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BlueCavalier
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     After playing a lot of the old Fire Emblem Trading Card Game, I decided to start learning how to play Fire Emblem Cipher and wanted to build a casual deck to get into the game. However I'm a complete n00b and have very little idea of what I'm doing. 

     I wanted to build a deck based around Samto who is one of my favorite characters in the franchise and I thought the fact that you can have Navarre transform into Samto was a really cool ability (even if Samto's card itself is pretty weak).

     This is what I came up with, any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Decklist (old version)

Spoiler

x1 - Scarlet Swordsman, Navarre (MU)

x4 - Blood Sword Wielder, Navarre

x4 - Scarlet Death God, Navarre

x4 - Navarre Impersonator, Samto

x4 - Wielder of the Killing Edge, Samto

x4 - Prince of Rigel, Alm

x2 - War Lady, Clair

x4 - Princess of Talys, Caeda

x4 - Student of Wendel, Marich

x4 - Aritian Archer, Gordin

x4 - Steel Swordsman, Oguma

x4 - Heir of Aura, Linda

x4 - Innocent Priestess, Maria

x4 - Radiant Hero-King, Marth

Decklist (version 2)

     Because Navarre can promote so many times thanks to Samto, I tried to build a deck based around getting critical hits. The idea is to use Navarre in the earlygame, promote him into either Navarre promotion, expend a bunch of Navarre cards on critical hits and evasion, then promote Navarre to Samto and finish the game with him.

     I use cards like Prince of Rigel, Alm and Heir of Aura, Linda so that I can draw into Navarre/Samto cards and Innocent Priestess, Maria lets me reuse the ones I've expended. The rest of the deck is meant to support Navarre/Samto.

     I know this deck in it's current form is probably pretty bad seeing how its the first (and only) Cipher deck I've ever built. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Edited by BlueCavalier
Edited to include revised decklist.
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well I don't know that much about the game overall but I am a TCG junkie

since FE Cipher kinda follows Magic The Gathering's legendary rule I'd say the best thing to do is cut a little down on the things that aren't helping you win and draw consistancy isn't that bad from what I've tried due to the overall deck sizes

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Give me like ten minutes to look through Red cards and see what I can dig up. Also, is there a second color you may be interested in using as well? A second color, while reducing consistency slightly, can often open up quite a few more options you wouldn't think of otherwise.

FIRST EDIT!(There will need to be multiple as I'm not going to have time tonight to put all my suggestions on here in one go)
To begin, wow. You picked a really hard Main Character to build a deck for. The first issue would be that Samto's "Lie! It's a Lie!" Skill only allows you to Level Up your Navarre into him, meaning you wouldn't be able to Class-Change. However, I believe there's a ruling that states you MUST use a Promotion Cost if there is one on the card, and Class-Changes are considered Level Ups, so depending on how it would be ruled you would either be fine or you would be forced to first Level Up into the Cost 1 Samto and then Class-Change to the 3/2. The second issue is his ATK - you're stuck at 60 + Supports, which is pretty close to suicidal lategame on defense without a fair amount of Evades, and chances are you're going to be using them all for Crits as he has no way to buff himself. "The Killing Edge is sharp this evening…" is good early on, but ridiculously situational lategame as it only works for Cost 3- Units, meaning probably not the other guy's MC. I mean, you could beat the crap out of my Whitewing-Yuzu build probably, but not many people run that.

I'll need to come back tomorrow if I can find time, as I have to go now, but I'll see what I can do as janky decks like this are sort of my specialty.

Edited by SoulWeaver
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Okay, first off, stop using the translated names, or I'll get an aneurysm so strong, it'll destroy the Cipher Discord, if it isn't dead already.

Second off, literally 0/10 strategy. You'll run out of hand advantage quickly, and when your opponent catches on that you've got a lot of Navarres and Samtos, who will be clogging your deck and hand up with 10 and 0-Supports (remember, a support by a card with the same name as the unit it supports will fail, and give no support effects or add its Support to the unit's Attack), they will set themselves on slapping you with minimal-effort hits, eventually forcing you to lose your hand. 
Merric does nothing, as you have few ways to trigger its skill, without wasting time or Bonds on slow units, like Linde. Similarly, Shiida uses too many units to be worthwhile, and May as well throw another beater into the mix, like Talysian Mercenary, Ogma, who gains 20 Attack while you have some low drops. Sprinkling a few other decent cards like Prince of the Alliance, Marth, could be good. Don't ask me too much about it, though, I haven't played Red in a long while.

Hell, actually, you may as well end up playing Ogma or Navarre, who won't be that much more of a complete waste or frustrating to play as Samto.

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On January 9, 2018 at 7:26 PM, BlueCavalier said:

     After playing a lot of the old Fire Emblem Trading Card Game, I decided to start learning how to play Fire Emblem Cipher and wanted to build a casual deck to get into the game. However I'm a complete n00b and have very little idea of what I'm doing. 

     I wanted to build a deck based around Samto who is one of my favorite characters in the franchise and I thought the fact that you can have Navarre transform into Samto was a really cool ability (even if Samto's card itself is pretty weak).

     This is what I came up with, any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Decklist

  Reveal hidden contents

x1 - Scarlet Swordsman, Navarre (MU)

x4 - Blood Sword Wielder, Navarre

x4 - Scarlet Death God, Navarre

x4 - Navarre Impersonator, Samto

x4 - Wielder of the Killing Edge, Samto

x4 - Prince of Rigel, Alm

x2 - War Lady, Clair

x4 - Princess of Talys, Caeda

x4 - Student of Wendel, Marich

x4 - Aritian Archer, Gordin

x4 - Steel Swordsman, Oguma

x4 - Heir of Aura, Linda

x4 - Innocent Priestess, Maria

x4 - Radiant Hero-King, Marth

     Because Navarre can promote so many times thanks to Samto, I tried to build a deck based around getting critical hits. The idea is to use Navarre in the earlygame, promote him into either Navarre promotion, expend a bunch of Navarre cards on critical hits and evasion, then promote Navarre to Samto and finish the game with him.

     I use cards like Prince of Rigel, Alm and Heir of Aura, Linda so that I can draw into Navarre/Samto cards and Innocent Priestess, Maria lets me reuse the ones I've expended. The rest of the deck is meant to support Navarre/Samto.

     I know this deck in it's current form is probably pretty bad seeing how its the first (and only) Cipher deck I've ever built. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Ok, back after longer than I should have taken. First off, ignore the first part of what ScarletFlame said - you're only using three translated names, and from my experience it takes at least five to cause an aneurism so you've got plenty of space before he loses it, and as for lack of strategy my first deck was if anything worse than this, so don't worry about it. Now for the main bit. I'll try to give at least three paths your deck can take, but it may be tricky considering Samto's not the best MC out there. At least you aren't trying to run Malliesia as your MC, that would be impossible to save...

First Option: Pure Red

Spoiler

The main difficulty I see with your strategy of building up Crits/Evades is your lack of major draw support, something Cipher is admittedly a touch behind on compared to other card games. Alm's Emblem of Fate is fine and dandy, but it requires you to set it up to work properly, meaning it can be hard to use consistently in a deck not based on setting up the top cards of your deck like Purple decks have a tendency to do. Linde is a decent option considering you're using so may low-cost Units, but you may want to change that around and so she may not be the best in the long run. My personal favorite, while not the most cost-effective draw card, is Dancing in Hoshidan Bloom, Sakura, though it requires you to be more careful with your Bonds and also run a Red-White multicolor Deck, which I'm not covering yet. Your current Merric should go for sure as the only card he's really going to be triggering off of is probably Linde. If you're set on using Merric, I'd recommend upgrading to Sage of Gales, Merric, as it can provide some draw support while also being a more reliable beatstick than your max-40-ATK Cost 1. Your number of Fliers could stand to go up as well as you're running an MC who you plan to have locked at 60 ATK lategame, almost never a good idea, and you're going to want Flier 30 SVs to give you more of a chance to live. It probably won't save your skin too often, but every now and then a critical Flier SV will make you glad you have them. Caeda should probably go if you're trying for low-cost attackers, probably for Princess of Macedon, Minerva seeing as how you're running Maria anyways, though you'd need to swap your current Maria out for the Cost 1 to get Minerva to 50. Deposed Prince, Marth is also a fairly decent low-cost attacker as he gets to 60 with only himself, the MC, and one other Red Unit, and if that other Red is Princess of Altea, Elice, then he's 70 instead thanks to her buff, which also applies to Merric while we're at it, meaning Elice can make Marth and Merric fairly decent beatsticks. Your choice of Healer is good for Pure Red, though I'd probably recommend either adding Cost 1 Maria to provide the buff to Minerva if you add her or else swapping her out for Supreme Saint, Genny, possibly with smaller Genny cards as well so you can trigger that OverClass Skill. I'd recommend the Genny route as she doesn't have to Tap to trigger her Heal and it isn't OPT, meaning you can use it as many times per turn as you have the right number of Bonds to spend. She's a little more costly to Deploy, but hey, that's how it goes. That's about all I can find for a Pure Red Build, let's check out some Multicolor options...

Second Option: Red-White

Spoiler

I've found White to generally be the best color for cost-effective Healing, so if you're trying to save up on Crits/Evades you may want to go this route to ensure you can continue to Heal any Crits/Evades that are either used or trigger as Supports. The two most cost-effective Heals I've found so far in White are Queen of the Kingdom of Hoshido, Mikoto, and Priestess of Love and War, Sakura, however they're both somewhat situational. Sakura's card requires a whopping four Bonds to Heal, meaning you need to save Bonds up for her, but she allows you to Heal three cards with different names for that cost, meaning you pay the equivalent of two lesser Heals in one turn and get an extra card for it. She requires the three cards to have different names, meaning you can't just Heal three Samto, but you can Heal a Samto, a Navarre, and another card, which isn't too bad. I wouldn't recommend using that Sakura unless you really are having a hard time spending Bonds, though. Mikoto's Heal is cost-effective because she doesn't Flip Face-Up Bonds, she discards Face-Down Bonds, making the same two Bonds go twice as far since you can use them to Heal or trigger Samto's Skill, then discard them for Mikoto's Heal. Running Mikoto also allows you to safely Bond Navarre and Samto cards without fear of needing them later because Mikoto can discard them once they're Face-Down, returning them into circulation, and since discarding them is a Cost that needs to be paid before you select a Heal target, you can trigger Mikoto's Heal when you have no Navarre/Samtos in your discard, drop a Face-Down Navarre/Samto Bond, then Heal the card you just discarded, slightly increasing consistency. For Draw Support, this deck would probably run the abovementioned Dancing in Hoshidan Bloom, Sakura, as she draws three cards and Flips an Orb Face-Up so you can see what it is. Be careful using this against players using high-Cost MCs, though, as this Sakura gives a 10 ATK buff to all Cost 5 or higher Units on both sides of the Field, so you may end up making your opponent stronger if you aren't careful. Another decent White card is Ephemeral Songstress, Azura, as she allows you to check the top two cards of your Deck and discard one, allowing you to either set up and make sure you don't Self-Support or draw at least one card you want if you're using the Draw Sakura. Don't run too many White cards or you won't be able to get the Red Bonds you need, but if you run more they should just be low-Cost Fliers like Apprentice Sky Knight, Emma, or Genius and Gorgeous Hard Worker, Caeldori, both of which provide that important 30 SV for defense and are simple Tap-to-Move-Ally cards, allowing you to shuffle your Field around a bit. Speaking of 30 SV...

Third Option: Red-Green

Spoiler

This route is going to be about your Supports, to try and maximize your defensive staying power. You'd pretty much make every card not named Navarre/Samto a Flier bar your Healer, who in this case needs to be Girl of the Mercenaries, Mist. This Mist card grants your MC a permanent 10 ATK buff while their stack is at least four. In layman's terms, that means you Class-Change Navarre twice instead of once before going into Samto, leaving Samto with a four-card 'stack' - three Navarre and one Samto. This helps fix Samto's obnoxious 60 ATK on defense while also letting him hit slightly higher numbers. You can also use Vestal of Order, Mist if you want as she has a cost-effective Heal that triggers during the Deployment Phase instead of the Action Phase and is a decent attacker. Your next most important card is Worried Sister, Marcia, as she essentially changes all Flier Supports for everyone but herself from 30 to 40 SV, but it's only active while she's Class-Changed so run her Cost 1 card too. After this, just run pretty much all the Fliers you have to make sure you're getting those high Support numbers - with Marcia and Mist out and Samto at Stack 4, he'll hit 110 on all Flier Supports, meaning almost anything not named Navarre or Samto. For Red, I recommend Princess, Minerva, as she gains 10 ATK for every other Flier you control, making her a heavy beatstick with even a small to moderate Field presence and a monster if you get everyone else out with a Deploy card like Deputy Commander of the Holy Guard, Tanith, and she also negates your opponent's Wingbane Skills, meaning the only enemy gaining any bonuses by attacking Fliers is the Starter Deck Soren, which you're probably not going to see.

This is about all I have time to put up right now, though there are other options like Samto-Jaffar-Joshua. Hopefully you find some ideas that help!

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Wow... I was not expecting this good of feedback... Thanks for all of your suggestions.

Sorry that I used wonky translations, I play a lot of the old TCG and that's how they're translated there. Old habits die hard I guess...

I originally was going to try to stick to Mono-Red just because I figured one color would make things easier to understand, but now I see the obvious holes that a deck like this runs into. While I thought the idea of running Mist could've been fun because it probably wouldn't be hard to hit a 4 stack with how many copies of Navarre and Samto I'm running, I think a White splash is more along the lines of what I was trying to do.

Based on your suggestions, this is what I came up with:

Decklist:

I'm not sure how much of an improvement this second deck is, but hopefully it's not as bad as my first deck allegedly was. If there's anything else that could be done to fix this one, I'd greatly appreciate the advice.

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18 hours ago, ScarletFlame said:

Okay, first off, stop using the translated names, or I'll get an aneurysm so strong, it'll destroy the Cipher Discord, if it isn't dead already.

People use whatever they're used to, let it go and move on. He asked for help, not for you to get help.

I'd probably just stick to Pure Red at this point. If possible, even play Yellow just for Head of House Veltomer, Arvis . If your opponent has no orbs (is hiding in the back row) and you use Navarre's unavoidable skill, you can pull em to the front and end the game like that. I recommend making the focus on Navarre, instead of Samto, because if the enemy lord also promotes to a 4 cost or higher, you can't end the game with Samto's effect. I would just take out Samto entirely. 

The main idea is to cut back on as many 10 supports in the deck as possible, but since I would play Navarre as some kind of aggressive lord rush down deck, it's not too bad to have so many.

3HiD3Ye.png

I've whiffed this up on the spot, but hopefully it'll help out with ideas for the deck.

I've cut down on most of your cards but I'll explain most of these choices.


Crimson Silence, Navarre is there because along with adding multiple copies of Navarre to use for Navarre's unavoidable skill, he provides 20 support instead of the usual 10. Obviously you still want to use Crimson Myrmidon, Navarre to start the game off with, but instead of running Wielder of a Bloody Blade, Navarre (which is fairly mediocre), run a fair few amount of these so you can still get your effect off during the endgame. I would focus into Crimson God of Death, Navarre as his unavoidable skill doesn't cost any bonds and he is... fairly solid at winning the game if you rush your opponent down fast enough to do so.

Wandering Dancer, Feena (in my opinion) is an absolute must have. Navarre doesn't use up any of your bonds (he discards) so basically comboing this with a Flip 2 Dancer allows Navarre to perform TWO unavoidable strikes. This means you can possibly end the game even if they still have an orb left.

Peerless Guardsman, Saber is a personal choice of mine but I feel like you can use him as a splash here because again, Navarre doesn't use up bonds. If you can play down Saber on turn 4, and perform Navarre's unavoidable skill, you can pull off a win if they only have one orb left (oh boy there's a gimmick here isn't there).

Crown Prince of Altea, Marth... Well you don't have to run this card but along with being a possible pull option (along with Arvis) if you manage to support him on one of your attacks (by a Red character) and hit that attack, you'll break two of your opponent's orbs. Ending the game faster is the way to go for this deck after all.

Talysian Mercenary, Ogma - A Cost 1 Beater that along with multiple other Cost 1s allows you to gain +20 attack on Ogma and basically help secure the win earlier? Absolutely.

Altean Archer, Gordin / Pirate of Orgahil, Brigid (or Bridget, or whatever name you're used to) - Basically archers that help you win the game through their support values (when you attack and support these, you gain +40 attack).

Watchful Black Wings, Faye and Maiden of Ram Village, Faye - 30 support along with being an absolutely deadly endgame combo. If you overclass into Faye (usually turn 5 because it costs 5 to deploy and class change), you'll break their Orb (retreat it, which is better because they don't get card advantage off it) and this allows you to win the game (usually you wanna do this if they have one orb left) through Navarre's unavoidable.

Wild Axeman, Orsin / Othin - Just a yellow card to play so you can bond / also a potential beater with 50 attack on your turn. Also has attack emblem to help rushing succeed.

Head of House Veltomer, Arvis  - This is one of the key cards of the deck to win the game off. Literally playing Yellow just for this card. If you play this along with Saber or Faye, you can pull them and basically win the game because they thought they could run from you. It's best to play this down when they have one orb / or none and you have the perfect hand to secure victory off of.

Indomitable Gladiator, Holyn - Always 50 attack when battling their lord. Basically another beater but he can only attack their lord. Still good at beating them up though.

If you have any questions, I'll feel free to answer though. That was a long write up heh.
 

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On January 13, 2018 at 7:17 PM, TheVinceKnight said:

I'd probably just stick to Pure Red at this point. If possible, even play Yellow just for Head of House Veltomer, Arvis . If your opponent has no orbs (is hiding in the back row) and you use Navarre's unavoidable skill, you can pull em to the front and end the game like that. I recommend making the focus on Navarre, instead of Samto, because if the enemy lord also promotes to a 4 cost or higher, you can't end the game with Samto's effect. I would just take out Samto entirely. 

The main idea is to cut back on as many 10 supports in the deck as possible, but since I would play Navarre as some kind of aggressive lord rush down deck, it's not too bad to have so many.

3HiD3Ye.png

I've whiffed this up on the spot, but hopefully it'll help out with ideas for the deck.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

I've cut down on most of your cards but I'll explain most of these choices.


Crimson Silence, Navarre is there because along with adding multiple copies of Navarre to use for Navarre's unavoidable skill, he provides 20 support instead of the usual 10. Obviously you still want to use Crimson Myrmidon, Navarre to start the game off with, but instead of running Wielder of a Bloody Blade, Navarre (which is fairly mediocre), run a fair few amount of these so you can still get your effect off during the endgame. I would focus into Crimson God of Death, Navarre as his unavoidable skill doesn't cost any bonds and he is... fairly solid at winning the game if you rush your opponent down fast enough to do so.

Wandering Dancer, Feena (in my opinion) is an absolute must have. Navarre doesn't use up any of your bonds (he discards) so basically comboing this with a Flip 2 Dancer allows Navarre to perform TWO unavoidable strikes. This means you can possibly end the game even if they still have an orb left.

Peerless Guardsman, Saber is a personal choice of mine but I feel like you can use him as a splash here because again, Navarre doesn't use up bonds. If you can play down Saber on turn 4, and perform Navarre's unavoidable skill, you can pull off a win if they only have one orb left (oh boy there's a gimmick here isn't there).

Crown Prince of Altea, Marth... Well you don't have to run this card but along with being a possible pull option (along with Arvis) if you manage to support him on one of your attacks (by a Red character) and hit that attack, you'll break two of your opponent's orbs. Ending the game faster is the way to go for this deck after all.

Talysian Mercenary, Ogma - A Cost 1 Beater that along with multiple other Cost 1s allows you to gain +20 attack on Ogma and basically help secure the win earlier? Absolutely.

Altean Archer, Gordin / Pirate of Orgahil, Brigid (or Bridget, or whatever name you're used to) - Basically archers that help you win the game through their support values (when you attack and support these, you gain +40 attack).

Watchful Black Wings, Faye and Maiden of Ram Village, Faye - 30 support along with being an absolutely deadly endgame combo. If you overclass into Faye (usually turn 5 because it costs 5 to deploy and class change), you'll break their Orb (retreat it, which is better because they don't get card advantage off it) and this allows you to win the game (usually you wanna do this if they have one orb left) through Navarre's unavoidable.

Wild Axeman, Orsin / Othin - Just a yellow card to play so you can bond / also a potential beater with 50 attack on your turn. Also has attack emblem to help rushing succeed.

Head of House Veltomer, Arvis  - This is one of the key cards of the deck to win the game off. Literally playing Yellow just for this card. If you play this along with Saber or Faye, you can pull them and basically win the game because they thought they could run from you. It's best to play this down when they have one orb / or none and you have the perfect hand to secure victory off of.

Indomitable Gladiator, Holyn - Always 50 attack when battling their lord. Basically another beater but he can only attack their lord. Still good at beating them up though.

 

If you have any questions, I'll feel free to answer though. That was a long write up heh.
 

Oh boy, I spend four days coming up with options for him to choose from and you hop on and put up one suggestion that blows all three of mine away, haha!

In all seriousness, though, thanks for the extra help Vince, always appreciated - I completely forgot Navarre even had a Mirage. I would like to explain that I arranged my lists around Samto because the OP mentioned he really liked Samto and wanted to use him even though he was a bad card. As someone who experiences/suffers from the same kind of feeling when building Cipher decks I thought I'd see what I could come up with while keeping Samto in the list to cater to player preference. Either way, he's got four lists to play around with and see what he likes now, so that's good. I am curious, though, as to why your list picture runs the cards in four rows of eleven and one row of six instead of just reformatting it to run five rows of ten. Is that just the only size whatever program you use works in?

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3 hours ago, SoulWeaver said:

Oh boy, I spend four days coming up with options for him to choose from and you hop on and put up one suggestion that blows all three of mine away, haha!

In all seriousness, though, thanks for the extra help Vince, always appreciated - I completely forgot Navarre even had a Mirage. I would like to explain that I arranged my lists around Samto because the OP mentioned he really liked Samto and wanted to use him even though he was a bad card. As someone who experiences/suffers from the same kind of feeling when building Cipher decks I thought I'd see what I could come up with while keeping Samto in the list to cater to player preference. Either way, he's got four lists to play around with and see what he likes now, so that's good. I am curious, though, as to why your list picture runs the cards in four rows of eleven and one row of six instead of just reformatting it to run five rows of ten. Is that just the only size whatever program you use works in?

I just formatted it like that by mistake. The program is Lackey but it can't do five rows of ten either l u l

Didn't take into consideration that the OP likes Samto but eh.... I dunno. It's just awkward. 

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7 hours ago, TheVinceKnight said:

Didn't take into consideration that the OP likes Samto but eh.... I dunno. It's just awkward. 

Hence why I'm here - I put time into the lists for the bad cards that people want to play because they like the character, and you come up with the stuff that's more for optimized play. It's just one of the good things about being such a huge community - we're able to cover more areas of expertise and consequently be more helpful.

Edited by SoulWeaver
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19 hours ago, TheVinceKnight said:

The program is Lackey but it can't do five rows of ten either l u l

you can change the size of card images in tiled mode with the scroll wheel (and hide the taskbar for maximum screencap coverage)
unless you don't have a big enough screen, in which case, ultra-rip

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