Upgrading Commander Precon - Hail, Caesar (Caesar, Legion's Emperor)

We're close to the release of the first Universes Beyond in 2024: Fallout! In this unusual crossover, we got 4 new precon Commander decks, which made many Fallout fans very excited.

Today, we'll pull up "Hail, Caesar" and its antagonist, Caesar, Legion's Emperor, to build a deck that focuses on creature tokens and legendary humans!

Featuring the Mardu color combination, this deck focuses on creating several creature tokens and playing legendary humans. We have Caesar, Legion's Emperor and Mr. House, President and CEO as commander options.

For this upgrade, we'll use Caesar, as we can use his abilities with the base mechanic in this list a bit better. The other villain available, Mr. House, will also get a list entirely dedicated to him at the end of this article; it will be a build that focuses on rolling dice - more specifically d20s, so we can enjoy his ability to the fullest.

It is important to stress that Caesar doesn't need to attack to trigger his abilities; if you attack with any creature you control, you'll trigger his abilities as well. This is an excellent way to focus on the theme of this list itself and create creature tokens, draw cards, and deal damage to an opponent directly.

He is definitely deserving of the title that made him the commander of this precon - after all, this deck isn't named "Hail, Caesar" for no reason. So, to highlight his villain title even more, we'll add more ways to create tokens and deal damage to our opponents.

Cards We Removed

In this Universes Beyond, we got a Bobblehead cycle: each Bobblehead represents a Fallout stat. However, considering the original list only had two cards of this cycle, we decided to remove them - we won't be able to explore their full potential. We also removed Mr. House, President and CEO to highlight Caesar a bit more, and we limited our number of lands to 35 when we removed Memorial to Glory.

Survivor's Med Kit, for instance, was another creature that, even though it has new, cool abilities, we removed to add other cards that will give this list a boost, and will shine the spotlight on this iconic Fallout villain. It is too specific and would only work in a table with 3 other Fallout precons, as it would be able to answer the mechanics in the other decks.

We also removed a few other cards that are only useful in other strategies, like Stolen Strategy and Wild Wasteland, but we compensated for them with other cards that will give us as much advantage or even more. Other cards that are harder to play and fit into our list, like Yes Man, Personal Securitron, Butch Deloria, Tunnel Snake, Ruthless Radrat, Boomer Scrapper, and Thrill-Kill Disciple, opened the way for new, more powerful cards to come along.

Legendary Humans

This deck features a few interactions between creatures and legendary humans, such as Colonel Autumn and General's Enforcer. Thanks to these cards, we brought a new array of legendary humans that also create creature tokens.

We added Isshin, Two Heavens as One to trigger attack abilities, such as Caesar's, twice. Furthermore, some cards in the original list, like Paladin Elizabeth Taggerdy, Aradesh, the Founder, and Fervent Charge, go really well with Isshin, Two Heavens as One's ability.

Other creatures that work really well with it are Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Myrel, Shield of Argive, and Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon, which create creature tokens and work under the same principle as Isshin, Two Heavens as One. Apart from being incredible ways to create tokens, I'll highlight Myrel, Shield of Argive, which allows us to play turns without worrying about our opponent's answers.

And there's more! Commissar Severina Raine and Neyali, Suns' Vanguard boost this deck considerably, worry our opponents, and also work really well with Isshin, Two Heavens as One. Both, in a certain way, boost our damage, considering one allows us to deal damage to our opponent's life points directly, and the other gives our tokens double strike.

Both cards also give us card advantage. Commissar Severina Raine draws us cards directly through its activated ability, and Neyali, Suns' Vanguard allows us to access up to 3 (or even more, with other abilities) exiled cards when we attack with tokens.

Finally, we added Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim to gain life and chip away at our opponent's life points; we can take the most out of this card if we use our creatures as ability fuel to draw cards or if we use an eventual global removal.

Creating Tokens and Interactions

As we have several cards that create tokens in this deck, we brought two cards that double the tokens we create: Anointed Procession and Mondrak, Glory Dominus. I'll highlight Mondrak, as it becomes indestructible rather easily with our game strategy.

With 2 times (or 4 times) the number of tokens, we'll deal even more damage with cards like Impact Tremors, Warleader's Call, Mirkwood Bats, or Caesar's ability itself.

Commissar Severina Raine also works really well with more creatures on the board. Dealing damage outside of combat is critical, considering it will allow us to use another type of finisher; so, we'll have other ways to finish the game without being limited to dealing damage with creatures during combat.

We added Rabble Rousing to create a Citizen creature token for each attacking creature and cast a card for free because of Hideaway. It is interesting to organize our triggered abilities in the best way possible during combat - for instance, when attacking, it is best to first create the tokens with Rabble Rousing or Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, and then trigger Caesar's sacrifice ability.

Finally, we needed to add Roaming Throne. Our commander, Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Commissar Severina Raine, Myrel, Shield of Argive, Pitiless Plunderer, Colonel Autumn and several other creatures will trigger an extra time thanks to Roaming Throne. And this way, we can boost the power of this deck even more.

Roaming Throne has been a very popular card in Commander ever since it was released, and it fits perfectly in our upgrade, particularly because most of our cards are Human creatures.

This is our upgraded Hail, Caesar list! We added powerful cards that allow us to deal a lot of damage to our opponents, be it in combat, with dozens of creature tokens, or through the effects we listed beforehand. This list has several new cards, so, to keep its essence, we decided to restrict the number of cards we swapped.

Alternative List with Mr. House, President and CEO

We also brought, as we said previously, a deck entirely dedicated to Mr. House, President and CEO. This list has several cards that roll d20s to guarantee us more chances to create the 3/3 Robot token and a Treasure token with it. It is a fun deck for D&D fans, as it features several mechanics from D&D-inspired sets!

The 4 Fallout precon decks seem quite interesting, and will be even more so with the changes we'll make to each one. This deck doesn't include new mechanics, like Rad Counters, but it still represents its main character really well! This list is aggressive and powerful, and allows us to create an army and use all the resources we need to guarantee our victory!

Did you like this list? Do you Prefer Mr. House as the commander? Do you prefer other Fallout decks? Comment down below!