Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Ashnod's Altar + Kitchen Finks

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Ashnod's Altar

Kitchen Finks

How it works

1. Activate Ashnod's Altar by sacrificing Kitchen Finks.
2. When Kitchen Finks dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.
3. When Kitchen Finks enters, it triggers, causing you to gain 2 life.
4. Activate Ashnod's Altar by sacrificing Kitchen Finks.
5. When Kitchen Finks dies, its undying ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.
6. When Kitchen Finks enters, it triggers, causing you to gain 2 life.
7. Repeat.

This loop relies on a brilliant rules interaction between two opposing mechanics: persist and undying. When Kitchen Finks enters the battlefield, its enters-the-battlefield trigger keeps your life total safely padded while Ashnod's Altar converts the creature into raw colorless mana. Because Mikaeus, the Unhallowed grants undying to your non-Human creatures, its effect counterbalances the -1/-1 counter from persist; whenever the +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters meet on Kitchen Finks, they annihilate each other as a state-based action, resetting the creature completely clean for the next sacrifice.