Ashnod's Altar + Thran Vigil + Thunderblust

Ashnod's Altar

Thran Vigil

Thunderblust

How it works

1. Activate Ashnod's Altar by sacrificing Thunderblust.
2. When Thunderblust dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.
3. Thran Vigil triggers, putting a +1/+1 counter on Thunderblust.
4. Repeat.

This clever engine uses Ashnod's Altar as the sacrifice outlet to continuously churn out colorless mana alongside an endless stream of death and entry triggers. The real magic happens because Thunderblust features persist, returning itself to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter whenever it perishes. That card leaving your graveyard immediately awakens Thran Vigil, whose passive ability capitalizes on the graveyard departure to place a +1/+1 counter right back onto Thunderblust. Because state-based actions cause the opposing +1/+1 and -1/+1 counters to annihilate each other, Thunderblust is left with a clean slate and no counters—making it fully primed to persist all over again the next time it hits the altar.