The 10 best Turn 1 plays in Magic The Gathering

With a lifetime of nearly 30 years, no other collectible card game in existence can boast the vast library like Magic: The Gathering. The physical card game is alive and getting regular updates with new sets, while on the digital front, MtG: Arena has been going just as strong. So getting into the game is not too difficult, thanks to the Standard format that’s available in both versions of the game. This format lets players focus on the latest cards and craft their decks without having to delve way too far back into the game’s history. And we all know that some of those cards can break more than a single bank.

And with the Standard format of both the classic Magic: The Gathering and the digital MtG: Arena, let us see the ten best Turn 1 plays you can play, two for each of the five colors of Magic.

Best Turn 1 plays for White

Lunarch Veteran

• P/T: 1/1
• Mana Cost: 1 White
• Type: Creature — Human Cleric
• Card Text:
  • Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, you gain 1 life.
  • Disturb (1 White): You may cast this card from your graveyard transformed for its disturb cost.

The Lunarch Veteran is the backbone card of any ‘life gain’ deck now that Cleric Class has rotated out of the Standard format. Luckily, most Angelic/Cleric decks are still quite popular, making the Lunarch Veteran an excellent drop on your first turn to set up your strategy for following turns.

Hopeful Initiate

• P/T: 1/2
• Mana Cost: 1 White
• Type: Creature — Human Warlock
• Card Text:
  • Training (Whenever this creature attacks with another creature with greater power, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
  • Pay 2 White: Remove two +1/+1 counters from among creatures you control: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.

This card might not seem to be too strong on its own, but the trick is that it’s setting up a very potent Turn 2 when paired with a 2-cost Haste creature (for example, Bloodthirsty Adversary or Reinforced Ronin). That makes it become a powerful combo piece in Haste and Aggro decks because it can scale almost limitlessly because of its Training tag. The targeted artifact or enchantment removal is just a cherry on top.

Best Turn 1 plays for Blue

Delver of Secrets

• P/T: 1/1
• Mana Cost: 1 Blue
• Type: Creature — Human Wizard
• Card Text:
  • At the beginning of your upkeep, look at the top card of your library. You may reveal that card. If an instant or sorcery card is revealed this way, transform Delver of Secrets.

While it’s just a humble 1/1 on the surface, the card text of this card can turn it into an absolutely demolishing play for your opponents. Although it can whiff from time to time, and you don’t see an instant or sorcery card, when it does flip (and you should build your deck to give it a chance), it becomes a 3/2 with Flying, which makes it one of the most devastating one-drops available to Blue in current Standard format.

Otherworldly Gaze

• Mana Cost: 1 Blue
• Type: Instant
• Card Text:
  • Look at the top three cards of your library. Put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest back on top of your library in any order.
  • Flashback (1 Blue): You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.

Being an instant, this card doesn’t advance your board on Turn 1 in any meaningful way. What it does, however, is help you set up your next few turns by giving you an option to look at the top three cards of your library and then move any that you do not like to your graveyard or return them on the top of your deck in any order — which means that you can draw exactly the card you want.

Best Turn 1 plays for Black

Evolved Sleeper

• P/T: 1/1
• Mana Cost: 1 Black
• Type: Creature — Human
• Card Text:
  • Black: Evolved Sleeper becomes a Human Cleric with a base power and toughness 2/2.
  • 1 Black: If Evolved Sleeper is a Cleric, put a deathtouch counter on it and it becomes a Phyrexian Human Cleric with base power and toughness 3/3.
  • 1 Black Black: If Evolved Sleeper is a Phyrexian, put a +1/+1 counter on it, then you draw a card and you lose 1 life.

This brand new 1/1 is quickly finding its place in Black decks and on our list because of the evolving abilities in its card text. The evolutions make this card more and more powerful if the mana cost is paid, and to top it all off, it’s got a 3-cost (1BB) ability to grow and draw you cards, which is especially useful now that Deadly Dispute (a great draw engine for Black decks) has rotated out.

Duress

• Mana Cost: 1 Black
• Type: Sorcery
• Card Text:
  • Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a noncreature, nonland card from it. That player discards that card.

This is a situational card that can potentially break your opponent’s game plan on your first turn. Of course, with the luck of the draw, it might be possible not to do anything too special. But there will be those games in which you outright win by discarding your opponent’s win condition with this 1-cost card.

Best Turn 1 plays for Red

Kumano Faces Kakkazan

• Mana Cost: 1 Red
• Type: Enchantment — Saga
• Card Text:
  • (As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.)
  • I — Kumano Faces Kakkazan deals 1 damage to each opponent and each planeswalker they control.
  • II — When you cast your next creature spell this turn, that creature enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
  • III — Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control.

It is hard to argue against a 1-cost card that gives you value over future turns. This card starts with 1 damage, gives you a 2-drop creature with an extra counter, and ends up returning to the battlefield as a Haste 2/2 with extra card text. This card simply guarantees extra value for a very small upfront investment.

Rabbit Battery

• P/T: 1/1
• Mana Cost: 1 Black
• Type: Artifact Creature — Equipment Rabbit
• Card Text:
  • Haste
  • Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has haste.
  • Reconfigure Red (Red: Attach to target creature you control; or unattach from a creature. Reconfigure only as a sorcery. While attached, this isn’t a creature.)

If you’re playing a more aggressive Red deck, this little critter is the perfect one-drop. It is a Haste 1-cost off the bat, but it gets better. You can attach it for meager 1 Red, allowing some other creature to benefit from Haste, which adds flexibility and longevity to an otherwise humble creature card.

Best Turn 1 plays for Green

Deathbonnet Sprout

• P/T: 1/1
• Mana Cost: 1 Green
• Type: Creature — Fungus
• Card Text:
  • At the beginning of your upkeep, mill a card. Then if there are three or more creature cards in your graveyard, transform Deathbonnet Sprout. (To mill a card, put the top card of your library into your graveyard.)

This is an undeniably fun card to build a Green deck around. With how the current Standard meta looks, it might even be the strongest 1-drop for Green, period. Upon closer inspection, while it starts out as just 1/1, who can say no to a 1-cost card that grows into a 3/3 monster that is also able to exile opponent’s creatures from their graveyard, which in turn allows it to grow even further.

Willow Geist

• P/T: 1/1
• Mana Cost: 1 Green
• Type: Creature — Treefolk Spirit
• Card Text:
  • Trample
  • Whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on Willow Geist.
  • When Willow Geist dies, you gain life equal to its power.

This card is not only another good 1-drop option for Green decks, but it has inherent synergy with the Deathbonnet Sprout that we wrote about above and Cemetery Prowler. This card can grow almost infinitely with the help of cards that leave your graveyard, making Flashback and Blitz abilities even more valuable to your game plan.