What's the point of playing Diana if you want to play her as pure Mystic? You 're putting so much effort on cancelling that cancelling itself becomes meaningless. I'm pretty sure that there are better choices of investigators for this kind of build, like Jim or Akachi. I personally like Diana for her versatility and her ability to aid the team by mitigating the powers of the Mythos. With this build, these powers are greatly diminished. I also firmly believe that playing a Diana deck without any weapons other than Twilight Blade is very risky. Lastly, I find a major flaw in this deck: The manner in which you use your cancels does not allow you to save Deny Existance for Terrible Secret and that can be devastating.

@matt88, I cant tell if you are joking if so Kudos!

If not:

1. Youre probably looking for a version of the deck closer to this arkhamdb.com which this deck was derived from after people in the comments specifically asked for a mystic version and more soak. Theres also a decent amount of people who play for theme and I quite like the idea of a "mage" who is sufficiently skilled that she knows how to deal with spell backfires.

2. I may have over egged the need to cancel things on site. This was something a lot of people didnt understand on first reading of the other version so i played it up here as it was even more important. You are doing this early game to get will high and dig for whatever key tools you need, not doing this all game indefinitely for its own sake. Im hoping to find time to edit this a little later on and reduce the word count, When i do i`ll try to go back and clarify that. There are 14 strong cancels in the deck (with "I've had worse…", spending 4 early leaves 10 or about 1/3rd of the deck. Once you have the Twilight Blade down you can be more strategic with the cancels, but you can still play them more liberally than an average mystic. This is a bit like the logic of Joes Hunch deck. You can afford to play them at less optimal times because they have had their cost reduced and more will appear in time. These powers are not diminished, you are using them more frequently.

3. This gives Diana a differentiated playstyle over Akachi/jim because she can draw so hard that shes more consistent than most mystics, and you still can cancel things. The deck is also an absolute brick where other mystics frequently have HP issues or need to heal horror. Diana is tough as nails, this is offers a different playstyle. Check out the Delay the Inevitable trick in the combat section. You can tank bosses really well. Big shriv is a great example (also see combat section). A lot of people hold back because the 2 horror can be a lot to take even for a mystic. Diana doesnt have this issue. Police badge is another (This is squirreled away in the upgrades section)

4. You dont just have Twilight Blade for a weapon. Shrivelling, Wither, Storm of Spirits, Shards of the Void are your weapons. There are actually 9 (~1/4 of the deck) options for enemy management in there (see Enemy handling section). I even have a specific note about this NOT being a pure fighter deck, because this derailed the discussion on the last comments thread a little.

5. There is an entire section up there on dealing with her weakness. This includes several tricks relating to Terrible Secret, including the Deny Existence one. I dont mean this in a rude way, but i wont repeat it here for space reasons. It should cover your concerns though.

Finally I don’t post these guides to tell ppl exactly how to play, they are more intended as a description of a possible playstyle and the cards that could be used to interact with it. Its like a list of interacting idea that can be played or taken for uses in other places. If you want to put a hand weapon in there, go for it. If you want to change the wither out its a pretty good target. Its mainly in there as the last back up incase all the charges run out.

@StartWithTheName Thanks for the comprehensive response. It makes more sense now. I didn't consider the draw potential that Diana has with that many cancels. That makes her indeed more consistent than other Mystics. It's also probably a matter of preference as to whether you go full spell build or go for more "physical" means. I haven't read the comments of your previous version of the deck, so I wasn't aware that many people specifically asked for it, so I guess this kind of build must be popular (even though I don't like it -personal preference, again).

I also seemed to have misunderstood how you deal with your weakness. On second and more careful readthrough, I got my answers indeed. Specifically I missed the part where you said that you can split the effect to make more space and put some horror on your assets. That seems like a clever way to deal with it.

Finally, I want to apologize if my previous comment seemed disregarding to you. That was not the intend.

Hey :) Thanks so much for the reference (even more so, since my synthesis was essentially robbing all your good ideas ;)

I see you also liked the Delay / Blade trick Cuherdir mentioned. I did not try it yet, but it might become a staple.

Obviously, we made some (minor) different personal choices, but I can add for anyone reading that they should go for the advanced versions of Wither and Sixth Sense ASAP. Those cards are nuts. In mid game they mean you hit and investigate at 8 to 10 without spending a card, nor a charge, and all special tokens grant tangible bonuses. Nuts, I tell you all.

Also, I would be interested to hear from your experience on ritual candles, since I was never sold on that card. You think it is better than, for example, buying into the Tarot ?

@StartWithTheName could you explain "If you dont draw it, you dont play it. If you do draw it, play the card, adjust your and get a +1 before you check skill. Its like having a baby Lucky!*" in the More Tips section please? I thought you had to device to use cards before the token draw? You're can you play them after you've drawn but before checking for success - there's no player window?

*decide, not device (typing in a phone - didn't notice the typo)

Cheers @matt88, @Yann and @Deadlykipper.

@matt88 - Dont worry at all. its always hard to gage tone in a comment thread. I genuinely couldn't tell if you were parodying the other decks comment thread or not! I also need to get back into the habit of being concise in comments! I really liked your hunting rifle yorick by the way. it wasnt out at the time but Eucatastrophe would make that rifle almost never miss those s zero your skill then change to a +2 without a jam :). love the 666 rating too. grab a screen shot before it grows!

Speaking of lack of concision! here is another absurdly long reply to everyone ... SORRY!

Cheers @Yann. Yeah these things are always basically a variant on an idea. Ive had mixed experiences with Wither, its phenominally accurate and great for small stuff especially with Olive McBride. Ive had problems with it on bigger things, but it depends very much on whether you are tryign to be a damage dealer or just hold your own. For a while I used Sign Magick and paired it with big Shrivelling so i could save charges (without losing Sixth Sense), then I gave up in favour of Ritual Candles. Not because they are amazing, but it was just that keeping both down didnt seem that important when you could just over write the spell with one with a fresh set of charges. This ofc doesnt hold up if you need to fight a lot. So i have a feeling playstyle and wider party composition plays a big part in the decsion - Which is good really. theres more game there if the decision isnt solvable with one perfect solution :)

As for Ritual Candles overall, I like them on Hard, i find them moderate on Standard. Ofc upgrading them to a passive +1 is better on checks almost all the time. There are a couple of exceptions like picking 2 tokens with Olive McBride or if a token causes you to draw another, The big deal about candles is that (Olive schenanagans aside) it sort of only matters if at least 1 of the token is exactly 1 modifier point outside of what you usually target (which on hard for me is usually 3 above test). This meant that when it first came out, i got super excited on first inspection, and even home printed extra copies so i could have more decks built up at once. I then got really disappointing when i realised how infrequently it mattered that it triggered. That all said, with the advent of Olive McBride, and with so many of the TCU tokens having a -4 modifier, this has brought the card back into its own for me at least in token fishing builds. But your mileage may vary on other campaigns perhaps. The value of it is really in the low cost and the use of a slot that is not as competed as options for a purist +1 slot. its a cheap half way house basically. but if you wanted to upgrade one or two them to Four of Cups, in this version of the deck the Tarot slot isnt used (i seemingly just forgot there was even the option when testing, i didnt even realise it was unused until i did the write up!). There is also a degree of satisfaction of making the deck match the picture on Dianas card. The other thing to note is that Ritual Candles enables you to always be able to trigger Eldritch Inspiration, just cancel the Candles . You'll get a +1 to you before the test ends anyway but its perminant, and you'll get your card and penny. Once candles are in play, you can also use Eldritch Inspiration as a one shot retrospective boost to a test after seeing the token, which is nice to have available on tap once you have Twilight Blade down.

hi again @Deadlykipper. Yeah sorry that paragraph isnt very clear at all. sorry about that. When i find time to go back and edit this i`ll sort it out. its just been a really busy week. Essentially it has to do with how you work out your odds on passing a test. If you want to know your probability of passing a test, you can count the number of tokens that will pass and divide it by how many are in the bag. If one of the tokens makes you draw more tokens it makes this really hard. but lets ignore that for now. If you are say using Shrivelling and happen to have "I've had worse…" in hand, then if you draw a token you have the choice to play "I've had worse…" which will give you +1 in the middle of the test (before you check to see if you have passed). This means that it can be used to push you into pass range. So, the fact that you have "I've had worse…" in hand, means that you can act (in this case) like the tokens had a modifier that was 1 point more favorable, the same way you can if you have Ritual Candles in play. Or a bit like you can keep Lucky! back in hand and take riskier tests to save spending pips. The cancel cards are acting like a mini lucky or like a one shot Ritual Candles. If you happen to draw say the "0" and pass, you keep the card back. If you draw the bad token you play the card. Does that make more sense?

Dear all Sorry again for length!

@StartWithTheName Hey, thanks for liking that deck!! It means a lot to me, that a high-tier player like you likes it! Eucatastrophe would make that deck a beast, for sure! If I played it now though, I may have made other changes too, given the experience I've gotten since then. Also, can you explain what do you mean by the term "666 rating"??

@matt88- look very very quickly at your arkhamdb rating - its perfect! (next to your name) you get it by posting things. I think all it does is let you make more decks, though i do secretly hold out hope i can exchange it for a big teddy bear one day or a goldfish in a bag.... I may have quite small life goals...

Dammit it changed.

@StartWithTheName Don't worry, I saw it! :) It was pretty extraordinary indeed!

@StartWithTheNamethanks for the explanation. I discussed it with a friend and we think we understand now. Do you mean: You cancel the token effect before checking success, in the timings chart. So, by cancelling the token, you immediately place it under the ID and this boosts your head for the success check, if needed? Sorry for my ignorance... So many nuances to this game :D

yes thats correct @Deadlykipper. The point i was making with the second part of that was that because you can change your skill mid test, then when you are counting tokens that will pass, you can act as if you have a +1 that you will get from the card if you need to trigger it. So sort of just having the option to play the card lets you take risks you wouldnt have otherwise taken. This is the similarity with Lucky!, which is a card that lets you do a similar thing, take riskier choices because you have a back up plan.

The powerful exploit of Delay the Inevitable will sure as hell cause the card to be subject to errata of some sort.

@StartWithTheNamesurely playing Delay the Inevitable while engaged causes an AoO? Of you had an attack/damage cancel in your hand to prevent the AoO why not use that for the normal attack at the end of the turn? So what good is Delay the Inevitable in that instance?

Well, it's fast so no AoO.

Hi @Deadlykipper. Delay the Inevitable is fast so it doesn’t trigger AoOs. It’s not quite as good as a full Dodge as some enemies have (like spoiler) effects on attack. But it has a few extra uses. You could just as easilly sun in dodge if you prefer it.

But being usable every turn if you have the blade equipped makes it far superior to dodge to me. I still have not tested it yet but it seems realy superior (and might justify 2x prepared for the wurst on its own)

I’ll be honest. In the 10 or so games I’ve played it in I’ve only used the combo a couple of times and I had alternatives if I recall. But it was fun and nice to know you have it available, which Let’s you take more risks. So for me there is definitely value over dodge there (hence why I swapped it in). I’m also yet to have it available during a sustained boss fight like spoiler where it looks like it will shine, especially with the option to play it on comrades.

I don't think that the interaction between Delay the Inevitable, Diana's ability and Twilight Blade is that op. It's strong for sure, but not op. The main issue as to using this combo is that Twilight Blade is a a single card in a 35-card deck, so you first have to find it. This specific deck has its methods to find it quickly, but other Diana decks may not have that privilege.

Great deck and write up ! I wanted to try solo Diana, I will most likely use this one. I especially love all the small hidden combos, and how several cards I believed rather weak (candle, eldritch, Olive) seems to make sense in this deck.

Cheers @AlexSand, please take the solo tag with a little salt, Im not much of a true solo player (I play 2 handed) and although i did actually give this one a very quick test on curtain call hard (it seemed to be ok), its not been tested far into the campaign and really i lack decent experience with true solo to judge things. The solo tag was based on certain parts of TCU where you are separated.

Yeah with the "token fishing" stuff (Olive McBride/Ritual Candles/Eldritch Inspiration etc) it feels like you need to be all in or not in. Thankfully so much of it have extra value in diana as so many of the help activate s, and she boosts will so high she can simply brute force past the extra token from Olive McBride. Jim can do a similar thing at least, and although ive never got it working as well as Jim or diana, Mateo seems set up to do it a little differently with random bonus actions.

The other thing is i really like new ways of playing over stronger decks. I just want the archtype to at least function as intended even if its not strong. You can always calibrate the difficulty to match the deck strength and keep things challenging.

It has finally come to life! I ended up taking your suggestion and playing your other version that seemed like the early beta for this arkhamdb.com

I have to say that it has taken me a while to learn now pilot it (I didn't read well enough to realize you always start with Dark Insight in your hand) and only now realize the power of "wasting" spells to gain better spells! The ability for her to card filter takes me back to magic and blue decks, which are my spiritual home!

I have to say my version had Sign Magick and I hated it. SO expensive and the spells that had charges would get used fast enough that I would just hold my spell till I needed to play out the other one. Just a waste of a card. Particularly so because my random weakness ended up being so debilitating (Indebted SUCCCCKKKSSS)

I also only realized that I might have not have been resolving the negative ability on Rite of Seeking, because everything is so damn complicated on mystics! Like I am sure I remembered doing it a couple of times, but mostly prob not. I just checked the skill test value and went about my business. Same for Shrivelling, but that seems less game state breaking...oops.

With that in hindsight. As much as I love rite for other mage decks, trying out this build with ways to mitigate that downside and turn it into a potential upside seems really fun! We have a Carolyn Fern running around healing like crazy anyway, so the horror from Shrivelling is way less problematic than losing your turn via Rite of Seeking.

Anyway, excited to try a version of this one out and perhaps lean more into Sixth Sense and Drawn to the Flame, which is basically taking me a bit back to how I played Agnes Baker :D

How greedy would it be to run both Arcane Research AND Drawn to the Flame!!! I did a Path to Carcosa run and managed to rack up so much XP by the end I didn't know what to spend it on with ONLY the Flame cards, whereas The Circle Undone has kicked our ass so much that even with Research we have a fraction of the XP!

Trying out a very close list in Return to Pth of Carcosa, will be interesting to see how it evolves in the campaign but already after the first scenario it seems very good.

Ended up cutting a ritual candle and both PftW to slot in Open Gate (with the benefit of increasing the spellcount) as well as taking Inspiring Presence over Take the Initiative.

Will have to see what I think about Olive after a few scenarios, she seems much better if you run With over Rite of Seeking. I assume I want to replace her with Dayana later on that should be a really good upgrade for the deck as well.

Might i suggest swapping out 1 olive 1 candle and 1 Eldrich inspiration @ilza if youre keen to use the gates. Olive is part late game Sixth Sense manipulation and early game soak or tenuous card. Although Prepared for the Worst can be a dead draw if you find the Twilight Blade early, the times you dont it is a vital part of the core deck mechanic. The soak from the second olive is only a big deal before you get "I've had worse…", and you can only hold 1 Candles with the Twilight Blade out, so the second copy is only helping you see it early really. Eldritch Inspiration is nice late campaign with Big Shrivelling and enables complex some shenanigans that arnt obvious on your first play through, but you have alternatives.

I might certainly regret not running Prepared for the Worst as I agree that the quality of the deck increases so much with a Twilight Blade in play.

There is just something like a mental block for me running two copies of a card that when you play it have a 50/50 of just wasting the action, card and resource to play it whiffing entirely. Even the shuffle will only matter if you don't have an active initiate that will reshuffle your deck every turn.

I didn't see a comment on here about Grotesque Statue, so I wanted to pose a scenario: the "ignore" word is listed on the statue, therefore it would qualify for her reaction. Much in the vein of unlimited Delay the Inevitable, having Twilight Blade would allow you to replay the card perpetually and consistently allow you to pull two tokens per test for 4 tests at a net resource cost of 1. This combo could, potentially, negate Olive McBride and Shards of the Void combo, streamlining it to a single token instead of resolving a pair. Thoughts?

Sorry @ilza i must have missed your second comment.

Yeah im not especially happy with the odds (the 50/50) on the Prepared for the Worst in this build. In the previous build there were other weapon assets so it got a little more value. Still despite the coin flip it has other advantages. For example if you take the 50/50 chance, and the blade wasnt in the top 9 cards, then the shuffle you get means it will at least have higher odds on being in the top 9 next draw. Its also something ive mulled on and play tested a fair bit and I eventually settled on the fact that the blade was too important to the build not to minimise the risk of no shows. I agree though its far from ideal. Maybe in time we`ll get a better tutor. They are currently releasing a load of search stuff for Mandy after all.

Hi @Vafruvant,

Grotesque Statue certainly is an option for the deck archtype as it likes token fisher cards. Ive never actually used it in her so im not sure how well it will perform, but i dont see it being bad. I guess it would fit over the Candles slot if you then use say Dayana Esperence over Olive McBride (olive loses some value without a candle down on hard mode tho shes fine without them on standard).

Sadly you can recur Grotesque Statue with Twilight Blade as it only lets you replay/commit events or skill cards (basically they thought of that), but you can bring it back to hand with your , which means you can use Seal of the Elder Sign for a single reuse. One other thing to note is that if you use your ability on the statues, you cant spend the last charge as it leaves play before you resolve the "ignore" (I dont actually understand the timing on this but i was told as much by a rules guru on the mythos busters discord and hes rarely wrong). Basically you have to it on the 3rd charge you use to get the most value out of it so there may be a decision to be made as to whether you think you have your Seal of the Elder Sign coming up soon.

@StartWithTheNameWhoops, missed that part of Twilight Blade, heh. Looking at test timing, looks like the guru was correct. The statue trigger comes before ST.3 in the timing list and resolves the ignore after ST.3. I didn't even think about that, that's a good call. Still three uses, like you mentioned, and might trigger a on said pull, which is actually a strange timing combo, too.

Let's say you are making a test and have only triggered the statue twice. You decide you want to trigger a third time and you pull a on the statue pull. The ignore step is in ST.3 and the resolve is in ST.4. If my understanding of Skill Test Timing (after looking into it post-commenting) you should be able to trigger her after noticing the . This would allow you to put the statue underneath her in ST.3 and pull it back after ST.4, if desired.

This timing methodology opens up (not on this build, as it's caster-focused, but for Diana in general) refreshing .45 Automatic as it ignores retaliate. Unlike the statue, the gun isn't burned when out of ammo, so as long as your last shot is against an enemy with Retaliate, the gun will trigger her and be subject to retrieval from . This would also work for "Eat lead!"(or upgrade) and Marksmanship (with a firearm or ranged weapon), and those could be pulled back with Twilight Blade (though not like Delay the Inevitable.)

This is why I love Diana!

How necessary are the pair of Arcane initiate? I am running this solo through Return to Carcosa and so far I have not find them very useful. Are they in there to fish out Six Sense / Shriv?

She can fish out any card that is a spell! She is essentially an extra draw step each turn, which is a crazy good card advantage! They can fish out anything you need, which is why they are powerful!

+1. They are absolutely mandatory !

Hi @microforever - Always nice to hear ppl trying the deck out! Hope its going well.

Arcane Initiate should have a huge number of targets in the deck. As @BeCurieUs points out, she can fetch any card with a spell trait (including events or skills) which means she has the following targets:

• 2x Shrivelling
• 2x Sixth Sense
• 2x worth of Wither/Mists of R'lyeh/Rite of Seeking or whatever you took in those flex slots.
• 2x Storm of Spirits
• 2x Deny Existence
• 2x Ward of Protection
• 1x Eldritch Inspiration

= 13 / 35 cards at the start of the campaign (or about 1/3rd of the deck), and most of which are early upgrade targets with the Arcane Research xp. Depending how you spend your xp this can rise to 17/35, or about 1/2 the deck via:

• 2x Counterspell, and
• 2x Seal of the Elder Sign

So in principal Arcane Initiate should be a free draw almost every turn until shes thinned most of the spells out of the deck - at which point you may well be wanting her out of play to get the doom off the table. Notice that quite a few of those are cards, or Seal of the Elder Sign which is similarly important for controlling space under her ID (and getting you a card back). So an early initiate can be a real kickstart to the draw engine. I would be very reluctant to run the deck without them.

I didn't think about other spells beside the Assets, thanks for all the reply. @StartWithTheNamethe deck is good but solo can be really tough early game. She survived solo Return to the Unspeakable Oath which is pretty impressive. Also I always overlook Mists and didn't realize it provide a free move!

I've now taken the deck with a few minor changes through most of Return to Path to Carcosa as well as Guardians of the Abyss and it's very fun to play! Unfortunately my group vetoedhard-mode in favor of standard, but with our only other return to experience being RtNotZ I can understand that they where wary of the difficulty setting.

While you can have some ramp-up in the first couple of scenarios the card draw makes it feel easier to setup than for other mystics. With all the cancels you alliaviate a lot of pressure from the encounter deck for the entire group, and the deck is a beast late-campaign with very efficient Arcane Research spending and the ability to sink close to unlimited amount of XP to good use.

I liked running Open Gate in it as it gave an additional three spellslots for the Initiate, and found that I often had an excess numbers of cards in hand so the fast action to play the gates where very useful. That said, if you don't get a gate very early you might not be able to use them at all and the gates are at their best when replaying scenarios.

Seal of the Elder Sign has been an amazing upgrade for me (with your statline it's pretty much auto-success for a difficulty 5 test of any stat which really helps with weird parley and location tests) and if you prioritize them somewhat early I'm not sure you need to run Prepared for the Worst as they alleviate pressure on your ability as well.

I' not sure about the second copy of Storm of Spirits, even 50 XP into the campaign I've not been able to prioritize more than one upgraded copy and it's easily among my worst cards in the current deck. As I went with Rite of Seeking over Wither and Mists of R'lyeh the second copy should probably have been a Wither instead.

I count 37 cards, not 35...

@CastorJoNotice Arcane Research is a permanent which doesn't count towards deck size. It's a great card for high XP builds that use a lot of spells. This deck in particular is spell heavy, maybe more than any other Mystic deck out there cause it's purpose is to churn and burn spells like a storm deck from Magic.

If you haven't used it before, it is amazing since a lot of spell upgrades cost around 2 pips. This means that upgrade would be free! An free or discounted upgrade every scenario really adds up, 14ish extra XP to throw around if you upgrade correctly. The trauma can really hurt if you don't prep for it. But if you know the campaign, trust your ability to wield your deck and perhaps can lean on your allies to toss a bit of healing or their own bodies in the way everything might work out well for you

@StartWithTheName This deck is the single most powerful deck I saw so far on ArkhamDB in my opinion, it absolutely shreds anything a scenario would throw at her. I am not using it exactly like you do but slightly different and run it through TCU with Wendy and it's really amazing how resilient this deck is.

What I would like to know is what you are thinking about the new cards provided by Dream Eaters. I wonder, if any should make it into this deck. The only counter I know of so far is Read the Signs and it would go for Drawn to the Flame I guess but I don't think it is worth it, since the counter on that card is way to situational. Also Stargazing seems to be really good, but it is not exactly a counter and does not rigger Diana's ability.

Anyway, the main complain I am having about this deck is this: since I first tested it - when now playing another character or another deck I feel weak and vulnerable with that :-) really awesome work.

@thakaris: I think Read the Signs has several good things going for it, as it's a way to get multiple clues and has the spell-trait. If you want to run a more clue-focused version of the deck it seems much better than running Rite of Seeking to complement Sixth Sense and Drawn to the Flame. The only real drawback is the two resources to cast it as at least I've found the deck to be functioning better if you try to keep a low resource-curve.

I don't think the deck needs more economy-cards at all (either carddraw or resources) but I do think the new guardian ally is a clear upgrade from Prepared for the Worst.

As a continuation of my post yesterday, it's worth mentioning that Read the Signs is obviously great in TCU as you can pretty reliably trigger the cancel off Haunting early on to build willpower and later on use it to grab multiple clues reliably. Treating it as a cancel with the "downside" of grabbing two clues should you succeed with the test seems very good. I also think it gets better if your looking into Dayana Esperence as a late-campaign upgrade.

Stargazing I've found to be at best mediocre even in a 3-player group simply because there is too much variance in timing and it can easily be shuffled deeper into the deck. Also, any card that's not spell-traited or a cancel have to be really good to be included as you have very few flex-slots for those cards.

Thanks @ilza and @thakaris

glad youre enjoying it @thakaris. Its great fun. I know what you mean about going back to "vulnerable" decks afterwards. Its like when you swap from Carolyn or Calvin to another ID and suddenly realise you shoudlnt be celebrating when youve managed to take horror.

Re Stargazing, I think the common comparison with Ward of Protection is missing most of the value in the card. You can of course have both in the deck should you chose and they may compliment a more general encounter protective strategy rather than being surrogates. The value in Stargazing to me is 1) it effectively skips someones mythos phase. This can be a big deal. It is not uncommon for a mythos card can cost you one of your actions to deal with. 2) Reversing that even if at random is sort of generally very handy, and it then effectively lets you convert a spare action you might have taken a penny with for a card a penny and a block. Thats decent. Interestingly the fact it kicks in at random being its "achilies heel" relative to ward may also be missleading in some decks. I would argue that early game Diana Stanley and basically all game Patrice Hathaway are happy to simply spam a ward at first opportunity, and the block is still really good even on low impact encounters. This may mean ward is a little too strong perhaps, but it doesnt then rule out Stargazing as being useful as well. That all said, I possibly wouldnt be able to find space for it in this build and the from ward makes it quite a bit better here (in my untested opinion ofc).

Re Read the Signs, I am also yet to use the card in any context, but on first impressions, its value to me relative to Drawn to the Flame is the spell trait not the location effect cancel. I hadnt thought of it with Dayana Esperence, but thats a great example. My first instict was to be tutored via Arcane Initiate, or played cheap via Uncage the Soul. Marie Lambeau ofc can also play it as a free action etc. Theres basically a load of spell trait support out there that DttF doesnt interact with. A friend of mine even recently used it with Heirloom of Hyperborea in agness (a card i dont think ive ever previously seen on the table!). There could be a dayana + spell spam/draw Agnes Baker out there to be built! My issue with it in this deck is the 2 vs 0 (resource) cost. Drawn to the Flame is really there here to fill in while you find your Sixth Senses for long term cluing, so its of most use early game (the encounter card can even give you an opportunity to play a to cancel it). Also since early game cash is much more pressured than late game cash here, paying that 2 cost early is potentially going to effect tempo more than you might like (unless as you say you can cancel some effects with it). If you planned to play it later (when the deck is usually quite rich) i would possibly be more ambivalent between the two, but at that stage of the game i really want to keep the events really cheap and ideally cash generating, to pay for the assets.

Re the leaked new card from next pack. i dont want to give details as i know some people like to stay unspoiled, but in short i completely agree with you. Ive said a few times that Prepared for the Worst is not ideal, but the blade is too important to the build. Alternatives are very much welcomed! I have a lot of ideas for fun things you can do with that card in other decks too but i`ll save those musings for another day.

Hey. Great deck ! I'm currently learning to pilot it. Just a question - I've read the below several times and cannot work it out. Can you give me an example ?

When using Olive McBride, you can pick which cancel to use after seeing the tokens. Pretty much all of the relevant cancels run off tokens. Olive McBride works off cancelling any token but you decide whether to use her or the normal cancels after seeing the draw. So, in a pinch if you happen to draw 3 high modifier non tokens, you can use your on Olive McBride herself even if you couldnt use a cancel which might be enough to clinch a pass. Think of her as a back up.

hi @Ohnomycoco. yes sorry that paragraph may have been a little over edited now i look at it.

To explain more clearly - Olive McBride can be used as a card herself. Her ability lets you draw 3 tokens, and choose 2 to resolve. However Olive "IGNORES" the other token (the token is a game effect so if you wanted you can use Dianas ability to place Olive McBride under your card boosting your before you check for test passes.

This actually has 2 cheeky uses:

1) if you look at the 2 tokens you want to keep but you are exactly 1 short of passing the test, you can off olive. This is a bit of a desperate play unless you are planning on putting a different ally in play as obviously it would be nice to keep olive around for uses later. But its an option in a pinch.

2) You can use Olive McBride to try to fish out tokens. A lot of the normal events relate to having drawn a token such as:

• Defiance
• Eldritch Inspiration
• Counterspell
• "I've had worse…" (used when using Shrivelling or Storm of Spirits for example)
• Delay the Inevitable (also possible via shriv)

This means you can be using Olive McBride to try to fire some of these cards off. This is especially important early game when you are trying to spam youre base up quickly. However even with Olive McBride you are just boosting your odds on seeing a token, admittedly quite a bit, but not guaranteeing it. So having option 1) above available to fall back on if all 3 tokens turn out to be non tokens is handy.

So for example you use Olive and Defiance on a will test to try to draw a for a since there are loads in the bag perhaps. But you drew 0, -3, & -4. You were 2 above test, so you cancel the -4, and use Dianas to put olive under your id (+1) now you are 3 above the test and you pass. If you had drawn -1, -3, & -4. You would not be forced to use your on Olive McBride. But importantly, you can decide if you want to use dianas AFTER seeing the tokens.

A lot of the cancels work reactively in a similar way (you chose to play Eldritch Inspiration AFTER seeing the token. So you can do similar things where you dont have to commit to using the card until youve worked out whether it would matter or not.

Many thanks for the information ! That really helps.

Can anyone help me with the general timing on Diana's ability ?

Say I'm taking a skill test and play [Dark Prophecy]. At what point do I draw a card and resource using the triggered ability ?

Is it :

Draw Tokens, Choose which one to resolve, Trigger at this point and draw card and resource, Resolve Test ?

Dark Prophecy

@Ohnomycoco

that sounds about right. Essentially at the time you draw a token, you can interupt that and play Dark Prophecy instead, and essentially at the moment you chose which token to keep (and which to ignore), you can use diana`s . You then get the card and penny immediately (ie mid test).

Hi @StartWithTheName- since a lot of new cards of Dream Eater are out, we definitly have something to consider. As to my last posting to this awesome deck I do see some potiential I would like to discuss.

Now a really interesting card getting the dagger out seems to be Tetsuo Mori, he seems to be superior to Prepared for the Worst in a couple of use cases. He gives you soak, he also gives you additional targets for the search, so it is less likely, that your search 'fails' altogether, if you do not find the dagger.

My new favorite guardian card: Safeguard (I wrote a review to that card, if someone is interested why this card is awesome) - Diana can than move around with someone to cancel effects. Also a new Guardian card: "Fool me once..." - this card rebounces like Delay the Inevitable just WAY cheaper in its bouncing effect. Spectral Razor and Ethereal Form are not cancels but may be used to good effect I reckon. Well anyway, I am very much interested in your opinion on these cards for Diana.

Safeguard and Tetsuo seems like obvious includes. Can see taking Fool me Once over some of the weaker cancels, but it it will likely not help with you buildup during the first few turns. Razor is very interesting over Storm of Spirits or Wither, especially if you are running Dream-Eaters where Arcane Research is a very questionable inclusion.

Looking into a list for 3-man hard TCU and will try some other inclusions for the flex-slots. The Hallowed Mirror seems to be a good fit for the deck and enables a pretty good use for Relic Hunter. Also Moonlight Ritual might work looking to include Blood Pact as a later upgrade.

Yeah, Spectral Razoris really interesting for any fighting Mystic. Regarding "Fool me once...": What I like so much about it is, when you play it with the Twilight Blade it will be attached to the cancelled encounter card and is not discarded, so when it is finally discarded later, the "You cannot trigger Diana Stanley's ability while playing or committing a card in this way." of the Twilight Blade is long gone and you can put "Fool me once..." under Diana again. Thats what I mean with "bouncing" - you have the same effect with Delay the Inevitable. Other then Delay the Inevitable though, "Fool me once..."just cost 1 resource and it does not have an upkeep cost. IMO Rabbit's Foot is really good with Diana.

I am not on board with ethereal form and spectral razor because they are not permanent. They can absolutely not take the place of wither.

Also, the arcane initiate is such a cornerstone that I believe we can not replace it by « only » tetsuo.

However, fool me once looks really good and can replace delay the inevitable and cost less.

@StartWithTheName Hi, I was looking for some info on interactions between Ritual Candles and Olive McBride, and came across this: www.reddit.com

It seems taking Olive is a negative for anyone other than Jim Culver. What are your thoughts?

@DeadlykipperI think it's written quite well in the description. Even if it might be a slightly lower average you tend to test at a very high value after your build-up (fully stacked passive and upgraded spells) that you can often eat the effect of any two tokens to either trigger Sixth Sense or avoid specific bad tokens or the auto-fail.

You don't need Ritual Candles to make it worthwhile, but they do help.

@Yann Cutting the Initiate is probably just bad, but I do think you can easily run Tetsuo over Olive in this list. As for Spectral Razor over Wither, I think that depends on what other combat spells you run.

@ilzaI was actually looking for whether pulling 2 tokens in the same test meant you got +2 from Ritual Candles. From what I've found I'd say yes. I just happened upon that Reddit post and wondered if Olive was actually worth it. Thanks for clearing it up. :)

@DeadlykipperOlive is useful in a situation, where you are having a Character with a very strong effect.The point here is, that when you are using Olive McBride you have a way greater chance of drawing that specific token than without. In case of Diana with a potential Willpower attribute of 6 and a very useful effect I would generally say, it is a good Idea to take her as an ally. Other Characters with very strong effects and also access to Olive McBride are for example Patrice Hathaway or Father Mateo, maybe even Akachi Onyele

What is the XXX section?

Hi all, sorry for the delayed reply, i saw your messages but i have been busy lately and intended to reply then somehow forgot.

Re some of the new cards, I dont want to write yet another guide for this build, but I have been playing about with some of them. Some experiences:

• Tetsuo Mori works nicely though hes quite an expensive upfront cost so hes best kept in hand and played over the initiate after 4 or 5 rounds, then kill him off asap to dig for the blade. Hopefully by then the cancels that the initiate has dug up will have provided you with enough cash.
• re "Fool me once..." I was really excited to try this in Diana, but it didn't work as I hoped. Its still a decent card in general, but arguably no more special in Diana than anyone else. The time delay between getting it down and getting your reaction was too long and often fell when space under her card was full, or the card was better just keeping out of the encounter deck indefinitely like Ancient Evils etc if the deck keeps reshuffling.
• the new 2 stat spell events work well if you drop the token fishing aspects of the deck in favour of them. This is a build I have used in a couple of standalones arkhamdb.com . The build add more burst to the old build at the expense of fewer Sixth Sense (4) triggers, but it works ok with more draw.

Re the XXX Section. This is a happy mistake. I meant to go back through the write up and write the names of the sections over the XXXs. however it amuses me to have XXX sections with this deck name so i might just leave them in :)

hey! quick rules question (I'm still learning to play the game, since I've played it 4 or 5 times) : I understand that DIana's ability can be triggered once per phase, but, as far as my knowledge goes, she only readies during the upkeep phase.

If this is the case, how can I use her once per phase?

@tinchopunkeadogenerally speaking, investigators don't exhaust in this game.

Oh! I thought that the reaction triggered abbilities icon (arrow forming a circle) also exhausted the investigator, but your comment made me realize I was wrong. (sorry, old magic the gathering player here)

thanks!

@tinchopunkeadoI had the same magic the gathering mistake. Replace tap symbol with a triggered ability instead :D

Wanted to say that having never really clicked with mystics, Diana is now after using this deck my favourite gator. I play two handed and she is just a blast. Thank you so much for putting it together and you have completely changed my mind about mystics.

Playing four player TCU with Preston, Roland and Wendy. Modified the deck slightly, and I’m finding it’s really hard to use my if-damage abilities. With high willpower, the deck isn’t doing me much damage, and tanking doesn’t make a lot of sense because fighting/evading without my spells is only an average use of my time. Very happy with my clue pick up and defensive capabilities, going through entire scenarios without taking damage is amazing.

I came across this deck as going into The Circle Undone I had not played Mystic before and had no idea where to start. I had played each of the other classes previously. As a result, I have a really strong deck, but even more importantly the notes are an excellent tutorial and insight into Mystics. Thanks for the work that has gone into it.

Powerful deck. Taught my friend using this deck and he actually thinks this game is easy.

@StartWithTheName I read in the FAQ of Amanda Sharpe, that "Generally speaking, cards placed beneath other cards (such as the card beneath Amanda Sharpe) are out of play." Doesn't that mean that if you want to use Deny the Inevitable from under Diana, you "play" it and therefor have to discard it after that?

Yes but that card has a spécial timing : the moment you play it and the moment you résolve it are different. When you play it, the card is put into play, not discarded. And after, when you resolve it is no more as a « play from under diana » effet, so you can use the « put it under » clause.

Thanks @Ripa and @Yann, that is at least my understanding.

basically its because playing Delay the Inevitable puts it into play, whether if played from hand or via the blade. it can then sit in play potentially for several turns if you can pay for it. the point at which it cancels something lets trigger your . Twilight Blades restriction only matters while you are playing the card. After which point it is now just sat in play, where most events would discard as part of this process.

You then trigger diana`s potentially several turns later if youve managed to pay to keep it in play, much much later than the "playing" of Delay the Inevitable has concluded so the restriction on Twilight Blade has ended.

I did just sign up and simply wanted to Thank you for your thorough reviews and deck lists. Thei're a blast to read!

Found this after giving Diana my first try and having enormous fun with her. Planning a Tomb Raider like Rita bow run through RtTFG next. I was curious if you would be interested in creating a deck Like that in the future. I'd be eager to read about that^^

Thanks @NoahFhtagn Always makes me happy to hear that these guides have been useful to people.

I guess I dont really make decklists to order, I tend to just write about whatever ive been playing or has captured my imagination recently. I also like to have the time to do a handfull of test runs for to get it balanced if im going to do a full guide, which has been hard this year as work has become busy (I work in medical research).

What spare project time ive had ive been putting into some limited card pool starter deck decks for new players, so even though ive never played rita and some tomb raider nonsense parody is right up my ally, shes likely quite low priority for me at me im afriad.... Too many fun things to be doing is a good problem to have at least! :)

love this deck but wanted to ask 2 questions. 1. anything in particular you woul change for campaigns other than TCU? and 2. the deck was published 2 years ago, have we gotten any interesting new cards for it since then? i took a look myself and wasn't really sure...

Hi @shikasshadow its been a while since i had a look at diana, so this will be a bit speculative. At least there seem to have been a ton of spell events since its release. You can think of these in 2 types:

• low cost cancels ideally 0 cost so you gain cash by playing them, but 1 cost will break even. These want to make up about 1/4 to 1/3rd of the deck, complimented by other draw cards just to keep the deck churning fast. There dont appear to have been many released that are this cheap. Those that have come out have cost 2+ (Hypnotic Gaze (2)/[Hand of Fate])(/card/07020) so they would eat into our cash rather than generate it. That said they are options for her if you have the spare cash. Shining Trapezohedron looks like it would get a LOT of value here as all those 1 cost cancels can become free and therefore cash generating even with low will power in the first turn or two. Later on they can be used to play our second category of spells:
• Actively doing stuff spells (i may need a better phrase for that). But we got Spectral Razor and Read the Signs not too long after this was published, and these are just solid cards in any deck let alone an event slinger with all the supports in tow. Depending on the wider teams build theres also Radiant Smite and a few of the blessed stuff, but im betting the blessed spell slinger diana is probably a new archtype that needs fleshing out as a separate exercise rather than seeing it as a variant on this.

Theres also a fair few comments above with suggestions if you have time to read over the vast wall of text. I dont, but some from memory:

• Tetsuo Mori is slower but a bit more flexible than Prepared for the Worst, and
• "Fool me once..." - I did actually try out, and it is a good card generally, but its too slow for getting your will power up hard and fast. If you take it, think of it as a doing stuff card not a low cost cancel. For the cancels its all about stacking will to 4 or 5 in a couple of turns, and fool me once more often than not is used to just keep a really bad card out of the game not cancelling anything until almost the end of the game if ever (or at least how I used it).

As she can now also run an upgraded Holy Rosary, I think I will try to build a blessed variation.

Hello Startwith the name,

could you explain this paragraph a bit further?

"MORE TRICKS You usually get the boost from your during the test you used the card. Check the timing charts, you check your skill vs test strength at Step 6, but you reveal or resolve token effects at Steps 3 & 4. Which means you use your before you check if you have passed. This works for: Dark Prophecy/Olive McBride/Counterspell (token cancel is at Step 3), Eldritch Inspiration (Spell token effects happen at step 4), and "I've had worse…"/Delay the Inevitable (on horror/damage from Shrivelling/Storm of Spirits also at Step 4)).

This means the right cancel in hand is like having a Ritual Candles down. You can act as if the appropriate token your cancel triggers off had a 1 point lower modifier. If you dont draw it, you dont play it. If you do draw it, play the card, adjust your and get a +1 before you check skill. Its like having a baby Lucky!*

When using Olive McBride, you can pick which cancel to use after seeing the tokens. Pretty much all of the relevant cancels run off tokens. Olive McBride works off cancelling any token but you decide whether to use her or the normal cancels after seeing the draw. So, in a pinch if you happen to draw 3 high modifier non tokens, you can use your on Olive McBride herself even if you couldnt use a cancel which might be enough to clinch a pass. Think of her as a back up.

Use Olive McBride to fish for Defiance tokens Its not perfect, but it helps you trigger a on Defiance more easily (you only get the if you DO ignore the token effect, ie if you drew the right one. Nulifying the modifier when you do so means you also only face 1 token picked from 2 worth of modifier if you get one."

Not a native speaker, so this could have something to do with me not understanding completely.

Thanks!

Hi @IntoxIcatIon

I will try to use clearer English. That paragraph is very complex.

Basically, most of the cancel cards take effect before you check your modified skill vs the test. And because diana`s ability therefore triggers before you check skill, you will get the boost in time for it to change the result.

This is really handy to know before a test, because you can plan around it. For example if you have Eldritch Inspiration in hand, you know that if you draw a while using Shrivelling, you will get a +1 from playing Eldritch Inspiration, so you can play the game acting as if s are 1 point higher.

It also works with a lot of other cards too that I list. They trigger after drawing the token, but before you calculate modified skill. This means you can decide whether to play the cancel or not depending on whether it would change the test from a fail to a pass. If you would pass without the cancel, you have the choice to keep the card back for later. This is similar to how people use Lucky! if that helps you understand the value.

There are then a lot of things you can do with Olive McBride because she lets you see 3 tokens and pick 2 tokens to use. Defiance is normally an unreliable card to use Diana`s on as you only cancel the token if you correctly guessed which would be drawn. With Olive however you can increase your chances of drawing the right token in order. And if you are right you get the extra resource, card, and boost for the longer term. AND because Defiance cancels the token modifier, you then are only really dealing with the other token from Olive, and you had a choice which that was.

Does that help?

Hello @StartWithTheName But you mentioned Dark prophecy as well, while on the card it states "when you would reveal a chaos token". The mechanism you are (ab)using, as far as I understand, regards cards which are used AFTER a chaos token is revealed. Doesn't work with dark prophecy, right (ie can't reveal token, play dark prophecy and up my willpower +1, changing a fail to a win), because I would have to play the card before revealing the token? Maybe that's why I'm not fully understanding... Otherwise great deck, can't wait to test it next week!!

@IntoxIcatIon

Cheers - I didnt realise you were specifically asking about Dark Prophecy. When you play Dark Prophecy, you draw 5 tokens, then "ignore" the other 4. You must pick a if possible, but it doesnt matter what you draw really if you are looking to trigger Dianas . You will always ignore 4 other tokens.

You then resolve the 1 token not ignored after this process, which itself is a step[ or two before checking modified skill so there is still time to update that skill if you have the means. Lucky fits in this space along with a lot of other cards in survivor and mystic and occasionally rogue.

In most tests, this mechanism is set up to work against the players. Token reveals can trigger other effects like horror from Shrivelling or they might Cause you harm if enemies are at your location. If these if it would defeat you, you would not complete the attack. The order of which may matter more in multiplayer especially for things like the final blow on a boss who might trigger a positive resolution

To me a lot of Daina`s gimmick seems to be taking advantage of the parts of the game that normally carry risk. This makes thematic sense but can be a bit hard to get your head around when things are the other way around to how most characters operate.

hope that helps?

But you have to use dark prophecy BEFORE revealing the token. You can't play it after the token was revealed and add it to your willpower... I thought that is what it's all about.

I thought the mechanism was to Reveal a token, then react to it with a cancel if necessary, take advantage of the order first add the cancel to your willpower, then check, if you passed.

Lucky on the other hand is always played after the token is revealed, so you don't "waste" a lucky, you only use in case you would fail. Dark prophecy isn't a reaction to a chaos token, but a preventive measure

yes thats right. Not all of these cards work retroactively like lucky, just quite a few of them. Dark Prophecy specifically does not. But all of them listed give you the boost before you check skill provided that you used that card on the test. Which means that before you take the test, you can assess your pass chances when using Dark Prophecy knowing that you will get +1 within the test itself. Thats what im trying to say. The Hedging/Lucky aspect only refers to reactive ones not proactive ones.

OK thank you. So I misinterpreted your point, maybe because of the "lucky" comparison. Could you summarize, which cards are reactive and which proactive? Maybe there are even more?

Could Diane use Lucky?

Hi @StartWithTheName, a friend is going to play guardian, a flamethrower themed deck, and prepared for the worst is essential for his deck. Do you have any suggestions how to replace that card in the Diana deck or how to get your blade down more consistently without pftw?

@IntoxIcatIonHow about Tetsuo Mori? Costs 3 resources, but also comes with some soak and can help find Ritual Candles and Holy Rosary in addition to Twilight Blade in deck or discard pile. Of course you would want to find him before Olive McBride or upgrade into Charisma.

@IntoxIcatIon^ ...or if your friend is running Tetsuo, they could also use him to help you find your blade once they already have their flamethrower.

Cheers @beardo Completely Agree.

The other thing to bare in mind @IntoxIcatIon is how old this deck now is. There have been a lot of cards out since then and I guess I dont make these guides trying to tell ppl what specific deck lists to play. Im just hoping they explain an archtype so people can make their own once they see some fun looking interactions, or they can use them as a shell and swap things about to suite their tastes/card pool.

If Tetsuo is taken the other massive game changer over prepared for the worst when its not going on stick to the plan (diana cant have this) is Backpack (2). Digging 12 deep, hitting items not just weapons and gettung up to 3 is big. Though I find the level 0 version doesn't dig as deep as I would like you could just xp over it very early and accept that the first game you will struggle a bit.

Also i didnt miss your other comment about reactive vs proactive. Im just caught up with some work stuff atm. That said its possibly not important to give a full list as it is to say you have the idea right. If you have to make the decision about whether to play the card before you know the token, it is proactive. If it is after it is reactive. And obviously reactive is almost always better as you often get to keep the card for the next test.

I actually wrote an article for Los Archives De Arkham that explains the benefits of this (among a few other tricks):

archivosarkham.com

in case you are interested. Here I call it hedging, which is the decision theory/gambling term for a similar principal.

Piloted this in 2p with Sister Mary on the first scenario (standard) of Innsmouth last night and got trounced twice in a row. Not even close. Not sure if I just haven't groked the deck yet or if Sister Mary sucked but we've never struggled like this before. I may take her for a solo jaunt through the same to see if she does better. The second time my blade and both Sixth Sense's were in the bottom seven cards of the deck (as well as Prepare for the Worst), so the draw luck was about as bad as it could be.

This build is INSANELY GOOD, not only that, it was super fun as well. Combined with your Carolyn build. Thanks for publishing this @StartWithTheName. Looking forward to your Insmouth's characters builds.

Hi @StartWithTheName, already seen the new cards of EotE? Any suggestions which cards are good for this deck?

just adding my appreciation for this deck - I am running something similar through TCU partnered with Tommy. It's fun also using Down the Rabbit Hole to upgrade those spells even quicker!