"Surgespanner" is a 2/2 blue merfolk wizard printed as a rare for the Magic the Gathering expansion set known as "Lorwyn." This is one of the several cards printed in the Lorwyn block that encourage players to build around a tribe of creatures. In this respect, the Surgespanner encourages players to build around the theme of the merfolk creatures. In a blue control deck with merfolks, Surgespanner becomes quite the impressive card. If you know how to properly use Surgespanner, you can really throw off an opponent's momentum.

The converted mana cost for Surgespanner is four. You will need two blue mana and two colorless mana to play Surgespanner. For what the Surgespanner can do, paying the four mana is highly reasonable enough. If you can get the Surgespanner onto the battlefield early enough in the game, you should be able to have the advantage in the first few turns for the most part.

What does Surgespanner do in the first place?

Whenever the Surgespanner becomes tapped, you can pay one blue mana and one colorless mana. Doing so allows you to return a target permanent to its owner's hand. Due to his ability, you want to use Surgespanner in a deck meant for controlling the momentum of the game. However, there are plenty of ways you can exploit and abuse this ability for your own self gain. When playing a game, you want to milk your cards' abilities for all they are worth. The beauty of this is that you can pay the ability cost as many times as you want provided you have enough mana.

You can return just about any permanent. You can bounce back an annoying land back to an owner's hand. If you have an opponent that is ready to use the ultimate ability of one of its planeswalkers, you can use this ability to bounce it back to the owner's hand. When the planeswalker returns to the battlefield, it does not have those additional loyalty counters.

You can use this with "Merrow Reejerey" by casting a few merfolk spells to untap and tap. By being able to tap Surgespanner a few times in a turn, you can really mess up an opponent's momentum.

You can also use "Merrow Commerce" to untap all of your merfolk at the end of the turn. In this respect, you have Surgespanner ready to use and tap whenever an opponent has a spell ready.

You can combine this with "Lullmage Mentor." Lullmage Mentor can counter a spell provided you tap seven untapped merfolk. You can use Surgespanner as one of those seven merfolk to tap. Then you pay the mana cost for the activated ability. You counter a spell and send permanents back to their owners' hands.

Overall, Surgespanner is a great card to have in a control deck. It is best that the Surgespanner is combined with other merfolk creatures. In this respect, you can mess up an opponent's momentum.

Learn more about this author, Can Tran.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Magic the Gathering card analysis: Surgespanner?
We want to hear your view. Write now!