Surrakar Banisher MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Surrakar Banisher can return a target creature to its owner’s hand upon entering the battlefield, potentially removing an opponent’s threats or recurring your own creatures with beneficial enter-the-battlefield effects. This can help swing the game in your favor by disrupting your opponent’s plays or providing you with additional value.

Resource Acceleration: Although Surrakar Banisher itself doesn’t directly accelerate resources, bouncing a creature back to the hand can indirectly lead to tempo advantage. This setback for your opponent can give you the upper hand, allowing you to be more efficient with your turns and mana.

Instant Speed: While Surrakar Banisher is a creature card and not an instant, its ability to bounce creatures upon entry works well with flash mechanisms. Pairing it with cards that allow it to be summoned at instant speed can lead to strategic plays during your opponent’s turn, effectively using your mana at the most opportune moments.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Surrakar Banisher’s ability necessitates discarding a card from your hand. This can be a steep price in gameplay, particularly if your hand is already running low on spells or when each card holds critical strategic value.

Specific Mana Cost: The specific mana cost demands both blue and generic mana, which can be a bottleneck in multicolored or mana-intensive decks. Ensuring you have the right mana at the right time to play the Banisher could be challenging.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a five mana value required to bring Surrakar Banisher into play, it sits on the higher end of the curve, potentially slowing down your tempo. In faster-paced games or in a meta with lower-cost alternatives, the Banisher may not provide the timely impact needed.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Surrakar Banisher can adapt to a multitude of gameplay styles. The card’s ability to return a target creature to its owner’s hand makes it a flexible choice for both tempo and control decks, where disrupting the opponent’s board is crucial.

Combo Potential: This card pairs well with effects that trigger when a creature enters the battlefield or leaves it. Such synergies can lead to powerful plays, allowing you to gain extra value each time you cast Surrakar Banisher.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where creatures hold the line, Surrakar Banisher’s bounce effect becomes exceedingly potent. By temporarily removing critical threats or blockers, it provides a strategic edge, ensuring its relevance in many deck configurations.

How to Beat Surrakar Banisher

Surrakar Banisher, while not a heavyweight in most MTG decks, carries a unique ability that can disrupt gameplay by returning target creatures to the owner’s hand. This ability, reminiscent of the classic Unsummon, provides a temporary advantage by clearing a path for combat or removing a pivotal piece from your opponent’s strategy. To mitigate the Banisher’s effect, consider using creatures with enter-the-battlefield triggers, turning a potential setback into an advantage by recasting them for their beneficial effects.

Employing instant-speed removal spells like Murder or Path to Exile can effectively neutralize the Banisher before its ability triggers. Moreover, utilizing counterspells such as Cancel or Dovin’s Veto gives you the upper hand by preventing the Banisher from ever hitting the board. Lastly, playing with cheap, hexproof creatures, like Slippery Bogle or Invisible Stalker, provides a reliable defense as they are immune to the Banisher’s targeting ability. Understanding and anticipating key interactions ensures that Surrakar Banisher becomes less of a nuisance and more of an afterthought in your matches.