Mind Extraction MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Common
Type	Sorcery
Released	2001-06-04
Set symbol
Set name	Apocalypse
Set code	APC
Number	42
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Adam Rex

Key Takeaways

Mind Extraction offers hand disruption by dictating opponents’ card discards, revealing their strategies.
Despite its mana cost and discard requirement, its instant speed provides significant timing advantages.
Incorporate Mind Extraction for its versatility and ability to enhance hand-disruptive deck tactics.

Text of card

As an additional cost to play Mind Extraction, sacrifice a creature. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all cards of each of the sacrificed creature's colors from it.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: The power of Mind Extraction lies in its ability to disrupt your opponent’s hand while giving you insight into their strategy. By forcing the discard of a specifically chosen card, you maintain strategic upper hand in the duel.

Resource Acceleration: While Mind Extraction may not directly accelerate your resources, its ability to slow down your opponents can give you the equivalent benefit. By extracting key pieces from their hand, you effectively set their game plan back, keeping you ahead in the race.

Instant Speed: The advantage of Mind Extraction being an instant cannot be overstated. This allows you to wait until the most opportune moment to cast it, perhaps in response to an opponent’s action or at the end of their turn to maximize your next play’s impact.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Mind Extraction imposes a discard requirement on its caster, which can be particularly detrimental when your own hand size is already reduced. Depleting your own resources to affect an opponent’s hand is a double-edged sword, sometimes leaving you at a disadvantage.

Specific Mana Cost: This card demands a precise mana arrangement—one black and two generic—which can be restrictive in multicolor decks not focused on black mana. As such, its inclusion can be challenging in decks that rely on a broader color palette.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of three mana, Mind Extraction is considered to have a high mana investment for the effect it provides. In a game where tempo is key, sacrificing three mana for a disruptive but potentially non-decisive effect might not be the most efficient strategy, especially when alternative lower-cost cards could provide equal or greater impact.

Reasons to Include Mind Extraction in Your Collection

Versatility: Mind Extraction is a card that can be seamlessly integrated into a variety of deck strategies that aim to dismantle an opponent’s game plan right from their hand, making it a valuable asset in any black-themed deck.

Combo Potential: This card shows a strong synergy with discard mechanics and sacrificing creatures, fitting well into combo decks that capitalize on these tactics to outpace opponents and disrupt their strategies efficiently.

Meta-Relevance: With a constantly evolving meta where players build around powerful synergies, having Mind Extraction in your collection is beneficial. It can disrupt key pieces in an opponent’s deck, making it a timely inclusion especially if the meta favors decks with critical combo components.

How to beat

Mind Extraction is a potent card that forces a significant handicap on your opponent by stripping a card from their hand. At the core, it’s paramount to understand that timing is everything. The first step in countering this card’s crippling effect is to keep your hand well-stocked to minimize the impact of a single card loss. Additionally, employing spells such as Leyline of Sanctity protects you by granting you hexproof, thereby rendering Mind Extraction unusable against you.

Another viable strategy is to take advantage of instant-speed draw spells. By holding up mana and only drawing in response to Mind Extraction, you maintain the element of surprise and increase the chances of drawing into a card that’s not pivotal to your game plan. Furthermore, utilizing graveyard recovery spells like Regrowth allows you to retrieve valuable cards that were targeted by Mind Extraction. This way, even if Mind Extraction disrupts your strategy, you possess the means to bounce back.

Ultimately, having a deck that can adapt to the loss of resources, together with strategic hand management, can mitigate the impact of Mind Extraction and keep you firmly in the game.

Cards like Mind Extraction

Mind Extraction is an intriguing card in the realm of hand disruption in Magic: The Gathering. This card reminds players of the potent effects of similar spells like Duress or Thoughtseize. Mind Extraction stands out by targeting a chosen opponent and forcing that player to reveal their entire hand, subsequently discarding all cards of a single type. While Duress is limited to noncreature, nonland cards, and Thoughtseize allows the choice of any nonland card at the cost of life, neither reveals the opponent’s entire hand or has the potential to strip away multiple cards of one kind.

However, when comparing these cards, one could look at Cranial Extraction or Memoricide. Cranial Extraction allows for a nonland card name to be chosen and all copies from all zones to be exiled. Memoricide is similar but at a lesser mana cost. Both have the utility to surgically remove specific threats whereas Mind Extraction impacts the player’s current hand directly and demands precise knowledge or a good guess on what type the opponent has in excess to truly capitalize.

Ultimately, Mind Extraction provides a unique advantage in the focused hand disruption category. It can potentially disrupt opponent’s strategies more severely in certain scenarios, making it a card worth considering for decks that thrive on the element of surprise and disruptive tactics.

Cards similar to Mind Extraction by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Mind Extraction MTG card by a specific set like Apocalypse, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Mind Extraction and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Mind Extraction has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Mind Extraction card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2004-10-04	If you sacrifice a colorless creature, you get to see their hand but they discard no cards.
2004-10-04	If you sacrifice a multicolored creature, all cards that share at least one color with the creature are discarded.
2013-04-15	Players can only respond once this spell has been cast and all its costs have been paid. No one can try to destroy the creature you sacrificed to prevent you from casting this spell.
2013-04-15	You must sacrifice exactly one creature to cast this spell; you cannot cast it without sacrificing a creature, and you cannot sacrifice additional creatures.