LA Pythium Hydras

[Shovah32]

It could work in a rush maybe. Eventually it would probably either just get too difficult to keep your dominion completely under control(making temples to get more sacreds) or you would be left with a small number of sacreds(6-7 per turn) and, at best, completely average scales.

[Ironhawk]

Yeah you dont want to go full negative since you can only negate your own dominion in a few choice provinces. To try to do something systemtic or empire-wide would risk dominion death. The reason why drain is so attractive in this one particular case is because it wouldnt ruin your economy when spread over your nation but is (almost by default) negated for free by your researchers.