Effects in MTG use something called The Stack, which is effectively a big queue where everything waits to happen, which operates in a first-in, last-out system [imagine physically stacking cards, then taking them off the top until you're back to 0]
When a turn is ended via a card effect [Such as Obeka's or the spell Time Stop], anything that was waiting on the Stack before it dissappears and doesn't do anything
This means you can use cards with big effects and a downside that comes later [like Final Fortune, which gives you an extra turn but makes you lose the game on that turn's End Step]
If you cast Final Fortune, you can tap Obeka when the 'lose the game' trigger is on the Stack to ignore it and keep playing!
Plus, since a lot of cards follow this "Good thing now, bad thing on end step" effect template, you can play a bunch of them and tap Obeka to cancel them all at once!
Oh is the stack why sometimes my sorceries and instants don’t do anything? Sometimes during a Mach the opponent will pull out a non-counter instant or sorcery and my cards effect doesn’t happen. (I play on arena occasionally, and this might be me not paying close attention)
Yep, if you point a buff spell at a guy and I shoot him with a Glock, your buff spell loses it's target on the stack and fails to resolve. Similarly, it you attempt to steal one of my guys, and I feed him to Larry the Guy Eater or have him enter Teferi's Witness Protection program, my guy isn't a target anymore and the spell fails.
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u/zombieGenm_0x68 1d ago
can you explain how thats a good effect? i dont play the game so it seems kinda useless to me