Isabella and her Gal Pals: Shadows vs Death

So, I adore playing Sylvania and I pretty much always make a doomstack of Isabella and 18 Vampire Heroes to act as her handmaidens (Vlad is there too, he's the Designated Driver). It's a blast every time I do it, but I'm never sure how I should balance between Lore of Shadows and Lore of Death. I usually end up splitting 50/50. But, the urge to RP as the Elector Count of Sylvania is coming back once again so I've been questioning my build.

I feel like Shadows has the best spells pound per pound but Death has some better options for single target and has the mana battery aspect. In theory, I *might* be able to get the spell cost for Spirit Leech or Doom and Darkness low enough that it nets positive magic and so they can act as a generator for powering the Lore of Vampire spells.

On the other hand, I don't think anything short of Lord Kroak can delete a blob of infantry the way 18 casts of Pit of Shades can. The Purple Sun of Xereus certainly has some decent AOE damage, but it's not nearly as reliable.

I was wondering if anyone has opinions on this. Stick with 50/50? Go ham on one while leaving the other lore behind? Focus more on the randomly generated background skills? Keep it just Isabella and Vlad so they can have a date night?