A few things...
1) The Surface Pro is, in no way, intended for any form of gaming outside of online or very, VERY casual games such as Fruit Ninja.
2) If you're looking for a gaming laptop, customization is key. You'll want something that you could semi-easily modify in the future.
3) If price is a key factor (under a certain price), try to opt for an AMD APU such as the A8. A friend of mine uses it in his gaming rig, it gives him great FPS with Minecraft. He can also run all sorts of games at high graphics settings.
4) If you really, REALLY don't want an AMD chip, an i5 won't cut it. Opt for an i7 or the Gaming i7.
5) You will want a great graphics card as well. AMD Radeon's are some of the most popular ones - laptop versions to my knowledge are unheard of. But try for something non-Integrated if it's non an AMD APU.
6) Touchscreens on Minecraft not fun make.
7) Consider the OS you want. Are you familiar with Windows 8? Or is Windows 7 more your style? Think carefully - it will impact the usability of your machine.
8) I did a search on Newegg for Gaming/Entertainment PC's. They are ordered, from the link, from best ratings.
http://goo.gl/fhOv1
9) For a good gaming machine that can run Minecraft quickly and smoothly, as well as serve the other purposes you want, I suggest at least 2.5 GHz processor, 4gb RAM, a dedicated graphics card w/ at least 1gb of 'memory', and 320+gb HDD or SSD. Try for a 500+gb HDD if you can.
That's all I have to offer - it is up to you, however, to make the decision.
PS: If you're looking for a touchscreen tablet at a decent, reasonable price that is also portable, go for the Dell Latitude 10" w/ Keyboard Dock. Do NOT get the XPS 10", that runs Windows RT, which is a severely locked down version of Win8.