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I have friends with mono green ramp decks and I think they look fun but I'm just not inspired to make one myself (not yet at least). Instead, I thought I'd take a shot at something less mainstream. I don't want to to spend a ton of money since the ceiling on this kind of deck is pretty limited; fortunately, many of the high cmc black cards don't cost much (probably because there aren't many black ramp decks being played). Anyway, this is my first shot and I'm pretty new at deck building (this is actually my first ramp deck) so I thought I'd get some advice. Let me know how I can improve!

Creatures (22)
4 x Leaden Myr
3 x Palladium Myr
3 x Dark Impostor
3 x Sangromancer
3 x Dread Slaver
2 x Massacre Wurm
2 x Reaper from the Abyss
2 x Rune-Scarred Demon

Instant (9)
3 x Go for the Throat
3 x Doom Blade
3 x Tragic Slip

Artifact (4)
1 x Caged Sun
3 x Sphere of the Suns  

Sorcery (1)
1 x Army of the Damned  

Land (24)
4 x Buried Ruin
20 x Swamp
 
Sideboard
2 x Sorin's Vengeance
3 x Disentomb
3 x Disfigure
4 x Duress
3 x Sadistic Sacrament

My sideboard might need some work too. Other cards I'm considering for my main deck are Harvester of Souls ,  Fiend of the Shadows ,  Vengeful Pharaoh , Consume Spirit , and  Lashwrithe . But I'm sure I may have missed some that would be good to consider.

I'm really unsure how my curve is supposed to look with a ramp deck. I just kind of took a guess after looking at a few other green decks.

Anyway, I mostly just want a casual deck that would be fun to play. Thanks for the help!

Myr are wrong for a ramp deck. Black has known good ramp methods but oddly enough they are not cheap. For the cheapest way to get big stuff done soonest I would go with.

voltaic key
basalt monolith (grim monolith is far better but is beyond pricey)

If you need additional ramp run dark ritual and land that taps for more then one mana (any of the ravinica bounce duals are good)

The really good decks playing black ramp use phyrexian tower , cabal coffers , and urborg, tomb of yawgmoth All of these are very pricey though and you said cheap.

Caged sun is strictly win more in anything outside pure burn. You are not close to burn being creature based. If you have any of the big black legends play them. but do not buy them till they rotate out of standard (most stuff that is $20 now will be $3 in 5 years)

You need an early plan to stop invaders, sometimes you just have to block or require them to sacrifice. I suggest running a playset of reassembling skeleton

-7 myr
-1 caged sun

+4 voltaic key
+4 basalt monolith

-4 buried ruin
+4 rakdos carnarium (or one of the other 3)

-3 sangromancer
+3 reassembling skeleton

-3 sphere of the suns
+3 dark ritual

Is a good start.

That is very helpful. I appreciate the advice. I guess I was just looking at standard cards before. Since this is casual, I might as well expand my horizons. Dark ritual looks very cool.

Quick question. I don't understand the advantage of voltaic key and basalt monolith over  Palladium Myr . They are both going to net me 2 colorless mana. The Palladium Myr in an obvious way. The other two because I'll need to pay one mana to the key in order to untap the monolith, in order to get three mana; the result is two colorless mana. Am I missing a benefit? I get the mana from the myr from only 4 cards (and without a combo) instead of 8 cards.

The average lifespan of a creature is half a turn. Summoning sickness sucks. Your math is wrong. Basalt monolith can be played just as intended, you do not have to cheat with a voltaic key. You can just pay the mana to untap it like normal.

What a basalt monlith does to your mana curve is spike it every other turn, this is incredibly useful just as it is with coalition relic (which oddly enough also frequently gets used with voltaic keys to add an additional counter and spike even more)

On turn 3 you lay the monolith and on turn 4 assuming you hit your land drop you have access to a 7 mana effect. This is without a key. (the key is not really what you need, it is just to make things better when it is available). Your stuff is actually to cheap to fully appreciate what the key does. Instead of 7 mana on turn 4 with a key you can have 9 mana on turn 4 or have 6 mana and an untapped monolith. The key just lets you tailor to the specific amount you need right then and is never a bad thing.

I only took your deck and added a few suggestions to make the ramp work better. It is not how I would make such a deck. For one thing I have a full playset of [/c]grim monolith[/c] and would be playing at least 2 colors so would be using coalition relic in the 3 drop spot.

So my actual ramp in a non green deck usually looks like this,
4 voltaic key
4 grim monolith
4 coalition relic

And if I need even BIGGER ramp (you must be joking right since what is listed before is 10 power on turn 4 but yes I have even played with some bigger fun such

thran dynamo
gilded lotus
altar of shadows

or even the dreaded mox lotus

A really good card for this is Bog Witch . It'll turn your colorless mana into black mana.

I also like Phyrexian Colossus with Voltaic Key or Coffin Puppets . Actually, I just like Coffin Puppets and Voltaic Key .

Sol ring is good also for some power maybe grislebrand

Thanks for the explanation skeindubh. That makes complete sense. And I appreciate everyone else's suggestions.

I have one more question about the top of my mana curve, if you don't mind. I made some of the recommended changes and now my deck looks like this:

1 x Army of the Damned
4 x Basalt Monolith
3 x Dark Impostor
3 x Dark Ritual
3 x Doom Blade
3 x Dread Slaver
3 x Go for the Throat
2 x Massacre Wurm
4 x Rakdos Carnarium
2 x Reaper from the Abyss
3 x Reassembling Skeleton
2 x Rune-Scarred Demon
20 x Swamp
3 x Tragic Slip
4 x Voltaic Key

That gives me six creatures less than 4cmc ( Reassembling Skeleton and  Dark Impostor ), and ten creatures above 4cmc ( Dread Slaver ,  Massacre Wurm ,  Reaper from the Abyss ,  Rune-Scarred Demon ,  Army of the Damned ). Regarless of what you think of those actual cards (although I'd always love better suggestions), about how many cards should I be running in each slot at the top end of my mana curve? I was totally guessing when I decided to put three 5cmc, four 6cmc, two 7cmc, and one 8cmc.

6 cmc is actually a little low for the amount of ramp you are running and is at the very bottom of the scale. I would take out the 5cmcs and replace with more 9cmcs. Playing 4 full copies of army of the damned would be funny.

a phage the untouchable is appropriate since you are hardcasting things anyway.
mikaeus, the unhallowed would be nice since you have nio humans and nothing with undying.
sheoldred, whispering one is one of my new favorites for black.