In the previous post, I wrote about my preferred way to mark Bicycle “end-for-end” or “misindexed” gimmicked decks. To be honest, I only use that specific marking system when I perform with the magnificent Mastermind deck, created by Chris Kenworthey. Familiarize yourself with this first if you’re unaware of its genius simplicity.

I figured I’d now share my take on the Mastermind. There is an open choice between two face-up cards. If you think you understand, read on, because there are some important subtleties.

This story starts off with you giving your friend a little black purse. You mention that there’s a message in there, folded neatly and waiting for them within the folds of that handsome leather. Out of your pocket now comes a deck of cards. You hand it to them to give it a few cuts. You take it back, and you spread them face up on the table explaining that they will randomly place their finger somewhere on the spread.

As they begin to reach out with their hand, you stop them. You take the deck and spread it face down.

“Actually, let’s keep it a mystery. Remember, the cards that you mixed are out of my hands and on the table. No funny business. Put your finger on any part of the spread.”

Your friend reaches out and places their finger down on the spread.

“You see right there? Your finger is technically contacting two cards. I want to be as fair as possible. Slide both of them out.”

The two cards are clearly slid out of the spread of cards. You take the deck and spread it face-up once again.

“Do you want to change your mind at this point?” you say, gesturing towards the array of black and red indices on the table.

Your friend shakes their head.

You scoop the cards back up and set them aside face down. You roll your sleeves up.

“Let’s see what cards you got.”

You turn over the two cards, one in each hand. The Two of Clubs and the Three of Hearts are shown.

“Which do you prefer? Whatever you say is what we’ll go with.”

“The Two of Clubs,” they say. You torture them asking if they want to change their mind. You both chuckle over this and eventually settle on the Two of Clubs.

You smile, and ask them if they remember that darned little purse in their pocket. They groan and mention that there should be no fucking way. After they are invited to open it, they find a playing card clearly taken from a different deck, folded in quarters. They unfold it to find the Two of Clubs.

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I’ll be blunt, the obvious catch is that the deck isn’t examinable, but you already knew that. The pros are that it’s self working and it’s as clean as the story reads. The deck is handled in such a way that they won’t see a need to examine the deck. That’s not typical bullshit magician psychology either. I have actual reasons for this.

1. They handled the cards themselves and mixed (well, cut) them. This isn’t mandatory for the success of the effect but if you’re confident that the cards will stay face down, and that they will follow your instructions, this is recommended.
2. They saw every single card was different and unique.
3. Their final choice is made with face up cards.

I’ve performed this effect at least twenty times and not once have they requested to check out the cards. I’ll put it like this. Have you performed the Ultra-Mental Deck, more commonly known as the invisible deck? A request to check out the cards is rare, because the deck is not overtly magical. If they cut and saw all the cards are different, what else is there for them to inspect for?

Assembly

For this effect, you need to make up a special Mastermind deck. To do so, you will need two Mastermind decks. The deck currently comes in a choice of force card.

When you buy the two decks, make sure to get different force cards. I went with the Two of Clubs and the Three of Hearts, as I liked that red and black contrast and wanted different values.

When you open the deck, you’ll notice that it comes in new deck order. Open both decks, split each deck into exact halves (26 cards each) at the kissing kings. Exchange one half from one deck for the identical half in the other deck.

Give all four of these halves a thorough shuffle, whilst being careful not to disturb the end-for-end orientation. Or, toss out two of the halves if you only want one deck. You monster. (No, really though it’s a better idea to have a backup and not waste 32 dollars of cards.)

You will now faro shuffle the two halves together for each deck. If you can’t faro shuffle, you’ll need to interlace the cards one at a time. You need the force cards to be alternating. What you will have is a Mastermind deck that forces two cards. In my case, it’s the Three of Hearts, then Two of Clubs, repeating. However, when spread “the right way” all other 50 cards can be shown. They will also look mixed, unless you’re very unlucky. You will need just one regular card in each deck that is pencil marked on the top left hand edge and bottom right hand edge. The pencil marks will allow you to cut to the clean card without seeing the faces of the cards.

Your prediction will be a two way out. I use the Quiver pouch by Kelvin Chow because there is a 50% chance that they can open the purse themselves.

Editor’s note: Ellusionist? You’re putting a link to an Ellusionist product on this site? Why, I never–

Handling

Now you are set up. You give them the purse, take the cards out of the box, and invite them to cut the deck over and over. You take the cards back explaining you’ll spread them on the table so that they can see at least a part of every card. While you do this, you gesture and spread the deck in your hands. This is where you will sight your penciled card and casually cut it to the face of the deck.

Turn the deck over (side for side, because it doesn’t disturb the orientation and we don’t have to keep track of where the dirty pips are), and the mark on the face card will tell you if the orientation of the deck is correct. Making sure to display the different indices, spread it face up from right to left on the table mentioning that they will select a card. If you prefer to spread it left to right, you’ll need to turn it end for end each time. Turn it back face down and have their finger touch anywhere on the spread. Even if their finger doesn’t touch two cards, you can claim it has and proceed from there. If you want, you can say something like “In fact, I’ll give you an interesting choice. Slide out one of the cards that was next to the one you just touched.” I tend to spread tightly enough that they’re likely to be touching two anyway.

Turn the deck face up and spread it once again. Ask if they want to change their mind, and if they do all you do is turn it back face down, return the two cards to the top (so as not to ruin the interlaced state of the deck), and repeat.

They never do change, by the way. Let’s get back to the situation where the two cards have just been slid out. You had just shown the spread of the deck face up and offered for them to change their mind. Make sure to place the deck back face down, it’ll be important for the clean up.

Now you will turn both cards over. You will turn the card on the right with your right hand, and the card on the left with your left hand. Check the video below to see what that looks like from the participant’s point of view. Thank you to the laywoman who volunteered to model with regular cards here. Notice the card in the performer’s right hand. The end of that card is pointing towards the participant. Notice how the performer’s left hand turned the card over by sliding it off the table, and how that card is pointing away from the participant.

You may ask yourself why this is all so specific. It’s just a very natural way to pick up both cards while casually hiding that index. To pick them both up in the same manner and hold them at the same angle would appear too studied and robotic when you already have to put your fingers in the exact same spots.

You will now give them a choice of card while both cards are face up. Think about how fair that is. They freely touched any two cards, and now they can openly select one of the two without any equivocation.

Whatever card they say, you flip the other card face down atop the deck. If you leave the end your thumb was on hanging over the right side of the deck, perpendicular with the other cards, you can turn it counterclockwise when you’re done and it should be correctly oriented.

Example with the left hand:

Placing the cards down this way will set it up so that all the indices will face the right way. When you square up counterclockwise, you’ll pretty much be reset. Half of the time you’ll have to switch the top card for the second to maintain the alternating pattern in the deck. If you’re unsure how to do that, I think you have bigger problems. The other half of the time you’ll be instantly reset.

You don’t have to be bothered with all that technique. It’s not like this was built for table hopping. You can just place the cards onto the deck face down, and fix the orientation of the two cards when the trick is over.

Either way, now you don’t have to do any stupid movements covering that pip. Having the deck face down before this step makes it copacetic. (Editor’s note: Did you know copacetic is actually a slang word?)

Mention the card you’re left with in your hands (their selection) and talk about it for a few seconds. Now flop it face down on top of the deck the same way as the previously dismissed card. (Half the time you’ll be reset now!) Bring all the attention to the purse now.

Open your relevant out, or have them do it in the optimal case. The free choice at the end after knowing the cards is a great logic trap to end the effect on.