TCGs > Fire Emblem Cipher

About

Because I'm me and that's how my life goes, I didn't really get into Cipher until after it was discontinued. I'm still of the mind that it's an absolute shame it was never localized - sort of because it would be cool to have the cards in English, but mostly because it would've made buying packs less prohibitively expensive. I think only about 30 or 40 of the cards I own were from packs, and the rest are singles that I bought piecemeal.

What's really great and fascinating about Cipher is just how many domestic scenes, flashbacks, and canon events they've depicted. Those cards are really something special, because I feel like they can expand on the characters, or give you a snapshot of a moment you loved (or hated!). Yeah Fire Emblem is primarily a strategy series, but what's drawn me to it from the beginning, ever since I was gifted a copy of Path of Radiance, was the characters and how they interact with each other. So the fact that the artists have been able to pack so much character into so many of their cards is a delight. Also, it gave a chance for some of my favorite series artists (Senri Kita my beloved) to draw characters for games they didn't work on.

Cipher Compendium

Cipher Compendium is a really cool fanmade website for cataloguing your Cipher card collection and building decks (I, however, am just into TCGs for the art, lmao). I've got my current collection and my wishlist uploaded to the site here.

Favorites

The site above also has copies of the card art free of text, so I thought it would be fun to post the full art for a few of my favorites I've collected so far. To my knowledge, some cards actually did get made for sale that have only the art on them - they're called Marker Cards, and they serve some purpose in the TCG to designate... Your team leader or something? But I don't think all, or even a majority, of them have this, and the Marker Cards are expensive compared to their regular counterparts.

Character: Claude von Riegan

Game: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Card Title: A Hidden Talent for Dance

Flavor Text: "The time has come for the annual ball. OK, I'll admit it. The Officers Academy isn't as uptight as I thought."

This is my FAVORITE moment with my FAVORITE character in all of Three Houses (sorry El, lesbian light of my life, you're a very close second I promise) drawn by my FAVORITE Fire Emblem artist, Senri Kita. Claude is a secretive guy, for good reason, and he plays things very close to the vest, but at this moment in the game I feel like we get a glimpse of him through the mask - like he's saying "trust me, I won't let you down". And it happens regardless of route, and regardless of Byleth's gender - no matter what, Claude pulls them out onto the ballroom floor to dance. Side note, let my man be canon bisexual, IntSys, what the fuck!

Anyway this is my single most expensive Cipher card to date [edit 6/20/24: this is no longer true, but the other one is also Claude so we all know who's the most important to Pom], but it's also the one I wanted more than anything.

Character: Naesala

Game: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance

Card Title: Sky's Shadow

Flavor Text: "If the pay is right, there's nothing I won't do."

Not sure if you can tell just from the art, but this is another Senri Kita piece, haha. It's actually got kind of the same lighting as the Claude card, now that I think about it. But while the lighting is delightful, the real beauty here is Naesala's smugness. Like, it's his defining character trait and it's captured here so so beautifully - the fact that he's not turned towards the viewer, just glancing to the side, the curve of his back and shoulders, the way his legs are crossed. He's plopped himself down in his prospective employer's opulent mansion like he owns the place, because he knows he's going to be hired no matter how rude he is.

I love to see Naesala get flustered or thrown off-balance as much as the next person - especially by Leanne and Reyson, lmao - but it's so fun to see him in his element here, being an unrepentant bastard.

Character: Ranulf

Game: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance

Card Title: Friend of Nations

Flavor Text: "We haven't yet lost this war! This fight will be ours!"

We're shocked! We're totally shocked! That this is, in fact, once again... Senri Kita's art, haha. No one does it like her, sorry.

Ranulf is a sweetheart and a delight, but he's also extremely badass and I love that we're getting to see that in this piece. This is also a mid-transformation scene, which adds to its coolness - we don't get to see a lot of that in the Tellius games, I think because the Laguz transformation itself is kind of hard to visualize. But this is such a fantastic rendition of it, and I like that the 'spirit' of Ranulf's cat form is in the background so that we get to see both ends of the transformation simultaneously. There's some other Laguz art in Cipher that follows that principle, and it looks amazing every time.

Character: Claude von Riegan

Game: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Card Title: Dawn-Herlading Wings

Flavor Text: "We have the strength to scale the walls between us. To reach out our hands in friendship so we can open our true hearts to one another! That's how we win!"

New most expensive card! This is also the first one that's not Senri Kita's art. The art for this card was drawn by Akira Egawa and it is. So fucking beautiful. I weep with joy. The golden shine on the armor, the painted style, the way Claude's eyes immediately draw your attention, the perspective... Also, a thing I didn't realize until I had the physical card in my hands? It is TEXTURED. The lines of wind coming off Claude's bow are actually textured. So cool!

Anyway, Barbarossa class Claude is probably my favorite look for him in the entire game, and that the flavor text is all about his desire to break down barriers makes me super happy. This man could have given us a Golden Route if IS had let him, I'm just saying, Golden Route for the Golden Deer. There's actually an SR+ version of this card, with different art that's still drawn by Egawa, but it is. 180 US dollars, and that is never going to happen, lmao. Still, I'm so pleased to have this one in my collection!!