The Battlefield

Exquisite Blood

$15.48

Starscape Cleric

$1.39

AI DraftFeb 26, 2026

Exquisite Blood + Starscape Cleric

Overview

With Exquisite Blood and Starscape Cleric on the battlefield, the two triggered abilities can loop: a life gain for you causes Starscape Cleric to trigger (it makes each opponent lose 1 life), each opponent losing life causes Exquisite Blood to trigger (you gain that much life), and those life-gain events trigger Starscape Cleric again. This loop continues until a replacement/prevention effect stops it or a player loses the game due to reaching 0 or less life .

Step 1

Some event causes you to gain life (this can be the resolution of Exquisite Blood from a prior opponent life loss or any other source). Because you gained life, Starscape Cleric’s triggered ability triggers (see ).

Step 2

When that Starscape Cleric trigger resolves, it instructs "each opponent loses 1 life". All opponents lose 1 life simultaneously as the result of that single resolution.

Step 3

Each opponent losing life causes Exquisite Blood to trigger once for each opponent that lost life (Exquisite sees "an opponent loses life" and triggers per such loss; see ).

Step 4

When those Exquisite Blood triggers resolve, you gain life equal to the life each opponent lost. Each separate Exquisite Blood resolution is a separate life-gain event for you, so each resolution will cause Starscape Cleric to trigger again (see ).

Step 5

The newly triggered Starscape Cleric triggers resolve and again make each opponent lose 1 life, producing more Exquisite Blood triggers, and the cycle repeats.

Step 6

State-based actions are checked between resolutions. If any player’s life total is 0 or less, that player loses the game per . If you and an opponent would be reduced to 0 or less simultaneously, the ruling for simultaneous losses applies and may cause you to lose before some triggered abilities resolve (Ruling [2012-05-01]).

Step 7

If a player can’t gain life due to an effect, the Exquisite Blood resolution that would cause that gain does nothing and that iteration of the loop will not produce Starscape triggers (see ).

Resolution

If you control Exquisite Blood and Starscape Cleric, they create a repeating chain of triggered abilities: a life-gain event you experience causes Starscape Cleric’s trigger, which causes opponents to lose life, which causes Exquisite Blood’s triggers, which cause you to gain life again, and so on. The loop continues resolving triggers and creating new triggers until a replacement/prevention effect prevents the gains or losses (see ) or a player’s life total reaches 0 or less and that player loses the game via state-based actions . Token copies created by Offspring are 1/1 copies of the printed card and will participate as separate Starscape Clerics (Ruling [2024-07-26]). If both you and an opponent would be reduced to 0 or less simultaneously during this process, state-based actions cause players to lose before Exquisite Blood’s triggered ability that would gain you life can resolve, which can affect the outcome (Ruling [2012-05-01]).

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