Updates to the Meta After Set 4 Release

New Marth, Lucina, and Mirage Masters!

It’s been a few weeks since the official release of Set 4 of FE Cipher, I hope everyone has already gotten their boxes! I know you’re all very excited to try out the new cards, make new decks, and maybe update your old ones – so are people in Japan!

Let’s take a look at what is happening in the Japanese competitive scene. We’ll start with some decks that have won locals since Set 4 release, and see what we can learn from them. I highly encourage you to try out any of the below builds that interests you!

Wow this deck is all over the place! The Main Character is Itsuki, according to the tweet. To me this feels like a deck in Testing. Some key points to take away from this though:

1. ST Tsubasa (4/3) is great tech in any deck that can run Red. Its ability to give free +10 to the same row (front or back) is extremely good.
2. This deck seems to focus on using the 5/4 Itsuki’s effect to generate a field of low-cost 70 Power Attackers.

WHERE IS HIS TURBAN??? The first Hardin deck to take a top spot in Japan, and it’s not running the 4/3 Hardin. How does the deck work?

1. The 5/4 Hardin has some great, never-seen-before effects that costs 2 bond flips each, with an option to pop 1 of your own units instead of paying that cost.
2. To utilize Hardin’s effects, one of the best candidate is Suzukaze (when this unit is destroyed, give an ally unit +20 power). One of the core strategies of this deck is to pop your own Suzukaze to pay for Hardin’s effect, and give a free +20 to 1 ally unit.
3. Rena and Midoriko will both help you Salvage a 1 Cost Hardin and help you survive the game. Nyna can do that well.
4. Speaking of Nyna, this deck doesn’t really flip any bond in the first couple of turns (until you Classchange into 5/4 Hardin), which makes Nyna a good tech in here. She will let you Salvage, Draw, +1 Bond, and Heal 1 at the cost of flipping 5 bonds. Great Turn 5 play.
5. Tiki and Kanna are in the deck to help you speed up the game and get to 4 bonds faster.
6. Hardin’s horseback buddies are there to support him early game so he doesn’t get decimated.

Liz is back! I believe that Liz is a hard deck to fall out of the meta, it is a card that gives you a free +1 (though not 100% guaranteed) and can offer a lot of consistency through that (since it is a salvage instead of a draw).

1. Henry and Frederick are both not present. Cynthia makes for a good replacement of Frederick due to her ability to reach 80 base power and having a +30 support value. Cynthia is a 3 Cost so Liz can Salvage her as well, making her more consistent. Henry’s removal may be use to the popularity of the new 1 Cost Reflet (i.e. If this unit is discarded to retreat by an opponent’s skill or support emblem, AND if you have less orbs than your opponent, you may place top card from deck to your orbs).
2. The new SR Marth enters the scene – Liz is a great deck to run this Marth in. The deck runs quite a lot of 1 and 2 costs that will trigger Marth’s effect. (i.e. When this unit’s successful support is 1 cost or lower, you may add it to your hand.). Liz will get you the 3 costs, and Marth will get your 1 and 2 costs.
3. But I see 4 costs in the deck!? That’s what Shiida is for! Shiida will give you access to the 4 Cost Marth as well as to 5 Cost Tiki.

Ice Climbers Deck. Come on, seriously. She looks like an Ice Climber.

1. The 4/3 Mamori has an amazing way to preserve field presence – by discarding a copy of herself or Douga, all of your units cannot be moved or destroyed by opponent’s effect. This protects your Frederick, Douga, and Morgan.
2. Mamori is also able to redirect attacks to herself via effects of Mirage Douga, allowing you to protect your units for the turn. Mamori should be at least 70 Power with Douga on the field, and could be 80 or even with 90 with Frederick and/or Morgan.
3. This strategy sounds fine on paper, but in practice it has some shortcomings. Each redirecting of attack costs 1 bond flip, and it adds up really quickly. If you don’t deploy Frederick or 3/2 Morgan (which you probably won’t until turn 4), Mamori is just sitting there at 70 base power, which is not difficult for units to get over, especially when the deck runs a significant number of 20 support checks.
4. Cynthia is a bit questionable in here. In practice i found that she is useful as a second/third attacker in this deck but not completely necessary. Playing her in the deck does add more 30 support checks with helps the issue i raised in point 3.

Again here we see Cynthia being ran as a 4-of. This deck is a bit more focused on Attrition than Aggression – with both Elise and Reflet being able to Heal you.

1. This Deck takes advantage of Mirage Crom always being on the field (i.e. Cannot be destroyed by battle since you have Itsuki as Main) and use it to Classchanging into the 4/3 ST Crom.
2. From there, the deck utilizes the same strategy as the original Crom deck: Classchange other units and beat your opponent down.
3. If the ST Crom manages to stay alive for 1 turn, the deck can go into Classchanging Cynthia, making her a 100 Power attacker that hits for 2 Orbs!
4. You can also do the same with either the 3 Cost or 4 Cost Tiamo. The original Crom deck relied on Classchanging into 3 Cost Tiamo and using Galeforce to deal massive damage. The 4 Cost will give you more utilizes, allowing herself to attack from the back row, and field movement at end of turn.
5. 4 Cost Reflet is there for (most likely) testing purposes. The card itself is pretty subpar but it offers a way out when your opponent just refuses to kill your 2 Cost Reflet (because if they do, you can deploy another 1 and heal). It can also turn 2 dead cards in your hand into a dodge (by healing from hand to orb)

Lucina is the deck that a lot of us want to try! This build is Blue/Black, using the new Cynthia and the new Tiamo (and obviously the new Lucina).

1. First off, the new 1 Cost Lucina is a great improvement from the old one. If you are an unlucky player, you could go for 3 turns without drawing your 4 Cost Lucina. This new 1 Cost Lucina will help you get to her and offers a bit more consistency.
2. The 4 Cost Lucina makes a very strong Main. Her ability will let you control your draw (i.e. At the beginning of your turn, Look at top 2 cards of your deck, send 1 of them to retreat and the other back to the top of your deck). Her 2nd ability gives all other Classchanged units +10 power, ALL THE TIME. This might not sound like much but it makes a huge difference in practice.
3. The deck chooses to run Nohr so that you could run Elise. Through Lucina’s 2nd Ability, Elise will be 70 power if you Classchange her. This makes her on par with most other beaters (i.e. most other units cap out at 70 power before support), and significantly harder to remove from the board.
4. With Elise sitting in the backrow, constantly healing you every turn, Foleo will offer another form of protection for Elise: anti-movement. If your opponent cannot move your units, they are forced to attack Elise with a 2-Ranged attacker, which on average have lower base power (usually ~60 base power).
5. Cynthia + Tiamo are the main attackers in this deck. With Elise’s ability to salvage any 2 units (except herself), you can easily grab 2 copies of Cynthia (1 Cost and 3 Cost) and Classchange her to activate her skill. Coupled with Lucina, Cynthia is a 90 Power beater. With Tiamo, she will hit 100. You can also opt to place Tiamo in the backrow and have Cynthia snipe from the back.

This Ogma deck is focused on killing your opponent quick & dirty.

1. 3/2 Ogma gets +10 Power every time you deploy a 1 Cost or lower.
2. The deck is filled with 1 Costed, high-powered units (aka Fighters).
3. The deck uses both Rena and Linda to plus hand since the condition is easy to fill (deploy a 2 cost or lower)
4. Hinoka PR (2 Cost) can make the archers 50 base power (besides Takumi, if you classchanged Ogma).

Another Ogma deck that uses the same core strategy as the one above.

1. This deck opts for 4/3 Sakura to salvage the 1 Cost fighter back to hand instead of Linda.
2. Elice will let you deploy 1 fighter from retreat (once per game)
3. Marth is in there for the potential double orb damage, and also as a last resort to move your opponent’s MC up if needed to end the game.

This deck topped twice, once before set 4 release. I’ve played this deck personally and it flows very well. Some elements here were not captured in our previous post on the Competitive Kamuko deck.

1. Siegbert is a good alternative to Gunther. The only requirement for him to be at 70 Power is to have an ally Hoshido Unit (i.e. Your 4/3 Kamuko is Hoshido)
2. Hinoka feels really awkward in here. I’d just play Shade instead.
3. This build runs a lot more 1 costs, thus offering some good firepower early in the game before you get to 3 bond to classchange your Kamuko. Since the current meta is still quite aggressive, this strategy plays well to match an aggressive opponent.
4. Marx and Ryouma offers a lot of utility in this deck. Marx gives you a chance to filter your hand (i.e. discard that Gunther or Siegbert) without having to run 1 Cost mage for their Support Emblem. Marx offers field movement even when you aren’t supported by a Flyer’s Emblem.

This is an another different take on Kinu, but still uses the core of a good Kinu Deck that makes it competitive (i.e. Use the Kamuko + Gunther Engine). Since it doesn’t use any of the new cards, I’m not going to say too much about this here, besides that Kinu is still relevant in the Meta.

Just like the Kinu Deck, this Marx deck hasn’t really changed much from its standard builds, and there isn’t much we can learn from this regarding the new Set.

That’s it for now. As more tournaments are held in Japan, I’ll be following closely and come back again in a week or so with new information. Remember that these decklists are just for your reference, hopefully they have inspired you to try a deck with a new Main Character, or run a new strategy in your deck. Post comments below if you have any questions or want to share your experience playing these decks!