This weekend, Ryota Kawade and Young hosted the Cipher Summer 2018 Livesteam! For the first time ever, the stream was shown live over both NicoNico and YouTube. During the stream, we also had two voice actor guests: Juri Kimura (Mozu, Yuzu, and Feh) and Nobunaga Shimazaki (Male Corrin).
The main focus of the stream was to show off cards from the upcoming Series 14 expansion. Cipher Series 14 features characters from Awakening, Tellius (Path of Radiance / Radiant Dawn), Hoshido (from the Birthright path of Fates), and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. It releases next month on 28 September.
Along the way, we got to see some of the first artwork for S15. We also got an official set announcement for S16, which will be the first set of 2019. Kawade, Young, and our guests also showed off some upcoming Fire Emblem merchandise. Take a look down below for all cards, art, and details!
Series 14 Cards – Tellius
The first revealed cards of the stream are green cards from Tellius. They began with showing off the Ike and Titania cards revealed earlier the week. The first new card revealed was a surprising SR for Gawain! @fecipher later revealed the full digital version of the card, which you can see here:
Kawade then showed off a few more cards for some returning characters: Mist, Soren, and Ilyana. He also gave a bit of a gameplay demo, which revealed a quick look at new cards for Boyd and Rolf.
Soren’s card follows a theme seen in many other S14 cards so far, featuring other characters in the background of the artwork.
Series 14 Cards – Hoshido
Next up was card reveals from Fates. The Fates cards in S14 are based on the Birthright path, and therefore primarily deal with Hoshidan characters. Once again, Kawade showed some repeat cards before showing off a new SR card, this time featuring Male Corrin! This beautiful card by Saori Toyota also features the Hoshidan royals in the background.
We got to see the card in its full glory after it was later poster to twitter. The twitter post shows off the SR+ variant featuring a signature from Nobunaga Shimazaki!
Kawade showed off a few more Fates cards, including two black ones. These cards, featuring Gunter and Elise, are based on their appearances in Birthright. However, as they are still Nohrian-aligned characters, they are black.
We also get a new card for Felicia, confirming that dual-coloured black/white cards will be returning to the game!
Series 14 Cards – Awakening
Card reveals from Awakening were saved for last. As before, Kawade started off with some repeat cards, then dropped a bombshell: three new cards for Lucina, including a new SR of Exalt Lucina! The official twitter shared cleaned versions of all three cards later, also revealing that Lucina’s SR will also have a signed variant.
Lucina’s SR+ is signed by her Japanese voice actress, Yū Kobayashi. It’s also worth noting that the middle card is rather unique, in that it features Lucina class changed into a Paladin!
Chrom also gets two new cards in the stream, including an R foil where he is also class changed into a Paladin! His other new card features his Mirage form, as seen in TMS#FE.
Four more children characters will also be getting new cards in this set: Cynthia, Lauren, Kjelle, and Yarne. All four of these characters have previously only gotten a single batch of cards way back in S4, so it’s nice to see them getting some more attention.
The final Awakening reveals are three new Risen cards! For the first time, we actually get some female Risen cards: a Pegasus Knight, a Dark Mage, and a Cleric.
S15 Details & Artwork
It wouldn’t be a Cipher stream without news and art from upcoming sets, and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint. We’ve hardly seen anything for S15 so far, so it was really nice to see some details and art for the upcoming set.
S15 now has a release date and title, as seen below. I’m still waiting on an official translation for the title, but the release will be 13 December. Like most December sets, it releases earlier in the month because of the winter holidays. The featured titles are New Mystery, Fates: Conquest, Genealogy of the Holy War/Thracia 776, and TMS#FE.
New Mystery seems to be the main focus of the set. At the very least, it gets the most art. We get our first look at some remake-exclusive characters, Male Kris, Katarina and Legion. Kris’s art is based on his default look, similar to how Corrin and Robin also appear in Cipher.
Marth, of course, also gets new art, as does Maria. Maria hasn’t appeared in a Cipher set since way back in S1. Since then, she’s made her debut in Heroes as well, so she’s likely a lot more well-known.
Representing Nohr, we get three new Fates cards: Female Corrin, Xander, and Camilla. Likely, Female Corrin will be the main Lord of the black portion of S15, as a counterpart to S14’s Male Corrin.
On the Jugdral side of the set, there’s a definite Leonster focus. Both Leif and his father Quan get some new art. Travant, the dastardly king of Thracia, also makes his Cipher debut.
Finally, rounding out the card reveals, is a new look at Tsubasa from TMS#FE. S15 will likely focus on characters and mirages associated with Archanea, as opposed to the Ylissean focus in S14.
S16 Announcement!
Shortly after, the stream reverted to a “YouTube video” of Yuzu to announce S16! The featured titles will be Binding Blade, Echoes, Radiant Dawn, and Heroes.
They did not give a date for the set, but we can assume it will be out sometime in March 2019. This does mean that we won’t be seeing a Three Houses set until June at the earliest.
Cipher Promo Goodies & Other Merchandise
The release promo for S14 will be a special series of deck boxes. There are three different designs, each one featuring one of the main lords of S14: Lucina, Male Corrin, and Ike.
Like the deck boxes in the Comiket Players Boxes, the backside of the box is clear to show off a favourite card or sleeve design. The S14 deck boxes additionally have a small sprite of a related character on this clear side. As seen here, Ike’s box has a small pixel Micaiah. Chrom appears on the Lucina box, and Female Corrin on Male Corrin’s box.
We don’t yet have the particular details for this release promotion. Likely, you’ll get one deckbox per booster box, or 16 loose packs, purchased. It’s also likely that AmiAmi will once again be one of the participating retailers, good news for those of us importing from outside Japan.
Some time at the beginning of the stream was also dedicated to showing off some recent Fire Emblem merchandise. The Heroes mini figure sets are still going strong, with Volume 6 recently released, and Volume 7 coming out next month.
The Crown of Nibelung manga also recently came to a close. Juri and Young showed off the two collected volumes.
Both Leo and Takumi are also featured in a set of fan books releasing at the end of this month. The fan books come with these super large posters!
Closing & Pre-Release Stream Information
After about two hours of cards, art, and chatting, the stream winded down to a close. With a resounding “Ichi! Ni! Cipher!”, Kawade, Young, and Juri bade the audience farewell.
The next Cipher livestream will air on Saturday, 22 September. This will be a pre-release livestream for S14 and will focus guests, art, news, and lots of pack opening. Stay tuned for more details!