Caesar, Legion's Emperor Commander Deck Tech | Fallout | EDH
Hey, friends, Beth, Queen of Cardboard here with a deck teck for the newest Soldier Commander from Magic: The Gathering Fallout, Caesar, Legion's Emperor. Soldiers have been getting some massive support over the years, and I'm super excited to build this guy. In fact, this deck is actually not a completely new deck but rather something I've been evolving for some time. Read the whole article to find out how this deck evolved from Adeline mono-white Humans to its current iteration of Caesar Mardu Soldiers.
Mono-White, Too Good?
When I first started playing Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, it was clear that she quickly overshadowed a battlefield especially when Rick, Steadfast Leader hung out in the 99 somewhere. This deck didn't need a lot of creatures, and I had it built with all of the "Sword ofs"' that could fit. The primary goal of the deck was to make Adeline too big to stop. This deck truly ran more as a Voltron deck, despite Adeline popping out Humans any time I swung.
I was in heaven, especially if I had Commander's Plate equipped, making it very hard to remove Adeline or slow her down. The only problem wasn't a problem, but rather a new card that came out: Myrel, Shield of Argive. In my opinion Myrel made the deck even better, but instead of keeping my Swords, I moved to a kindred Soldier deck with a go-wide strategy. So if you have a deck that's working, why change it?
Well, I'm not sure if it's the number of games I play or if it was too consistent for my casual games but I was bored. The deck was almost too good, winning often and being a problem in almost every game. So what do you do when you get bored with a deck? You change it, and moving from Mono-White to Mardu felt perfect.
The Mardu Horde
Moving Myrel into the 99 and putting Ceasar at the head of this deck allowed for access to a variety of spicy cards. Keeping mono-white cards like Darien, King of Kjeldor and Esper Sentinel are no-brainers, but don't overlook newcomer Aradesh, the Founder.
While this deck is still an aggro-heavy combat deck, the access to red and black allows us to exploit the color-specific tendencies of direct damage abilities, life drain, and recursion. This deck loves having a big board state, so we added in creatures that are going to make more. My personal favorite add to the deck is Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon, but Assemble the Legion and Myrel, Shield of Argive are all going to put loads of tokens on to the battlefield.
Big Board, Big Beats
Because Soldiers, like Elves, tend to expand quickly, we want cards that will help us finish combat quickly. The perfect card for when you've got a ton of creatures coming in is Cathars' Crusade, taking advantage of an expanding wide board by also making each creature increasingly beefy. With a little less bang, I've put in Serra Redeemer to make sure that all the 1/1 tokens coming in are just a little bit bigger.
Another card that takes advantage of a lot of creatures coming in is Warleader's Call, a burning enchantment that's going to make your creatures a little bit bigger with its anthem effect and deal one damage to each opponent when a creature enters. You'll have a couple of dings with the commander or a large burn if you manage to trigger your token-creators, like Darien, King of Kjeldor or Myrel, Shield of Argive.
Weapons Make the War
Soldiers are great, but they tend to die quickly because your little guys don't have a lot of weapons to start with. It's not hard to kill a 1/1. Having access to red and black gives us access to some special weapons. Remaining in the deck are cards like Rescue Retriever and Field Marshal, preventing combat damage and granting first strike.
Joining the army are Commander Mustard, the strongest card for all Soldiers in the deck, and Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant, giving your tokens deathtouch. Their blanket effects make opponents think twice before engaging in combat with your army. If you're the aggressor, Company Commander is ready to give all attacking creatures deathtouch as well, just another way to ensure that combat is damaging whether blocked or unblocked.
In addition to creatures, we've got some removal pieces, like V.A.T.S. and Blasphemous Act, and other tricks not available in mono-white, like Deflecting Swat and Deadly Dispute. You can also play around with some standard white spells I've included, such as Akroma's Will and Flawless Maneuver. If you're looking to lean more into the nonwhite options, I would definitely consider the following:
Looking to add a little more oomph that are Soldiers? I've got some great adds for you here:
Personally I wanted to stick with a kindred deck, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. This deck is extremely creature-heavy, but you have a lot of protection and tricks inherent in these guys as well as some tricks up your sleeves with nonpermanent spells. Check out the entire deck below:
The Fallout of a Legion
View on ArchidektBuy this decklist from TCGplayer
View this decklist on Archidekt
At the end of the day, not including lands, we've got about 44 cards that found a home here thanks to switching to Mardu commander Caesar, Legion's Emperor. I personally leaned into a kindred deck with Soldiers but there are several ways you can build Ceasar. Make sure to check out his EDHREC page here for some other ideas to build him into. Have you played this commander yet? How did you build him?
