I think veles list is probably the most competitive route. But he ask to stay true to the original desgin so I tried to do that.

It would. But adding yahari means t3 allies aren't as important

A possible alternative for nova would be yahari. Takes your se but no damage to you and doesn't effect fatties.

When using DoU think of it as a way to either punish your opponent for hitting hero...

Possibly something like dagger of unmaking? It could help to slow down the opponent some. Maybe change out LS for nova so you can have a board reset