Academy Manufactor + Cauldron Familiar + Warren Soultrader
Overview
With Academy Manufactor, Warren Soultrader, and Cauldron Familiar together you can loop: activate Warren (pay 1 life, sacrifice Cauldron Familiar as the “sacrifice another creature” cost), Warren’s ability resolves and — due to Academy Manufactor’s replacement effect — creates a Treasure, a Food, and a Clue token . Sacrifice the Food token to return Cauldron Familiar from the graveyard (its graveyard activated ability), which causes its enter-the-battlefield trigger to make each opponent lose 1 life and you gain 1 life. Each cycle costs you 1 life (Warren’s activation) and later gains you 1 life (Cauldron Familiar’s ETB), netting zero life change while dealing 1 damage to each opponent and leaving a Clue and a Treasure token behind each loop. This can be repeated as long as you can legally activate Warren, producing arbitrarily many Treasure/Clue tokens and dealing lethal life loss to opponents .
Step 1
Activate Warren Soultrader’s ability: you pay 1 life and sacrifice another creature as part of the ability’s activation cost; sacrificing the creature is paid as a cost before the ability goes on the stack .
Step 2
The ability resolves. It would create a Treasure token, but Academy Manufactor’s replacement effect causes you to create a Treasure token, a Food token, and a Clue token instead. Those tokens enter the battlefield under your control as defined by the creating effect and the replacement .
Step 3
With the Food token on the battlefield, activate Cauldron Familiar’s graveyard ability (Sacrifice a Food: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield). Sacrifice the Food token to pay that cost. The Food token ceases to exist when it moves from the battlefield (sacrificed) .
Step 4
Cauldron Familiar returns to the battlefield from the graveyard; its 'When this creature enters' triggered ability goes on the stack. When that trigger resolves, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
Step 5
Net life change for you over the loop: you paid 1 life when activating Warren and later gained 1 life when Familiar entered, so your life total is unchanged. Opponents lose 1 life per loop. The Food is consumed; the Clue and Treasure created by Manufactor remain, so each full loop leaves you with a Clue and a Treasure token extra.
Step 6
With Cauldron Familiar back on the battlefield you can repeat: activate Warren again (pay 1 life, sacrifice Familiar as cost), create Treasure/Food/Clue via Manufactor, sacrifice the Food to return Familiar, etc. Repeat until opponents are reduced to 0 life or the loop is otherwise interrupted. Repeatability depends on being able to pay the 1 life cost each time and having no replacement effects or rules preventing the token creation or sacrifices.
Resolution
If you control Academy Manufactor, Warren Soultrader, and Cauldron Familiar (with Soultrader and Manufactor on the battlefield and Familiar able to be sacrificed/returned), you can repeatedly: activate Warren by paying 1 life and sacrificing Cauldron Familiar as the sacrifice cost; when Warren’s ability resolves it creates a Treasure which Academy Manufactor replaces with a Treasure, a Food, and a Clue token; sacrifice the Food to activate Cauldron Familiar’s graveyard ability and return it, triggering its ETB (opponents lose 1, you gain 1). Each loop leaves a Clue and a Treasure token and causes each opponent to lose 1 life while your life total returns to its previous amount, so you can repeat the loop to drain opponents to 0 life. Key relevant rules and rulings: token creation and token characteristics ; costs are paid when an activated ability is activated, including sacrificing the creature as a cost ; and losing the game at 0 or less life . Also see the official rulings about Manufactor-created Clue tokens not counting as “investigate” triggers (Ruling [2021-06-18]) and that Foods include Food artifacts (Ruling [2024-11-08]).
