Does this work?

[SableMyst]

Had a question about the interaction between Angel's Grace and Lim-Dûl's Vault.

Making a somewhat janky esper deck and was wondering if there was a combo here. Say I cast angel's grace, then Lim-Dûl's Vault, and pay life down to 1 hp. First of all, can I keep paying life even if my deck has no cards left in it.  And second, since Angel's grace leaves me at 1 hp, can I pay the one life to Lim-Dûl's Vault, and then not lose any life because Angel's grace is active?

Wanted to see if it was possible to do that with Children of Korlis and Vizkopa Guildmage on board. Since Angel's Grace doesn't prevent the loss of life and just keeps you at one, pay a ton of life into Lim-Dûl's Vault, then activate Vizkopa Guildmage's second ability, then sac Children of Korlis to gain a ton of life and kill everyone.

[Morganator 2.0]

Angel's Grace only prevents damage that would bring you to less than 1 life, you can still pay until you reach 0 life, at which point you're going to lose at the end of your turn.

[Slyvester12]

This looks like it works, but why even include Angel's Grace? It gives you one extra life point to work with, but still won't let you pay life you don't have. You could just as easily do this combo without and stop at 1 hp.

[WWolfe]

Damage and paying life are different. Angel's Grace only prevents damage from taking your life to less than 1. Paying life for Lim-Dûl's Vault is a cost and that isn't prevented by Angel's Grace. 


ETA-Ruling from the official Gatherer card page for Angel's Grace... https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370545

The last sentence applies only if your life total is being reduced by damage. Other effects or costs (such as “lose 1 life” or “pay 1 life”) can reduce your life total below 1 as normal.
(2006-09-25)

[Judaspriester]

Damage and paying life are different. Angel's Grace only prevents damage from taking your life to less than 1. Paying life for Lim-Dûl's Vault is a cost and that isn't prevented by Angel's Grace. 


ETA-Ruling from the official Gatherer card page for Angel's Grace... https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370545

The last sentence applies only if your life total is being reduced by damage. Other effects or costs (such as “lose 1 life” or “pay 1 life”) can reduce your life total below 1 as normal.
(2006-09-25)

That's right, but I think you're missing the point. With Angel's Grace active, he can't lose the game that turn, because having 0 life. So he can pay his last life point into Lim-Dûl's Vault imidiately losing the game. This works. He just has to make sure, that his life pool is positive at the point he finishes his turn.

First of all, can I keep paying life even if my deck has no cards left in it.

This question seems to be overlooked. Scryfall or the Gatherer have the answer you need.

If you have five or fewer cards in your library, you can pay 1 life as many times as you like, but you’ll keep seeing the same cards.

Source: https://scryfall.com/card/c13/197/lim-d%C3%BBls-vault


Btw, if you want to pay alot of life, Font of Agonies might be interesting in order to deal with the remaining opponents.

[Veluux]

Everything about this combo works the way you’re thinking except paying life and the way that matters with Angel’s Grace. Because paying life isn’t prevented by Angel’s Grace (as others have mentioned), you can only pay 1 until you get down to 0 life. At that point the combo stops being repeatable, because you have no life left to pay with (you can’t go into the negative to pay costs, you simply have zero and therefore nothing to activate the ability with). Scryfall’s ruling note is only talking about what happens when your library shrinks (and assumes you still have life to pay with to keep repeating).

You still won’t die until the end of your turn because Angel’s Grace prevents you from losing during your turn, however once your turn ends you will immediately lose as a state based check.

That being said, I like your combo idea, because it works. You can do all of this stuff, cycle all 20 (or more) HPs, activate the abilities to gain it all back and blast your opponents who WILL die before the end of turn (which is also state based) if they are below zero and you can win the game without your turn completing and you losing. (Which in theory you won’t lose anyways because you’ll have gained back up to 20.)

It’s super janky but doable. You just can’t go infinite without an infinite life combo out as well. It’s also like a 3-4 card combo, which can be tough to pull off. Most people will never see it coming though, which is what makes it very doable.