Hand of the King Variant Rules

“They say the Hand dreams the king’s dreams, speaks with the king’s voice, and rules with the king’s sword.”

- Petyr Baelish, A Game of Thrones

The Hand of the King variant is offered as a flavorful novelty through which players can appoint their own Hand of the King as the main character of their deck. A Hand of the King deck can be constructed using any of the Factions and uses the Joust format.

Deckbuilding

When building a deck, each player chooses any one unique character from their deck’s chosen Faction to be their “Hand of the King.” Alternatively, a player may instead choose any one unique non-loyal charac-ter from any Faction in the card pool (they are not required to play a Banner agenda to choose said char-acter). Army, Dragon, Direwolf and Raven characters cannot be chosen as Hand of the King. A player cannot have any cards with the same title as their “Hand of the King” in their deck.

Each player must adhere to the most up-to-date Joust Restricted list found in the FAQ at www.FantasyFlightGames.com.

Gameplay

Each player’s Hand of the King is placed next to their “The King’s Voice” agenda (included in this kit) at the start of the game. Place 2 Stalwart tokens on each Hand of the King.

When a player counts gold in the marshaling phase, they must place 1 Stalwart token on their Hand of the King. As soon as your Hand of the King has as many Stalwart tokens as its printed cost, it enters play. When a Hand of the King has as many or more Stalwart tokens on it as its printed cost, it is considered “in play.”

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When in play, a Hand of the King can be used as a character by its controller, to attack, defend, or use card effects. Any effect that would cause the Hand of the King to leave play or change control instead removes one Stalwart token from it.

If a Hand of the King has fewer Stalwart tokens than its printed cost, it leaves play, is considered out of play, and does not interact with the game until it has the necessary number of Stalwart tokens. Discard all non-Stalwart tokens and cards attached to any Hand of the King that is out of play. Non-terminal attach-ments would return to their owner’s hand as normal.

During the challenge phase, a player may initiate one of their challenges against their opponent’s Hand of the King, if the opponent’s Hand of the King is in play. This is announced when the player declares the challenge. An attacked Hand of the King automatically counts its STR and is considered participat-ing during challenges initiated against it (even if it is knelt); other eligible characters may be declared as defenders. In this instance, your Hand of the King is not being declared as a defender.

If a player wins a challenge against their opponent’s Hand of the King, in addition to the regular claim effects, they also remove 1 Stalwart token from their opponent’s Hand of the King, and adds 1 Stalwart token to their own.

Winning the Game

To win the game, at the end of the Dominance phase, a player must have more Stalwart tokens on their Hand of the King than the opponent’s Hand of the King. The player must also reach their regular win condition of having 15 power. If the time limit is reached and neither player has achieved both of these conditions, the player with the most Stalwart tokens on their Hand of the King is victorious. If a player has no cards remaining in their draw deck, that player instantly loses the game.

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