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Fire Emblem Cipher: Series 13


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https://fecipher.jp/

 

Tempered blades strike again across the lands of Elibe, Archanea, and beyond in the upcoming expansion of Fire Emblem Cipher, the Fire Emblem trading card game!

 

The Fire Emblem Cipher TCG is a collectible card game based on the Fire Emblem series by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems. Though it has only been available in Japan and there's no word on an official English release, it is regularly updated with new sets and rules which keep it interesting for fans to talk about.

 

Series 13 is the upcoming expansion releasing on June 28, and will include one new booster pack featuring characters from the titles The Blazing Blade, Shadow Dragon, and Heroes. The focus of this topic is on this particular set, but is also open to having any other discussion pertaining to the TCG in general.

 

Getting Started

 

Despite the TCG only being available in Japanese, there are a number of resources made available by fans in English which provide information on what you need to know in order to collect the cards or even how to play the game. The best source, in my opinion, is the wiki guide written here, though you can also refer to the information on the official site linked above, albeit in Japanese.

 

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Basically:

  • New collectors who want to own specific cards of their favorite characters should get an idea of how much they individually go for at the local retailers and try to buy/trade for them within the second hand market (fellow fans in various communities). This is generally more cost friendly than the easy route of buying them off online retailers like eBay, Amazon, or TCG Republic, so you can get a lot of mileage from doing research and knowing what's out there and at what prices. If you want to import sealed starter decks, boosters, or sleeves, I recommend buying through AmiAmi.
  • New players can try owning any of the available starter decks to help them with learning, which are ready to play and are all suitable for introducing the game. Online simulators with English translations of all the cards are out there too! The one shared on the wiki is pretty popular, although I personally prefer playing with FECipherVit.
  • New sets are released every few months and new promo cards are regularly distributed during the interims through various means (events, magazines, etc.), so there's constantly new stuff to glean over.
  • If you really like the art, know that many illustrators of the card artwork tend to publicly upload the full illustrations via Twitter or Pixiv, usually after the release of a new set. Some might not be available though.

Card Sets

 

Series 13 will be out on June 28, but there have already been hundreds of different cards released since the TCG started in 2015, with each set focusing on specific groups of Fire Emblem titles.

 

For a full list of cards, you can check them out here, or search the wiki.

 

Series 14, which is currently completely unknown with details beyond the keyword of mugen, will release later this year!

 

Basic Rules

 

In Fire Emblem Cipher, two players wage battle against each other using their army of characters, with the ultimate goal of claiming victory by defeating the opposing army's leader in combat until they can no longer be sustained by their five orbs.

 

Each army's deck needs at least 50 cards to engage in battle, and unlike some other card games, running out of cards to draw from your deck just means you have to replenish your deck with all the cards left in your retreat to continue the battle, meaning the victory condition is all you have to focus on.

 

Game Flow

 

Each turn consists of these actions in the following order, which are divided into their own phases:

  1. Drawing a card from your deck
  2. Adding a card from your hand to the bond row
  3. Deploying units from your hand to the battlefield
  4. Attacking enemies, activating skills, or repositioning your units

This goes back and forth between both players until one emerges as the battle's victor!

 

Card Details

 

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Here's a quick rundown on what everything means on any card:

  • Unit name - The name of the character depicted on the card. With the epithet, constitutes the card name.
  • Epithet - A title distinguishing the unit from other different cards they may have. With the unit name, constitutes the card name.
  • Power - A measure of the unit's strength when engaged in combat.
  • Aid - A measure of the unit's strength when assisting an ally in combat.
  • Range - Indicates how far the unit can attack in relation to their position on the battlefield.
  • Class - Represents the unit's class and how seasoned they are.
  • Skills - Normal skills the unit possesses, which grant various abilities.
  • Assist skills - A type of skill which may only be activated when the unit is assisting an ally in combat.
  • Field cost - The number of bonds needed to deploy the unit from your hand to the battlefield.
  • Class change cost - The number of bonds needed to promote the already deployed unit to this card.
  • Symbol - Denotes the unit's associated faction and color.
  • Gender - The gender the unit is identified as.
  • Weapon - The type of weapon the unit uses in combat.
  • Types - Additional attributes of the unit if any, such as if they are a flier or armored.

Further details on how the game plays can be found on the wiki.

 

If there's anything you want clarification on, whether about the rules of the game or anything else regarding the cards, you're welcome to ask here!

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As previously noted, FE Cipher's got a new expansion coming out this early summer, consisting of a new booster and, for the first time in a while, a new starter deck, this time based on FE Blazing Blade.

 

As with other TCGs, starter decks are pre-constructed with specific cards and are designed for beginners to be played without the need for further building, though you can always mix and match with other cards.

 

From the looks of it, the new starter deck coming out appears to be continuing the trend of including exclusive cards that you can't find in the booster, namely with Eliwood and Lyn (pictured in the previous post) so far. Lyn's artwork was posted on the official Twitter allegedly because of the great reception to the post sharing Eliwood's a few days prior. Realistically, I think another new Hector can be expected as well.

 

If or when they'd post new Hector artwork, I don't know, but in the meantime the Twitter will just keep highlighting cards from Series 12 until they change gears with Series 13 cards in about a month from now. Initially I wanted to wait to post this new topic until a little closer until then, but moving forward I don't think there's anything else new to share with Series 12, so I thought why not now.

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3 hours ago, Chrom said:

Lyn's artwork was posted on the official Twitter allegedly because of the great reception to the post sharing Eliwood's a few days prior. Realistically, I think another new Hector can be expected as well.

Although not mentioned, I think part of it was also to coincide with the Legendary Lyn reveal in Heroes. Unfortunately, it actually seems to be poor timing rather than good timing, in that respect.

 

It's really cool art, though.

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See, I think the timing of that is actually really cool (on top of the fact they're both done by the same artist), and I suspect Intelligent Systems thought so too. It's just a bit of shame that it's sort of tarnished since FE Heroes has been exhausting Lyn to the point of aggravating a lot of players.

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Images of the next FE Cipher card sleeves for release with the next set are up! Via Kizuna.

 

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The four sleeves are of Marth, Linde, Laevatein, and Lyn. Laevatein's artwork is all-new! The chibi style has me thinking it's for a future promo since that's how it typically goes. Which has reminded me that one topic the next livestream should cover is what they have planned for the annual anniversary event this summer, Laevatein could easily be a promo for that, if not some other promo.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So during this interim I've actually just made a big milestone for myself as a collector and ordered my first booster box, the one for Series 4. It should be coming sometime next week. flower; 

 

I'm really happy and hoping for the best with my pulls, I'll definitely want to share later. Really if I could just get the SRs for Itsuki, Marth, and Lucina, I'd be most satisfied.

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7 hours ago, Chrom said:

So during this interim I've actually just made a big milestone for myself as a collector and ordered my first booster box, the one for Series 4. It should be coming sometime next week. flower; 

 

I'm really happy and hoping for the best with my pulls, I'll definitely want to share later. Really if I could just get the SRs for Itsuki, Marth, and Lucina, I'd be most satisfied.

Good luck with your pulls! The S4 Lucina SR is still one of my all-time favourite Cipher cards.

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Some recent news!

 

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The official site/Twitter has released the packaging images for the Series 13 booster and starter deck.

 

With the booster, having Sharena to represent FE Heroes rather than Alfonse has me curious if she will get an SR this time.

 

The first thing I noticed with the starter deck packaging is the new characters. Florina, young Marcus, and Erk were all previously unseen. And I do see Lyn is breaking conventions by having a signed ST card in the deck, I wonder what that might mean for her in the booster.

 

Also the Twitter announced the VA for Soleil/Delthea is returning, along with the special guest Satomi Arai, voice of Loki from FE Heroes. That has me curious if Loki's going to get an SR this set, I can definitely see it.

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Best pull from the box, the signed male Robin SR! It's so cool. I wasn't able to get any of the SRs I particularly wanted, but I did manage to get the SRs for Minerva, Lon'qu, and Severa as well.

 

Since I was able to open multiple packs this time, I could finally see the pattern in how the cards were distributed. The last card in a pack is always a foil like an R or SR card, so it could be anticipated what kind of card can be expected if you open them the same way. Somehow I find this pre-arranged assortment to add to the fun of pack opening.

 

I also love how the box itself can be used to act as cute little display.

 

I don't think I'll be getting the booster box that'll be coming out next month but I'll be curious about the extra details about it all the same.

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The official site updated today with a new column and it's a pretty good one. We get some new cards and art out of it, specifically for Nieve, Yuzu, and Randal.

 

For Randal in particular, his new card is of his younger self, and that has me thinking of what's probably why young Randal even exists: as just a little nod to the continuity of FE Binding Blade and FE Blazing Blade. Young Randal so far only appears in the Blazing Blade sets which is the prequel and takes place before Binding Blade (for context, he debuted in the initial Binding Blade set). I'm not entirely sure if this is really the case but it does make a lot of sense to me.

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Congrats on the sweet Robin SR+ pull! Kind of a shame you didn't get the SRs you were hoping for, but gunning for a handful of SRs in a single box is kind of like tempting fate. Or even three, like my last few boxes.... x.x;

 

Young Randall is looking pretty fine as well. Is this the first time he's been drawn by someone different from Mayo?

 

Looking forward to hopefully getting full daily reveals soon. They keep doing these little teasers that make it a bit annoying for me to time news-wise. I guess I'll see if we get anything else this week before deciding if I should put up an article this week or not.

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Oh hey you're right, that is the first Randal from someone other than Mayo. This new one is by Horiguchi Kousei instead. I really like it! With Yuzu and Nieve, I wonder if this means we already know of all the OCs who will be getting cards this set, I wouldn't think they'd include everyone.

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2 hours ago, Chrom said:

Oh hey you're right, that is the first Randal from someone other than Mayo. This new one is by Horiguchi Kousei instead. I really like it! With Yuzu and Nieve, I wonder if this means we already know of all the OCs who will be getting cards this set, I wouldn't think they'd include everyone.

I think this will be all, yes. We usually just get four, and I can't see them adding more this time around, since it'll be kind of tight as it is.

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June's special marker cards have been officially revealed, featuring characters from Series 12: Soren, Lissa, Nowi, and Sigurd!

 

They've also announced the regularly scheduled shop pack battle tourneys for the launch of Series 13. It starts late next month but as it continues into July they'll begin distributing the next tourney promos, including the new Lyn.

 

I think this is probably the last update to expect before they'll begin introducing the new cards, unless they have a surprise for this weekend.

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It's not there anymore but Amazon apparently put up the final image for Lyn ST+ on the product page for the starter deck. The card number shows us she's actually the first character in the Blazing Blade group unlike last time in which it was Eliwood.

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4 hours ago, Chrom said:

It's not there anymore but Amazon apparently put up the final image for Lyn ST+ on the product page for the starter deck. The card number shows us she's actually the first character in the Blazing Blade group unlike last time in which it was Eliwood. 

That's ST numbering though. The leading ST+ card of all ST decks have been 001ST+, and this numbering has nothing to do with the booster set because it's a deck-exclusive card.

Edited by L'Arachel
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Oh that's right. The Lyn card wouldn't even be in the booster, and Lyn probably may not even precede Eliwood. So that card number doesn't really tell us anything...

 

The card itself doesn't really wow me personally, but it's not bad. It provides a basic rally for purple decks similar to Eirika, and she has an interesting option to pull back frontline allies who may want to be repositioned. It functions more as a supportive card than something super aggressive, but it is reliable.

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