own card.

Previous World Champions

2003 Casey Galvan
- Designed Bandit Lord found in A Crown of Suns expansion
- Hired by FFG to be Lead Developer until Fall of 2005; now has a consulting role at FFG
2004 Greg Atkinson
- Designed Flea Bottom found in A Reign of Kings expansion
2005 John Bruno
- John's card will appear in A Song of Night expansion

Industry Awards

2003
- A Game of Thrones: Westeros Edition won the Origins Award for Best Trading Card Game of 2002
2004
- Game of Thrones: Ice and Fire Edition won the Origins Award for Best Card Game Expansion or Supplement of 2003

External links

agameofthrones.com - Official website
ktome.com - Site archive of ktom5's card and rule explanations (FAQ)
gotraven.com - Play Online
tzumainn.com/agot - Fan Site (deck building discussion)
Draconigena - Deck building tool

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A Game of Thrones (card game)