Fallout’s Legate Lanius literally decimates opponents in MTG

Fallout: New Vegas’ fearsome Legion commander has arrived with a unique effect that totally fits their ancient Roman style.

Legate Lanius makes quite an impression in Fallout: New Vegas as the final boss of most story routes. It seems the character’s popularity has paid off, as they have won pride of place in Universes Beyond: Fallout’s Hail, Caesar deck. This powerful new Commander deck wouldn’t be complete without Caesar’s second in command, after all.

We’ll walk you through how Legate Lanius, Caesar’s Ace works in MTG, and why their ability’s name and meaning initially don’t seem to match up.

Legate Lanius’ abilities explained: Why ‘Decimate’?

WOTC/Bethesda

Legate Lanius’s secondary ability is its most broadly useful, adding a +1/+1 counter to this card whenever an opponent sacrifices a creature. This puts the card squarely in Rakdos’ (red/black mana) wheelhouse. There are many sacrifice-forcing cards like Make an Example that can be used to pay off Lanius for great effect.

Lanius’ primary ability is an interesting, completely unique ETB (enter the battlefield) and attack trigger. Whenever this card ETBs or attacks, each opponent must sacrifice one-tenth of their creatures, rounded up.

‘Decimate’ is often used in the same context as ‘destroy’, ‘obliterate’ etc. The kind of order you can expect a brutal Commander in the world of Fallout to give. So why then does Decimate not totally destroy opponents’ boards? It’s because the historical meaning of Decimate is to ‘remove one-tenth of a group.’

Why is Legate Lanius, Caesar’s Ace the perfect card to be a stickler for Decimate’s meaning? It’s all down to the Caesar’s Legion faction and their Ancient Roman cosplay.

The order to ‘decimate’ and remove one-tenth of a group as punishment or warning to the rest was a Roman practice. Additionally, multiples of ten crop up all the time in Roman military formations. For example, a Legion is made up of ten separate cohorts. Squads of ten and one hundred were also common.

All this trivia doesn’t detract from the fact that Legate Lanius is a decently powerful card with a fun effect. But now, when you through the card down at your next Commander night, you can wow your friends with your knowledge of history and language. They won’t tune out and smack you with an unblockable 10/10, we swear!

If you click on a product link on this page we may earn a small affiliate commission.