MTG Salvation

Here's a different approach...add Amulet of Vigor to the mix so you can Scapeshift into untapped Tron mana on turn 3 or 4 and play multiple Eldrazi (or one really big one) on the same turn you cast Scapeshift.

Yes, I've been thinking about Vendetta...but Vendetta always costs you life and cant hit black creatures Plus Dismember kills regenerating and indestructible creatures Tasigur and Angler are quite popular right now in r my meta, and Dismember gets them both. I also played around with Tragic Slip for awhile, but Dismember is the same or better about 2/3 of the time (except when someone Quicksilver's in an Avacyn, lol)

*edit* I moved 4 Duress to the maindeck from the sideboard, as I was getting sick of losing to combo decks in game 1. I also added 1 Darkblast to the sideboard, although Vendetta is possibly better. Need more playtesting...

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.

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!)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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!

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.

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.

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.