Precon Upgrade Guide
Hail, Caesar Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the Mardu tokens and sacrifice precon from Fallout, commanded by Caesar, Legion's Emperor.
Fallout
Hail, Caesar
Tokens and sacrifice, the most straightforwardly aggressive of the four. Out of the box, before any upgrades. How we rate precons
Buy Hail, Caesar on TCGplayer →Quick verdict
Hail, Caesar is one of the strongest decks in the Fallout set out of the box, a Mardu go-wide deck that gets a reward every time it attacks. Caesar, Legion's Emperor trades one sacrificed creature for two of three bonuses: more attacking Soldiers, a card, or direct damage. It already runs Skullclamp , Morbid Opportunist and Pitiless Plunderer . What it needs is cheaper removal, a few payoffs for the creatures it sacrifices, and fewer lands that enter tapped.
TurnZero HQ rates Hail, Caesar a 2 out of 5 on difficulty and a 4 out of 5 on power, as it comes in the box. That is our editorial read, not an official Wizards rating. The full hundred cards are on the Hail, Caesar decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
Caesar, Legion's Emperor is a four-mana 4/4. Whenever you attack, you may sacrifice another creature, and when you do you choose two of three modes: create two 1/1 red and white Soldier tokens with haste that are tapped and attacking, draw a card and lose 1 life, or have Caesar deal damage to target opponent equal to the number of creature tokens you control. Sacrificing a 1/1 to get two more attacking 1/1s plus a card is the usual line, and it grows your board every turn.
Most of the deck makes the tokens Caesar wants. Assemble the Legion makes more hasty Soldiers every upkeep, Captain of the Watch and Secure the Wastes make several at once, and the squad creatures like Wasteland Raider and Securitron Squadron let you pay extra mana for extra copies. Intangible Virtue , Marshal's Anthem and Fervent Charge turn a crowd of 1/1s into a real attack.
The sacrifice half pays you back. Morbid Opportunist draws when creatures die, Pitiless Plunderer makes a Treasure for each of yours, Bastion of Remembrance drains each opponent, and Skullclamp turns any 1/1 token into two cards.
What works out of the box
Caesar, Legion's Emperor ↗
Every attack trades one creature for two bonuses. Two hasty attacking Soldiers plus a card is a strong default, and the damage mode finishes games once you have many tokens.
Skullclamp ↗
One mana, equip one: a 1/1 token equipped with it dies and draws two cards. In a deck this full of tokens it is the best draw engine in the box.
Assemble the Legion ↗
Makes one more hasty Soldier each upkeep than the last. Left alone for a few turns it outgrows any single blocker.
Pitiless Plunderer ↗
A Treasure every time one of your other creatures dies. Caesar's sacrifice each turn pays for itself.
Morbid Opportunist ↗
Draws a card once each turn when other creatures die, and Caesar's sacrifice guarantees that on your own turn.
Fervent Charge ↗
Every attacking creature gets +2/+2, which makes the hasty 1/1s from Caesar into 3/3s the turn they appear.
What needs improvement
Several cards in the box work against the plan. Vault 75: Middle School exiles every creature with power 4 or greater, Caesar included, and The Nipton Lottery destroys all creatures but one chosen at random. A token deck should not be running sweepers that hit its own commander or its own board by chance.
The deck sacrifices a creature every turn but has only Bastion of Remembrance to drain opponents for it. The removal is decent but expensive, and the mana base has nine lands that enter tapped, from the three temples to Myriad Landscape . For removal counts, see how much removal a Commander deck needs.
Upgrade ideas
Each upgrade below starts from something the deck does poorly and says what a replacement card has to do. The cards named are examples, not the only answer: if you own something else that does the same job, or a newer printing does it better, it goes in the same slot. Make one change at a time and play a few games between them, so you can tell which change helped. The general method is in how to upgrade a Commander precon →
1. Swap the risky wipes for clean removal
Caesar's deck wins by keeping a wide board, so its own sweepers cost it more than they cost opponents. Cheap targeted removal handles the one creature or artifact that stops your attack.
What to look for Removal costing three mana or less, ideally at instant speed. Cards that hit any permanent cover the most problems.
Cut, for example
Vault 75: Middle School Chapter I exiles all creatures with power 4 or greater, including Caesar and your pumped tokens. The later counters don't make up for that.
The Nipton Lottery Takes a random creature until end of turn and destroys every other creature. You don't choose which one survives, and your tokens all die.
Add, for example
Swords to Plowshares ↗
One mana at instant speed to exile any creature. Its controller gains life equal to its power.
Vindicate ↗
Three mana to destroy any permanent. Sorcery speed, but it answers an artifact, enchantment or planeswalker as easily as a creature.
Terminate ↗
Two mana at instant speed to destroy a creature, with no restrictions on what it can hit.
2. Get paid for every creature that dies
Caesar sacrifices a creature each attack and Skullclamp kills tokens on purpose. Cheap drain creatures turn each of those deaths into lost life for every opponent.
What to look for Creatures or enchantments costing three mana or less that drain or draw whenever one of your creatures dies.
Cut, for example
Gary Clone A 1/3 whose squad copies only pump each other. It costs a lot of mana to make a board that the deck's other token makers produce more cheaply.
Mysterious Stranger Four mana to copy an instant or sorcery from a graveyard at random. It is unreliable and often has no good target.
Survivor's Med Kit Spends mana and a tap for one draw, one Food, or removing rad counters, which this deck doesn't give out.
Add, for example
Zulaport Cutthroat ↗
Two mana: each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 whenever it or another creature you control dies.
Cruel Celebrant ↗
The same drain for white and black mana, and it also counts your planeswalkers dying.
Blood Artist ↗
Drains a target player whenever any creature dies, including the creatures your opponents lose to your removal.
3. Untap your lands on curve
Caesar costs four mana in three colors and the deck wants a token maker before it. Too many lands that enter tapped push Caesar's first attack back a turn.
What to look for Two-color lands in the deck's three pairs that enter untapped every time. Painlands and similar lands do it without conditions.
Cut, for example
Myriad Landscape Enters tapped, taps for colorless, and needs two more mana to fetch two basics of one type. Too slow in a three-color deck.
Temple of Malice Always enters tapped. A scry 1 is a small reward for losing tempo.
Canyon Slough Another black-red land that always enters tapped. Cycling helps late but not on turn three.
4. Make more bodies for less mana
Caesar needs a creature to sacrifice every turn. Cards that keep supplying fodder, or double the tokens the deck already makes, keep the engine running after a removal spell.
What to look for Cheap permanents that create a token every turn, or effects that increase how many tokens you create.
Cut, for example
Mr. House, President and CEO A 0/4 that needs four mana and a tap for each die roll, and only a 4 or higher makes a Robot. It is slow for the mana.
Stolen Strategy Five mana to maybe cast one opponent's top card each upkeep. It doesn't add to the token plan.
Win conditions
The deck wins by attacking with a wide board. Each turn Caesar, Legion's Emperor adds two hasty Soldiers, anthems like Fervent Charge and Intangible Virtue make them hit hard, and once you control many tokens Caesar's damage mode hits one opponent for that many. The drain creatures added above give a second route: when a blocker or a board wipe kills your tokens, each death still takes life from every opponent.
Who should buy this precon
A good pick for a player who wants a strong deck that is easy to run. Caesar asks one simple question each attack (which two modes), and the rest of the deck is creatures and token makers. It is one of the more powerful Fallout decks before upgrades, so expect it to hold its own in most casual pods. Players who dislike tracking lots of tokens should look elsewhere.
Checked against the printed decklist on October 10, 2026.
Track how the upgrades actually perform.
TurnZero HQ keeps a win rate per deck version, so you can change a few cards, play some games, and see the difference instead of guessing.
Create Free Account