Stalwart Successor + Restless Apparition + Phantom Train

Stalwart Successor

Restless Apparition

Phantom Train

How it works

1. Activate Phantom Train 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. When Restless Apparition enters, Stalwart Successor triggers, putting a +1/+1 counter on Restless Apparition
4. Resolve the Phantom Train ability.
5. Repeat.

This clever loop turns the cycle of life and death into an engine for endless growth by manipulating how counters interact with Restless Apparition. When you sacrifice Apparition to fuel Phantom Train, its persist ability brings it back bearing a -1/-1 counter, but the arrival immediately triggers Stalwart Successor to drop a +1/+1 counter on it instead. Because both types of counters are placed on the creature, they annihilate each other as a state-based action, leaving Restless Apparition completely clean of any -1/-1 counters and ready to be sacrificed all over again.