On Thursday, 7 December, Fire Emblem Cipher released its 11th booster series! The title of Cipher Series 11, Glorious Twinstrike, references the pairs of protagonists for each of the three titles included: The Sacred Stones, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, and Fire Emblem Warriors.
WARNING: Some of the cards in this set contain story or character spoilers for all three games. If you’re looking to avoid any spoilers, proceed with caution!
The Sacred Stones
The first half of the set is dedicated to Magvel. Both Eirika and Ephraim share the set’s spotlight, each getting an HN, R, and SR card. Their SRs form a panorama with Formotiis in the middle.
The remaining SRs of the section were given to other fan-favourite characters: Lute, Amelia, Tana, and Joshua. All four also appear in Heroes as well!
Since this is the first time TSS has appeared in Cipher, they focus on showcasing a wide variety of characters from throughout the game. More characters from the early part of the game, before the route split, given cards include: Seth, Vanessa, Ross, Garcia, Neimi, Colm, Natasha, Kyle, and Forde.
Cards for characters acquired during the split focus more on Eirika’s route. Newcomers arriving in this section include Innes, Gerik, L’Arachel, Dozla, Saleh, and Rennac.
Rounding up the playable characters of this portion of the set are Myrrh and Syrene.
The final portion of the set is dedicated to some of the villains of The Sacred Stones. Lyon gets two cards, both before and after his possession by Formotiis. We also get cards for two of the monster units that appear in the game, Baels and Gorgons.
Although there’s no voice acting in TSS, both Eirika and Ephraim are voiced in Fire Emblem Heroes. As such, both of their SR+ cards are signed by their Heroes VAs: Kaori Mizuhashi and Taku Yashiro respectively.
Both of their R cards also get plus variants. However, unlike other plus cards of recent sets, theirs are neither signed nor use alternate art. Instead, they get a special foil treatment that enhances the elemental effects of their Sacred Twins. Check out the flames on Siegmund!
The other plus cards of this section do get alternate art, such as this lovely R+ card for L’Arachel.
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
The second title of the set sees a return to Valentia. Echoes may be the newest game in the series, but Cipher takes a moment to pay an homage to the game’s origins with this joined-art panorama of Celica, Alm, and Valbar. The composition is a direct reference to the original Gaiden boxart.
Alm and Celica also get more SRs this set. This time around, the SRs focus on their Overclasses, Conqueror and Rigain. This is the first time Overclasses have been seen in Cipher. They’re a bit different from other high tier promotions in that their Class Change costs are higher than their Deployment costs.
Several more Overclasses are also included in the set, such as Faye the Harrier, Clive the Skogul, Delthea the Enchantress, and Genny the Exemplar. Delthea is the third and final SR of the Echoes part of the set, and the others are all Rs. Some even get signed plus variants, such as Clive!
The remaining cards of this section of the set are given to characters who weren’t able to be included in S9. Forsyth, Python, Luthier, Kamui, and Leon all get their first cards finally! We also get a card of Rinea as a Witch, as well as set cards for Boey and Valbar who were previously ST deck exclusive.
Fire Emblem Warriors
The final quarter of the deck goes to Fire Emblem Warriors. Rowan and Lianna share the Lord position at the front of the section, each with an N, HN, and SR card. Like the Heroes cards of S9, all of the Warriors cards are colourless denoting that they don’t belong to a single faction.
Other Warriors OCs, such as Darios and this universe’s version of Anna also gets their own cards in the set.
However, unlike Heroes in S9, the Warriors portion of this set also includes characters from other Fire Emblem games! This gives us the opportunity for some some crossover action, such as this joined-art of Marth and Chrom. These characters are also all colourless, making them easily splashable into decks of all colours.
Caeda and Tiki arrive with Marth to represent Archanea, with Tiki scoring the final SR of the set. Lissa and Frederick from Awakening also appear in the set alongside Chrom, with Lissa wielding her axe!
Sakura, Elise, Ryoma, and Xander all gets cards to represent Fates, and Lyn rounds off the set.
The “secret” +X card also falls under the Warriors portion of the set! Cipher has once again changed the +X card for this set. Camilla is neither a card from this set nor a preview of a card for an upcoming set. Instead, she’s a colour-swapped version of an older card, her ST exclusive card from S3!
The new Camilla has the same text as the old card, but she’s now colourless and faction-less. She also gets a new numbering style that references the old card: B11-101+X(S04-003ST). The gold foiled covers the border and much of her armour, and it’s also stamped with roses!
Cipher Mascots
It wouldn’t be a Cipher set without the Cipher original characters! As usual, the mascots and spread out between the sets. This time around, Alice and Valjean are showing up in Magvel as purple cards, while Yuzu and Randall arrive in Valentia as red cards.
Cipher Series 11 Promotional Goods
As usual, Cipher S11 booster boxes came with a number of promotional goodies for Cipher fans. However, for the first time, we don’t get any preview promos for the next set! Instead, the promo cards included were two unique promos for Eirika and Ephraim. Each box includes both promos, one as a holo and one as a non-holo.
Promotional sleeves are still included as well. The sleeves for this set use the boxart for both new games in the set: The Sacred Stones and Fire Emblem Warriors. Each booster box contains one pack of five sleeves of either style.
Promotional A5 notebooks were also given out to everyone who bought one booster box or 16 loose packs. There are three different styles of notebook, each one featuring art for one of the titles of the set. The TSS book features Eirika and Ephraim, the Echoes book Delthea and Faye, and the Warriors book Lissa and Caeda.
The featured art appears either on the front or back cover of the notebook in full, and also as a faded monochrome image on the inside pages of the book. Each book also comes with a sticker!
Cipher Series 11 Promotional Cards
We’ve also had a few of the promotional cards for the set revealed so far. Although there are no preview promos, the Eirika and Ephraim promos take up the same slots as P11-001PR and P11-002PR respectively.
The next six promos are the S11 tournament promos.
Marisa (P11-003PR) and Mycen (P11-004PR) are both new cards. The others are all reprints with alternate art. Ephraim (P11-005PR) and Lianna (P11-005PR) are both reprints of their HN cards from this set. Robin (P11-007PR) is a reprint of her N from S8 while Takumi (P11-008PR) is a reprint of his N from S7.
Continuing a trend started with S10, the booster pack image for the S11 tournament promos features the art of one of the cards. In this case, the pack uses Marisa’s art.
The next three promos will all be available at Comiket 93. Delthea (P11-009PR) will be given out to everyone who buys something from the Cipher booth while Female Corrin (P11-010PR) and Sharena (P11-011PR) are available exclusively in their associated players boxes.
The final known promo is another Eirika (P11-011PR). This card is being released in the February issue of Dengeki Nintendo which comes out on 21 December. You can pre-order the magazine via Amazon Japan.
Nintendo Dream may also release a matching promo in their upcoming issue, but if so, they haven’t said yet. More promos will also be coming with next year’s Cipher Sai events.
For now, that’s everything for Cipher Series 11! If you’re interested in discussing Cipher with other fans, come visit the Fire Emblem TCG section of the forums! You’re welcome to ask questions, get help with card rulings, post your pulls, trade/buy/sell cards, or arrange for online matches.
