If you've ever dabbled into the world of Sundial of the Infinite you'll have some understanding about just how much goes on at "beginning of end step" and advantages you can get if you end the turn abruptly.
The game has phases and as part of that there is the "post-combat main phase", then the "end phase". The end phase is further broken down into steps. There is the "end step" and there is also a "clean up step".
The clean up step is where you discard down to your given hand size and it is also where "until end of turn" effects are removed. That includes damage and any cards that would give effects as stated on the cards.
So when Obeka say "end the turn", it can be quite confusing exactly what this means?
It rally means go to the clean up step. Note that no players actually get priority during the clean up step, unless some other state based action triggers.
Now if we look at the wording of a lot of cards they often have terminology along these lines:
- ..at end of turn
- ..beginning of the next end step
- ..beginning of your end step
- ..beginning of the end step
- ..beginning of each player's end step
- ..beginning each opponent's end step
It is on at the "beginning of".."end step" that these triggers go onto the stack.
So you can in fact wait until these triggers are on the stack and then use Obeka ability to avoid them.
You can obviously use her at any time you have priority but you don't have to use her pre reaching your end step if you want to avoid any harmful triggers once they are on the stack. In fact I'll explain why most of most of the time you'll want to use her on the end step.
There is a different between "next", "your", "the", "each player's" and "each opponent's".
However "the end step" and "each player's" equate to the same thing.
A lot of them will say "beginning of the next end step" and you can take this literally, so some effect has taken place and it will only occur when the next end step occurs.
With Obeka if you activate her before you get to the "beginning of the end step", then the end step never happened, it got skipped, so in fact the effect will wait until till the next end step occurs, which is likely the next opponents turn.
This is why it is important in most circumstances to actually wait for the triggers to be on the stack while you are in the end step.
Now there are cards that can counter Obeka activated ability like Nimble Obstructionist, Stifle, Disallow for example.
So you might want to use Obeka in your post-combat main phase if you have a way to achieve getting her online again.
Let's say you had enough mana to cast her and had a way to give her haste.
Whip of Erebos would be another example where you can only activate it during a main phase, so if you had a way to kill her and then activate the Whip of Erebos then you could tap to activate again in the face of a Stifle effect.
But you have to weigh this up with whether there are "next end step" triggers that you don't want to happen in the following opponents turn if using during a main phase.
Hand into play
Let's get a flavor for the deck by looking at what is probably the crown jewel in the 99, Sneak Attack.
You get to spend to put a creature into play, but normally you'd have to sacrifice it at end of turn. Well not with Obeka.
Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded is similar but costs more and restricted to only Red and Artifact creatures.
With these in mind there is a set of powerful Red (or splash) and Artifact creatures you can put into play at these very reduced costs.
Token copies of creatures
Another feature of Magic cards in general is that there are a number of ways to generate token creatures, however a lot of them you have to sacrifice/exile at the "end of turn" or "end of combat".
Here we have a plethora of ways to get additional value out of our creatures by making token copies of them and rather than being temporary board additions, with Obeka they will be permanent for your opponents to deal with.
Mirror March can make duplicates of your creature when entering the battlefield.
Flamerush Rider and Blade of Selves make copies during the attack phase. Myriad makes copies for as many opponents as you have (minus 1), but keep in mind that if you want to keep them around permanently you'll need to use Obeka during your combat phase.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Mimic Vat, Felhide Spiritbinder can be done at other times.
It must be noted that if you do make token copies of some legendary creatures, that you can keep the token around and let the original go to graveyard as it'll have haste.
There are legendary creatures that benefit from attacking, so you can look to do this.
Graveyard to battlefield
Carrying on the theme of creating permanent token creatures, there are also a lot of cards that can bring creatures back from the graveyard with the stipulation that they need to be removed at the end of turn.
Araumi of the Dead Tide, Feldon of the Third Path, Whip of Erebos, Dawn of the Dead, Sedris, the Traitor King make up a powerful suite of cards that can bring back creatures from your graveyard.
Fatestitcher and Corpse Connoisseur, as well as creatures that you might unearth with Sedris, the Traitor King can be kept around permanently.
Underworld Breach isn't about creature reanimation so much as just a solid card to get value at later stages of the game.
You can keep it around until the next players turn with Obeka ability as it normally goes to graveyard at "end step" but this is not particularly useful.
Maybe you can get an additional use out of a counterspell?
However you can use it with extra turn cards to get multiple uses out of it which I explain later.
Putting cards into your graveyard
Given all this graveyard synergy, getting creatures into your graveyard by any means is advantages, so the deck is designed to do this in a number of ways.
Entomb, Buried and Intuition will help with this.
Even Gamble can be used in this way where it might not matter if it goes to your hand or your graveyard.
Jace's Archivist, Dragon Mage and Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion are creatures in the deck to stack your graveyard while also drawing more cards.
Faithless Looting are further cards that both draw you cards and then allow you to discard, stacking your graveyard with creatures potentially.
Corpse Connoisseur and Gravebreaker Lamia can also directly put a creature into your graveyard.
Additional draw with end of turn triggers
There are a number of cards that have the benefit of drawing extra cards, but the downside of discarding at end of turn.
Psychic Vortex, Avaricious Dragon, Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, Ideas Unbound.
Psychic Vortex has a literally cumulative draw so will get out of hand pretty quickly and the fact that you don't have to sacrifice a land (or discard hand) means that this is just amazing with Obeka!
Of note if you do have these types of cards in play and Obeka is dealt with and you do end up having to discard your hand, then this may be alright as I've already mentioned being able to bring creatures back from your graveyard, so you might in fact be able to leverage off this.
I mean if you end up having some creatures in your hand that you want in your graveyard it is not inconceivable that you go to the end step on purpose for a turn.
Extra turns
Red has the cheapest to cast extra turn cards in Final Fortune, Last Chance, Warrior's Oath with the obvious terrible downside of losing the game at end of those next turns. Obeka just means you get to have an extra turn for two mana..hmm busted.
I already mentioned Underworld Breach because if you have enough cards in your graveyard to exile 3 cards for the escape cost, then you can keep recasting an extra turn card and because you are the next player to have a turn the Underworld Breach will remain in play when using Obeka to end the turns before either of beginning at end step triggers occur for "you lose the game" and "sacrifice Underworld Breach.".
You can just keep having extra turns as long as you have 3 cards to exile from your graveyard each of those turns.
"Detrimental" enters or leaves the battlefield triggers
Another really strong element of the deck is actually lands in the deck that return other lands to hand when they enter the battlefield. They all have the ability to produce two mana.
Dimir Aqueduct, Izzet Boilerworks, Rakdos Carnarium.
Lotus Field even goes one more by producing three mana and hexproof.
Because you can prevent having to return (or sacrifice) a land, this means that for subsequent turns it's like you've played an additional land.
So in a way Obeka has a pseudo ability to "play an additional land each turn" when you have bounce lands to play. They do come into play tapped and you do have to make sure that playing those lands are the last thing you want to do in that turn.
So we can cheat creatures into play from hand or graveyard, what are some heavy hitters to make use of this then?
Given that you can create copies of creatures with duplicate tokens, I've been careful to select not too many legendary creatures unless of course they play a major role in our game plan. The "legend rule" doesn't make copies all that appealing.
Also Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded has the stipulation Red or Artifact creatures so this does play a part in selection.
I've already mentioned some big boys but further to these we have creatures that greatly benefit in combat;
Balefire Dragon, Hellkite Tyrant, Zara, Renegade Recruiter.
Zara, Renegade Recruiter is a new commander legend and has the ability to steal creatures from opponents hands. You're supposed to return it back at the end of turn, but we know that is not happening
What creatures are good to create multiple tokens?
Having the deck just be haymakers means that you are a bit reliant on particular cards.
So to balance this out there are also creatures to help with setting up a better mana base with Dockside Extortionist, Burnished Hart, Solemn Simulacrum.
Creating multiple copies of these during the course of the game means that you are well setup to just hard cast some cards if necessary.
Imperial Recruiter can be used to find these type of cards, so is appealing to trigger multiple times in a game.
Sedraxis Alchemist is a catchall for returning troublesome permanents and you'll be happy to make duplicates of it every turn if possible.
Gilded Drake, Snapcaster Mage, Thieving Skydiver, Goblin Engineer, Baleful Strix, Spellseeker are all cheap creatures that are good to get additional triggers from them.
What else does the deck do?
Sundial of the Infinite is in the deck as a backup to Obeka.
Pact of Negation has the added security that you can tap Obeka to end your turn if somehow you don't have the mana to pay for it.
Obeka, Brute Chronologist can be used during opponents turns, but it is a may ability.
99.9% of the time you should be ending your own turn, but on the odd occasion you could use it as a tool to prevent other players from using instants during other players turns.
An example would be if you know a player has Cyclonic Rift then you can hold up Obeka and then it makes it really hard for that player to play it outside of their own turn.
The reason is that if they go to play it in another players turn, you can use Obeka and I'm sure the player whose turn it is not going to want their permanents returned so will say yes to end the turn, meaning the Rift will not take effect.
Using Fatestitcher to untap Obeka is the most likely situation where you force opponents to use there value instants in their own turns.