Welcome to the first installment of our weekly recap series of Series 22 of Fire Emblem Cipher. Launching as a new booster expansion dubbed The Heroes’ Paean, this all-star set serves as conclusion to the Japanese trading card game’s five-year run.
In the weeks leading up to its October 1st release, the official Twitter account, @FEcipher, is revealing the latest cards each weekday, and we’ll be looking over them together as an overview of what’s to come!
The first day introduced cards of Marth, the star of the Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light, Mystery of the Emblem, Shadow Dragon, and New Mystery of the Emblem games, and is also the booster’s first Super Rare card. As the original hero of Fire Emblem, Marth’s role in the set hearkens back to the series’ 30-year history, and is paid homage through artworks by legacy artist Maki Hakoda, known for their work on the classic Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light manga.
Next, we got a look at new cards of Lucina from Awakening. These cards depict her origin story as a hopeful warrior who defies fate from a future of despair. A fitting follow-up to the Hero-King Marth of ages past! The card of Lucina as a Great Lord is the first card in the booster shown to be of Rare rarity.
Following that, we were shown a new card of Veronica from Heroes. In this iteration, Veronica appears as her Spring Princess version from the game, donning a special bunny suit. She’s even drawn by the same artist who drew her in Heroes, Geso Umiu! Like Lucina, Veronica is another Rare card of the set.
Afterwards, new cards of Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude from Three Houses were all shown, and each as Rare cards. Once upon a time, the three were allies, but the cruel hand of fate leads them astray, only for them to cross paths as enemies. Their clash is brought to life here in Cipher!
Lastly, two new cards of male Corrin from Fates were showcased, one being a Super Rare card. A prince of two warring kingdoms, he wields the Omega Yato in hand to open a path to a unified, peaceful realm. Like the other Super Rare cards shown this week, Corrin is part of a much larger heroic gathering.
As an extra update, the official Twitter presented a new promotional card of Yuri from Three Houses!
Illustrated by Fundoshi Iccho, the artist of Dengeki Nintendo magazine’s long-running Let’s Move! Fire Emblem Cipher comic series, two copies of this holographic foil card come included with its October 2020 issue featuring the TCG, on sale today.
You can order your own copy of the print magazine with the bundled card online via Amazon JP, which ships internationally.
Note: While Nintendo Dream magazine’s October 2020 issue, also releasing today, includes an article about Cipher (titled the “Fire Emblem 0 Hero Research Institute”), it does not bundle any promo card. If we learn of anything noteworthy from the article, we will discuss it in a future post.
There’s more where that came from! Catch the next episode of FE Cipher’s two-hour livestream program on Saturday, August 22nd at 4:00 AM PT for more news on the TCG via YouTube or NicoNico.
Here’s where Cipher producer Ryota Kawade and Kubocchan from Intelligent Systems will be sharing more updates, together with Yuuki Kuwahara (voice of Niamh from Cipher, Effie and Ophelia from Fates, and Hilda from Three Houses), Tomokazu Sugita (voice of Chrom from Awakening) and Yuu Kobayashi (voice of Lucina from Awakening). Look forward to our report after the show!
Note: The following are some extra news in case you missed them…
Earlier this week, Intelligent Systems shared more updates about some scheduled Cipher events.
The first is that the Across Japan! Exchange Tour event, which was previously postponed indefinitely (originally meant for June to October), has been entirely canceled. Concrete details about the event were never given in the first place, but if we had to guess, it would’ve possibly played out similar to one hosted in 2017.
The national championship qualifiers and finals for November and December respectively, which were already delayed from spring and summer, have also now reached indefinite postponement status. It’s now unclear when they will be held, but it is looking unlikely it will be this year.
This information regarding affected events can be found posted on the official site.
Starting this September, officially sponsored card shops will hand out these special marker cards of Dimitri, Hilda, Eliwood, and Triandra to Cipher tourney participants. Give it a shot and take home these unique cards!
That’s all for this week’s recap! Be sure to check back with us later this weekend for the highlights to be shared via the upcoming livestream.
Feel free to visit our forums to talk about Cipher if you have any questions or are looking to share your love for the card game!
Fire Emblem Cipher’s next and very last booster expansion set, The Heroes’ Paean, will be available from Japan starting October 1st!
