Umbral Collar Zealot + Kithkin Spellduster + Hardened Academic

Umbral Collar Zealot

Kithkin Spellduster

Hardened Academic

How it works

1. Activate Umbral Collar Zealot by sacrificing Kithkin Spellduster.
2. When Kithkin Spellduster dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.
3. Hardened Academic triggers, putting a +1/+1 counter on Kithkin Spellduster.
4. Resolve the Umbral Collar Zealot ability.
5. Repeat.

This clever loop uses Umbral Collar Zealot as a recurring sacrifice outlet to feed Kithkin Spellduster into its own persist trigger, bringing it back with a -1/-1 counter. Because Kithkin Spellduster leaves the graveyard in the process, Hardened Academic's passive ability triggers to place a +1/+1 counter on it, which immediately neutralizes the -1/-1 counter through state-based actions. This elegant counter-cancellation allows the cycle to repeat indefinitely, letting Umbral Collar Zealot churn through your entire deck with endless surveil triggers while generating an unbounded number of enters-the-battlefield, leaves-the-battlefield, and death events.