Crimson and Gold - The Boy King

Welcome back to Crimson and Gold. Today we're going to talk about a character near and dear to the hearts of many...






How could you not love this face?

To date, there are 5 playable versions of Joff, only Robert Baratheon has the same amount, and unlike Robert, none of the Joffrey versions could be considered even close to an auto-include.

Today, much in the vein of Imrahl's Uniquely Suited series, we're going to explore each copy of Joffrey, including some of their history in the LCG and CCG, and their uses in the present format.

Joffrey Baratheon (Core):
This may be a card you looked at, and put back in your binder without a second thought. But, when this Joffrey came out in the first set of the CCG era, he was kind of a beast. Back then, burn didn't exist in the state it does now. Lannister also had the only cancel, Treachery, which at the cost of a kneel canceled every event in the game at that time. Valar hadn't shown up yet either, which means outside of the playset of Put to the Sword most would run, it wasn't nearly as frightening being a 3 cost 2 STR character in Westeros Edition. Better yet, Joffrey's ability had no limit. It was pretty easy to score an easy 4+ power or so off your own dead characters and your opponents during a Wildfire turn. In multiplayer, sometimes this could get pretty deadly.

In the current state of the game, this Joffrey is kind of tough to use reliably. Because of the limit, you can't really use the old mass powergrab tactic of the past, and burn is a pretty huge threat overall. Joffrey is kind of worthless in challenges, so you really have to have him out for awhile for him to be worth the 3 gold. If I were to put him in a deck, it would be a multiplayer build, where he is not always the main target, and slow powergrab doesn't paint a huge target on you. With the newer moribund rules, you could score an easy win off a Valar. He does have a noble crest too, which is nice for the Power of Blood option.

Joffrey Baratheon (PotS):
Another lobotomized character. The first printing of this Joffrey had a noble crest, making him able to trigger off himself. Since Lannister already had You've Killed the Wrong Dwarf when he was printed, this was a pretty amazing character control tool. Whether there was burn or not, he was the only useful 2 strength character with renown at the time. I'd love to run a subtheme of the original version of this Joffrey with x3 YKTWD and x3 Condemned by the Council. Man.

There really aren't enough useful nobles out of Lannister to get consistent use out of Joffrey's ability in the current state of the game, unless you run them in multiples. In the Lannister KOHH deck I made for the last run of articles though, this Joffrey was actually very useful because of the easy 3 influence that was possibly with that agenda. Pentoshi Manor also helps Joffrey out with possible targets. Overall, if you've got some nobles and Small Council events in your deck, it might not be a bad idea to splash this Joffrey in. He is useful by himself, and in the situation where the pieces fit together, you'll have a pretty easy targeted removal option.

Joffrey Baratheon (TftRK):
This may be the most notorious Joffrey of all, and I'm kind of sad that I was still in the process of re-learning the game when he was at his peak. For anyone that is new enough to not know, this Joffrey with the Maester agenda was pretty awesome. When you put an Apprentice Collar on him, he could start taking chains from the agenda, and kneel at will by paying the costs on some of the chains. That coupled with the fact that he is one of two Immune to Triggered Effect characters left in the game, he was pretty hard to deal with.

In the current state, this Joffrey is still good, but nowhere close to the beast he was before. It's worth nothing that he's still a very good option against Targ. When adding him to a deck, make sure you keep in mind that he is immune to all triggered effects, which includes all buffs and saves outside of his own dupes that do not have passive effects. If you feel like building around him a little, short of resets, Devious Intentions (BoRF) will make him close to invincible to burn, and give him another way to kneel and avoid being stealthed past. Devious intentions is also a fun card for Yezzan's Grotesquerie for the same reasons, so it may be fun to run them in tandem.

Joffrey Baratheon (KotS):
This is my Joffrey of choice at the moment, and probably the Joffrey of choice for Shadows builds. Most Lannister players will opt to run Castellan as their restricted, but decks that run Alchemist's Guildhall may want to run the Cache instead to avoid clashing Limited Responses. This Joffrey is an easy King for the Cache, and a solid wall for decks that run playsets of Pentoshi Manor (AHM). KotS Joffrey, Yezzan's Grotesquerie (CD), and Bronn (LotR) together are a pretty huge asset in defending challenges. He isn't going to turn heads when he hits the table, but at 2 cost, he can potentially bring a lot of synergy to your decktype.

Joffrey Baratheon (LotR):
Aaaaanddd. This is a tough one. This Joffrey has an ability that really needs to be built around, but building a deck around a 2 strength character is pretty tough in the current state of the game. There is some synergy there, with the Pale Mare and a few other plots, but in the long run, it may not be worth some of Lannister's great non-unique options to even bother. The ability itself seems to have too many contingencies anyway. If you do want to use him, hyper kneel is probably your best bet.


As a summary. If you run Pyromancer's Cache and/or Pentoshi Manor, I feel your best option is KotS Joffrey, otherwise, probably the King's Landing Version. If you run a KOHH build (which I truly feel has potential with some tweaking) you could run PoTS, but in that type of deck, I feel the KL version would be just as useful.

I probably wouldn't take the other versions to a tournament at this point.

Anyway, as always, thanks for reading.