The Battlefield

Elvish Archdruid
Staff of Domination
AI DraftFeb 26, 2026

Elvish Archdruid + Staff of Domination

Overview
You can loop Elvish Archdruid + Staff of Domination to generate net positive (and therefore infinite) green mana and then use the Staff to draw cards or gain life; Elvish Archdruid’s {T} is a mana ability that doesn’t use the stack and it counts itself when counting Elves [2011-09-22] [2009-10-01].
Step 1
Establish the prerequisites: you control Elvish Archdruid and Staff of Domination, both are available to use, and you control E Elves total (Elvish Archdruid counts toward E) [2009-10-01].
Step 2
Tap Elvish Archdruid to activate its mana ability and add E green mana to your mana pool. This is a mana ability and doesn’t use the stack, so it produces mana immediately [2011-09-22].
Step 3
Pay {3} of that mana to activate Staff of Domination’s {3}, {T}: Untap target creature ability, tapping the Staff as part of that ability’s cost and targeting Elvish Archdruid; when that activated ability resolves it will untap Elvish Archdruid.
Step 4
Tap Elvish Archdruid again to add another E green (again a mana ability that doesn't use the stack) [2011-09-22].
Step 5
Pay {1} of the green you now have to activate Staff of Domination’s {1}: Untap this artifact ability to untap the Staff. After this step both Archdruid and the Staff are back in the same tapped/untapped configuration you started the cycle with.
Step 6
Compute the net mana for one full cycle (the cycle above uses two Archdruid taps and pays {3} + {1} = {4}): total produced = 2 * E; total paid = 4; net = 2E - 4. If E >= 3 then net > 0, so each cycle yields net positive mana and can be repeated to get arbitrarily large mana.
Step 7
With infinite (or arbitrarily large) mana available, use Staff of Domination’s {5}, {T}: Draw a card and {3}, {T}: Untap target creature and {1}: Untap this artifact as needed to draw an arbitrary number of cards, gain life with {2},{T}: You gain 1 life, etc., by repeating the appropriate activations.
Resolution
If you control Elvish Archdruid and Staff of Domination (and at least three Elves total, counting Elvish Archdruid), you can produce a repeatable loop that yields net positive green mana each cycle and thus infinite mana, after which you can use Staff of Domination’s other abilities to draw cards or gain life. Elvish Archdruid’s tap ability is a mana ability that doesn’t use the stack [2011-09-22], and that ability counts Elvish Archdruid itself when determining how much mana to add [2009-10-01].
Feedback