I took Death-3, Drain-2 as MA Aby in a small (6-nation) game and it worked well enough that I'm now in a Mexican standoff with the other two remaining nations (Pythium and C'tis). Here's the strategy I used:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=41952
Larger maps will make this strategy less effective. It's also a pain micro'ing almost everything: blood hunting, lanterns, and diseased mages.