Woe Strider + Puppeteer Clique + Hardened Academic

Woe Strider

Puppeteer Clique

Hardened Academic

How it works

1. Activate Woe Strider by sacrificing Puppeteer Clique.
2. When Puppeteer Clique dies, its persist ability triggers, returning it from your graveyard to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it.
3. Hardened Academic and Puppeteer Clique trigger.
4. Resolve the Hardened Academic trigger, putting a +1/+1 counter on Puppeteer Clique.
5. Resolve the Puppeteer Clique trigger, allowing you to put a creature card from an opponent's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control.
6. Resolve the Woe Strider ability
7. Repeat.

This loop turns Woe Strider into a gruesome recycling engine by feeding Puppeteer Clique directly into its sacrifice outlet. Each time the Clique dies, its persist ability brings it back with a -1/-1 counter, but Hardened Academic steps in to counteract this penalty by placing a +1/+1 counter on it whenever cards leave your graveyard—neutralizing the counters so persist can trigger again indefinitely. While this mechanical dance repeats, Puppeteer Clique’s entry trigger repeatedly plucks every creature card from your opponents' graveyards, letting you steal their entire fallen armies while Woe Strider lets you scry away unwanted draws.