Fire Emblem Cipher Primer – Saber

Saber is a bit of an interesting choice for a main character in red. The color doesn’t exactly have the same cohesion as a lot of the others in Cipher, so you see a decent bit of experimentation with red cards in each new set they’re featured in. Saber is part of the “Fire Emblem Gaiden” units that debuted in pack 9, but these cards wouldn’t come into their own until a few sets later when “Overclass” was introduced as the archetype’s main mechanic. Overclass is a special kind of class change where instead of the class change effect being cheaper, it costs more than the deployment cost. The benefit of Overclassing is that the unit either gains access to a new continuous ability or an incredibly strong automatic when they change. A lot of these Overclass abilities make red a decent splash color.

Saber’s overclass card was released in set 16. It’s a base 70 4-cost/5-overclass with two different effects. The first, Armorpiercer, states that when he’s class changed he can destroy an enemy unit in the frontline, but this effect does not happen if he was class changed by an effect.

Second, when saber destroys the enemy main character through either an attack or his first ability, they lose 20 power until the end of the turn.

Saber is one of the few cards that can indiscriminately destroy an enemy main character outside of battle. His second ability sweetens the deal if he’s not dealing the killing blow by weaken the enemies main character for his support cast to then clean up. The problem is that 5-bonds is pretty far into the mid-late game. Where most decks are starting to stabilize out, Saber wants to be killing and ending matches. His overclass also lacks any kind of advantage generation or extension, so he needs his deck to pick up the slack and give him combos and plays to work with until he can go in for the kill.

Also, only being able to class change by being played means it’s easy to dodge his destruction effect, since the opponent needs to only move their MC to the backline before ending their turn while having another unit up front.

Saber’s bridge is a 2-cost base-70 with two different effects.

The first ability is the generic swordmaster skill, where he can flip 3 bonds over to make his attacks undodgeable until the end of the turn. If you’re really concerned about your opponent dodging a killing blow, you can just class change into the 2-cost, play some kind of attack booster to pump Saber, and then swing in for game, but it’s the second effect that really makes Saber a weird type of tech choice against certain decks.

Whenever a tome enemy fails to destroy saber through an attack, the player can discard a copy of Saber to then destroy that enemy. It’s gimmicky at best, and probably never going to happen, but Saber is in fact one of the only 2 units in the game that can end a game on the opponent’s turn. The downside here is that his opponent probably won’t throw any unit at him that they think can’t destroy him, and even if the attack fails, you still have to pitch a copy of Saber to get the effect. A more realistic way for this effect to go off will involve discarding two copies of Saber, one to dodge the attack, and then the second to destroy your enemy, but going minus 2 for a pop really isn’t worth it unless it is that game-ending move. I kind of wish he had a way to recover a copy of himself from the grave, but I get that slapping 3 effects on a 2-cost promotion would probably be too much.

Saber has 2 different 1-cost variants, both are base 40s, and both have similar abilities. His set 9 can exhaust another red ally to boost himself by +20 power until the end of the turn, and his set 16 can exhaust another red ally to make his attacks undodgeable by non-main character units until the end of the turn. I’m a bigger fan of the set 9, since it will probably be doing more on the draw, as many people tend to not deploy anything turn 1 if they’re going first. The base 60 can at least guarantee a pop on an enemy main character, barring a dodge.

Onto strategy, Saber is very much a rushdown MC who wants to end games as quickly as possible. His overclass isn’t so much a boss form as it is a finisher, and you really don’t want to be sitting on it for turns after you overclass. As I said before, Saber can’t generate hand or field advantage, so he needs his deck to do the work for him while he forces the opponent out of orbs. He benefits a lot from units that have double-orb destruction effects like Marth or Alm, as well as fliers that can give better support boosts to edge over his opponent.

There’s only 1 dragon-emblem unit in red, but Tiki can definitely help with her bond-acceleration, since a 5-cost overclass is a pretty steep peak to hit naturally.

Saber benefits a lot from having a mono-color deck, or at least having his early game deploys in red to maximize his support skill triggers, but certain colors can help close out games and cover his other weaknesses.

Yellow offers a decent array of options for Saber through bond skills, most notably is Leif, who can move any non-main character unit in either row. This works well if you can get your opponent down to 0 orbs and they try to retreat to dodge Saber’s overclass. Leif can move whatever unit is in the frontline to force everything else to move up for a game ending swipe. This works better with the 2-cost Saber though, since he can make his attacks undodgeable, and also because you can’t use Leif’s ability until after the deploy phase.

Colorless is also a decent option for Saber, and gives him a decent amount of recycle and draw to supplement his otherwise aggressive playstyle. Saber will almost never be using his own bonds, so cards like Peony, who let you draw on deploy as long as you have 3 face up bonds, are more likely to trigger. Peony also reduces her cost to 0 at 5 bonds, meaning she’s free on the same turn you’d be overclassing. She can also exhaust herself to boost another unit by +20 until the end of the turn, putting a full 40 points of power between Saber and the enemy main character, assuming he can hit them with his Armorpiercer.

Other good colorless cards include Freyer, who can halt high-attack MCs from refreshing, Alphonse, who becomes a cheaper unit as the game goes on, and Eir, a 3-cost flier that can destroy an opponent’s orbs at the end of your turn for the cost of a few bonds.

Here’s a good starting place for Saber that makes use of several colorless fliers and a few cheap red units to push for game early. Katarina is in there to help with orb destruction, and also gives a decent boost to Saber on the player’s turn. Mae is also an excellent support choice since her overclass prevents enemy units from refreshing during their recovery step, halting movement skills.

Saber is a very straight-forward rushdown deck. He has one of the more interesting destruction effects in the game, but it comes at the cost of benefits a lot of other aggro main characters have. He can’t generate the same amount of hand advantage as Oboro, and he doesn’t get access to the field advantage prowess Hilda and Selkie have. He’s very much a 1-trick pony, and if his plan A doesn’t work, he’s not going to have a plan B to fall back on. If you’re looking for a swordmaster class unit with an interesting take though, Saber is worth giving a try.