вы можете запустить desc select * from tag force index (idx_sort) order by total ;
вы можете увидеть вывод:
mysql> desc select * from tag force index (idx_sort) order by total ;
+----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+--- ----+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+--- ----+
| 1 | SIMPLE | tag | index | NULL | idx_sort | 5 | NULL | 1 | |
+----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+----------+---------+------+------+-------+