An Update for A Game of Thrones: The Card GameNew FAQ and Tournament Rules Documents Are Now Online 
Hello A Game of Thrones: The Card Game players!
In anticipation of next month’s World Championship weekend, we have taken a close look at the game’s tournament rules, looking for areas in which we could improve the tourney experience for all of this year’s participants. Here is a quick overview of the changes we have made.
Melee Format Restricted List
The biggest and most interesting change is the addition of a separate restricted list for the melee format. Melee and Joust are very different environments, and treating both with a single restricted list made little sense. A card that is very powerful in Joust could be next to worthless in melee, or the reverse might be the case, and yet, we had but a single list for both formats. Until now.
The Melee game has, historically, been a rush-dominated scene, and the initial melee restricted list acknowledges this reality. Some key “go-to” melee cards like Superior Claim and Make an Example have been restricted, forcing players to think a little more carefully about their rush options. On the flip side, some powerful control cards like the Venomous Blade, Search and Detain, and the Castellan of the Rock are no longer restricted in the melee format, giving control-oriented players a little more of a fighting chance in the Melee environment.
In addition to adding the Melee restricted list to the official tourney rules, we have updated the Joust restricted list, adding Threat from the East. This was done to put a check upon some powerful hand denial combinations that have emerged, without completely removing these combos from the environment.
Download the FAQ v3.4 (left) or the updated Tournament Rules
(right) by clicking the links above, or visit the support page.
Tie Breakers
Based on Gen Con feedback, a slight change to the head-to-head tie-breaker rule has been implemented. The head-to-head tiebreaker is now used only if a member of a tied group has played and defeated each other player in that tied group. (Most frequently, this means that two players are tied but they did play each other in the tournament.) If a player has not defeated each other member of the tied group, strength of schedule is the new designated tie-breaker.
Joust Draws
A draw in Joust play is now worth 2 match points for each player, as opposed to 1 as they were scored at Gen Con. This was done to give a tied game a slight advantage over a modified loss.
FAQ 3.4
This FAQ updates the banned and restricted lists, and also handles cleans up some minor concerns, correcting the title of Thundering Cavalry, and adding missing traits to Doubting Septa and House of Shadow.
With these changes, the game is now ready for next month’s world championships. Hope to see you there!
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Source:
An Update for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game
