Woe Strider + Heartmender + Hardened Academic

Woe Strider

Heartmender

Hardened Academic

How it works

1. Activate Woe Strider by sacrificing Heartmender.
2. When Heartmender 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 Heartmender.
4. Resolve the Woe Strider ability.
5. Repeat.

This ingenious loop turns Woe Strider into a sacrificial engine that continuously feeds on Heartmender. Every time Heartmender hits the graveyard, its persist mechanic would normally leave it permanently crippled with a -1/+1 counter—except that exiling or moving cards from your graveyard triggers Hardened Academic, which immediately drops a stabilizing +1/+1 counter onto Heartmender to cancel it out. Because Heartmender returns with no net counters, it is endlessly ready to be sacrificed again, letting you sculpt your library to perfection with Woe Strider's scry ability while generating an infinite storm of death and entry triggers.