Legacy’s Best Turn 2 Plays: Griselbrand and Friends
Legacy is defined by explosive openings. Free spells, fast mana, efficient cantrips, and powerful graveyard engines allow some decks to create a winning position before an opponent has fully developed a board. The second turn is often where a careful setup becomes a decisive threat.
Griselbrand sits at the center of many of these stories, but the format offers several equally compelling turn-two sequences. Reanimator can place a creature into play, Show and Tell can cheat in a game-ending permanent, and Storm can assemble a lethal spell chain with almost no battlefield presence.
The strongest plays are not simply about speed. They combine acceleration, protection, information, and a payoff that makes ordinary answers look inadequate. Understanding those ingredients helps competitive players tune their mulligans while giving casual pilots a clearer sense of what their deck is trying to accomplish.
What Makes A Turn-Two Play Powerful
A turn-two play becomes exceptional when it compresses several advantages into one action. A fast creature may threaten lethal damage, but a protected Griselbrand also supplies cards, life points, and a way to find additional interaction. A quick lock piece can be just as powerful when it removes the opponent’s ability to cast meaningful spells.
Consistency matters as much as spectacle. A deck that occasionally produces a turn-two monster but mulligans heavily may be weaker than a deck that reliably creates a strong battlefield while holding Force of Will or Daze. Legacy rewards pilots who understand when to pursue maximum speed and when to preserve resources.
The best openings also exploit the opponent’s expected answers. Creature removal is less impressive when the threat has already drawn fourteen cards, while graveyard hate may be too slow if the Reanimator player has a discard spell and a second reanimation effect ready.
Griselbrand’s Fastest Invitation
The classic Griselbrand line begins with Entomb, Reanimate, and enough mana to execute the plan. A first-turn discard spell can clear the way, but the cleanest turn-two sequence often uses Entomb at the end of the opponent’s turn, placing Griselbrand in the graveyard before Reanimate brings it back.
Once Griselbrand enters play, the pilot can pay seven life to draw seven cards. That exchange usually finds more fast mana, another reanimation spell, or protection such as Force of Will. The life loss looks severe, yet the Demon’s lifelink can restore the total immediately if the opponent cannot answer it.
Other targets provide different advantages. Atraxa, Grand Unifier refills the hand without requiring life payments, while Archon of Cruelty attacks the opponent’s hand and battlefield as soon as it arrives. Chancellor of the Annex, Grief, and Thoughtseize can protect the reanimation turn by stripping away removal or countermagic.
Reanimator’s Supporting Cast
Reanimator’s turn-two ceiling depends on more than the creature being returned. Dark Ritual enables unusually fast starts, Lotus Petal supplies acceleration and color fixing, and Faithless Looting or Careful Study turns an oversized creature in hand into a usable resource. Grief can function as both disruption and a reanimation target when the game goes long.
The deck’s cantrips are especially important because they determine whether a fast hand is actually functional. Brainstorm can hide an uncastable creature, protect a key card from discard, and reshape a weak hand after a fetchland. The card’s tactical depth is explored in The Art of Brainstorm, a useful reference for anyone learning why small sequencing choices matter so much in Legacy.
A strong Reanimator pilot also tracks opposing graveyard interaction. Surgical Extraction, Faerie Macabre, Endurance, and Leyline of the Void all demand different responses. Sometimes the correct turn-two play is to reanimate immediately; sometimes it is better to use discard first, force the opponent to act, and resolve the threat afterward.
Comparing The Fastest Lines
Griselbrand is not the only permanent that can dominate the game on turn two. Show and Tell decks can place Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Omniscience, or Atraxa onto the battlefield. Sneak Attack offers another route, converting red mana and a creature into an immediate attack that bypasses conventional casting costs.
Storm takes a different approach. A turn-two Ad Nauseam or Tendrils of Agony may involve no creature at all, yet a sequence built around Dark Ritual, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal, Brainstorm, and Infernal Tutor can end the game immediately. The pilot must calculate mana, storm count, available cards, and opposing interaction with precision.
| Deck or Line | Typical Turn-Two Payoff | Primary Strength | Common Concern |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reanimator | Griselbrand, Atraxa, or Archon | Fast, compact threat package | Graveyard hate |
| Show And Tell | Emrakul or Omniscience | High-impact permanent | Free answers and Karakas |
| Sneak And Show | Sneak Attack into a large creature | Immediate damage and flexibility | Enchantment disruption |
| Storm | Ad Nauseam or lethal Tendrils | Wins without combat | Countermagic and calculation errors |
| Initiative | White-Plume Adventurer or Caves of Chaos Adventurer | Powerful battlefield snowball | Fast combo and removal |
These lines differ in their vulnerability profile. Reanimator is highly exposed to graveyard hate, Show and Tell can lose to a carefully chosen permanent, and Storm may fail if one critical spell is countered. Initiative, by contrast, can produce a devastating turn-two board without relying on the graveyard, although it is less likely to end the game instantly.
Initiative, Delver, And Fairer Pressure
The current Legacy landscape also rewards powerful turn-two plays that do not involve cheating a giant creature into play. Initiative decks can deploy a threat such as White-Plume Adventurer quickly, especially with Ancient Tomb or other sol lands. Entering the Undercity creates a dungeon-based advantage engine that forces the opponent to respond immediately.
Delver of Secrets is less spectacular but remains a model of efficiency. A first-turn Delver followed by a turn-two attack, Wasteland, and cheap countermagic can create a tempo lead that feels just as decisive as a large creature. Murktide Regent can also arrive early when the graveyard is stocked, turning fetchlands, cantrips, and interaction into a massive evasive threat.
The distinction between explosive combo and tempo pressure is important when evaluating risk. A turn-two Griselbrand may have a higher ceiling, but a Delver player often retains more options after the initial play fails. The same distinction between variance and decision quality appears in discussions of probability and variance, although Legacy gives players far more control through mulligans, sequencing, and interaction.
Playing Around The Turn-Two Threat
The best defense begins before the threat appears. Keep hands with a clear plan for the opponent’s fastest line, whether that means Force of Will against Reanimator, Surgical Extraction against a graveyard deck, or Wasteland and pressure against a powerful land-based strategy. A hand that is strong in a goldfish game may be too slow for an actual Legacy pairing.
Timing is equally important. Exiling a creature in response to Reanimate can be better than countering the reanimation spell if the opponent has multiple copies. Against Show and Tell, holding an answer for the permanent may prevent a second payoff from resolving. Storm requires a different mindset: identify the spell that converts resources into a win, then decide whether to counter it or disrupt the mana supporting it.
Players should also practice recognizing when not to chase speed. A hand with Entomb and Reanimate may look unbeatable, but if it cannot beat a single Surgical Extraction or Force of Will, a slower line involving discard may have a higher expected win rate. Legacy’s most impressive turn-two plays are usually the result of disciplined preparation rather than blind aggression.
Practical Priorities For Legacy Pilots
When testing these openings, focus on repeatable decisions rather than highlight-reel outcomes. Goldfish the deck, then add realistic disruption and record which hands remain functional after a mulligan. Review whether the payoff, protection, and mana work together instead of judging the hand by its fastest possible result.
Useful priorities include:
- Identify the opponent’s most dangerous turn-two sequence before choosing a keep.
- Count protection as part of the combo, not as an optional extra.
- Use fetchlands and cantrips to preserve key cards from discard and improve Brainstorm.
- Learn which reanimation target is best for the matchup, not merely the largest one.
- Practice post-sideboard games against graveyard hate, countermagic, and fast pressure.
A well-built Legacy deck should have a powerful proactive plan and a credible way to recover when that plan is disrupted. Griselbrand, Emrakul, Atraxa, Initiative creatures, and Storm engines all reward speed, but they become truly formidable when the pilot understands the surrounding decisions.
Bring those lines to the table, test them against real interaction, and follow more Legacy gameplay, strategy, tournaments, and deck ideas through The Legacy Pit’s streams, podcasts, and community resources.