Possible unpowered lifegain deck?

[Aniodia]

Looking through the Starcity articles, I saw mention of the combo Words of Worship and Well of Lost Dreams in a Type 2 deck. Being the random tweak that I am, I racked MTGPics for a card that could turn life to mana.

Funny how Channel fits the bill nicely...

OMGChannelCanDoTHAT??.dec  
//Mana (24)
12 Forest
8 Plains
4 Windswept Heath

//Combo (9)
4 Well of Lost Dreams
4 Words of Worship
1 Channel

//Lifegain (19)
4 Heroes' Reunion
4 Nourish
4 Spirit Link
4 Renewed Faith
4 Armadillo Cloak
3 Exalted Angel

//The Kill (7)
4 Ageless Entity
3 Test of Endurance

Card Analysis
Heroes' Reunion/Nourish
Both gain a lot of life for very little investment, but do cost quite a bit to draw with the Well. Rather obvious choices, IMO.

Renewed Faith
A more expensive Nourish, in this deck it basically says "3W: Gain 2 life and draw 3 cards." Not exactly Ancestral Recall, but not too shabby nonetheless.

Spirit Link/Armadillo Cloak
Self-explanatory. Expecially fun when dropped on the Angel, they work well with the Entity also.

Exalted Angel
Well DUH. A 4th turn flying beater that gains me life is ALWAYS a good thing.

Ageless Entity
In this deck, he'll get really big, really fast. Slap on a Cloak, and now he doubles in size, and tramples.

Test of Endurance
Just in case I need to (i.e. Entities/Angels are removed), I can put my heaps of life to good use (besides Channel).


Also, now that I think of it, this deck does have the possibility to be tweaked around to be more of a G/w Secret Force-style deck, but that's probably just me. Anyway, I would like to see what someone else can come up with, and maybe see that I wasn't the only one to think of something like this.

[theorigamist]

My initial reaction is that it's a clunky, mana-intensive life gain combo deck with almost no card drawing.  (I am aware Well of Lost Dreams is there.  I mean card drawing that sets up the combo.)  In other words, your deck relies on having the combo set up without actually planning how to set up the combo before turn 4.  And a combo in Type 1 needs to win or lock down the game.  Your combo draws you cards when you have tons of mana (and only with tons of mana) so that you can lay down a creature and win on the next turn.  

So basically I'm looking at a mana-intensive combo deck that plans to win turn 5+ with no mana acceleration, no card drawing, no protection, no answers, and no threats before turn 3 (and a morph is not really a threat at all).

Could you please explain how this deck might possibly stand a chance in a powered metagame?

[Aniodia]

My initial reaction is that it's a clunky, mana-intensive life gain combo deck with almost no card drawing. (I am aware Well of Lost Dreams is there. I mean card drawing that sets up the combo.) In other words, your deck relies on having the combo set up without actually planning how to set up the combo before turn 4. And a combo in Type 1 needs to win or lock down the game. Your combo draws you cards when you have tons of mana (and only with tons of mana) so that you can lay down a creature and win on the next turn.

Right on the nose.

So basically I'm looking at a mana-intensive combo deck that plans to win turn 5+ with no mana acceleration, no card drawing, no protection, no answers, and no threats before turn 3 (and a morph is not really a threat at all).

Damn skippy. That's why I posted it here, to get some feedback and see how it could be improved.

Could you please explain how this deck might possibly stand a chance in a powered metagame?

It won't. Not at all. Then again, I don't build for powered metagames (hence the "unpowered" in the title), so I'm not exactly looking to beat the decks listed in the Top 8 at GenCon or Dulmen. I just want to see if this could be improved, at all, into something formidable.

However, all you have done was point out flaws and not provide ANY positive reworkings whatsoever. Thank you for wasting both my time and yours. Have a nice day.

[Jacob Orlove]

This has some interesting ideas, but this isn't quite the right forum. Moved.

[kuwv]

Omg this is ugly.

First off you need to fix the mana base. This deck can take pain better then anything else so add 4x ancient tombs and 1x crop rotation to smooth to tutor them out. Second you don' need 8x creature enchantments for 7x creatures so drop all and side the spirit links to handle aggro. 4x words do nothing in multiples, and also the well does nothing in multiples either + taps you out. I say subtract 2x of each.

You can take it from there

[Razor]

This can work.  Unpowered is going to make it challenging for sure.

Here's an old-school concept from Legends-era off the top-of-my-head.  Ifh Biff + Spirit Link or Armadillo Cloak = huge life very fast.

//Name: Unpowered_GW_Life_Beatdown.de c
//
//Mana: 31
6 Forest
6 Plains
4 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Llanowar Elves
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
1 Lotus Petal

//Synergy: 9
4 Well of Lost Dreams
2 Words of Worship
2 Sylvan Library
1 Regrowth

//Critters: 12
4 Ifh Biff Efreet
4 Exalted Angel
2 Mystic Enforcer
2 Ageless Entity

//Pump/Life: 8
4 Armadillo Cloak
4 Spirit Link

Once we get a working deck we can try to fit in some disruption including: Wastes, Plows, Seal of Cleansing, etc.

[Matt]

Actually, Well of Lost Dreams DOES work in multiples, if you've got the mana for it.

[theorigamist]

I am sorry for my previous post.  I will try to be more helpful.

I still see this particular life combo as mana-intensive and unwieldy.  Without power, you make mana acceleration very difficult, and thus the combo is slow.  Also, like I mentioned before, the combo does not actually win you the game.  I think if you are looking for a way to make a life gain deck work, the only viable combo is probably En-Kor/Task Force/Worthy Cause.  Here, for example, is the life gain deck that went to the Semi-Finals of GP Okayama:

Loop Junktion
Akira Asahara

Land:
4 Brushland
4 Windswept Heath
3 Starlit Sanctum
2 High Market
4 Forest
8 Plains

Creatures:
3 Nomads En-Kor
3 Daru Spiritualist
4 Shaman En-Kor
4 Task Force
3 Academy Rector
1 Serra Avatar

Spells:
4 Eladamri's Call
4 Worthy Cause
4 Living Wish
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Animal Boneyard
1 Test of Endurance
1 Rule of Law
1 Future Sight

Sideboard:
4 Orim's Chant
1 Nomads En-Kor
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Monk Realist
1 Rule of Law
1 Starlit Sanctum
1 Kor Haven
2 Seal of Cleansing
2 Krosan Reclamation
1 Wasteland

This list could be tranported into unpowered Type 1 fairly easily, I think.  The problem with the Words of Worship/Well of Lost Dreams combo is that, other than gain life, its primary purpose is a drawing engine.  In Type 1, it's a far too slow drawing engine, and costs a lot to maintain.  I really don't see it working better than En-Kor/Task Force/Worthy Cause.

[Aniodia]

Sorry for not posting sooner; I really cannot get online during weekends.

Origamist: Hey, sorry for sounding like an ass. I was still kinda hung over from a really bitchin' party the previous night, and I guess you just kinda rubbed me the wrong way.

As for your decklist, I do see where you're going, as well as why, and I like it (although I'm not sure what format that is). I'm also mentally goldfishing with Razor's deck, and that doesn't seem to be too shabby, either. The Ifh-Biff is just some old-school goodness, and it looks like it could cause some heavy damage.

---

Now that I'm looking it over, I do see where Origamist is coming from, in that Well + Words IS slow, so maybe the deck could be built around the Serra Avatar ( X_X ). Like I said in the original post, something kinda like Wakefield's old Secret Force deck, but geared towards dropping a huge Avatar instead of the Verdant.

Overall, though, there's a couple of interesting ideas floating around here, and it'll take me a bit to sort through them and piecemeal together another decklist. Oh well.

[Blind Apathy]

ok  you can acheive the same results just switch the colors to black white and use yawgmoth's bartgain, give you more removal( vindicate, deathgrasp, mutilate, edicts) and you can use rectors to get bargain out, even through in solitary confinement for fun since bargain will have you drawing. Even promise of powers, i should know i run it mysself

[Jacob Orlove]

The problem with bargain is that it just wins you the game anyway, so you'll end up cutting all the bad lifegain cards for more disruption and acceleration.

[defector]

I don't know if this helps, but I like to run channel with decree of justice.  It's some fun
defector