Thermopod + Warden of the Grove

Thermopod

Warden of the Grove

How it works

1. Activate Thermopod by sacrificing the persist creature.
2. When the persist creature dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.
3. When the persist creature enters, Warden of the Grove triggers, putting a +1/+1 counter on the persist creature.
4. Repeat

This clever loop turns the self-sacrificing engine of a persist creature—fueled by Thermopod’s ability to convert those sacrifices directly into red mana—into a self-sustaining cycle. As each persist creature returns from the graveyard, the presence of Warden of the Grove steps in to mitigate its fatal flaw by bestowing crucial +1/+1 counters that immediately cancel out its incoming -1/-1 counters. Because Warden of the Grove also grows steadily on its own during your end step, it actively supercharges the loop over time, making this a remarkably resilient and explosive setup for generating infinite resources.