Diana Stanley Theorycrafting

Very interesting but looks a bit expensive to not be running Emergency Cache and/or Uncage the Soul.

Also how good is Twilight Blade? Is it worth running Prepared for the Worst to grab it or a Machete?

Prepared for the Worst was actually one of the last cards cut. I was just worried that only 3 targets in a 35-card deck might be too unreliable.

As mentioned, I don't think economy is an issue. Besides the few spells/items, almost nothing costs more than 1. If you're still on the fence, the Eldritch Inspirations could be cut for Emergency Cache without too much pain.

Interesting deck. Like @Rothemd I think your cost curve might be off. I can't see having the economy for your Spells, Weapons, and card canceling events. On top of that, you have Physical Training to pump with cash. I would definitely cut some costs, likely Delay the Inevitable, and add 2 Emergency Cache.

With a bigger deck size, I also think you will have an issue with card draw. You have no acceleration in the deck, so you are at the mercy of your draws. Arcane Initiate can help with the spells, but I just don't think that's enough. I still like the basic skill cards that replace themselves. I would cut both copies of Take the Initiative and one Unexpected Courage for one each of Guts, Overpower, and Perception. Especially so, if playing multiplayer.

Nice deck, thanks for sharing!

@jkayatiOne thing to keep in mind that Diana's ability means that (basically) every cancel event also comes with bonus economy + draw. Additionally, she doesn't need to play her spells until she gets her willpower up anyway, so there won't be as much demand for early setup resources as we're used to. That being said, I haven't tested at all so you could be completely correct :) Emergency Cache for Delay the Inevitable is absolutely a reasonable swap if that's the case.

Great points about Diana Stanley to use weapons in early game and spells in mid to late.

Her deckbuilding requirements are very interesting, i guess you could also focus on her guardian aspect and use your arcane slots for utility instead, like Scrying and Seal of the Seventh Sign. For guardian you could use Machete, Blackjack 2, Ace of Swords and Beat Cop.

Consider Hypnotic Gaze gets more appealing when you're running Eldritch Inspiration in order to trigger Gaze's attack back damage twice.

One angle I'm considering is Alyssa Graham instead of Arcane Initiate. Alyssa combos really nicely with Delay the Inevitable and perhaps lets us not use Rite of Seeking.

Dark Prophecy is a card I'm not a fan of in this deck even if it's an ignore effect. I just don't know that it'll help you succeed enough and I'd rather play Premonition.

I really like where you're heading with this deck though. It's definitely given me a starting point of where I'd work towards for building my first deck of hers.

@veneretioI did notice the Hypnotic Gaze interaction, but I still think it's too expensive and niche. It's a 2-card, 3-resource combo that still relies on hitting a BS token (you can bring in Dark Prophecy but now it's 3-card, 4-resource) and just deals a bit more damage, something Diana shouldn't have trouble with anyway. I will however give it points for entertainment value!

I did consider Alyssa Graham, and she's a fine pick. I ended up going with the Initiates to keep the cost curve down, and to help draw through the larger-than-average deck, but it comes down to personal preference.

Dark Prophecy isn't here to necessarily help pass a test, but rather because it's the least-conditional "ignore" event available. Since Diana's ability is "limit once per phase", we're going to be hungry for cancel effects that can trigger outside of mythos and/or without an enemy in play to help her set up faster.

Do i get this right, if i use Eldritch Inspiration to double an effect, i cannot put it below Diana Stanley cause it did not actually ignore or cancel something?

Also take note that you can't draw more cards or gain ressource from Die-ana's ability, once 4 cards are below her. Unless you use her Twilight Blade to clear them.

@DjangoI believe you are correct about the Eldritch Inspiration. However, none of the effects in this deck are things you'd want to double anyway (and even if you're running the Hypnotic Gaze combo, you can just use the Gaze itself for Diana's ability.)

And she can actually have up to 5 cards beneath her - the ability goes off if there are "fewer than five cards" beneath her, so you do still get to place the fifth. Twilight Blade is one way to recycle, but her elder sign is another, which is why I love the idea of XP-ing into Seal of the Elder Sign later on. And of course, her signature weakness will clear some space beneath her - probably more than you want!

@GreatGopher Thanks for clarifying.

Another question, can you use her ability with assets such as Grotesque Statue, .45 Automatic and Olive McBride if their "ignore" part is triggered (which woudln't happen often with the 45)?

I don't think that's very effective for the 45, but would be a nice way to reload the statue and recover a dying olive, if the token triggered her final damage/horror.

@DjangoYes, you can move assets underneath her. Note though that Twilight Blade does specify "event or skill", so the only way to recover them would be via an elder sign pull.

Thanks again. I see there's a lot of text on diana and her blade so it's easy to miss small parts of it.

@GreatGopherRegarding moving assets back, it makes me consider Seal of the Elder Sign for Diana.

@veneretio you may be better off running recharge with elrditch inspiration if you wanted to work the adding charges angle.

My list is very similar, but runs Hypnotic due to olive/dark prophecy synergy and Eldritch inspiration.

Over all great shell. Looking forward to further refinement and seeing it evolve over the cycle.

Eldritch Inspiration and Physical Training should definitely go imo. It's cheap, but really is there a situation that you can use it that isn't just ignoring Shrivelling?

I suppose you could build a deck with a number of cards with abilities of the same type. What are the cards: Astral Travel, Ritual Candles, Hypnotic Gaze, Jewel of Aureolus, Alchemical Transmutation, Storm of Spirits, Recharge, Mists of R'lyeh, Dark Prophecy, (can you used it on Forced of Seal of the Seventh Sign?), and Rite of Seeking. So, now that I list them, there might be a cool archetype you could build from that somehow, or at least toy with at this point, the assets in particular, and a seeker build that ignores the end your turn effect in RoS. Regardless, your build should probably work around these cards if Eldritch is in there, otherwise its ability may not always be playable.

I have a build with Arcane Studies and it rarely comes into play. I don't see Physical training really working unless she leans hard on . What's important in Diana, aside from carefully and gradually building her via her ability is how much can you get on her without that. Specifically, David Renfield, who adds to Diana's funds as she cancel/ignores; Holy Rosary, which also can take horror if needed. That's 3 if worse comes to worse.

Take the Initiative is an excellent choice, and the other icons have worked for me when paired with Joe Diamond.

Dianas deck is pretty big with 38 cards, so i guess you'll run into similar consistency problems as Lola Hayes, So it'll be hard to locate specific assets like Machete. However Diana does not have access to seeker cards to remedy this with card draw. So if you're leaning more on hear guardian aspect, you should at least include 2 different weapons and Prepared for the Worst.

Or you could heavily rely on her ability. For that you should include as much cancel/ignore as possible and use them as early as possible. Use Prepared for the Worst to search for Twilight Blade, so you'll stay below her limit.

This playstyle should get you to 4-6 will in a few turns, so you could use Shrivelling or Rite of Seeking like mystics. Many counters are also spells, so Arcane Initiate is really helpful in keeping your engine running and locating asset spells.

@Django, or anyone, could you clarify something for me? Scenario: I use Dark Prophecy and pull 4 numbers and an Elder Sign. How does one resolve this? Could I, for example -based on the order of events-, choose the Elder Sign, thus "ignoring" the other 4 tokens, activating Diana's ability, and putting Dark Prophecy under her character. Now that dark prophecy is under there, we resolve the chosen token, and check for pass or failure. As a passive of Diana for drawing Elder Sign, I get to choose a card under her at the point the token is resolved (after adding DP to her) and add it back to my hand. Could I, at that point, pick DP back up?

Dark Prophecy doesn't allow you to choose the elder sign, so that doesn't work. You'd just put it below her for ignoring the other tokens.

@craynewhere does it say that?

Did you read the card? It lists all symbol tokens EXCEPT the elder sign (like most mystic cards, btw).

@crayne Dark Prophecy says that if none of the (skull, cultist, tablet, elder thing, tentacle) tokens are drawn, you then get to choose from any of the five tokens freely. Hence why @Deadlykipper's example specified "pulling four numbers and an elder sign."

@GreatGopher, does my scenario sound right to you?

@DeadlykipperI understand what you're getting at, and I agree that it's a bit of a head-scratcher. Looking at arkhamdb.com I would hesitantly say that it would actually work; Dark Prophecy is a replacement for step 1 of the framework, and hence that's when Diana's ability responds and tucks the card. Step 2 is then "resolve chaos symbol effects", and Diana's elder sign effect goes off, with Dark Prophecy available as an option.

This is a tricky situation for sure, so there is a chance I'm missing something.

@GreatGopher It actually happened to me this last Saturday. I performed it as described. But wasn't sure how legit it was. So, thanks for considering the situation, and for the response. Unless someone can explain otherwise, I'll probably stick with it.

@DeadlykipperI must apologize, it was i who misread your post. I did play Diana with Dark Prophecy and i never drew only number, but i guess it can happen (or draw only numbers and an auto fail).

@GreatGopherI guess you mean steps 3 (Reveal chaos token) and 4 (Resolve chaos symbol effect(s)) of skill test timing? Your interpretation sounds legit, so i agree. The following also supports your rules interpretation:

• arkhamdb.com
• "The word "after" refers to the moment immediately after the specified timing point or triggering condition has fully resolved."