Viscera Seer + River Kelpie + Hardened Academic

Viscera Seer

River Kelpie

Hardened Academic

How it works

1. Activate Viscera Seer by sacrificing River Kelpie.
2. When River Kelpie dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.
3. Hardened Academic and River Kelpie trigger.
4. Resolve the Hardened Academic trigger, putting a +1/+1 counter on River Kelpie.
5. Resolve the River Kelpie trigger, causing you to draw a card.
6. Resolve the Viscera Seer ability
7. Repeat.

This clever loop relies on a persistent death-and-rebirth cycle orchestrated by Viscera Seer, which sacrifices River Kelpie to repeatedly trigger its persist ability. Every time River Kelpie leaves the graveyard, Hardened Academic steps in with its static-adjacent triggered ability, placing a +1/+1 counter on River Kelpie that immediately cancels out its incoming -1/+1 counter. This counter neutralization keeps River Kelpie primed to persist indefinitely while simultaneously fueling River Kelpie's own trigger to draw you through your entire deck.