I really feel sorry for day three of this year's World Championship. On day one, perhaps the most diverse Standard ever will be showcased. Day two has what some call the most skill-intensive Limited format ever. Skipping ahead to day four, country pride will go on the line with the only day of team competition. Finally, on day five, a World Champion will be crowned and three people will carry their country's flag to glory.

Then there is day three: Extended. The last time Extended was played in high-level competition was the Yokohama Masters, which had a range of decks almost as wide as this year's Standard. All in all, Extended was looking like a strong and healthy format. Since then, less than two hundred new cards have been added to the format. Considering that there are about 4,000 cards in Extended, one would think things at day three of the Worlds would look a lot like Yokohama. However, one of those cards is Mind's Desire.

I hate Mind's Desire.

Before it could cause any chaos in Vintage, though, Wizards got smart and decided to restrict it, preventing fast mana from uniting with Mind's Desire. Of course, they kept it legal in Standard and Extended.

No one has to worry about Mind's Desire in Standard; those decks require Early Harvest in order to go off in any reasonable time frame, and that card will go out along with Eighth Edition. Even with it legal, it managed to do close to nothing at the European Championships.

However, Extended is a different story. While that format may not have the fast mana resources like Black Lotus, Dark Ritual, or the Moxes, it does contain Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors.

Stop there for a moment. What harm can two lands that only accelerate their controller ahead a single turn do?

The answer: Way too much.

Mind's Desire
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Brain Freeze
4 Cloud of Faeries
2 Merchant Scroll
4 Sapphire Medallion
4 Snap
3 Cunning Wish
4 Frantic Search
2 Intuition
1 Deep Analysis
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Mind's Desire

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
12 Island

Sideboard
1 Brain Freeze
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Flash Counter
1 Gush
1 Hoodwink
1 Intuition
4 Mana Short
1 Meditate
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rewind
1 Submerge
1 Tolarian Winds

The Mind's Desire combo is very subtle. To start, it needs an Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, or Sapphire Medallion. Once of these is in play, along with three total lands (two must be Islands), then the Urza's Legacy"free" cards are then cast. Since Frantic Search costs two mana with the Medallion in play and untaps three lands, one blue mana is generated. With Ancient Tomb or City of Traitors, tapping all three lands generates four mana, three of which is used to play Frantic Search, and then a blue mana is once again generated.

Once this process is repeated twice, then the deck has enough mana to play Mind's Desire - although more of the free spells only help if they are played. Then the Mind's Desire storms over a number of cards. If one of them is another Mind's Desire, then that Desire should be played. Eventually, a Cunning Wish or Brain Freeze will be flipped over. When this happens, usually enough spells have been played to deck the opponent with the Freeze, whether it came from the deck or the sideboard.

Even if a second Mind's Desire is not flipped over, all is not lost. With all of the card drawing in the deck, Desire should find a card that can draw into the second copy. After that, more free spells are played, untapping lands and generating enough mana to cast another Mind's Desire.

Keep in mind, though, that Cloud of Faeries has errata to prevent it from untapping lands when it's not played straight out of your hand. On the other hand, Frantic Search and Snap do not, allowing them to generate mana after a Mind's Desire.

That may seem a little complicated, so here is a game against U/G Madness, written out step by step, showcasing just how the deck goes off and the speed at which it does.

Madness drew 7 cards.
Desire drew 7 cards.
Madness says:"go"

It is now turn 1
Desire plays Island.
Desire says:"go"

It is now turn 2.
Madness drew a card.
Madness plays Island.
Madness says:"go"
Desire says:"EOT"
Island is tapped.
Desire plays Brainstorm.
Desire drew three cards.
Desire moves a facedown card to Desire's library.
Desire moves a facedown card to Desire's library.

It is now turn 3.
Desire drew a card.
Desire plays Island. (No first-turn Careful Study, Basking Rootwalla? A slightly strange start for Madness - but as we'll see, it may be irrelevant - The Ferrett)
Desire says:"go"

It is now turn 4.
Madness drew a card.
Madness plays Forest
Forest is tapped.
Island is tapped.
Madness plays Wild Mongrel.
Madness says:"go"
Desire says:"EOT"
Island is tapped.
Island is tapped.
Desire plays Accumulated Knowledge.
Desire says:"for one"
Desire drew a card

It is now turn 5.
Desire drew a card.
Desire plays City of Traitors.

So far, things look rather innocent.

Island is tapped.
City of Traitors is tapped.
Desire plays Accumulated Knowledge.
Desire says:"for two, float a colorless"
Island is tapped.
Desire plays Cloud of Faeries.
Island is untapped.
City of Traitors is untapped.
Island is tapped.
Island is tapped.
City of Traitors is tapped.
Desire plays Frantic Search.
Desire says:"floating 1U"
Desire drew two cards.
Desire discards two Islands.
Island is untapped.
City of Traitors is untapped.
Island is tapped.
City of Traitors is tapped.
Desire plays Snap.
Desire says:"On the Faeries, floating 2U"
Desire moves Cloud of Faeries to Desire's library.
Island is untapped.
City of Traitors is untapped.
Island is tapped.
City of Traitors is tapped.
Desire plays Cloud of Faeries.
Desires says:"floating 3U"

There's no problem with playing five spells on your third turn, right?

Desire taps Island.
Desire taps City of Traitors.
Desire plays Mind's Desire.
Desire says:"for six, float one"

Apparently there is.

To summarize the rest of the game, Mind's Desire flipped over Deep Analysis, Frantic Search, Accumulated Knowledge, Island, and City of Traitors. At this point, the Mind's Desire player can draw seven cards, discard two, float four more mana, and flip over ten more cards. It does not take a real genius to realize U/G Madness is not going to win the game.

Now realize that just because a combo deck can occasionally go off on turn 3 does not warrant a banning, nor does it mean the format is broken. There are other combo decks that often do the same, such as Angry Hermit, Part 2.

However, a few things separate Mind's Desire from ordinary combo decks. First off, imagine you are a blue control playing against it. If you are holding a Counterspell and have two Islands untapped in the last situation, at what point do you counter whatever the Desire player is casting?

Unlike with Angry Hermit Part 2, where the control player would obviously counter the reanimation spell targeting Sutured Ghoul or Krosan Reclamation, there is no clear cut answer. If you wait too long, then Mind's Desire will be played - and thanks to Storm, the game will probably be over. On the other hand, if you start with the first Cloud of Faeries, then you are wasting Counterspells on terrible cards.

The real answer lies somewhere in the middle - but even then, you are still playing a good counter on some random bad spell. Just thinking about countering a Snap makes most people cringe. In addition, under the correct decision, the Desire player retains their most important card. That sounds like a lose-lose situation for the control player.

Next, the Mind's Desire combo is more fluid and redundant than most. In order to go off, you only need a couple of the"free" cards, and a Sapphire Medallion, City of Traitors, or Ancient Tomb. To start, Mind's Desire is not even necessary. With all of the card drawing the deck has and the extra mana it can produce, you can feasibly go off without the most important card in your hand. Eventually, Frantic Search, Fact or Fiction, Intuition, or Cunning Wish for Mystical Tutor will find it - at which point the game is over.

This makes hand disruption like Cabal Therapy and Duress much less effective against Mind's Desire than other combo decks. In fact, Mind's Desire is not the worst card that can be taken. Most of the ridiculous starts the deck can have come from Sapphire Medallion, which generates a whole lot of mana.

Imagine if I get Duressed, holding a couple of Islands, City of Traitors, Mind's Desire, Sapphire Medallion, Frantic Search, and Fact or Fiction. Sure Mind's Desire looks like the most dangerous card here. For the moment, assume it is taken. My next two turns will consist of Islands, with a Sapphire Medallion on the second turn. Then, on the third turn, I am free to Frantic Search, generating two mana, and play Fact or Fiction. If a Mind's Desire is not found in that, then there should be a few more mana producers or card drawers picked up from Fact or Fiction. Even if I do not have enough mana to go off on the third turn, things are looking pretty good when I untap for my fourth turn.

Going back to the first-turn Duress, imagine it took Sapphire Medallion instead of Mind's Desire. Suddenly the best thing I can do is play a third turn Fact or Fiction. Considering that Fact or Fiction digs through five cards and that I am already holding Frantic Search, things are still looking bad for my opponent... But at least going off on the third turn is no longer an option.

Even if Duress has an obvious target, Desire can always hide it with a Brainstorm. This all leaves Duress and Cabal Therapy as ineffective answers to the deck.

Another great advantage with Mind's Desire is how few cards can actually mess the combo up. With Angry Hermit Part 2, any type of graveyard or creature removal invalidates the careful board position that it needs to win. With Mind's Desire, though, there are only three real problems.

First on the list is Krosan Reclamation. When going off, and casting Brain Freeze to deck the opponent, Krosan Reclamation allows them two turns to live. This is especially problematic, as practically every Extended deck with green runs it, including U/G Madness, Angry Hermit Part 2, and Oath. Fortunately, the deck has a way to combat this; a single copy of Deep Analysis forces the opponent to draw themselves out, even if they hard-cast Krosan Reclamation from their hand and then flash it back. In addition, Inspiration plays the same role in the sideboard, playable through Cunning Wish.

Another highly annoying card is Arcane Laboratory. With it in play, storm is a rather useless ability. To get around it, Mind's Desire has two options. One way is to simply win before it comes into play. If the Desire deck is going first and manages to go off on turn three, which it often does, then the opponent will never have a chance to play the Laboratory in the first place.

The other choice is a little more conventional. Cunning Wish can go to the sideboard to get Hoodwink. Hoodwink then bounces the enchantment back to its controller's hand, thus allowing the Desire deck to go off on the very same turn.

Finally, Stifle is a major problem for the deck. In fact, it causes so many problems that four spots in the sideboard are taken up to defend it, as well as other counterspells. Fortunately, the card will never come up in the first game. Even in the second and third games, though, three Mana Shorts eliminate the threat, as a tapped-out opponent cannot play Stifle.

With the few problem cards aside, what makes this deck unhealthy for the Extended environment is how the matchups work out. Against aggro decks, so long as they can not attack for twenty damage on turn 4, then the game cannot be lost. As for control decks, game one is difficult if the opponent knows exactly which spells to counter and when to counter them. However, with three Mana Shorts coming in after sideboarding (in place of Fact or Fiction), tutorable with Merchant Scroll, and another staying in the sideboard for Cunning Wish, things become a lot more favorable. When an early Mana Short is played, the control player is forced to counter it, which causes them to tap out. If they do not, then they get tapped out anyway, leaving the deck once again free to win no matter what they do.

Any time a game of solitaire is being played, then Magic has a problem. If Mind's Desire does not get banned by the World Championships, then day three is going to be the worst day of competitive Magic since Rome.

William Spaniel
williamjspaniel@yahoo.com