With the release of Series 6 a few weeks in the past, eager fans of Fire Emblem Cipher are already turning their sights towards the upcoming Series 7, titled “Rise to Honour”, which releases in less than two months on December 8th.
Originally announced during the Spring 2016 Livestream, S7 has been of particular interest to western fans as it will feature characters from Blazing Sword, the first Fire Emblem game released in English. The other half of the set will be dedicated to Hoshidan characters from Fire Emblem Fates, as a counterpart to the Nohrian focus of S6.
The official FECipher website has not yet been updated with information regarding the new set, but we still know a decent amount of information about the set from pre-release images and other sources.
For the first time in Cipher’s history, there will not be an associated Structure Deck released alongside the Booster Series for S7. The previous 6 sets have all included at least one ST Deck featuring the new colour(s) introduced in that particular set, with the exception of S4 which released a hybrid Red/Blue deck for Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.
Like S4, there is no new faction represented in S7. Blazing Sword’s characters will use the same Purple colour and Divine Weapon insignia as those from Binding Blade in S5. As such, no new ST Deck will be released. This discrepancy may alter the structure of the booster series itself, in ways that have actually already been hinted at in previous sets.
Around the release of S5, Cipher fans were intrigued by the sudden and unexpected appearance of a secret Eliwood card numbered B07-002R+X. Secret cards had been introduced in the previous set with the HNX Blue Tiki card, but Eliwood was notable for having a higher rarity and a unique numbering that actually placed him in a future set.
Based on the structure of previous Cipher ST decks and booster series, the prevailing theory is that Eliwood will receive both an SR and an R card in S7. His SR card is expected to be a 5/4 cost card in line with other Lord SRs, while his R card will be a non-secret reprint of his existing R+X card, which also would function as a functional replacement for the ST+ card he would have received had S7 gotten a ST deck.
If this theory ends up proving true, it is likely that we will see a similar structure fall into place for future sets as well, especially with Seliph also receiving an R+X secret card in S6.
New Blazing Sword cards will also be bringing some new mechanics to the table, such as simultaneous Attack and Defense Support Skills, as well as something new called “Support Value X” where the value of the support will change according to what you have on your field.
These new mechanics were teased in an advertisement distributed at card stores in Japan last month. The flip-side of the advertisement also gives us some text-free shots of upcoming S7 cards for characters from both games.
Aside from these previews, we’ve also seen a few shots of Blazing Sword artwork that has appeared in previous Livestream events. In addition to the card arts shown above, we have separate images of artwork for Matthew, Priscilla, Canas, Rebecca, and Guy.
The Fates side of S7 is a bit easier to predict, since it will very likely mirror the Fates half of the recently-released S6. We can expect that all four of the Hoshidan siblings will receive SR cards to finish up the eight-card panorama, and they will have Dragon Vein skills.
It’s likely that some of the sibling SRs may be alternate classes. In S6, Elise was the only sibling to receive an alternate class SR card, but she is also the only Nohrian sibling that joins as an unpromoted class. Since Hinoka, Takumi, and Sakura all join as unpromoted classes, their SR promoted class is not predetermined.
In fact, reclassed characters were one of the main staples of the repeated Nohrian characters included in S6, so we will likely see many reclassed Hoshidans in S7, in addition to the debuts of other NPCs, villains, or missing characters. Hana as a Master of Arms has already been confirmed in the above advertisement image.
Other livestream artwork for Fates characters has been revealed for Ryoma, Shiro, Scarlet, Setsuna, and Yukimura.
Just this week, Japanese retailer Animate shared an image over on Twitter showcasing the S7 sleeve designs. The sleeves feature art of Eliwood and Lyn from Blazing Sword and Ryoma and Hana from Fates. As usual, each sleeve design comes in packs of 65. They will be released the same day as the set itself on December 8th.
With the new changes and characters, Series 7 is definitely shaping up to be an interesting addition to Cipher! More information will likely start to be released over the next few months as we start gearing up towards the release date, as well as information from the upcoming S5 guidebook and news about Cipher’s presence at Comiket91.
As usual, we’ll post up new information as it’s learned, so stay tuned! In the meantime, pre-orders for S7 booster boxes and sleeves are available on AmiAmi. For more information about Cipher, please check out my Newcomer’s Guide, and feel free to come chat with other Cipher fans about the upcoming series in the Cipher section of the SF forums!
