Just as long as you know that Dash Hopes is no more than a 5-to-the-face spell for 2 black, not a bad deal in and of itself, until you've done enough damage that the opponent can't afford to take the 5 when you cast it. Don't count on it as a counterspell until way late in the game when opponent is low on life.
You ought to try some of the zombie token generators, like maybe Endless Ranks of the Dead 
since you playing so much life loss equal to NUMBER of zombies in play, etc.
I might ditch Boneknitters for something else, maybe Death Baron 
? Deathtouch is nice.
the 5 to the face is actually the main reason it's here, the occasional counter is a bonus and some times you play a wimp who never wants to lose life if he can avoid it. I love the Barons but the reason this is built the way it is, is because I don't have(or can afford) any of the the good lords and I think Barons are still like $10 each too boot
Cut Bump as this deck is too slow to afford something that gives no board prescence, and cut Gempalm for the same reason. As it stands you're not going to get signifigant damage for your card. Also, at least two Ghoulcaller's Chant because it's useless before something dies.
I'd play up the swarm aspect Undead Warchief and Unbreathing Horde love so much. Diregraf Ghoul 
needs no explanation, and Black Cat 
gives synergy and an extra card, Endless Ranks of the Dead can be hard to get running but will close the game quickly with a Warchief up, and Moan of the Unhallowed 
is a solid maybe if you find you somehow have more space after all that.
Hope that helps.
The bump& gems are in here becase with out quck life total difference you kill yourself too much t the Shepherd. I am cutting higher cost stuff for quick cheap bodies though. the chants are here mainly because they let you play polutters up to 12 times. I'll add the ghoul and cat and if I can find romm a few ranks.
you don't really need dark ritual here, and bump is ......... I'm trying to think of a deck that spell is any good in.
doomblade is only ok here, and I don't know why you're using boneknitter at all. you want ghoulraiser 
s to go with your chants, they will make killing your zombies into a very deadly trap. also helps get endless ranks going and keeps it going to boot.
basicly, this deck needs bodies on the field, it doesn't even matter much what their condition is.
The rit lets you drop mutiple zombies before the sheperd hits, a warchief or ranks turn 2, or Boost a consuming spirit later on. which is plenty value for me. Bump give you a quick life advanatge which is key here. I'm swaping the blades for murder 
when I get some, they were just what I had when I built this.the Chants are here almost just for gempalm and the ghoulraiser is too high a cost for a deck the almost never attacks
A couple of zombies i would condsider:
Gravecrawler 
Noxious Ghoul 
The crawlers are just too high for me. I had a few noxious in here at one point but without a rit 5 is too long to wait for -1/-1, bye that point you needed to crank out 3-5+ zombies a turn and usually one of us is dead before he's useful. Call to the Grave 
is better but has the same weakness of a high cost.
