Fire Emblem Cipher Primer – Al

Al is one of the few purple-colored Main Character options that uses the color’s deck-fixing gimmick differently from its intended purpose. He, along with Tiena, Gant, Jemmie, Zeed, and Kilmar are from the manga, “Fire Emblem: Hasha no Tsurugi,” which released alongside the Gameboy game “Binding Blade,” and was meant as a support material of sorts. The story takes place in the same universe as “Binding Blade,” but follows a different group of characters than those from the game.

All of Al’s variants, save for 1 card, were released in set 9, along with the other “Hasha no Tsurugi” characters. Al has two different final promotions, but his primary will always be his set 9. It’s a 4-cost/3-promote base 70 with two different effects.

First, once per-turn after Al finishes an attack, he reveals the top card of his deck. If the card is named “Al,” he refreshes himself. The most important thing about the effect is that it triggers regardless of whether Al actually destroys and enemy or not. It’s a cheeky way for him to get around dodges if pulled off right, and setting up a guaranteed refresh is pretty easy for purple to do thanks to support skills like “Fate Emblem,” allowing the player to draw and then put a card on top of their deck when they attack.

His second ability is a passive that triggers after he has 6 or more bonds placed. Al gains an additional +10 power on both players’ turns, he loses his dragon typing… yeah, he’s part dragon, btw, and he loses the once per-turn restriction on his first ability.

Al is one of the first characters to hit base 80 on the opponent’s turn. This ability turns him into a game-ending monster that can also sustain against a lot of other decks that can’t match his base strength. Losing the once-per turn limit also allows Al to decimate an unsuspecting opponent, as it’s not too difficult to set up a guaranteed 2 or 3 refreshes with the proper field and hand. A well-constructed Al deck will want to maximize on keeping copies of Al in hand while also having ways to setup “Fate Emblem” effects for him to easily fix. Good luck can also give lots of recoveries, but it’s better to set Al up to get the most out of his potential than just play the lottery every round. Al has no real way to generate advantage, so you really want to pace yourself properly when playing him. If you commit too early to trying to end a match, you’ll lose all your copies of Al when you might need them to dodge, and if you wait too long, you’ll probably run out of field support to help fix the deck for Al to kill with.

Al’s “other” final promotion is a 4-cost base 70 with 3 different effects. First, he gains +30 on deploy or class change. Second, he loses the +30 ability after his opponent’s next end phase, and cannot regain it until he leaves the field (or class changes again, because technically it’s a “new” Al).

Why the weird wording for these two abilities instead of just making the +30 last until the end of the opponent’s turn? I don’t know, maybe the designer was on break, Al is one of the last cards in the set, but it’s more likely to trigger his final effect, which can only be activated while he lacks the first. For the cost of 2 bonds, Al can deploy the top card of his deck. That’s it, that’s the joke.

It’s a really solid ender with how easy it is for purple to fix their top card, but kind of lacks the pizzazz and flare of his set 9. Depending on the situation though, this might actually be a better option to go into if you don’t happen to have a lot of copies of Al in your hand, since the base 100 can deter destruction for about a turn and the ability to just deploy anything can lead into some wonky combos or setups when used properly.

Al’s 2-cost bridge promotion is a base 60 with one effect. When this card is class changed into, it gains +20 until the end of the turn. Short, sweet, and to the point. There’s not much to say here, it’s just a dumb beater that you’re supposed to sit on for one round before upgrading to the 3-cost on the following turn. It does come with an attack emblem skill that works only for purple units though, so there’s that, I guess.

Al’s 1-cost is also pretty simple, but effective for what it does. He’s a base 40 that gains +10 on attack when he’s supported by a purple card. Going second on Al is kind of the preferred way to open, since you’ll probably want to be climbing ranks as fast as possible. The +10 doesn’t happen when Al is attacked though, so you’ll lose every defensive trade while winning every offensive one. He does come with “Fate Emblem” though, so running extra copies of the 1 cost can serve multiple purposes for the deck in both being a target for Al to refresh himself, and also allowing other units to help Al set up his gimmick.

As I said before, Al benefits a lot from “Fate Emblem” support skills like those on Roy, Eliwood, or Zephiel, but he also gets a lot out of deck fixing units that can make the combo easier to setup. Nino is an excellent inclusion for Al since she’s a once per-turn guarantee for Al’s effect. Simply put a fate emblem card on top of your deck, grab a copy of Al back from the retreat, and then reap the reward.

The newest set 22 Roy is another excellent choice for a costless support fix, and even gives you a draw at the end of the turn.

Sophia and Sue are both excellent choices to fix from the retreat, albeit, Sue’s effect is a tad more expensive.

Outside of these options, the deck is really straight forward. Al doesn’t really need to splash into other colors to fix up his weak points since he’s so reliant on his gimmick, and because purple is such a dominate color in the first place. If anything, colorless cards are probably his best options since most of the strongest ones have 30-support values and can help him stall out while setting up his hand and deck.

I’ve seen some variants that mix in red for cards like Mae and Genny, who are just generic splash choices, but you don’t really need to experiment too hard to make Al work.

Here’s a mono-colored Al with a copy of Peony added in to help boost his attack and draw. The rest of it is mostly the generic “good purple stuff” options. I’ve talked about in other guides. With cards like Lute and Lilina granting strong draw power when pulled as supports, and the dark magic users being able to force cards out of your opponent’s hand. You can run a few copies of Zephiel if you want to be cheeky, since Al isn’t really going to be using his bonds outside of the set 22.

Al’s deck looks kind of complex at first glance, but its actually very easy to get the hang of. Learning to play Al is also a good way to get better at decision making since you have to weigh the risk of giving up copies of your Main Character to be offensive or defensive. I’m honestly kind of surprised Al was a slept on for so long. He’s pretty much always had access to a lot of the main tools in his arsenal, with things like Lilina or Roy just being solid generic options for pretty much any deck, and not just exclusively Al’s.

If you’re looking to try a fun gimmicky MC, I’d say give Al a shot.