Demi-Lich

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

I made this deck in 5 minutes in Apprentice based on an idea I got from the Murderous Betrayal thread in the Single-Card Strategies forum (thanks Gerode!), so I know it's badly tuned (especially considering what little experience I have with actual viable decks in this field).

15 Swamp
1 Lake of the Dead
4 Underground Sea
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
3 Energy Field
4 Force of Will
4 Dark Ritual
4 Demonic Tutor
4 Death Wish
4 Infernal Contract
4 Doomsday
4 Lurking Evil
2 Murderous Betrayal
4 Lich

The concept is based on the fact that Lich requires no sacrifice from life payments. Damage, but not life payments. If you were at 0, you'd still be alive from Lich, but if you had to lose an unspecified amount of life you wouldn't have to discard anything (you couldn't use necro because you wouldn't be able to pay 1 life). Enter cards involving payments of half of one's life rounded up -- this = 0 life after a while in Lich.
With all this in mind the Energy Field may seem redundant, but I don't have too many permanents so the more damage I can prevent, the better.

Obviously this deck (having been made in 5 minutes independent of any Type I metagame) is not likely to be particularly successful in serious play (especially considering that I'm sure I broke at least one banned/restricted rule somewhere).

(I didn't use Nefarious Lich because it has no 0 life protection clause.)

 

[Spiderman]

Actually, you can't pay life when you're at 0 life. The errata for Lich at Crystal Keep specifically says that; it's pretty big.

You cannot pay life, just like any player at less than one life cannot pay life. You can pay zero life if they want. See Rule G.19.6.

G.19.6 - If a spell or ability allows you to pay life points to get some effect, you cannot pay more life points than you have. If you already have zero or less life points, you may not pay for any spell or ability which requires a payment or 1 or more life points. [CompRules 1999/04/23]

 

[Lotus Mox]

hint:

...You can pay zero life if they want....

 

[Thallid Ice Cream Man]

You're right Spiderman: that's why I couldn't use Necro, Bargain, or anything like that.
As Lotus Mox has explained, however, unspecific life payments are fine.

I used these "Pay half your life" cards because I could find no others except for the Portal version of Infernal Contract, which I didn't feel like including.

 

[Spiderman]

Sorry, I didn't bother looking at the other cards since you mentioned only "Pay life" and not that some were "Lose life, and that the Pay Life were unspecified and you could pay 0. My bad.