Caesar, Legion's Emperor| art by Alexander Gering

Caesar’s Legion 

So I know what you’re thinking, what on earth is a character called Caesar, Legion’s Emperor decked out in traditional Roman Empire gear doing at the head of a Commander deck set in a post-apocalyptic future setting entirely localized within a Magic: The Gathering expansion? Good heavens. Well, we’ll get to that. 

Welcome back to our Universes Beyond guide to Fallout, Magic: The Gathering’s latest foray into the IP medley. If you’ve not caught our last article, you should! We’ve already touched on the Fallout setting and now we’re going to be looking at some more of the characters that inhabit it. 

Hail Caesar is the third in line of our Commander decks, a deck that features heavily the game Fallout: New Vegas (which, despite its age, is widely regarded as the standout of the series). This deck heavily features the factions you can find within the Fallout games and the individuals that lead those factions. The Hail Caesar deck is one that utilizes the foot soldiers of the factions heavily, attempting to win through token strategies. 

In this article, I’ll be introducing you to a lot of the faction leaders. The ones you should fear and the ones you’d be glad to have on your side. Fallout is a game of choices though, so your answers might not be the same as mine. Let’s dive in.

Hail Caesar 

Caesar, also known as Edward Sallow, is a prominent figure in the game Fallout: New Vegas, set in the Mojave Wasteland of post-war Nevada. Caesar succeeded in forming his own legion by uniting disparate civilisations and implementing the tried and tested ideals from our own history to take the post-apocalyptic people by force. As the barbaric head of Caesar’s legion, he can prove to be quite the ally or enemy of the Courier, the player character in Fallout: New Vegas. 

Caesar’s goal is to, you guessed it, establish a new Roman Empire sitting at the head of it himself. With an armored fist and totalitarian ideals, Caesar uses military might to conquer the wasteland. Uniting a myriad of warring bands of raiders under his command, with strategic brilliance and fierce ideology, Caesar proves to be quite the force to be reckoned with. He succeeds in cementing order within the wasteland and representing a powerful legion of barbaric and savage raiders all fighting under one banner. Organized forces aren’t common within the Fallout setting; many survivors are operating within individual settlements. When faced with the Legion, there isn’t much chance but to submit or die.

Caesar’s card is the epitome of a brutal dictator: He sacrifices the lives of people to get what he wants, represented in this card by creating tokens, gaining knowledge by drawing cards or dealing damage directly to his opponents. He does this only by attacking. There’s no sitting back with this commander, he is all about war and domination. If you think that might makes right (and we’d hope that’s where the similarity ends) then you might enjoy commanding the battlefield like only Caesar can.

The House Always Wins 

Mr. House, President and CEO is one of the most powerful and influential characters in the Mojave Wasteland, and potentially within the Fallout setting. Robert Edwin House is the founder of RobCo Industries, one of the primary institutions of robots across the games. Yes Man, Personal Securitron is one prime example of House’s creations, created as a robotic security guard. You’ll find other RobCo creations alongside other cards found in the other decks such as Mister Gutsy, a machine created for war. House founded the company prior to The Great War and became one of the richest and most influential individuals in the world. Eventually controlling many other businesses such as the Lucky 38 Hotel & Casino, his post-war headquarters. House used his intellect to build supercomputers, capable of running algorithms to predict the future and through doing this found that nuclear war was inevitable.

House dedicated his life to finding a way for Las Vegas to survive the war, and augmented his body with ways to survive a potential nuclear fallout. Coming into contact with the player character, The Courier in the events of Fallout: New Vegas. House can be varying degrees of a hero or an antagonist depending on the player, but the impact of House is felt throughout the Fallout games. 

The House might not always win in the video games, but the card is sure to be a winner on the table. At the time of writing House is the most popular commander from the Fallout set, bringing a unique blend of artifact and dice rolling synergy that you can only find in New Vegas. Wizards have hit the jackpot with this card and we’ll be seeing him roll red or black (or white) at our tables for some time to come. 

Follow the Freedom Trail 

With Desdemona we return to the world of Fallout 4 and its Commonwealth. Desdemona is fighting another fight altogether, one that doesn’t involve raiders, ghouls or super mutants but freedom itself.

A common theme within Fallout 4 is autonomy, and what it means to be alive. A prominent feature within Fallout 4 are Synths. Synths, synthetics or synthetic humans are created by an institution known as… Well, The Institute (Although, who knows whether it really exists). To The Institute, Synths are produced, pre-programmed and destroyed. To Desdemona, they are as alive as you or me, and through her organization The Railroad (bit on the nose, but it is what it is) she offers Synths another chance at life escaping The Institute’s clutches. 

As a faction leader within a Fallout game, it was only right for Desdemona to receive her own card and granting the Escape mechanic to artifact creatures within your graveyard perfectly captures her spirit and care for the discarded. 

Lord of the Flies 

Little Lamplight is a settlement within Fallout 3’s Capital Wasteland, made from an old tourist attraction tunnel. Little Lamplight is inhabited exclusively by children under the age of sixteen, and ruled by a mayor elected from amongst them. 

The initial denizens of Little Lamplight sought guidance and salvation from the residents of a nearby vault, Vault 87. When they found Vault 87 however, they were turned away by the adults inside. Growing resentful of adults and passing down the feelings of mistrust and betrayal. The children of Little Lamplight survived within the tunnel and became strong, adept combatants and governors. Although, once a citizen of Little Lamplight turns 16 they are exiled to the wasteland where they will hopefully make it on their own.

MacCready is the Mayor of Little Lamplight at the time of Fallout 3, and the one who meets the player character. The card is very representative of the Little Lamplight, and does so well to cram so much into one card. Giving the skulk ability to creatures with power 2 or less is evocative of MacCready’s dedication to his people, and dealing damage whenever a creature with power 4 or greater attacks you encapsulates his resentment for his elders. 

Speaking of Elders 

Elder Arthur Maxson is the leader of the East Coast Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel faction in Fallout 4. Maxson is at the forefront of the fight to save humanity from all that ails it. From his perspective, that includes Synths and the unchecked pace of scientific discovery.

Bringing with him the full might of the Brotherhood of Steel, a faction of power armor-clad knights that stand for justice and the greater good. Maxson is a valiant ally, or implacable foe depending on the player’s choices within the Fallout games. Maxson is descended from the founding family of the Brotherhood of Steel and despite his young age, Maxson is a ruthless and powerful individual who is absolutely fit to be at the head of any Orzhov deck.

Just don’t look too deep into his card text if you decide to play Fallout and want to be surprised. 

War Never Changes 

That’s the article, thanks a lot for staying with us and learning all about the cards you’ve just upgraded your Commander decks with. With this article finished, we’ve covered three of the four Commander decks. Join us in the last article as we cover the Science! Commander deck, where we’ll look at what was done to protect the people of the wasteland in the name of democracy. 

As always, we’re interested to hear what you’ve been thinking about the Fallout set. Have you been inclined to put these cards in your deck? Are you considering running more Universes Beyond cards? Let us know in the comments below. More than one of us here at EDHREC have been inspired to boot up old games and revisit the world of Fallout on and off the table! 

I’ve been Joshua, also known as Princeofbieltan on the internet and if you’d like to reach out and chat cards, you can do so on Twitter and on Youtube. In the meantime though… 

I’ll see you in the next article, and may your lucky number always come up! 

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