just wonderin if there was any way to get the rules for the old draft format. i took advantage of the holiday sale and my friends and i are wanting to try it but the drat pack box didnot come with complete rules for it and we need clarification on how the wouse affiliations and gold penalties work
thank you
I dug around and found this file that used to be posted pre-LCG (and I'm just anal-retentive enough to remove the line breaks):
Booster Draft
Booster draft is the Limited tournament format in which players construct decks made from only the contents of four booster packs and the official AGoT
draft packs. Decks must contain a minimum of forty cards. There is no maximum deck size; however, you must be able to shuffle your deck with no assistance. Each player participating in the tournament must have the following:
• 4 sealed booster packs
• 1 draft pack and
draft pack supplement
It is recommended that two of the booster packs are from one of the more recent base sets (i.e., Five Kings Edition or Iron Throne Edition) and two are from any expansion.
Drafting
Each player opens one booster pack, picks one card to keep for his or her deck, and then passes the remaining cards to the left. The player then picks one card from the cards passed to him from the player on his or her right, and then passes the remaining cards to the left. This process is repeated until each player’s first booster pack is depleted. Next, each player opens the second pack, picks one card, and passes the remaining cards to the right, following the process outlined above until each player’s second booster pack is depleted. The third booster gets passed to the left, and then the fourth gets passed to the right. Players should be allowed a minimum of 30 minutes for the drafting process.
Booster Draft Deck Construction
Each player now has a pile of 44 cards that they have drafted from the booster packs, as well as the cards from their draft pack. Decks are then constructed using these cards only; players cannot add cards from their collections. Once decks are constructed, players may either one or two House cards. If a player chooses two House cards, that player requires 20 power to win the game, but that player may play House X Only cards (including plot cards) for either House. Both House cards are considered a combined single card consisting of both houses for purposes of attachments, etc. You may only play with an Agenda card if you have declared a non-combined single House card. Players should be allowed a minimum of 20 minutes
for the deck construction process.
//end file
One important important reminder: There is no "limit of 3 per deck" in draft, if you can draft 15 copies of a card, you can play them all in your draw deck, but plots are still limited to one per (aside from the "Power of" plots that specifically ignore that rule).
It's important to note that there is no influence in the draft pack, as they were printed before it's inclusion. FFG amended this in two ways:
First they suggested players add 3x
It might be difficult to pull enough of the former unless your play group has multiple Core Sets, and the later has not been reprinted since the Winter Edition. My simplest suggestion to proxy the cards (since much of the impetus for the 2nd solution seen below was the easy of resourcing in draft) would be to play the King's Garrison as Crossroads, and allow player's to add their unused House Cards to the deck as Minor Fiefdoms. Otherwise, just use permanent marker on some excess commons/uncommons you have after opening packs.
After the printing of Iron Throne Edition, FFG offered 28-card "Draft Pack Supplements" to the Night's Watch members for free as part of tourney support while supplies lasted. While comprised of commons & uncommons from that base set, it may prove difficult for players to accumulate or proxy this list, but it's an option to consider. It added two additional plots:
On Raven's Wings & Fortified Position (subsequently increasing the draft card plot deck to a "normal" quantity of 7)
and the following 26 cards to replace the 8 locations from the draft pack (and the Crossroads/Minor Fiefdom additions)
3x Kingsroad Fiefdom
3x Summer Sea
3x Sunset Sea
3x Narrow Sea
3x The Roseroad
3x The Searoad
1x God's Eye
1x Fallow Fields
1x House Umber Recruiter
1x Dissident Crier
1x Stormlands Peasant
1x Godly Fisherman
1x Illyrio's Man
1x Desert Scavenger
I hope this little primer helps.
I also thought I'd share the rules I used to run an ongoing sealed league back when I'd been a Night's Watch.
Sealed League Rules
Deck Composition
6 Booster Packs of Player's Choice
1 Draft Pack
Rules-
1. Minimum 40 card draw deck
2. Exactly 5 card plot deck
3. You may play a single house to 15 power, or two houses (including house only cards) to a total of 20.
4. Limit three (3) of any card in your draw deck.
5. You may not play the same opponent consecutively.
Ante-
The winner of the match selects 4 non-draft pack cards from the non-winner’s card pool (i.e. all cards that the non-winner has opened for the league excluding the draft pack).
From the selected 4 cards the non-winner chooses which card the winner gets.
Both participants write down the result of the match and what card was exchanged.
Trade-
You may make a 1-for-1 trade with your opponent after any given game.
Reloading-
After a player loses any number of games divisible by four they may opt to purchase another booster pack to add to their card pool (i.e. After a players 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, etc, etc).
Players are free to alter there deck at well any time outside of matches, as long as they maintain a legal construction. If play continues long enough it's even possible to have a large enough card pool to play different houses in different matches.
This is roughly version 1.4 based on various experiences, but YMMV. We've tried it starting by drafting our beginning decks, or allowing players to start with more packs (both of which lead to stronger starting decks). I've also tried it with random ante or accelerating the repurchase if player's continue to struggle. I initially did not use the "Limit Three" but in our first attempt with a player pool of 10 or 12, I actually managed to get six copies each of three strong common cards and had a pretty dominant deck by season's end.