Restless Apparition + Yahenni, Undying Partisan + Hardened Academic

Restless Apparition

Yahenni, Undying Partisan

Hardened Academic

How it works

1. Activate Yahenni by sacrificing Restless Apparition.
2. When Restless Apparition 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 Restless Apparition.
4. Resolve the Yahenni ability.
5. Repeat.

This clever loop relies on the constant recycling of Restless Apparition through the graveyard, where its persist ability normally brings it back with a hindering -1/-1 counter. However, the presence of Hardened Academic completely bypasses that drawback by triggering whenever a card leaves the graveyard, using its ability to place a +1/+1 counter on the Apparition to immediately neutralize the penalty through counter annihilation. Meanwhile, Yahenni, Undying Partisan acts as the ultimate engine for this cycle, eagerly consuming the Apparition as a sacrifice target while growing larger from the endless death triggers.