Basalt Monolith + Animating Faerie // Bring to Life + Training Grounds

Basalt Monolith

Animating Faerie // Bring to Life

Training Grounds

How it works

1. Activate Basalt Monolith's first ability by tapping it, adding CCC.
2. Cast Bring to Life by paying 2, making Basalt Monolith a 0/0 artifact creature and putting four +1/+1 counters on it.
3. Activate Basalt Monolith's last ability by paying 1, untapping it.
4. Activate Basalt Monolith's first ability by tapping it, adding CCC.
5. Repeat from step 3.

By turning Basalt Monolith into a creature with Animating Faerie // Bring to Life, we unlock a clever cost reduction that breaks the card's usual untap math. Ordinarily, paying three mana to untap the Monolith leaves you breaking even, but Training Grounds steps in to discount that untap ability down to just a single mana. Because the Training Grounds effect reduces the cost as much as legally possible without dropping below one mana, you are left spending only {1} to untap a Monolith that taps to produce {C}{C}{C}, generating a net gain of two colorless mana with every single loop.