Anna (Medallion) (B21)

## Overview

Written by: Hong-Zhi

Anna Medallion, Medallianna, whatever you want to call her, is a two card combo deck that makes use of an odd quirk surrounding B20 Medallion 5. How Medallion ordinarily works is that you flip a card to reveal the bottom card of your deck and either deploy it or stack it underneath the Medallion to add to your hand at the end of the turn. If a card with the same name as your Main Character is stacked underneath Medallion however, your entire board is destroyed, including the Medallion. However, since Anna lets you deploy copies of herself regardless of if there is an Anna in play, you never have to stack copies of Anna under Medallion letting you deploy them instead. This can lead to incredibly explosive turn 5s where you deploy 5, sometimes even 6, units in a single turn leveraging that one turn of power into an incredible advantage.

## Gameplan

Anna has a horrific earlygame on account of having some of the worst 1-costs in all of Cipher, leaving her extremely vulnerable to getting punched in. As such, your focus as Anna MC is mainly to survive until turn 5 when you can unleash a horde of strong high costs onto your enemies. Bridging into B10 Anna 2 can help with survival, even if it costs you in card advantage, and can even be used to run out one of the deck’s many 4-cost Annas tapped on turn 2.

Promote into B21 Anna 4(3) if possible. Being Brown comes with a lot of perks, most pertinently access to B18 Byleth (Male) 5, whose CP gives Anna +30 extra attack for a turn to help her survive against punchier strategies.

Once you’ve reached turn 5, assuming no complications, drop B20 Medallion 5 and start flipping. Unlike most Medallion-based strategies, you never really need to rig what’s on the bottom of your deck since in the worst case scenario, it’s a unit you already have on board, and you’ll just add the card to your hand at the end of the turn. From there, hope you spin well and punch your opponent hard until they die.

## Strengths and Weaknesses

**Strengths:**

* Arguably the most explosive turn 5 in the entire game, with potential to flip 5-6 bonds to deploy 5-6 powerful cards all in a row.
* The ability to deploy evades from hand means you’ll never really be locked out of plays most of the time.
* Bridge can generate nice tempo assuming you can keep the Anna you deployed alive.

**Weaknesses:**

* If you can’t deploy Medallion, are locked out of deploying Medallion (Plumeria), or are locked out of skill deploys (Lilith) you really don’t do anything.
* One of the worst earlygames of all 1 range units in Cipher courtesy of horrific 1-costs.
* Medallion deploys are completely random. Sometimes you’ll get amazing high cost after amazing high cost and other times you’ll hit B10 Anna 2, Sothis, or more Medallion copies.

## Key Cards

### Medallion 5

The other half of the combo and the main reason you play the deck.

### Tiki 5(4)

Arguably the best hit off of Medallion. If Tiki can hit an attack, that means 1 more spin with Medallion which means an extra draw/deploy on your combo turn. After using B19 Sothis 2 CP, she’ll have two chances to hit her attack, forcing them to have two evades to stop her from ramping.

### Ike 6(4)

Another spectacular Medallion hit, and arguably better than Tiki. Ike will pretty much always have his s2 unless you miss promo which makes him an incredibly tough to surmount 90-base that double breaks on attack. Ike s3 might also make you think twice about flipping all your bonds face-down on your combo turn, as destroying your opponent’s entire board on evade can be gamewinning.

### Byleth M 5(4)

With Anna’s dismal earlygame, using Byleth (Male)’s CP to gain +30 attack until the end of your opponent’s next turn can be the difference between lasting long enough to deploy Medallion on 5 or getting punched into tomorrow. Additionally, while not the best hit off Medallion, getting a 70-base that buffs your entire board is certainly not bad, and can let some Annas that wouldn’t ordinarily hit punch through.

## Sample Decks

Hong's Anna
4 Anna, Veteran Commander
4 Anna, Fighting Merchant
4 Anna, Charging Golden Axe
3 Anna, Bloodhound for Hidden Treasures
4 Medallion, Radiant Fire Emblem
4 Ike, Forger of a New Legend+
4 Tiki, Awoken Daughter of the Dragon Ruler
4 Byleth (Male), He Who Bears the Flames Within
3 Sothis, The Beginning
2 Seteth, Aide to the Church's Archbishop
4 Peony, Sweet Dream-Bringing Lass
2 Micaiah, Lass of the Dawn Brigade
3 Seiros, Saint who Received a Divine Revelation
4 Kurthnaga, The Coming Era's King of Dragons
MC:
1 Anna, Commander