The MitD outwitting Xykon.

[Math_Mage]

I've been trying to think of a way to put this delicately, but I've recently come to the realisation that I... don't really take the plot of this strip very seriously any more.

Which might be why you missed all the really obvious pointers that MitD is not stupid, just childlike and lazy.

It isn't really just the MitD spontaneously developing yet-another previously-unannounced plot-critical superpower,

You'd think by now people would have learned to stop misusing the phrase 'deus ex machina' around here, but somehow they never do.

or that after days, weeks and months of delay Xykon manages to arrive during the five-minute interval needed to catch the Order at the scene, while being too late to stop them.

Right, because we didn't just spend two books reading a detailed explanation of the days, weeks, and months of delay on both sides. Because it's not like the Order ever gets feedback about when Xykon is on the move that might influence their decision-making and create the dramatic timing. Yeah, if we ignore about 1/3 of the comic, suddenly these things are just huge coincidences! That's a problem, right?

It's more like a culmination of various niggling flaws in the strip that I've found harder and harder to ignore over time.

It's a feature, not a bug.