Harbingers of Skulls Strengths But Mostly Weaknesses

I have lived long enough to see HoS winning tournaments. What a great age we are living in!

They even have 10 (ten!) TWDs without a single EL, and some of them even after EL release: vdb.smeea.casa/twd?q=%7B%22library%22%3A%7B%22100634%22%3A0%7D%2C%22clan%22%3A%22harbinger%20of%20skulls%22%7D

Daring the Dawn + Weather Control (+ Trap) + Skin of Night combois AGES old.

So old that it was once featured in WotC's Duelist magazine.
(From that article I actually got the idea for my fortitude weenies deck)

I've been bitten by the VTES Bug again and been tinkering with janky cards for jangly keys (a.k.a. mindless amusing distraction) decks. HoS with Sect tech from Sabbat & Laibon were in my high contemplation rotation of late. I still think there's something to discover in Stealth Ritus with HoS/!Ven, Hos/!Sal and Sabbat blood bloat, but I'll chase that dragon after my Laibon HoS dream.

I'll just leave these silly observations here:

Unre, Keeper of Golgotha has FOR and ser. She can Daring the Dawn for/FOR (vamps can't block) + Eyes of the Serpent ser (allies can't block). I'm sure there's a FOR ser Serpents of Light & Harbinger of Skulls (!FoS/HoS) goofy crossover in there.

Daring the Dawn + ally blocks + Jua Vema FOR (lock an Aye to treat agg as normal for rest of action) + Minor Irritation (7cap treats 1 rnd combat of 2 or less dmg vs allies & 5 & below cap vamps as continuing action) is... something to explore. I mean, bounce is a thing so power bleeding is probably not an interesting explore. But I am sure Force of Will shenanigans is a fun addition to whatever else you want the deck to do.

Already crafted a petite 60 card Osebo Orun vote deck. Crocodile's Tongue + Those Who Endure Judge is quite a lot of blood/life to pay before combat, and Massassi's Honor recycles those act mods cards and the action card if blocked. There might be a shared Ose/HoS deck in there, especially since NEC has some interesting ash heaped minion recursion, like Demonic Possession. Fire in the Mountain + Those Who Endure Judge is four votes to protect the diablerist, plus 3 Orun each is a standing vote.

I am just disappointed the Laibon Kholo are incomplete for the other 7 Laibon clans: Ass (Shango), FoS, HoS (Mla Watu), Las (Xi Dundu), Rav (Kinyonyi), !Sal (Nkulu Zao), Tzi (Naglopers). However I don't expect them or Imbued to get attention anytime soon.