Putrid Goblin + Bartolomé del Presidio + Hardened Academic

Putrid Goblin

Bartolomé del Presidio

Hardened Academic

How it works

1. Activate Bartolomé del Presidio by sacrificing Putrid Goblin.
2. When Putrid Goblin 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 Putrid Goblin.
4. Resolve the Bartolomé del Presidio ability.
5. Repeat.

This clever loop turns Putrid Goblin into an immortal sacrifice engine by exploiting how counters interact on the battlefield. When you feed the Goblin to Bartolomé del Presidio, its persist ability brings it back with a -1/-1 counter, but Hardened Academic steps in with its passive trigger whenever a card leaves your graveyard to slap a +1/+1 counter right back on the Goblin. Because state-based actions automatically cancel out matching +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters, the Goblin is left completely clean of counters and ready to be sacrificed all over again.