Surgical Extraction

Instant

({BP} can be paid with either {B} or 2 life.)

Choose target card in a graveyard other than a basic land card. Search its owner's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as that card and exile them. Then that player shuffles their library.

Combos

• Distress + Surgical Extraction
• Despise + Surgical Extraction

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

DreadKhan on Legacy Mono Black Reanimator 04-02-2025

1 week ago

I've always loved Reanimator in Legacy, it's crazy to see how much it's changed over the years! We've come a long way from Deep Spawn! It's cool that Animate Dead still makes the cut.

A lot of decks like this sneak in a Children of Korlis to recoop all life already paid to Griselbrand (thus letting you draw that much over again). FWIW I think Children would make Borborygmos Enraged a better card since Children can help you draw your entire deck, potentially letting you win on your first turn (if you're lucky enough).

I think there wouldn't be much opportunity cost to throwing in a single Scrubland (and some Fetches to find it), but that's a huge budget jump, but if you want to play at tournaments I think Children are a really high ceiling include potentially. That said I'd include Children even if you don't have any lands able to cast them, they're a great reanimation target in my experience.

I think this is an efficient and threatening deck; being able to switch to Discard vs opposing combo decks seems pretty sweet. I could see Surgical Extraction in your sideboard, not sure how many would make sense, maybe x2. I'm a lot less sure about this, but maybe you should add x1 Witherbloom Apprentice from your Maybeboard, even x1 with x4 Entomb should be enough to get by.

CommanderNeyo on Bob's Dadrock 8 rack

1 week ago

I personally love Surgical Extraction in decks like this - if they have two of the same card in their hand, you can discard one through Thoughtseize effects and the grab the second for 2 life with Surgical - makes for a powerful turn 1.

It also works great if playing against combo decks like Goblin Charbelcher

Balaam__ on Uren8

1 month ago

Cursory thoughts

I like what you’re going for, and the twin Dragonstorm cards are really great choices with repeated value. Ramp looks alright too.

My main concern is the average cost of the truly useful spells is very high. If Breaching Dragonstorm, for instance, gets countered (or worse yet falls under surgeon’s knife,) that’s a major blow to the deck’s core functionality. It’ll be quite awhile before you amass enough mana to hardcast anything huge, and I don’t see anything in the way of removal to help you stay afloat. You’re going to be racing to ramp out and at that point it’s 50/50 if you’ll make it in time.

I think it might be worth considering reining in your draconian army in favor of some spot removal—just in case.

capwner on Neoform Fleshcrafter Oculus

1 month ago

Always a fan of creative strategies in Modern, and this certainly is one! I agree with kamarupa that Flare seems like a good fit in here. It also seems like Oculus is your only major threat which could leave you weak to something like Surgical Extraction or just RNG though Neoform for 4 more copies is good. But a second threat could be nice, my first though was Nulldrifter because this is a flexible draw spell or a body to copy in the late game. But your deck is nil ramp all so a 7 drop is tough without more build around. My second thought was Old-Growth Troll which is another chonky 3-drop beater to neoform into, plus it has synergy where you sac it to neo to find fleshcrafter, it comes back as an enchant before neo resolves, then you can use the ability to make the troll, then search the fleshcrafter to get 2 4/4s. Not as good as Oculus, but it could add some redundancy and grind value IMO

Cloudy2024 on Viga-BOOM! (Primer + SB Guide)

3 months ago

cool deck, I have a friend who plays titan, and he uses one Cultivator Colossus Incase the Titans get Surgical Extractioned.

Cloudy2024 on Viga-BOOM! (Primer + SB Guide)

3 months ago

cool deck, I have a friend who plays titan, and he uses one Cultivator Colossus Incase the Titans get Surgical Extractioned.

wallisface on U/B Mill

4 months ago

Mill decks only ever want to be running Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab as creatures. Any other options are just not helpful or conductive towards winning. Specifically:

• both Consuming Aberration and Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker cost such a high amount of mana that the game should already be over (mill decks should be aiming to win by turn 4). and both barely does any amount of actual milling for their egregious costs.

• Duskmantle Guildmage is only useful as a combo card with Mindcrank. On its own it's basically useless. If you are doing the Mindcrank combo then there's no real reason to run any other mill cards.

• Fog Bank does nothing and gives your opponent more time to overwhelm you or assemble their combo.

Other cards that i'd suggest are bad choices:

• Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver does very little for its cost. milling 3 cards for 3 mana is a very slow rate.

• Fraying Sanity is a massive trap card that a lot of casual mill players fall into. In almost all cases it doesn't speed up the clock for you beating your opponent.

• All of Mind Grind, Increasing Confusion, Mind Funeral, and Pilfered Plans just do faar too little for their mana cost. Memory Sluice is also a really bad return unless you can really reliably trigger it's Conspire ability.

I would suggest looking at cards like Fractured Sanity, Maddening Cacophony, and Tasha's Hideous Laughter *list*. Archive Trap is also a mill-must-have, but may be less-useful if your playgroup isn't using fetchlands. Jace, the Perfected Mind is also serviceable as a planeswalker.

Your deck also really needs some interaction - mill decks are typically too slow to out-race aggro and combo, so you need options to make sure you slow those decks down enough to win the race. Options normally include Drown in the Loch, Fatal Push, and Surgical Extraction

Kazierts on Slimes against opening hands [Casual/Jank]

4 months ago

Thanks, capwner! Surgical Extraction type cards are definitely something I didn't think about. I most likely wouldn't add it or Extirpate because this list is more expensive than I'd like, but I'll for sure take a look at this style of cards.

As for your deck, I'll comment there so it gets people to see your deck a bit. With a quick glance though, it seems you're focusing too much on just making a lot of slimes and attacking while not having much in the way of versatility. Altar of Dementia would give you another wincon that's not combat in case your opponents end up with something like Propaganda and/or Ghostly Prison.

BirdieGirlie, I remembered two creatures that probably would be very funny for this kind of deck, Lumbering Megasloth and Hierophant Bio-Titan.