Say what you will, I won't defend Ace's deck for him. I have used it, though, and as you say, 8-10 gods are usually insta-win.
Lightnings over RoLs is important, the damage you can get and the potential extra creature if you buff it are incredibly useful.
Well, I tried and it failed miserably. Sure, I had bad luck with the gods, but I had no chance whatsoever against 15 different ones, and come close at one. Unless all the 8 ones I haven't played are the instant wins, I doubt it'll work out.
(not using lightnings didn't matter, most of the time the gods had over 100 life left, played miracle, or outright killed all my creatures as soon as I played them, the problem wasn't from that.)
Ferox is impossible? Are you joking? It's one of the easiest god with RoL-Hope. (i beat it even if it had 5 feral bond.)
What's your strategy? I've never, ever managed to do it, even with a very good starting hand, I wasn't fast enough. Are you using this deck, or another variant?