Welcome back to another precon guide on EDHREC. Today we’re upgrading the Hail, Caesar precon from Universes Beyond: Fallout. 

In case you missed it, go check out my review of the precon, where I gave it a middling grade due to rough starts, some weak new cards, and an out-of-place backup commander. Can we speed this deck up and make it into a token powerhouse?

For the Emperor!

What’s in the Original Deck?

Hail, Caesar is led by Caesar, Legion’s Emperor, a 4/4 Human Soldier for four mana that lets you sacrifice a creature when you attack to choose two of the three options below:

• Make two 1/1 Soldier tokens tapped and attacking
• Draw a card and lose a life
• Caesar deals damage to an opponent equal to the number of creature tokens you control

So we’re looking to sacrifice creatures but also have as many creature tokens as possible. Sounds a bit contradictory, but we'll make it work.

Our backup commander is Mr. House, President and CEO. He’s a 0/4 artifact Human that makes you a 3/3 Robot creature token whenever you roll a result of four or higher on a die, plus a Treasure if you rolled six or higher. And you can tap him with four mana to roll a d6, plus an additional d6 if you spent Treasure mana to activate him. He’s one of only two cards in the deck that roll dice, and one of three that makes Treasure. Sadly, he'll be among the first cuts.

Here’s the original list:

Let’s tune up.

What Budget Cards Can We Add to Hail, Caesar?

We’ll break our upgrade up into two parts: one budget ($5 or less) and one non-budget (>$5).

In playtesting I had a hard time finding cheap ramp and making black mana in the early game. So we’ll give the deck a Fellwar Stone and a Chromatic Lantern. I’m also adding a land, since the precon was a little skimpy at 36. Kher Keep seems the most on-theme with making a token for cheap. It also comes into play untapped, so that’s a big plus. I also felt that Caesar could use a bit of protection beyond General’s Enforcer, so Swiftfoot Boots will get added as well.

The coolest upgrade we can give this deck is Isshin, Two Heavens as One. This guy doubles all of your attack triggers, which covers a lot more than just Caesar. MacCready, Lamplight Mayor will drain opponents for four if they attack us with big creatures. The Training ability on Elder Arthur Maxson will trigger twice. Paladin Elizabeth Taggerdy will draw an extra card and potentially put another creature on the board. Fervent Charge will give your attackers +4/+4. And so on.

For even more tokens, we’ll add Call the Coppercoats and Finale of Glory for a quick hit of bodies for the Legion. The deck is overflowing with Humans, so Horn of Gondor is a great addition. We'll have a lot of nontoken attackers, so Mardu Ascendancy giving us a Goblin for each of them will pay off nicely. Requiem Angel will basically replace all of our dying creatures with another creature (except the Spirits it makes, of course). And Thalisse, Reverent Medium gives us a Spirit token for each token we make (including Junk!), which is as close as we're going to get to Anointed Procession on a budget.

Mirkwood Bats hits each opponent for one life whenever we make or sacrifice a token, which will speed us along to victory nicely. Neyali, Suns’ Vanguard gives our tokens double strike and adds some card advantage when our tokens attack. And Idol of Oblivion can draw us a lot of cards for just two mana.

These soldiers won’t be spared: Aradesh, the Founder, Black Market, Boomer Scrapper, Butch DeLoria, Tunnel Snake, Heroic Reinforcements, Legate Lanius, Caesar’s Ace, Luck Bobblehead, Mr. House, President and CEO, Mysterious Stranger, Ruthless Radrat, Sierra, Nuka’s Biggest Fan, Survivor’s Med Kit, The Nipton Lottery, Vault 11: Voter’s Dilemma, Vault 75: Middle School

Here’s the budget upgraded list:

And some other cards to consider: City on Fire, Grafted Exoskeleton, Launch the Fleet

What Are Some Good Expensive Cards We Can Add to Hail, Caesar?

The Legion thrives, so let’s look at some cards to add that will require more denarius and aureus.

We’ll up our token game even more, with Adeline, Resplendent Cathar for more Humans, Bitterblossom to provide flyers, which is something the deck is lacking, and Myrel, Shield of Argive who is especially good with all the Soldiers we're making. Anointed Procession and Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation double and triple our creature tokens, respectively. If you've got the money, they're a no-brainer.

I really want our tokens to be able to attack and survive, so we’ll add Iroas, God of Victory, which will prevent all damage dealt to our attackers, in addition to making them harder to block with menace.

Since we’re dropping so many creatures on the board, Purphoros, God of the Forge seems like an easy inclusion. His pump ability will also come in handy.

And last, I thought the deck could use a big combat finisher, so we’ll give it a Moonshaker Cavalry to send our army to glorious victory.

The weak will be left behind: Battle of Hoover Dam, Corpse Knight, Finale of Glory, Requiem Angel, Thalisse, Reverent Medium, Wasteland Raider, White Glove Gourmand, Yes Man, Personal Securitron

Here’s our non-budget upgraded list:

And some more cards to consider: Divine Visitation, Dolmen Gate, Grand Crescendo, Inkshield, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Sword of the Animist, Virtue of Loyalty, Warleader’s Call

For the Son of Mars!

That’s it for our upgrade of Hail, Caesar. What do you think? Did I make this deck better? Did I miss anything? Do you feel icky when you play decks led by bad guys? Let me know in the comments below. And keep checking back for more precon guides, here on EDHREC.

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