Skeleton Ship + Thornbite Staff + Flourishing Defenses

Skeleton Ship

Thornbite Staff

Flourishing Defenses

How it works

1. Activate Skeleton Ship by tapping it, putting a -1/-1 counter on target creature with toughness equal to 1.
2. The creature dies as a state-based action due to having zero or less toughness, triggering Flourishing Defenses and Skeleton Ship.
3. Resolve the Flourishing Defenses trigger, creating a creature token.
4. Resolve the Skeleton Ship trigger, untapping it.
5. Repeat.

This clever setup turns Skeleton Ship into a relentless engine of decay, provided you have enough Islands to keep it from scuttling itself. By equipping it with Thornbite Staff, you grant the ship a lethal ping ability along with a crucial untap trigger whenever *any* creature dies. The final piece of the puzzle is Flourishing Defenses, which rewards every -1/-1 counter placed by the ship by spawning a fresh Elf Warrior token. Put it all together and you get an endless loop of targeted creature removal, infinite deaths, and a rapidly growing army of token supporters.