Restless Apparition + Phantom Train + Hardened Academic

Restless Apparition

Phantom Train

Hardened Academic

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. Hardened Academic triggers, putting a +1/+1 counter on Restless Apparition.
4. Resolve the Phantom Train ability.
5. Repeat.

This clever loop harnesses the natural synergy between Restless Apparition and its persist ability, which normally would exhaust itself after a single death, but is instead kept infinitely renewable here. By feeding Restless Apparition into Phantom Train as a sacrifice, you trigger its return to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter, which instantly brings Hardened Academic's triggered ability online to cancel out that counter with a +1/+1 counter each time it leaves the graveyard. Because state-based actions neutralize opposing +1/+1 and -1/+1 counters simultaneously, Restless Apparition arrives fresh and ready to be sacrificed over and over again, generating an endless stream of artifact-creature growth and triggers.