“Know that I shall return East. I shall not remain there forever. On that day, the strength of the bear shall be tested.“
Art:Legate Lanius, Caesar's Ace
by Bruno Biazotto
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
The Terror of the East is here to terrorize any creature-based strategy at your local Pauper EDH game. Legate Lanius is strong and, in my opinion, one of the best from the Fallout Set for PDH. This card does a ton, and his ETB introduces a strong board wipe that is not really present in the format, even against low or high creature counts. Legate is quite strong and can take out some of the best on the board, all will get bigger and bigger and setting us up for a commander damage kill. If you loved Mayhem Devil
, I think you will get a ton of enjoyment from this one as well. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Legate Lanius, Caesar's Ace Sacrifice!
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Why Legate Lanius, Caesar’s Ace?
Legate Lanius is a huge part of our deck and is the most important card in the deck; we typically cast them on the curve to slow down our opponents quite a bit and begin the commander damage beatdown plan. If we choose to cast them when the board is bigger, we get a much bigger Lanius, and depending on the decks we are against, that is often correct and something I did a ton in testing. Legate Lanius draws a ton of removal especially since they are the main win condition in the deck so being able to protect them with cards like Feign Death
, Supernatural Stamina
and Not Dead After All
is a great way to Re-ETB them and continue the commander damage beatdown plan.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
Carrion Feeder
and Viscera Seer
are strong sac outlets for the deck, and with all of the re-ETB cards in the deck, can be great ways to set up for those or get cards we want to reanimate into the graveyard. We also have some cards that love to be sacrificed, like Mudbutton Torchrunner
and Etched Familiar
, which provide some pretty strong benefits. Blood Aspirant
is an awesome card and is quite similar to Lanius. It gets big pretty quickly, and stopping a creature from blocking for a turn is great as well. Chain Devil
, Demon's Disciple
, and Fleshbag Marauder
are great ways to trigger Lanius and continue to pick apart our opponent’s board. Rapacious One
is one of my favorite cards in the deck since it offers mana and a ton of creatures for us to sacrifice and can buff up many of our creatures, not to mention Rapacious One is a pretty decent attacker as well. Earth-Cult Elemental
is luck-dependent but is a great way to trigger Lanius.
Instants:
If you are looking for commander-damage one-shots, our instant package is the place for it! We have both Temur Battle Rage
and Uncaged Fury
, which are great ways to take out opponents quickly, perfect if they choose not to block. We have quite a few ways to re-ETB Lanius like Not Dead After All, Fake Your Own Death
, and Supernatural Stamina we have quite a few additional copies of these effects and these are great ways to fight through all of the removal Lanius usually gets hit with. Terminate
and Snuff Out
are great cheap pieces of removal; these should be used quite carefully because we don’t have a ton of actual single-target removal in the deck; I try to save these for huge creatures or problematic commanders.
Sorceries:
Since we are all in on Lanius and making opponents sacrifice we have a few ways to do it at sorcery speed like Myrkul's Edict
, Chainer's Edict
and Innocent Blood
which are all cheap ways to take out an opponents creature and more importantly get a pretty decent buff on Lanius which allows us to hit like a truck. Dread Return
and Unearth
are often used to recur our smaller creatures like Demon's Disciple or Fleshbag Marauder or really any creature that forces our opponent to sacrifice. I love getting in a huge attack with Lanius, and Assault Strobe
can be a great way to get a one-shot on an opponent if we run into the issue of people having a ton of blockers; we can use Cosmotronic Wave
and Coronation of Chaos
as great ways to help Lanius get through. We also have some strong supplemental card draw within the deck, like Night's Whisper
, Sign in Blood
, and Read the Bones
. These are all great ways to get ahead, and card advantage is always good.
Artifacts:
Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher
is extremely strong in this deck since we can get multiple additional buffs on Lanius and it allows us to continue the commander damage beatdown plan. We also have Haunted Cloak
, Vorrac Battlehorns
, and Whispersilk Cloak
, which are all great ways to make Lanius more evasive and these help an absolute ton with the commander damage beatdown plan. We are a two-color deck so we need some additional mana production for some artifacts so we are rocking format staples like Arcane Signet
and both on-color diamonds which allow us to get all of our colors established pretty early and help us cast Lanius or some of our higher value cards earlier.
Enchantments:
We only have two enchantments, but they are both quite impactful. Oubliette
is one of my personal favorites and arguably one of the best pieces of removal in the format. It is absolutely perfect for any big threat or commander from our opponents. Last but certainly not least, we have Sticky Fingers
, which is a very strong and very cheap enchantment that, most importantly, gives Legate Lanius menace, and the mana production can be nice as needed.
Land Base:
As always our Pauper EDH land bases end up being pretty similar and this one is no exception, we have both on-color deserts as well as the ONE draw lands in The Autonomous Furnace
and The Dross Pits
as well as the cycling lands which are all great sources of card draw for the deck. There is not too much to say about the rest of the landbase mostly consisting of basics and a couple of other dual lands. In my fifteen testing games with this deck, I have had no issues with flooding and find that running the average at thirty-five is perfect for this deck.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Legate Lanius is a strong semi-board wipe for the deck and can devastate heavy creature strategies.
- We have a decent amount of recursion both for our sacrifice effects and for Lanius himself.
- We have quite a few pieces of equipment and one aura that allows us to be evasive and aggressive with Lanius.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Legate Lanius is a huge part of our deck and our main win condition, so it can be hard to keep them on the battlefield since most opponents will focus on him.
- Besides Lanius and all of his buffs many of our creatures are not great in combat.
- We focus more on protection for Lanius, so we are light on removal, even though Lanius acts as removal in a way our opponents get to choose, so we often won’t hit the most high-value targets.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. Legate Lanius is our main win condition, whether it be devastating a good chunk of the opponent’s boards on ETBs or attacking with this commander damage machine. Legate Lanius is the main focal point of our deck. Legate Lanius gets buffed up very quickly from his ETB and the many cards in our deck that make our opponents sacrifice and we can easily get a re-ETB if they are killed with cards like Feign Death, Supernatural Stamina or Not Dead After All which are all great ways to keep Legate Lanius on the battlefield in response to removal.
Conclusion:
Legate Lanius is quite the oppressive commander, taking out opponents’ boards and becoming huge because of it. It can be pretty hard to stop in Rakdos, especially since we can easily recur him, get him back, and take out boards with ease. I would argue this is one of the most powerful Pauper EDH commanders to come out of the Fallout set, and I don’t think it’s very controversial to say that. I have been having a ton of fun and making a ton of enemies within my playgroup with this one. Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!