Cipher: Series 22 out today in Japan! Our final overview, and the hereafter


Thanks for everything.

When Fire Emblem Fates was originally revealed by Nintendo in 2015 (as Fire Emblem if), it was accompanied by another announcement for the Japanese audience—a new trading card game would debut alongside Fates, Fire Emblem Cipher, featuring characters from across the series drawn by many talented artists. Now, after over five years of entertainment, Cipher is making its final bow with one more expansion update, which launches today.

It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here. Dubbed The Heroes’ Paean, fans can pick up boxes of Cipher‘s very last booster and discover all-new cards of characters from across all Fire Emblem. For anyone overseas, we can suggest vendors such as AmiAmi or Nin-Nin Game for importing whenever stock becomes available.


Fire Emblem‘s trading card game goes out with a bang of all-stars from across the series’ 30-year history.

To commemorate the launch, we’ll take a tour of all 100+ cards debuting this set, as well as reviewing other information alongside the release.

Booster Pack: The Heroes’ Paean

Super Rare (SR) cards

Super Rare Plus (SR+) cards

Rare (R) cards

High Normal (HN) cards

Normal (N) cards

Booster box bonuses

Note: Each booster box of The Heroes’ Paean will include only one item of each of the three booster box bonus categories above.

Launch campaign event

For a limited time, purchasing any Cipher booster box from participating retailers (including some online vendors) will present buyers with one of three keyholders of either Marth, male Corrin, or male Byleth.

Fire Emblem Cipher: Matte Card Sleeves Collection – Volume 24 by Movic

Launching alongside Series 22 are officially licensed 65-packs of card sleeves featuring select Cipher card artwork. Pick any of these up to protect your precious cards in a favorite design.

Promo Pack 22

Kicking off on the same date as the Series 22 launch will be when card shops distribute the last wave of exclusive promo cards to tourney participants for the month of October. In case you missed it, here’s who they are!

Series 22 pack battles

From October 1st to October 11th, card shops across Japan will also host pack battles—a sealed deck format for Cipher using only fresh new packs—to commemorate the launch of the new set. Challenge yourself in any of these events to take home specially designed marker and bond cards, along with the aforementioned brand-new exclusive promos.

All these events will bring back the original promo cards of Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude from Three Houses to hand out from October!

Can’t get enough Cipher? Pick up Nintendo Dream magazine’s latest issue which recently hit shelves, and you will find two copies of an exclusive promo card of Claude from Three Houses enclosed. The issue is available to order now via Amazon JP, which ships internationally.

The hereafter for Cipher


So what now?

Don’t be fooled—even with the final booster out, there’s still a bevy of things left to keep track of with Cipher in the future.

The most important thing to note is that Cipher will still be officially supporting regularly scheduled events until the end of March 2021.

After that, the Cipher office will continue to be available to contact for customer support until the end of March 2022.

Artbooks and Peony & Triandra promos

Sometime in the future, the Artworks 21 and Artworks 22 books, containing full Cipher artworks respective to their sets, will join the collection of others on the Fire Emblem Online Shop! Not only that, orders of either of these two books will bundle a set of promo cards of Peony and Triandra from Heroes.

These promos were originally meant to be given out at qualifiers for this year’s national tournament, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, their distribution has been adjusted to ensure they would get into more people’s hands.

Regarding competitive events

Speaking of the national tournament, the second half of the qualifiers, and the finals themselves, are still postponed until further notice. The seventh round of shop tryouts for the month of October will still go as scheduled however.

New special marker cards

The catalog of special marker cards to be given out at shop events will update to new lineups for the last two months of the year.

For November, they are: Marth, Deirdre, Ninian, and female Robin
For December, they are: Soren, Azura, male Byleth, and Tiki

Revival of Promo Packs

Looking to catch up on past Promo Packs from over the years? Participating stores will replenish their stocks of exclusive promo cards early next year, ranging from the very first to the very latest.

For January, these will be packs: 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, and 19
For March, these will be packs: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, and 22

An all-new promo card for events

Lastly, an entirely new promo card of Emma from Cipher will be released through these remaining store events, from January to March 2021. We got a sneak peek of it during the last livestream, showing the card is currently in development.


This concludes our coverage of Series 22. Thank you for following us to the very end. While there are lighter developments soon to happen still, this is effectively the closing act of the trading card game for most. And it’s been a great journey. We hope everyone has fun with what Cipher has left for us.

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, is available starting today in Japan!

About the Author: Prince of Iris
A longtime Fire Emblem fan with a passion to make things better for everyone. Enjoys playing the FE Cipher TCG and having his favorite units in FE Heroes inherit every skill he can get his hands on. You can find him on Twitter.