$0.33 MTG Ogre Grants Infinite Turns By Ending Your Turn

For the most part in Magic: The Gathering, you want to maximize your time in the driver’s seat as much as possible. Cards that let you take extra turns, or even just extra phases, have historically been incredibly powerful as a result.

That said, every rule in MTG has an exception, and in this case it’s Obeka, Brute Chronologist. By cutting your turns short, this forgotten legend unlocks synergies and combo lines you won’t find elsewhere.

Obeka, Brute Chronologist MTG

Though it looks simple at first glance, Obeka’s turn-ending ability is actually anything but. First of all, ending the turn on the spot exiles all spells and abilities from the stack, which essentially lets it serve as an unusual repeatable Counterspell Counterspell Counter target spell. . If your opponents try to remove your creatures, or deploy a threat with Flash.

Obeka can be used on opponents’ turns, too, so there are political options here as well. If an opponent faces an instant-speed play that hurts the whole pod, you can let them end their turn, helping everyone. The turn player always has the final say with Obeka, mind you, so negotiate a deal thoroughly before activating that ability.

Stack shenanigans aside, Obeka also unlocks a ton of fun interactions with a wide range of MTG cards. Plenty of token generators, for example, like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker Haste
{T}: Create a token that's a copy of target nonlegendary creature you control, except it has haste. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. and Feldon of the Third Path Feldon of the Third Path {2}{R}, {T}: Create a token that's a copy of target creature card in your graveyard, except it's an artifact in addition to its other types. It gains haste. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. , create tokens that sacrifice themselves on the end step. Because Obeka’s ability skips this step, you can keep these tokens permanently. This applies to cards like Sneak Attack Sneak Attack {R}: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. That creature gains haste. Sacrifice the creature at the beginning of the next end step. and Dawn of the Dead Dawn of the Dead At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. That creature gains haste until end of turn. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. , which temporarily cheat creatures into play, as well as cards that grant Myriad.

Obeka’s ability to circumvent end step downsides goes much further than creatures, too, turning many unplayable cards into powerhouse engines. Psychic Vortex Psychic Vortex Cumulative upkeep—Draw a card. (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
At the beginning of your end step, sacrifice a land and discard your hand. becomes a better The One Ring The One Ring Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring. if you can dodge its second ability, for example, while Greed’s Gambit Greed’s Gambit When this enchantment enters, you draw three cards, gain 6 life, and create three 2/1 black Bat creature tokens with flying.
At the beginning of your end step, you discard a card, lose 2 life, and sacrifice a creature.
When this enchantment leaves the battlefield, you discard three cards, lose 6 life, and sacrifice three creatures. becomes a huge value burst with no downside. You can even dodge the end of turn trigger on Underworld Breach Underworld Breach Each nonland card in your graveyard has escape. The escape cost is equal to the card's mana cost plus exile three other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast cards from your graveyard for their escape cost.)
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice this enchantment. , making one of the best value and combo engines in the format even better.

In a similar vein, Obeka’s ability lets you turn alternate casting costs on creatures, such as Evoke and Warp, into actual casting costs by cutting off the end step. This lets you keep your two-mana Quantum Riddler Quantum Riddler Flying
When this creature enters, draw a card.
As long as you have one or fewer cards in hand, if you would draw one or more cards, you draw that many cards plus one instead.
Warp {1}{U} in play, or ‘counter’ a spell with Subtlety Subtlety Flash
Flying
When this creature enters, choose up to one target creature spell or planeswalker spell. Its owner puts it on their choice of the top or bottom of their library.
Evoke—Exile a blue card from your hand. for free and keep the body.

Obeka is particularly funky with temporary theft effects, like Come Back Wrong Come Back Wrong Destroy target creature. If a creature card is put into a graveyard this way, return it to the battlefield under your control. Sacrifice it at the beginning of your next end step. and Momo’s Heist Momo’s Heist Gain control of target artifact. Untap it. It gains haste. At the beginning of the next end step, sacrifice it. , letting you keep what you stole beyond the usual limit. It’s worth noting that this doesn’t work with cards like Act of Treason Act of Treason Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn. (It can attack and {T} this turn.) , which specifically last until “end of turn,” but rather those that have a trigger that returns the creature at the end step that you can skip.

Time After Time

Taking Obeka’s ability to its natural extreme, you can even use it to dodge “you lose the game” effects that come at the end of turn on certain powerful spells. This largely applies to extra turn spells like Final Fortune Final Fortune Take an extra turn after this one. At the beginning of that turn's end step, you lose the game. , which are cheap because they’re intended as wild Hail Mary plays. With Obeka, however, cards like this, Last Chance Last Chance Take an extra turn after this one. At the beginning of that turn's end step, you lose the game. and Warrior’s Oath Warrior’s Oath Take an extra turn after this one. At the beginning of that turn's end step, you lose the game. essentially become Time Walk Time Walk Take an extra turn after this one. , giving you all the benefit with none of the downside.

With spells like these, Obeka even unlocks a few tasty infinite-turn combos. Put one under an Isochron Scepter Isochron Scepter Imprint — When this artifact enters, you may exile an instant card with mana value 2 or less from your hand.
{2}, {T}: You may copy the exiled card. If you do, you may cast the copy without paying its mana cost. , for example, and you can keep taking extra turns and ending them early to stay in the game. This also works with Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch Sorcerous Inspiration — At the beginning of your upkeep, return an instant or sorcery card at random from your graveyard to your hand.
Fire of Tzeentch — Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, this creature deals 1 damage to each opponent. provided you have no other instants or sorceries in your graveyard. Flamer is a particularly nice option here since it also doubles as a win condition itself.

Time For a Comeback?

With so many funky, powerful lines available, Obeka, Brute Chronologist is one of MTG’s more interesting Commanders overall. Notably, thanks to its recent uncommon printing in The Zeta Set, it’s also eligible for use as a Pauper EDH Commander as well. While most of its truly busted synergies aren’t available in the format, Obeka is still a unique political option there, and one that has many players talking.

Despite its many virtues, Obeka actually isn’t as popular in Commander as you might expect. According to EDHREC data, only around 8,840 decks run the card at the helm, which feels low for something so unique. It sees a little more use in the 99, appearing in around 9,730 decks like Sedris, the Traitor King Sedris, the Traitor King Each creature card in your graveyard has unearth {2}{B}. ({2}{B}: Return the card to the battlefield. The creature gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step or if it would leave the battlefield. Unearth only as a sorcery.) , but the numbers here still feel pretty underwhelming.

On the bright side, Obeka’s low popularity means it’s easy to pick up a copy on the cheap. On TCGplayer right now, for example, you can nab a near-mint base copy for just $0.33, or the fancy foil etched version for only $0.83. At these prices, Obeka is a great foundation for a funky budget deck and a potential project for all you Pauper EDH players out there.

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