Field Surgeon
Creature — Human Cleric
Tap an untapped creature you control: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Urza's Destiny
- Price
- $0.19
- EDHREC rank
- #25590
Field Surgeon taps to prevent 1 damage to any target — repeatable, instant-speed damage prevention on a one-mana body — and the cost is that it needs to tap itself, which means you want untap synergies to get full value. In shells like Unctus, Grand Metatect that reward tapping and untapping artifacts or creatures repeatedly, Field Surgeon stops being a fragile 1/1 and becomes a soft-lock against chip damage and pinger strategies.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Field Surgeon is a niche role-player in Commander, best in white-based go-wide or tap-matters builds where the one-mana entry cost is trivial and the board is wide enough to protect it. In Pauper, damage prevention at common is worth examining in any white lifegain or stall shell, though the tap cost limits how much work one copy can do per turn. Legacy and Vintage are too fast for a 1/1 that prevents one damage at a time. Field Surgeon is essentially a Commander and Pauper card — and even there, it earns its slot only in specific strategies.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Unctus, Grand MetatectThe Watcher in the WaterField Surgeon
Infinite self-discard triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite looting; Near-infinite tapped creature tokens
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.19 bulk tier
At $0.19, Field Surgeon is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not demand. It holds that floor comfortably; there's no competitive pressure to drive the price up, so buy copies for any tap-matters build without a second thought.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.