Sometimes you just need to get weird with your Commander decks. It’s nice to break away from the usual strategies and mess about with something truly odd every now and then.
Amongst all of the many legendary creatures, and lord knows there are a lot of them, one of our favorites for breaking away from the norm is an Ogre who can control time.
Meet your commander
Obeka, Brute Chronologist
Obeka, Brute Chronologist
{T}: The player whose turn it is may end the turn. (Exile all spells and abilities from the stack. The player whose turn it is discards down to their maximum hand size. Damage wears off, and "this turn" and "until end of turn" effects end.)
, who only has one K in their name despite how often we type it with two for some reason, is a four-mana blue, black, and red 3/4. They’ve got no particularly strong combat abilities, nor do they interact with the board state, at least not in a traditional way. Instead, they have a single ability that allows them to mess with the flow of battle.
You can tap Obeka to allow whoever’s turn it is to end that turn. The rules text is important here, “Exile all spells and abilities from the stack. The player whose turn it is discards down to their maximum hand size. Damage wears off, and “this turn” and “until end of turn” effects end.” This is important for a lot of reasons. For starters, it means you can save other people from potentially fatal attacks if you choose to do so.
The main thing it allows though, is the abuse of some of the downsides of plenty of cards. So, let’s dive into which cards you should be picking up if you’re looking at building a deck around this timey-wimey commander.
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The best creatures for Obekka
Let’s start, as we often do, with some of the best creatures for Obeka. The key thing here is to use creatures that benefit from not having specific triggers occur. Sometimes that’ll mean ending the turn in the end step, as odd as that seems, and sometimes that’ll be ending the turn as soon as the creature has come into play.
Some of the former options here are
Puppeteer Clique
Puppeteer Clique
Flying
When this creature enters, put target creature card from an opponent's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. It gains haste. At the beginning of your next end step, exile it.
Persist (When this creature dies, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
, which lets you steal cards from an opponent’s graveyard,
Identity Thief
Identity Thief
Whenever this creature attacks, you may exile another target nontoken creature. If you do, this creature becomes a copy of that creature until end of turn. Return the exiled card to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
, which not only lets you copy other creatures, but then also permanently exile them, 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.
, which lets you make copies with no downside.
You’ve then got creatures with negative ETB effects. For example,
Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger
When Kroxa enters, sacrifice it unless it escaped.
Whenever Kroxa enters or attacks, each opponent discards a card, then each opponent who didn't discard a nonland card this way loses 3 life.
Escape—{B}{B}{R}{R}, Exile five other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.)
is a two-mana 6/6 that you have to sacrifice as it enters the battlefield unless it escaped. Whenever it attacks or enters the battlefield though, you get to have each opponent discard a card, and those who can’t lose three life. Being able to attack with a creature like this from turn three onwards is absurd.
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The best support cards for Obekka
Onto noncreature cards now. In terms of enchantments Mirror March, [tooltips]Splinter Twin, and [tooltips]Flameshadow Conjuring are all going to allow you to make copies of your creatures, and then have no issues keeping them around. Frankly, it’s all a little offensive, but you’re in charge, so who cares. It’s not an enchantment, but
Twinflame
Twinflame
Strive — This spell costs {2}{R} more to cast for each target beyond the first.
Choose any number of target creatures you control. For each of them, create a token that's a copy of that creature, except it has haste. Exile those tokens at the beginning of the next end step.
is a sorcery that’ll do the same kind of thing too.
You can also use cards that would normally have you losing the game in the next end step. Cards like
Glorious End
Glorious End
End the turn. (Exile all spells and abilities from the stack, including this card. The player whose turn it is discards down to their maximum hand size. Damage wears off, and "this turn" and "until end of turn" effects end.)
At the beginning of your next end step, you lose the game.
allow you to shut an opponent down as you want, but you can then avoid the whole losing thing that would normally go along with it. The same is true of
Alchemist’s Gambit
Alchemist’s Gambit
Cleave {4}{U}{U}{R} (You may cast this spell for its cleave cost. If you do, remove the words in square brackets.)
Take an extra turn after this one. During that turn, damage can't be prevented. [At the beginning of that turn's end step, you lose the game.]
Exile Alchemist's Gambit.
, which will now allow you to take an extra turn for a mere three mana.
You can also steal things from other players with
Macabre Mockery
Macabre Mockery
Put target creature card from an opponent's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. It gets +2/+0 and gains haste until end of turn. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
or
Gruesome Encore
Gruesome Encore
Put target creature card from an opponent's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If that creature would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else.
. Being able to do all of these things with no downside makes Obeka powerful in a way that most Commanders can’t deal with. Just make sure to also include
Thousand-Year Elixir
Thousand-Year Elixir
You may activate abilities of creatures you control as though those creatures had haste.
{1}, {T}: Untap target creature.
too to let you get as much use out of Obeka as you need.
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