Fire Emblem Cipher Series 17 has hit shelves in Japan, and boy is this latest set a great one! The Advance of All Heroes features, as you might expect, characters from every Fire Emblem game.
Additionally, a special Starter Deck released alongside the game. The deck features Lucina as the MC, but contains a wide assortment of other characters, too. Scroll on down below for a closer look at the cards and promotional items available in the set.
Fire Emblem Cipher Series 17 – Basics & Changes
Series 17 features a few changes from typical Cipher series. Since it aims to cover a wide variety of characters and games, it contains more colours and characters that a typical Cipher set. All current eight colours appear in the set, as well as colourless cards.
The set itself is also larger than earlier sets. All previous 16 sets have featured exactly 100 numbered cards, not counting any secrets or alternate versions. S17 contains a total of 115 numbered cards. The appearance and ratio of the higher rarity cards is also different from usual.
There are 16 total SR cards, with 8 of them available in + variants. There are also 18 different R cards, though no + variants. Furthermore, for the first time since S4, there don’t appear to be any secrets. Foils are mostly evenly split between the colours, though there are four total colourless R cards compared to two for all regular colours.
To account for these changes, pull rates are a bit different for this set. S17 booster boxes contain 5 guaranteed SR cards, instead of the usual 4. There is an approximate one in four chance that one of those SR cards will be an SR+. This means that not all boxes contain a + card for the first time, but the higher SR rates balance it a bit.
Let’s take a further look at the cards you can find in the set, broken down by colour.
S17 Red Cards
The colour Red is used for the most overall Fire Emblem games, covering all of the games that take place on the continents of Archanea and Valentia during the time of Marth, Alm, and Celica. As such, there are a wide variety of characters that can appear in red, though Marth is usually the headliner.
In fact, Marth and Chrom are the stars of this set as a whole, leading the pack with a gorgeous pair of SR+ cards that also feature other multiple FE Lords in the background. Such a gorgeous pair!
Joining Marth from Archanea are Navarre, Jeorge, and the woodcutters Bord, Cord, and Barst. This is the first time Navarre (non-mirage, anyway) and Jeorge have been in Cipher since all the way back in S1. Navarre gets the other Red SR and Jeorge gets one of the two Rs.
Alm, Celica, and Faye also join the Red section representing Valentia. Alm’s cards are based on his design from the Echoes remake, while Celica hearkens back to her earliest Gaiden days. Alm gets the second Red R card.
S17 Blue Cards
Blue cards go to characters from Awakening, and Chrom is the leader here in his joined-art SR seen above with Marth. He also gets two more Blue cards this set as well.
The second Blue SR this set goes to Sumia, her first time ever getting an SR card! She’s joined by Lissa, who gets one of the two Rs, and also the cavalier duo Sully and Stahl.
The last Blue cards of the set actually feature characters from the spin-off RPG TMS#FE. Eleonora Yumiziru has bonded with the mirage of Virion and thus secures a Blue alliance. Her R card features a signature, similar to Tsubasa’s R from S15.
S17 White Cards
In case you haven’t noticed yet, cards in this set are ordered based on the order that colours were introduced to Cipher. The first two colours were in the very first set, so the next two are from Series 2: White and Black. White comes first, and this time around, the tables are turned as Female Corrin sides with Hoshido, taking one of the two R slots.
Both of her younger siblings also appear in the set, with Takumi getting an SR and Sakura the other R. Sakura’s card even forms a special joined-art with Elise! Like Chrom and Marth’s joined-art, the sisters’ cards feature more FE characters in the background, in this case, other little sisters.
Kaze, Setsuna, Kaden, and Midori finish up the White cards for this set. Kaze gets the coveted SR position as a formidable Master Ninja.
S17 Black Cards
As usual, the Black cards in this set pretty closely mirror their White counterparts. That means Male Corrin is leading the pack and siding with Nohr. Elise gets the second R, as seen above, but the other sibling represented with an SR is, in this case, the older sister Camilla.
The counterpart for Kaze’s SR is in this case the clumsy maid Felicia. Beruka, Keaton, and Anna finish things up. Anna’s HN card is particularly noteworthy, as her art features all of the various Annas throughout the Fire Emblem series!
S17 Green Cards
Next up is Green, which debuted in S3. Ike takes the leading spot as always, appearing as an R card next to Micaiah.
Soren and Tibarn get the Green SR cards this set, a first for Tibarn! As you can see below, Soren was also available as ax extra-rare signed SR+ variant card.
Sothe, Devdan, Elincia, and Naesala also arrive to represent Tellius with Green cards this set. Sothe gets the R card, but Devdan is also rather notable, as this is his first appearance in Cipher! The totally-unrelated Danved has, however, still yet to appear.
S17 Purple Cards
The following colour is Purple, first represented in S5 with Binding Blade characters. It’s Roy’s father Eliwood, however, who takes place of leading lord of the Purple faction this set. He and Nino are here to represent Blazing Blade, each with an R card.
FE6 on the other hand is represented with two villains, Zephiel and Brunnya. Zephiel in fact gets the first purple SR, and also a place in the Legendary Weapons of Elibe nine-card joined-art as the wielder of Eche Sacks.
The remaining Purple cards of the set go to the third GBA game, The Sacred Stones. Eirika is the leading lady to represent Magvel, snagging the second SR. She’s joined by Artur and Innes.
S17 Yellow Cards
The penultimate faction of the set contains Yellow cards for Jugdral. Leading daddy Sigurd and his lovely bride Deirdre get the two Yellow SR spots this set, side by side. Sigurd’s card also features his fellow knights and schoolmates Quan and Eldigan.
Azelle and Lex both fight alongside them to represent Genealogy of the Holy War. They’re opposed by the first Yellow R, Arvis.
The remaining Yellow cards go to characters from Thracia 776, starting with young lord Leif, who also gets an R foil. He’s joined by his tactician August and the Arch Knight Selfina, both of whom make their Cipher debuts this set!
S17 Brown Cards
Sneaking in at the end of the set and three cards for the upcoming Switch game Three Houses! These cards for Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude show off the three House Leaders in all their pre-time-skip glory.
As of this set, all of the house leaders have at least three cards: Their Cipher Sai promo, the booster box Preview Promos, and the Cost 3/2 cards included in S17 booster boxes. Edelgard has a fourth card, and Male Byleth also has three cards for himself.
S17 Colourless Cards
The final batch of Colourless cards is the largest, and actually doesn’t feature a specific faction at all! Some of them feature spin-off original characters, though most are based on alternate versions of FE characters as they appear in spin-off games, or multiple characters throughout time.
There are two colourless SR cards, and the first one is for Tiki. Tiki’s card features both young Tiki from Marth’s age and adult Tiki as she appears in Awakening. Additionally, other female Manaketes from throughout different games show up in the background.
Interestingly enough, Tiki’s quote (“Let us enjoy this moment. After all, we’ve no shortage of time to spare.“) is one of the few not taken from an existing FE game. The quote, and the card as a whole, seem to refer to all Manaketes and the bonds they can form with humans.
The second Colourless SR goes to Alfonse, the Prince of Askr in Heroes. Alfonse is the only SR+ card that is not signed, but instead features a special, gorgeous gold-foil patterning! Check out the differences below.
The R cards are also split between regular FE characters and original spin-off characters, though in this case, there’s four of them total! The first ones are for Celica and Lilina. Celica’s card is based on her promoted Princess form, while Lilina’s is based on her special Love Abounds version from Heroes, complete with mount and green gift tome.
The two OCs are Emma and Shade, who both finally get their very own foil R cards! These two original Cipher mascots have been appearing in Cipher sets on and off since the very first set. They even appeared in Echoes as DLC characters. These R cards take them back to their roots as a Falcon Knight and Dark Mage respectively.
Many other characters also get faction-less non-holo cards this set: Marth, Tiki, Lucina, Cordelia, Takumi, Camilla, Ike, Mist, Roy, Eirika, Seth, Lute, Arden, and Ayra. Notably, all of these characters have appeared in at least one of Heroes or Warriors, andsome in other titles like Super Smash Bros.
Starter Deck 11: Warriors of Bonds
The eleventh Starter (or ST) Deck also released alongside S17! Titled “Warriors of Bonds”, this deck also features an assortment of cards and characters from throughout the Fire Emblem Series. The MC of the deck is Lucina, who comes with a special ST+ card, complete with gold foiling and a signature from her VA, Yū Kobayashi.
This Lucina card is actually an ST-exclusive card and is not available at all in booster packs. There are five other deck-exclusive cards as well: Marth, Ryoma, Xander, Ike, Roy, and Ayra. Of these, Marth, Ike, and Roy also get the holo treatment.
There are two more holo cards in the deck, both of them reprints of non-holo cards for Lucina and Marth that you can also find in booster packs.
This deck also follows the pattern set down by the last ST deck and features border free art for all cards, holos and non-holos alike! You can really appreciate the art of the cards this way, and it helps them stand out from regular pack cards.
In addition to the cards, each copy of the ST deck comes with a playmat and an updated rule book, to help new players learn the game.
Booster Box Promos & Release Goodies
It’s not a Cipher set without a bunch of random purchase promos and booster box rewards. With all of the hype leading towards the upcoming Three Houses, S17 contains a whopping four Preview Promos this set! All three house leaders—Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude—plus the male version of the teacher Byleth are represented here.
These cards showcase what these four heroes will look like when they arrive in S18. In this case, the cards use the official art for these characters, but their regular set cards will have new Cipher art.
Each booster box comes with a pack of two of these cards, either Byleth and Dimitri or Edelgard and Claude. Which pack you get is random.
Booster boxes also come with one of two sets of promo sleeves. This time around, the promo sleeves feature pixel versions of either Alfonse or Lucina. Each pack has five sleeves in it.
Additionally, early S17 purchasers got some promotional deckboxes for buying full booster boxes (or 16 loose packs). The boxes feature pixel art of various Cipher lords, and also some gold pixels sprites on the back transparent side!
The ST deck also came with a promo deckbox, this one featuring Lucina, just like the deck itself.
S17 Promotional Cards
S17 is already looking like it’ll have a rather large block of promotional cards. Right off the bat, booster boxes came with four preview promos instead of one. As usual, the next six are the latest season’s Tournament Promo cards:
The first two cards, featuring Caeda and a Colourless Ephraim are unique cards that you can only pull in these tournament packs. Young Roy, Clarine, Celica, and Bride Sanaki are all reprints of S16 cards with new artwork.
The next three promos are also already available. P17-011 Summer Elise was given out to participants of special ST Deck Battle tournaments held around the S17 release. This is also an alternate art reprint, based on her Cost 1 card from S17.
P17-012 Byleth and P17-013 Edelgard are both more alternate art reprints, the same Cost 1 cards as their preview promos that will also appear in S18. You can get two copies of each card in the August issues of Dengeki Nintendo and Nintendo Dream, respectively.
The very latest S17 promo was actually just announced recently! P17-014 Byleth is once again the same as his other promos, but features some gorgeous artwork with the house leaders. This special promo will be included in early physical copies of 3H in Japan.
There may or may not be any additional promos in this set. It doesn’t seem like we’ll be getting a summer Cipher event, so the next promos may not be until after S18 comes out in September.
Set List and Closing
While this article aims to be an overview of S17, it does not include all of the cards the set has to offer. If you’d like to see clean, digital images of all cards in the set, including all of the rare + variants, you can view them on the Official Cipher website. You can also see all the cards and their translation on the Serenes Forest Cipher Wiki.
That’s all we have so far for S17! With the set now released, there will likely be no further news to share. However, we may still see some more promos revealed.
Stay tuned for further news and information regarding S18, our August set and the first official set for Three Houses! Soon we’ll share the pre-release information and art that we’ve seen so far. Reveals and a Summer Livestream will likely be scheduled for August. Hopefully we’ll get some details soon!
Credits:
Big thanks are due to @Sm0lScout and Ross H. from the Cipher Facebook group for providing supplementary photographs for some cards.
