Zombie Pile is a Golgari aggro deck that beats down with zombies while using spot removal to clear away your opponent's creatures and other troublesome permanents. It generates card advantage with Necromancer's Stockpile, as most of the creatures discarded to it can be recurred or cast from the graveyard. The deck is intentionally creature-light (12-15 creatures, not including Mutavaults) and removal-heavy. The engine of Stockpile + Shambling Shell is usually enough to overwhelm an opponent in the mid- and late-game by making 2/2 zombie tokens at instant-speed.
The deck is strong against other aggro decks, as it can continuously churn out disposable zombies. The most difficult matchup for the deck is Tron, although main deck Duress and Fulminator Mage (or Rain of Tears) out of the sideboard give it a chance. The deck is still being tested to find the optimal build, but the essential components of the deck are: Necromancer's Stockpile, Shambling Shell, Gravecrawler, Abrupt Decay, and Maelstrom Pulse. The sideboard has changed quite a bit over time, and continues to evolve as I identify decks that Zombie Pile is weaker against.
Necromancer's Stockpile + Shambling Shell: discard Shambling Shell to Stockpile, make a 2/2 zombie, skip the card draw to return Shambling Shell to your hand and dredge 3, repeat for every 1B you have available. Probably the strongest engine in the deck.
Necromancer's Stockpile + Gravecrawler: discard Gravecrawler to Stockpile, make a 2/2 zombie, draw a card, cast Gravecrawler from your graveyard.
Necromancer's Stockpile + Vengeful Pharaoh: Stockpile can be used to discard Pharaoh to make a 2/2 zombie, draw a card, and destroy an attacking creature (while putting the Pharaoh on top of your library to repeat again next turn).
Shambling Shell + Gravecrawler: got these in your graveyard? dredge back the Shambling Shell (a zombie) and cast it and Gravecrawler in the same turn.
Shambling Shell + Necroplasm: don't underestimate the power to add +1/+1 counters onto Necroplasm by sacking Shell.
Grisly Salvage: a powerful, instant-speed enabler in this deck, it can be used to mill Gravecrawlers and Vengeful Pharaohs into the graveyard while providing you with a land, Tasigur, or Tombstalker. Casting Grisly Salvage at the end of your opponent's second or third turn will often result in a turn-three Tasigur or Tombstalker.
Malestrom Pulse/Abrupt Decay: flexible removal spells to destroy non-land permanents. Useful for killing creatures but are also main-deck answers to graveyard hate cards like Graffdigger's Cage or Rest in Peace. How many you maindeck depends on what you expect to encounter. I run a playset of both, although sometimes I move copies into the sideboard.
Mutilate: same as Damnation, but perhaps better in this deck (runs enough swamps). Good for off-ing indestructible, pro black, and regenerating *****es.
Dismember: a flexible removal spell that deals with most creatures. Other black removal spells (Tragic Slip, etc.) might take this spot, depending on the expected meta.
Duress: formerly a sideboard card, I have moved it to the maindeck to better compete with combo decks in game 1. Thoughtseize or Inquisition of K might be better here, needs more playtesting against the common decks in Modern to make a determination...
Liliana of the Veil: does it all in this deck. The +1 ability is often used to discard Vengeful Pharaoh, Gravecrawler, Haakon, or redundant copies of Stockpile.
Blasting Station: combos with Gravecrawler to ping away creatures and players. It seemed too cute until I actually tried it. It's good enough to maindeck.
Necroplasm: destroys token creatures (and other creatures with converted mana cost=0) at the end of the turn it enters the battlefield. Dredges (2) back to your hand. Necroplasm is strong against Ornithopters, Lingering Souls, Young Pyromancer, Secure the Wastes, flipped Delvers, etc. Add counters to it with Shambling Shell to accelerate the effect and keep it from destroying itself (when it hits 3 counters, add a 4th). A very underrated card in Modern, IMO.
Mutavault: despite the fact that it's colorless mana can occasionally be a problem, Mutavault more than makes up for this shortcoming when it turns into a creature. It enables you to cast Gravecrawlers from the graveyard and avoids sorcery-speed removal.
Fetch Lands: 4 Verdant Catacombs and 2 Polluted Delta (or other black fetch-lands) allow you to search up Swamps and Forests, thin your deck of lands, and fill up your graveyard for casting delve spells.
Basic Lands: 5 basic Swamps and 2 basic Forest, as a hedge against non-basic land disruption effects (like Blood Moon).
Sideboard: Surgical Extraction is good against a lot of graveyard strategies, Mutilate is great against Boggles and indestructible creatures, Back to Nature is good against Boggles and other Enchantress decks, and Fulminator Mage gives the deck a chance against Tron (Salvage into a Mage, and follow up with a Surgical Extraction). Grafdigger's Cage is a new addition to the sideboard, given the popularity of Collected Company, Snapcaster Mage, Goryo's Vengeance, and Kitchen Finks (among others). Interestingly, the only downside to running Grafdigger's Cage in Zombie Pile is that it shuts off casting Gravecrawler from the yard. Dismember and Darkblast round out the sideboard, adding more 1-mana removal for fast creature decks (like Elves).
Other cards considered (but not currently included) are:
All Zombie lords: the Z lords compete for space in the deck with removal. Removal is better (in this build, anyway). Risen Executioner might be good enough, however...
Rot-Farm Skeleton: It is not a zombie and costs 4 mana
Stillmoon Cavalier: A good choice if dodging Path and Push
Commune with the Gods: deck is too creature-light to always work
Damnation/Black Sun's Zenith: either is arguably better than Mutilate...
Gurmag Angler: tasigur costs 2 mana less
Tombstalker: better than Angler, but always eats a terminate or a path to exile. not right for this deck, as it can't be protected.
Lotleth Troll: does not recur itself and competes too heavily with Stockpile, as both are 2-drops and need creatures to bin
Illness in the Ranks: against tokens strategies or splintertwin
Sever the Bloodline: for things like Wormcoil Engine or persisting/undying creatures
Gnaw to the Bone: seems solid for gaining 6+ life for 3 mana, and it flashes back.
Whip of Erebos/Basilisk Collar: for life gain, dependent on combat damage
Deadly Allure: zombie attacks are more lethal and flashes back...seems good.
Darkblast: Dredging kill spell for 1/1 creatures...I might add it to the deck if I get sick of losing to Heritage Druid
Befoul: sideboard card to destroy non-basic lands or creatures...4-mana sorcery though.
Jarad's Orders: cut due to the higher casting cost, it is a powerful tutor for the deck but Grisly Salvage often does the same thing for half the cost
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge + Nameless Inversion. Haakon is a bad top-deck, so he was finally cut from the deck along with Nameless Inversion. Stillmoon Cavalier has been amazing in playtesting and so I added 2 to the maindeck when I cut Haakon.
Grave Pact: good with Shambling Shells
Nihil Spellbomb: formerly a sideboard card, I have replaced it with Grafdigger's Cage.
Bow of Nylea: good at gaining life, defeating chump blockers with deathtouch, and putting +1+1 counters on Necroplasm
Necromancer's Stockpile seems very powerful to me. Like Pack Rat, but way better (assuming you have a herd of zombies to pitch). I've never really paid attention to it before. And there are enough zombies to make brewing fun, as it seems like you can go a couple different ways when building a deck.
Some cards you didn't mention above but which might be worth testing include the other two zombie lords (making gigantic tokens seems fun), Cemetery Reaper and Undead Warchief. Withered Wretch could make for a solid sideboard option depending on your local metagame. Skinrender may not be up to snuff in modern, but I've always thought it was a sneaky good card. Sidisi, Undead Vizier might be a little too mana hungry, but tutors are always worth testing. Finally, I can't decide if Blood Scrivener would be useless or amazing. I suppose it depends on the shell...
*Edit* Maybe Raven's Crime would be a good way to bleed off some extra land draws.
Thanks for the ideas! I tried a few lords out in the deck but, more often than not, in play testing i found that adding more removal was better than the lords. This deck always seems to have creatures on the board but Must deal with opposing threats to attack successfully. Death Baron is my fav zombie lord here because death touch zombies are better against stuff like siege rhino. Also, this deck curves to use all the mana it can get to repeatedly activate stockpiles and animate mutavaults. So ravens crime is probably not gonna be as useful as it otherwise might be. Stockpile is really the only card you don't want multiples of. Skinrender would be good if it didn't cost four mana. Blood scrivener would be good, but I rarely find myself without any cards in hand (thanks to stockpile). Jarads orders is probably better than Sidisi when I tested them. I wish I could find some room for whip of erebos or some other life gain in the main, but at the moment it is only staff of death magus in the sideboard. The combination of stockpile + shambling shell is, in my opinion, one of the best undiscovered combos in modern. But the deck doesn't need stockpile to win...just a few hard to kill zombies and removal spells are often good enough.
Tried commune with gods, sometimes it blanked due to the lowish creature count. G salvage never blanks and is an instant. Plus stockpile isn't vital to the deck, but rather just very very useful. Squee didn't make the cut, but is a good idea. I will add it to the cards to consider list.
Not sure he really needs another discard outlet. Honestly, not enough of his deck works from the graveyard to warrant it. Current build has 24 spells that don't provide value in the yard. Add in 23 lands, and we're left with only 13 cards we actually want in the yard and/or provide value from the yard. BUT, it does seem pretty important to get Shambling shell in the yard, so maybe additional discard outlets are needed? I'll have to defer to stormybaker's judgment on that since I haven't put this together... Yet!
So, with all the dredging going on, I can't help but think any one-of or two-of cards that do not work from the yard should be reconsidered. Add more if they are strong enough (e.g. Liliana), or cut them if they are not worth running 3 or 4 of. I consider cards that do roughly the same thing as the same card (pulse and decay, for example). Seems like you will fairly frequently dredge away something like Pack Rat, and then he's useless unless a delve-card comes along (assuming the couple delve-cards you have don't also get dredged away...).
Could always splash blue for snapcaster I suppose.
I've been fishbowling Zombie Pile for a few weeks now (I don't play online) and Stockpile+Shambling Shell reminds me of thopter foundry+sword of the meek a bit. Pack rats could easily be cut, as could the haakon/cavalier/nameless inversion package. The backbone of this deck is Shells, Stockpiles, Gravecrawlers, Pharaohs, G Salvages, and removal spells...the rest can be swapped around. I like the 3 delve creatures, but they could be replaced by Z lords, for example. The beat down power of Gravecrawlers and Shells together is actually quite strong, with only really Path and graveyard hate really able to break it up (and Shell dodges Path with it's built-in sac outlet). Pharaoh can be a bit clunky without Stockpile, but is still good with G Salvage and Lilianas. And sometimes you can just use a 5-power creature for 5 mana. I have considered adding a third color, but I fear it would make the deck more inconsistent and vulnerable to non-basic hate (and take more damage from more shocklands). Adding white could mean Unburial Rites and Path, blue could mean Snappy, and red could mean Blightning or Tymaret). Hopefully someone takes this deck online and proves its Modern power...I think my fish are getting tired of seeing it.
I'll throw together a budget version for online play. I don't have Liliana, Pulse, Decay, Dismember which are basically all of the most individually powerful cards in the deck.... But still, I want to see how the core synergies of the deck play out against real opponents. I could add the Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek playsets that most modern black decks run to help vs. combo. Smallpox + Dakmor Salvage might also get tested (smallpox doing it's best Liliana impression in this case).
I may actually play up the Haakon aspect and add a couple zombie knights, since there are some solid options. If I do that, I might skip targeted removal in favor of mass removal. Deadly Allure is a pet card of mine (usually trying to jam it with Phyrexian Obliterator), and I feel like any deck that wants to throw cards in the graveyard and has constantly recurring threats could take advantage of it. So I may test that out as well.
Okay, off to buy a handful of tix to see what I can come up with.
Wow, I really like the idea of deadly allure! Definitely awesome with disposable creatures like gravecrawler and shambling shell. Pulse and abrupt could be any other removal spells, maybe something like hero's downfall or putrify. Haakon is a pet card of mine and I love that you're going to explore that angle. Smallpox looks good except for the sacking a land bit...might want to up the land count to 24 or 25 if you go that direction. Stockpile is mana-hungry!
Was also thinking lately that torpor orb might make a great sideboard addition...it doesn't hurt Zombie Pile at all (other than blasting station, lol). And it hurts a lot of popular cards like snapcaster...
So, the smallpox experiment ended as you'd expect, based on your knowledge of the deck's mana needs. Might work with Life from the Loam but then we're becoming a different deck that is already being worked on by others. Because the engine of the deck (shell + stockpile) is pretty grindy and doesn't really start getting scary until you've got 4 mana at your disposal (at the very least), we can't be saccing lands. In fact, some ramp might be worth testing at some point down the road!
In testing a couple Lord of the Undead, I did like the interaction with Nameless Inversion. Even without a Haakon in the yard, I was able to repeatedly buy it back to keep x/3's in check. speaking of creature control, Deadly Allure worked quite well as a two-of. Not sure if I should try for three.
I replaced Smallpox with Rotting Rats for funsies, and was actually pretty pleased with it. I like how I can let it chill in the yard, and if I draw a Vengeful Pharoah or Haakon, it can quickly resolve the situation. My next adjustment will be to play with Blood Scrivener to see how it works in conjunction with the rats.
Impression of the core synergy so far is that it is pretty slow. This is fine, but it definitely puts us in the grindy midrange or control camp. Gonna have to slow down the game to the point where our deck takes over. Discard, removal, and sweepers are how black decks would normally do this, but then we're left with not enough zombies for my liking. Need to find the right balance somehow.
Was also surprised at how fast the yard fills up sometimes. So delve stuff is likely worth more than I initially expected.
Thanks for the input! I actually bit the bullet and bought into MTGO just to play this deck. It wasn't too expensive; I got everything but the dismembers, lilianas, fetch/shock lands, and haakon package for around $60 tix.
My land base is the only thing I really miss in moving from paper to online; sometimes I struggle to find green quicokly enough.
Darkblast may indeed be worth testing! I can think of many times when it would be good. Necroplasm overperformed against several tribal decks I faced (slivers and elves) and being able to add extra counters onto it with Shambling Shell actually won me a few games. You are correct about it being a mid-rangey deck; I added more removal to my online deck (tragic slip, sever the bloodline. and putrefy) and that seemed enough to take me to the mid game with a decent life total. Sideboarded in Whip of Erebos a few times and the life link was game-breaking against boros burn. Duress was great out of the sideboard and I'm considering maindecking it. Lord retrieving Nameless Inversion is a cool idea...I might spend a few more dollars and buy into that + Haakon.
he deck is winning more than losing for me (in the 4 or 5 hours I've tested it) and I think it could use more Damnation. Blasting Station was amazing with Gravecrawler, and I'm considering adding a second. Added withered wretches and black spellbombs to sideboard to deal with stuff like cascade-reanimate and the like.
Damnation seems very important to me, but sadly is pretty expensive online. I've got Black Sun's Zenith in the board, but it's just not the same. I'll check out Blasting Station next. Although if it turns out to be awesome, I'm going to undoubtedly try to find a way to cram Glissa, the Traitor into the deck, along with a couple choice artifacts.
lol yeah i've got Barter in Blood doing it's best Damnation impersonation at the moment...but it just isn't the same. I like the Glissa idea. Blasting Station + Gravecrawler almost always means B:ping something. Sever the Bloodline is actually doing some good work out of the SB for me and I've started maindecking a Whip of Erebos and an additional Tombstalker. I might try Black Sun Z if it is cheap enough to buy...I def need some kinda boardwipe for this deck. Necroplasm is killer against token armies, but is often too slow against actual cardboard creatures. discarding Pharaoh to Stockpile is becoming one of my favorite combat tricks...there is always a really long pause online as people have to read the Pharaoh to figure out why their creature just died.
Tried Black Sun's Zenith in the sideboard and it works great! And Whip of Erebos is also very good when it sticks...I whipped back Tombstalker several times to great effect and clawed my way back in one game (against Boggles) from 1 life to over 50 when I finally won. BSZ is also very good against Boggles; I may end up maindecking a couple since I can't afford Damnation either.
For a more zombie-feel deck add Ghoulcaller's Chant to grab back two zombies from the yard to make more token zombies. Also if you decide to use more zombies, Zombie Apocalypse would be efficient way to get them back.
Both are cool options. However, I tend to shy away from cards that don't work from the yard unless they are super high impact. I guess Zombie Apocalypse is pretty high impact, but several zombies in the deck don't stay in the graveyard all that long (Haakon, Gravecrawler, Shambling Shell), so I'd avoid it with the current builds. But as you said, the more zombies you add, the better it starts to look.
I have been playing cheaper version of the deck online (no fetches, guildgates and wooded cemeteries instead of overgrown tomb, no dismembers or lilianas) and I like the results so far. I win most of the games I draw enough removal for my opponents threats...it is pretty rare that I will ever run out of creatures with this deck. Abrupt Decay and Maelstrom Pulse are very important answers, while Black Sun's Zenith, Nihil Spellbomb, Sever the Bloodline, and Duress are great out of the SB. Almost all the creatures in the deck recur themselves, so ghoulcaller's chant/Z apocalypse are out in favor of more maindeck removal (as are many of the otherwise playable zombies). I LOVE Blasting Station tech, even if it takes an annoyingly long time to get through all the triggers when playing online. But it wins games when you have a Gravecrawler and some black mana to spend. I would consider running Mutilate in place of BSZ in a deck with better mana (fetches and tombs), perhaps even over Damnation (to better axe those indestructible and regenerating *****es). I am still looking for a synergistic way to add life gain to the deck...whip of erebos is great, but it costs 4 mana and is useless once it hits the yard.
Necromancer's Stockpile is a pretty interesting card. Having a cheap looter effect that isn't attached to a fragile creature and doesn't require tapping is somewhat unique. Sure, you got to throw creatures away, but that isn't such a big deck-building hurdle. I'm definitely eyeballing a reanimator package for testing at some point. I've been slowly gathering up all the lands needed for modern (still have a ways to go), but eventually I think I tiny white splash for Unburial Rites might give the deck some more punch. Griselbrand seems decent in this deck. Free wins, that sort of thing. White also opens up some sideboarding tech.
But white isn't necessarily needed, either. Something like Demigod of Revenge could work as well. With Gravecrawler and Shambling Shell, other zombies aren't really needed to get the stockpile engine running, which has been a bit of a mental hurdle for me to overcome. Now that I have, it seems like there could be some other areas to test in terms of good creatures to use (Bloodghast is always an option in this sort of deck, but that's a lot of "can't block" creatures). Blood Artist supercharges your Blasting Station and provides some lifegain (credit Sam Black, I guess, for his Zombardment deck from a couple years ago). Vault Skirge + Glissa, the Traitor, + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, + Lashwrithe has proven itself for me a time or two, and could potentially be an okay fit for this sort of deck.
Blood Scrivener has worked pretty well in conjunction with the Shambling Shell, Stockpile engine. It allows it to snowball a bit faster and shortens up the grind. Once you've dumped your hand (fairly easy with this deck), with the Scrivener out, Necromancer's Stockpile basically reads, pay 2 mana and 1 life for a zombie and 2 cards.
You're having better success with the deck than I am at the moment, and I have to assume it's because you're running so much more removal. It still bugs my inner Johnny to have all these cards end up in the yard that I can't recur, but maybe it's just a necessity I have to deal with.
Edit* It could also be that I suck at playing the deck. I've never played a deck with dredge before, and this particular deck seems to have a million decisions to make, even without dredging mixed into the equation. I'll keep toying with it, though.
Ha yeah we should play some games on mtgo sometime soon...I am stormybaker on there as well. I have been playing Just for Fun and crushing it, but losing in Tournament Practice. My cheap az mana base costs me too much momentum (etb tap lands are sloooow!) I want to run a proper mana base and Mutilate, as BSZ is often a turn or two too slow against T1 Modern decks. And you are right about the deck not needing lots of zombies to make it work...my build is very creature light on purpose...often what you want to top deck is not a creature, but some removal for your opponents threats. I looked at blood artist but it does nothin in the yard.
So far the best life gain I've found is the whip...there is the dredge 2 green creature that nets you 2 life when it returns to your hand...but not a zombie. With Pile it becomes 1B: mill 2 cards, gain 2 life. Probably too slow, but a thought.
And I see milled cards in the yard as great delve fodder...it might be correct to run 4 or even 5 delve creatures in the deck. I am also going to try out grave pact next, as it seems like it could be very good with death-wishing zombies. And I like scrivener but I don't often run out of cards...but I will try it because I can think of times where it would be really good.
If you're looking for horribly easy life gain out of the graveyard, Firemane Angel is your guy. It won't be cast-able, but it'll serve as Delve fodder, and short of removing the graveyard, nothing can stop it (much to Burn's frustration).
After many hours of online testing, the only "bad" matchup for the deck seems to be Tron. I don't have Fulminator Mages to test with, but they seem like the best sideboard option against Tron. A Fulminator followed by a Surgical Extraction seems like it would be good. Burn is also sometimes too quick, so depending on the expected field, more life gain might be necessary (like additional Whips of Erebos.) Necroplasm has proven surprisingly good when combined with Shambling Shell as well. Grave Pact has also shown some great promise in testing, but Liliana is arguably better at doing the same job. Overall, I am quite happy with the deck and I believe it has Tier 1 potential in Modern.
Yes there are some good blue zombies out there, but I don't think the deck could support a third color very well...and I don't think Stockpile can do without Shambling Shell. If Ruinator didn't cost double blue it would certainly be a contender. As I play the deck I am finding that i keep cutting creatures in favor of more removal. As long as you can keep answering your opponent's threats the deck usually wins via creatures from the yard. Things like Tormod's Crypt can be annoying, but the deck is surprisingly resilient to them. The deck uses the graveyard but is not entirely dependent on it. Maybe there is a blue-black or red-black version of Zombie Pile out there, but I'm sticking with Shambling Shell and black-green...
*edit*
Unbreathing horde seems interesting...I hadn't seen that one yet...
And other than Stockpile and Liliana (I only have Lilliana IRL) there aren't enough discard outlets for madness...although I certainly looked twice at Grave Scrabbler!
Sidisi would be good if she was a Z and didn't require blue mana...and 4 mana is a lot for a spell in this deck (those greedy stockpiles and mutavaults!)
Added Grafdigger's Cage to the sideboard. Admittedly, the Cage keeps me from casting Gravecrawler's from the graveyard, but other than that...the Cage doesn't hurt the deck in the slightest. On the other hand, the Cage causes big problems for many of Modern's most popular and successful cards--such as Collected Company, Snapcaster Mage, Goryo's Vengeance, Kitchen Finks, and Chord of Calling.
I cut Haakon and Nameless Inversion from the deck and added a second Stillmoon Cavalier...that card is a house against some of the decks I've encountered, while Haakon is a bad topdeck without a Stockpile in play and a dead card in your opening 7. Dismember is superior to Nameless Inversion without a Haakon on the battlefield. Dismember is often the the only way to stop those T2 Monastery Swiftspear kills...especially when you are on the draw.
I have also started maindecking a Bow of Nylea over Whip of Erebos. The Bow has proven very useful on several fronts (see the explanation for it under the decklist).
Someday I hope Zombie Pile will get the respect I think it deserves.
Added Grafdigger's Cage to the sideboard. Admittedly, the Cage keeps me from casting Gravecrawler's from the graveyard, but other than that...the Cage doesn't hurt the deck in the slightest. On the other hand, the Cage causes big problems for many of Modern's most popular and successful cards--such as Collected Company, Snapcaster Mage, Goryo's Vengeance, Kitchen Finks, and Chord of Calling.
I cut Haakon and Nameless Inversion from the deck and added a second Stillmoon Cavalier...that card is a house against some of the decks I've encountered, while Haakon is a bad topdeck without a Stockpile in play and a dead card in your opening 7. Dismember is superior to Nameless Inversion without a Haakon on the battlefield. Dismember is often the the only way to stop those T2 Monastery Swiftspear kills...especially when you are on the draw.
I have also started maindecking a Bow of Nylea over Whip of Erebos. The Bow has proven very useful on several fronts (see the explanation for it under the decklist).
Someday I hope Zombie Pile with get the respect I think it deserves.
Given you're in Black, I would highly recommend Vendetta over Dismember if you can afford the black early on, and depending on the prevalence of black creatures in your meta. While it will always cost you life, it can cost you less life early on as threats are small, and can kill far bigger threats later in the game.
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The deck is strong against other aggro decks, as it can continuously churn out disposable zombies. The most difficult matchup for the deck is Tron, although main deck Duress and Fulminator Mage (or Rain of Tears) out of the sideboard give it a chance. The deck is still being tested to find the optimal build, but the essential components of the deck are: Necromancer's Stockpile, Shambling Shell, Gravecrawler, Abrupt Decay, and Maelstrom Pulse. The sideboard has changed quite a bit over time, and continues to evolve as I identify decks that Zombie Pile is weaker against.
Enchantments (4)
4 Necromancer's Stockpile
Creatures (13)
4 Gravecrawler
4 Shambling Shell
1 Grave Scrabbler
2 Necroplasm
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
Instants/Sorceries (17)
3 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Dismember
2 Grisly Salvage
1 Mutilate
3 Duress
2 Dark Salvation
Planeswalkers (3)
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Artifacts (1)
1 Blasting Station
Lands (22)
4 Mutavault
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Polluted Delta
3 Overgrown Tomb
2 Woodland Cemetery
5 Swamp
2 Forest
Sideboard (15)
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Damnation
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Back to Nature
1 Duress
1 Darkblast
Card Strategies:
Necromancer's Stockpile + Shambling Shell: discard Shambling Shell to Stockpile, make a 2/2 zombie, skip the card draw to return Shambling Shell to your hand and dredge 3, repeat for every 1B you have available. Probably the strongest engine in the deck.
Necromancer's Stockpile + Gravecrawler: discard Gravecrawler to Stockpile, make a 2/2 zombie, draw a card, cast Gravecrawler from your graveyard.
Necromancer's Stockpile + Vengeful Pharaoh: Stockpile can be used to discard Pharaoh to make a 2/2 zombie, draw a card, and destroy an attacking creature (while putting the Pharaoh on top of your library to repeat again next turn).
Shambling Shell + Gravecrawler: got these in your graveyard? dredge back the Shambling Shell (a zombie) and cast it and Gravecrawler in the same turn.
Shambling Shell + Necroplasm: don't underestimate the power to add +1/+1 counters onto Necroplasm by sacking Shell.
Grisly Salvage: a powerful, instant-speed enabler in this deck, it can be used to mill Gravecrawlers and Vengeful Pharaohs into the graveyard while providing you with a land, Tasigur, or Tombstalker. Casting Grisly Salvage at the end of your opponent's second or third turn will often result in a turn-three Tasigur or Tombstalker.
Malestrom Pulse/Abrupt Decay: flexible removal spells to destroy non-land permanents. Useful for killing creatures but are also main-deck answers to graveyard hate cards like Graffdigger's Cage or Rest in Peace. How many you maindeck depends on what you expect to encounter. I run a playset of both, although sometimes I move copies into the sideboard.
Mutilate: same as Damnation, but perhaps better in this deck (runs enough swamps). Good for off-ing indestructible, pro black, and regenerating *****es.
Dismember: a flexible removal spell that deals with most creatures. Other black removal spells (Tragic Slip, etc.) might take this spot, depending on the expected meta.
Duress: formerly a sideboard card, I have moved it to the maindeck to better compete with combo decks in game 1. Thoughtseize or Inquisition of K might be better here, needs more playtesting against the common decks in Modern to make a determination...
Liliana of the Veil: does it all in this deck. The +1 ability is often used to discard Vengeful Pharaoh, Gravecrawler, Haakon, or redundant copies of Stockpile.
Blasting Station: combos with Gravecrawler to ping away creatures and players. It seemed too cute until I actually tried it. It's good enough to maindeck.
Necroplasm: destroys token creatures (and other creatures with converted mana cost=0) at the end of the turn it enters the battlefield. Dredges (2) back to your hand. Necroplasm is strong against Ornithopters, Lingering Souls, Young Pyromancer, Secure the Wastes, flipped Delvers, etc. Add counters to it with Shambling Shell to accelerate the effect and keep it from destroying itself (when it hits 3 counters, add a 4th). A very underrated card in Modern, IMO.
Mutavault: despite the fact that it's colorless mana can occasionally be a problem, Mutavault more than makes up for this shortcoming when it turns into a creature. It enables you to cast Gravecrawlers from the graveyard and avoids sorcery-speed removal.
Fetch Lands: 4 Verdant Catacombs and 2 Polluted Delta (or other black fetch-lands) allow you to search up Swamps and Forests, thin your deck of lands, and fill up your graveyard for casting delve spells.
Basic Lands: 5 basic Swamps and 2 basic Forest, as a hedge against non-basic land disruption effects (like Blood Moon).
Sideboard: Surgical Extraction is good against a lot of graveyard strategies, Mutilate is great against Boggles and indestructible creatures, Back to Nature is good against Boggles and other Enchantress decks, and Fulminator Mage gives the deck a chance against Tron (Salvage into a Mage, and follow up with a Surgical Extraction). Grafdigger's Cage is a new addition to the sideboard, given the popularity of Collected Company, Snapcaster Mage, Goryo's Vengeance, and Kitchen Finks (among others). Interestingly, the only downside to running Grafdigger's Cage in Zombie Pile is that it shuts off casting Gravecrawler from the yard. Dismember and Darkblast round out the sideboard, adding more 1-mana removal for fast creature decks (like Elves).
Other cards considered (but not currently included) are:
All Zombie lords: the Z lords compete for space in the deck with removal. Removal is better (in this build, anyway). Risen Executioner might be good enough, however...
Rot-Farm Skeleton: It is not a zombie and costs 4 mana
Stillmoon Cavalier: A good choice if dodging Path and Push
Commune with the Gods: deck is too creature-light to always work
Damnation/Black Sun's Zenith: either is arguably better than Mutilate...
Gurmag Angler: tasigur costs 2 mana less
Tombstalker: better than Angler, but always eats a terminate or a path to exile. not right for this deck, as it can't be protected.
Lotleth Troll: does not recur itself and competes too heavily with Stockpile, as both are 2-drops and need creatures to bin
Illness in the Ranks: against tokens strategies or splintertwin
Sever the Bloodline: for things like Wormcoil Engine or persisting/undying creatures
Gnaw to the Bone: seems solid for gaining 6+ life for 3 mana, and it flashes back.
Whip of Erebos/Basilisk Collar: for life gain, dependent on combat damage
Deadly Allure: zombie attacks are more lethal and flashes back...seems good.
Darkblast: Dredging kill spell for 1/1 creatures...I might add it to the deck if I get sick of losing to Heritage Druid
Befoul: sideboard card to destroy non-basic lands or creatures...4-mana sorcery though.
Jarad's Orders: cut due to the higher casting cost, it is a powerful tutor for the deck but Grisly Salvage often does the same thing for half the cost
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge + Nameless Inversion. Haakon is a bad top-deck, so he was finally cut from the deck along with Nameless Inversion. Stillmoon Cavalier has been amazing in playtesting and so I added 2 to the maindeck when I cut Haakon.
Grave Pact: good with Shambling Shells
Nihil Spellbomb: formerly a sideboard card, I have replaced it with Grafdigger's Cage.
Bow of Nylea: good at gaining life, defeating chump blockers with deathtouch, and putting +1+1 counters on Necroplasm
Some cards you didn't mention above but which might be worth testing include the other two zombie lords (making gigantic tokens seems fun), Cemetery Reaper and Undead Warchief. Withered Wretch could make for a solid sideboard option depending on your local metagame. Skinrender may not be up to snuff in modern, but I've always thought it was a sneaky good card. Sidisi, Undead Vizier might be a little too mana hungry, but tutors are always worth testing. Finally, I can't decide if Blood Scrivener would be useless or amazing. I suppose it depends on the shell...
*Edit* Maybe Raven's Crime would be a good way to bleed off some extra land draws.
Also, no love for Lotleth Troll as a discard outlet/zombie?
So, with all the dredging going on, I can't help but think any one-of or two-of cards that do not work from the yard should be reconsidered. Add more if they are strong enough (e.g. Liliana), or cut them if they are not worth running 3 or 4 of. I consider cards that do roughly the same thing as the same card (pulse and decay, for example). Seems like you will fairly frequently dredge away something like Pack Rat, and then he's useless unless a delve-card comes along (assuming the couple delve-cards you have don't also get dredged away...).
Could always splash blue for snapcaster I suppose.
I may actually play up the Haakon aspect and add a couple zombie knights, since there are some solid options. If I do that, I might skip targeted removal in favor of mass removal. Deadly Allure is a pet card of mine (usually trying to jam it with Phyrexian Obliterator), and I feel like any deck that wants to throw cards in the graveyard and has constantly recurring threats could take advantage of it. So I may test that out as well.
Okay, off to buy a handful of tix to see what I can come up with.
In testing a couple Lord of the Undead, I did like the interaction with Nameless Inversion. Even without a Haakon in the yard, I was able to repeatedly buy it back to keep x/3's in check. speaking of creature control, Deadly Allure worked quite well as a two-of. Not sure if I should try for three.
I replaced Smallpox with Rotting Rats for funsies, and was actually pretty pleased with it. I like how I can let it chill in the yard, and if I draw a Vengeful Pharoah or Haakon, it can quickly resolve the situation. My next adjustment will be to play with Blood Scrivener to see how it works in conjunction with the rats.
Impression of the core synergy so far is that it is pretty slow. This is fine, but it definitely puts us in the grindy midrange or control camp. Gonna have to slow down the game to the point where our deck takes over. Discard, removal, and sweepers are how black decks would normally do this, but then we're left with not enough zombies for my liking. Need to find the right balance somehow.
Was also surprised at how fast the yard fills up sometimes. So delve stuff is likely worth more than I initially expected.
Final thought...is Darkblast maybe worth testing?
My land base is the only thing I really miss in moving from paper to online; sometimes I struggle to find green quicokly enough.
Darkblast may indeed be worth testing! I can think of many times when it would be good. Necroplasm overperformed against several tribal decks I faced (slivers and elves) and being able to add extra counters onto it with Shambling Shell actually won me a few games. You are correct about it being a mid-rangey deck; I added more removal to my online deck (tragic slip, sever the bloodline. and putrefy) and that seemed enough to take me to the mid game with a decent life total. Sideboarded in Whip of Erebos a few times and the life link was game-breaking against boros burn. Duress was great out of the sideboard and I'm considering maindecking it. Lord retrieving Nameless Inversion is a cool idea...I might spend a few more dollars and buy into that + Haakon.
he deck is winning more than losing for me (in the 4 or 5 hours I've tested it) and I think it could use more Damnation. Blasting Station was amazing with Gravecrawler, and I'm considering adding a second. Added withered wretches and black spellbombs to sideboard to deal with stuff like cascade-reanimate and the like.
But white isn't necessarily needed, either. Something like Demigod of Revenge could work as well. With Gravecrawler and Shambling Shell, other zombies aren't really needed to get the stockpile engine running, which has been a bit of a mental hurdle for me to overcome. Now that I have, it seems like there could be some other areas to test in terms of good creatures to use (Bloodghast is always an option in this sort of deck, but that's a lot of "can't block" creatures). Blood Artist supercharges your Blasting Station and provides some lifegain (credit Sam Black, I guess, for his Zombardment deck from a couple years ago). Vault Skirge + Glissa, the Traitor, + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, + Lashwrithe has proven itself for me a time or two, and could potentially be an okay fit for this sort of deck.
Blood Scrivener has worked pretty well in conjunction with the Shambling Shell, Stockpile engine. It allows it to snowball a bit faster and shortens up the grind. Once you've dumped your hand (fairly easy with this deck), with the Scrivener out, Necromancer's Stockpile basically reads, pay 2 mana and 1 life for a zombie and 2 cards.
You're having better success with the deck than I am at the moment, and I have to assume it's because you're running so much more removal. It still bugs my inner Johnny to have all these cards end up in the yard that I can't recur, but maybe it's just a necessity I have to deal with.
Edit* It could also be that I suck at playing the deck. I've never played a deck with dredge before, and this particular deck seems to have a million decisions to make, even without dredging mixed into the equation. I'll keep toying with it, though.
So far the best life gain I've found is the whip...there is the dredge 2 green creature that nets you 2 life when it returns to your hand...but not a zombie. With Pile it becomes 1B: mill 2 cards, gain 2 life. Probably too slow, but a thought.
And I see milled cards in the yard as great delve fodder...it might be correct to run 4 or even 5 delve creatures in the deck. I am also going to try out grave pact next, as it seems like it could be very good with death-wishing zombies. And I like scrivener but I don't often run out of cards...but I will try it because I can think of times where it would be really good.
*edit*
Unbreathing horde seems interesting...I hadn't seen that one yet...
And other than Stockpile and Liliana (I only have Lilliana IRL) there aren't enough discard outlets for madness...although I certainly looked twice at Grave Scrabbler!
Sidisi would be good if she was a Z and didn't require blue mana...and 4 mana is a lot for a spell in this deck (those greedy stockpiles and mutavaults!)
I cut Haakon and Nameless Inversion from the deck and added a second Stillmoon Cavalier...that card is a house against some of the decks I've encountered, while Haakon is a bad topdeck without a Stockpile in play and a dead card in your opening 7. Dismember is superior to Nameless Inversion without a Haakon on the battlefield. Dismember is often the the only way to stop those T2 Monastery Swiftspear kills...especially when you are on the draw.
I have also started maindecking a Bow of Nylea over Whip of Erebos. The Bow has proven very useful on several fronts (see the explanation for it under the decklist).
Someday I hope Zombie Pile will get the respect I think it deserves.
Given you're in Black, I would highly recommend Vendetta over Dismember if you can afford the black early on, and depending on the prevalence of black creatures in your meta. While it will always cost you life, it can cost you less life early on as threats are small, and can kill far bigger threats later in the game.