This is what I had last tournament in PA:

Dreadlord, Black Dragon
2 Handbows
Pendant of Kaeleth
Armor of Darkness
Caledor's Bane

So that's a 1+ armor save, and the Reverse ward where you have to match the strength of the hit, or lower fails on a 6.

Pretty much nails, but no protection from characteristic test attacks like Black Horror & Pit of Shades, plus if he's out on his own there's no magic defense and can be hurt by multi-attack base magic.

Here's an alternative keeping the +3 strength lance

Dreadlord, Black Dragon
2 Handbows
Sea Dragon Cloak
Shield
Armor of Eternal Servitude
2 Null Talismens
Caledor's Bane

So this is Regen Armor and MR2
Armor save is 2+ to shooting attacks, 3+ to combat
Then 4+ regen on non flaming attacks.

So to strength 3 shooting, they're the same
Strength 5 in Combat, it's not as good, 5+, 4+ vs 3+, 5-

The tradeoff is getting 2 extra DD per spell cast against him. Which is pretty nice, especially inside a hotek bubble...

So which would you pick and why?

sheld sea dragon caldors regen and ring of hotex is what i would do