Is Diana Stanley finally viable in hard?

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mugu · 184

(Note: after further testing, drain essence and fine clothes are replaced by x2 overpower)

... The answer is yes.

Before Hemlock Vale, Diana was clunky, hesitating between with playing spell assets and shitty events to power up her , or strong events but running out of steam. The level 0 version of Diana was truly a tragedy.

With the new economy cards (Speak to the Dead and Eldritch Tongue) though, she now has more staying power, and can actually last all scenario long, even the first scenario of the campaign.

Now she plays a bit like Patrice Hathaway, where she uses her assets to fight, and her events to investigate, or even better; pick clues automatically. I would generally recommend going for something else as a way to get clues than Drawn to the Flame, but Diana Stanley is an exception to that, since her Dark Insight can then be used the first turn of the game and she has many more uses of Ward of Protection and Deny Existence than other mystics.

You have 6 ways to pick up clues without involving a skill test in the deck (x2 Scene of the Crime, Drawn to the Flame, String of Curses), and two Read the Signs that can be used also to powerup your willpower and give her more card draw, while also being really effective.

The list includes some blesses synergies. Sacred Covenant is trully her signature asset. As long as you have blesses in the bag that you can return, you can trigger her ability (draw one, +1 r) one more time each round for free. You do need to have only four cards beneath her maximum to trigger the boon, but thanks to her nice weakness Terrible Secret, it should never become a problem.

Sadly, Guardian and Mystic have little way to put blesses in the bag that are actually good tempo wise. Tempt Fate is an obvious choice, and Purified is the only other way to get blesses through an actionless, ressourceless way, where you just commit to another investigator's action where you can be sure they can smash the test by a mile. You could consider running Hand of Fate, but even for Diana, it's a bit too expensive, and you need your ressources to get your other events and assets going.

You have a cute synergy between Favor of the Moon and Speak to the Dead where you can basically assure yourself for only one offering to get back any spell or ritual events. With Diana signature Twilight Blade, it means you can use two Ward of Protection or Deny Existence before they go to your discard, so you get ton of values out of that.

String of Curses, Motivational Speech can be used twice with Eldritch Tongue active. Motivational speech is just a generally good card that see uses in a group of 3 and 4 (or even 2 if your teamate is running ton of allies).

Enchanted Blade is just the best way Diana Stanley has to fight relatively reliably, even very early during the first scenario. For sure, she won't be your main fighter, but as a flex, she'll be able to deal with weaker ennemies on her own. Wolf Mask does give you more range, even if it's more useful for the single Survival Knife in the list (retaliation during ennemy phase at 7 skill value). Hopefully, you have Guard Dog for some extra damage sources that are at least guaranteed, for a total for 3 damage potential.

Daring is chosen as the only fighting skill since it can be used in fighting willpower skill test. Delay the Inevitable is another Diana special where you can recur it with her Twilight Blade.

Holy Rosary is naturally a good asset that you can evolve into its form Holy Rosary for more blesses. Cute but not amazing.

Your first upgrade in the list (8 xp) will be to replace your Enchanted Blade with two Brand of Cthugha. You can go through the level 1 Brand of Cthugha not to pay the xp tax from Down the Rabbit Hole.

The biggest selling point of this list is that you stack cards that are good enough on their own, so you'll never find yourself in a "oh shit" moment where you have only garbage in your hand. You still get synergies between your cards so if you get lucky with the draw, you'll become even better.

It's also a Diana list that doesn't rely on fetching her signature weapon Twilight Blade to be functionnal, even it's great to have it in hand. The only true randomness of the list is getting your bless generation late so you can't fuel your action economy with Sacred Covenant.

As a mulligan priority, I'd say going for Favor of the Moon, Enchanted Blade, or alternativally Brand of Cthugha after first scenario, and Tempt Fate. Wolf Mask and Safeguard can be kept. Anything else, you should just muligan, unless you have a direct synergy, like Eldritch Tongue + String of Curses, or Motivational Speech + Guard Dog.

For trauma initial from In the Thick of It, I'd recommand going for two health trauma, because you may suffer more unavoidable sanity hit from wards. The list includes more health soak than sanity so there's that.

Fully upgraded version: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/3711951. Over the course of 8 scenarios, you'll need exactly 39 xp (detail below).

In that order for DTRH: 8(x2 Brand of Cthugha)+ 2(x1 Survival Knife & Safeguard) + 2 (x2 Guard Dog) + 2 (x2 Ward of Protection) & 5 (x1 Holy Rosary & x1 Deny Existence) + 7 (x1 Deny Existence & x1 Delay the Inevitable => x1 Grounded) + 2 (2x Overpower)

At any point you may spend xp to replace your Purified and Read the Signs by for those upgrades 11 xp total: 1x Call the Beyond & 1x Dawn Star & x2 Lesson Learned.

7 comments

Apr 03, 2024 unremb · 251

I like your idea.
I'm toying with a similar build planning to eventually play Broken Diadem (5) - Diana Stanley has one of the strongest abilities in the game IMO.
Will probably require support on the front though.

Personally, these are the things I would change:

Apr 03, 2024 mugu · 184

@unremb

Broken Diadem is a really good card but I think it fits more Mateo who can have direct access to it than anything else (+ his great elder sign ability), however, I'd say that's definitely worth a try in Diana.

About your proposition regarding the decklist:

  • If you replace Sacred Covenant by x2 Brand of Cthugha, yes you will get one extra xp, but you'll also grief your team in the process. If you have Tempt Fate in your opening hand or your team have some bless support, Sacred Covenant will trigger in average 8 times in the first scenario, which translate to +8 resource and 8 draws. Needlessly to say this deck heavilly relies on Sacred Covenant to be effective. Also, the lvl 1 Brand of Cthugha is actually worse Enchanted Blade. You get -1 skill value for the two damage procs and also get really bad downside if you succeed by only zero. The price you pay for the replacement is too big a bargain.

  • While there're not enough allies to warrant Motivational Speech, it's a card that your teammates will love when you play it at the start of a scenario. And during the scenario, you may just commit it for a double icon to a Read the Signs skill test and fetch it later with Eldritch Tongue if you ever draw one of the two Guard Dog.

  • String of Curses is such a great card that stand on its own, even if you decide not to include Motivational Speech and Eldritch Tongue. It's also one of the few way you have to get automatic clues without involving a skill, will also being a card useful for enemy management in the lack of either the dog or your fighting asset. I really advise against cutting it for anything else.

  • If you still decide to commit with the changes, I'd say Evidence! could also be good as a cheap way to get clues, or just grabbing two Perception for a decent chance to investigate low shroud locations.

Apr 03, 2024 unremb · 251

@mugu

  • Fair point on Sacred Covenant. I don't disagree - just greedy...
    I'll also consider how difficult the opening scenario is of a campaign before making the final build decision (e.g. I wouldn't do this on a brutal opening like Circle Undone, Scarlet Keys should be alright... IIRC)
  • Committing for Read the Signs actually only gives you 1 icon as it's still a test - you only add your skill value, it doesn't turn it into a "also" skill test. Mistake I've made myself before.
  • I've yet to try String of Curses - haven't played in a while. I'm making the comment on the basis that there are limited targets for Eldritch Tongue.

I'm keen on trying Broken Diadem (5) in Diana Stanley because it allows her to replay her cancels/ignores quite effectively - leading to a Ward of Protection (2) potentially being played 8 times (assuming 3 offerings used) each draw cycle.

Apr 04, 2024 mugu · 184

@unremb

  • Oh. I didn't know about the double commit being only counted the main one for such events (e.g. lore icon only for investigation). Though I'd say it does change much of my opinion. If you don't run Motivational Speech, you'll probably need to run another economy card which will be worse, or will require xp to be better. Either way, it's a bad bargain. From what I tested with that list, the resource management is pretty tight even with a sacred covenant trigger every round. You might even need at moment to click "gain one resource" to break even.
  • String of curse is a staple in as much as deny existence is. There are actually very few investigators that doesn't run it. If it were only for that card, it'd be still very much worth it to run a single copy of Eldritch Tongue imo. That's just how good it is. There are also many enemies you can oneshot with that, including some specific monsters from Dunwhich.

I would however recommend against going for Broken Diadem with my list. You are limited to only one mask, and Wolf Mask is extremely necessary to hit decent value (7 min) in hard for Survival Knife and Brand of Cthugha if you are not powered up. Also, Speak to the Dead fills that function, and is even more effective since you can choose when you pick back your spell. It's a parley action so you don't trigger AAO. You lose one action comparatively, but you get an extra use for your spell which far makes up for it, while also sparing you the 6 xp investment.

Apr 04, 2024 unremb · 251

@mugu

Absolutely. I'm doing something very different anyway.
There are a few parallels with what you're doing here and what I plan on doing - doesn't mean you should conform to my vision or me to yours :-)

When I actually get around to building that deck!

Aug 31, 2024 An_Undecayed_Whately · 1172

I’m working on a Diana deck and wondered what you thought about Geared Up, Backpack, and eventually Cyclopean Hammer as ideas for this deck. I’m looking to keep Preston Fairmont alive long enough to get his Well Connected running.

Sep 01, 2024 mugu · 184

`@An_Undecayed_Whately Geared up is good, but I don't think it's appropriate in Diana. The 35 cards instead of 30 cards start hurts too much her consistency, and you have to flood your deck with lackluster items to truly make use of the permanent. Geared up is more oriented toward investigators with either a survivor or a seeker access. Geared up would maybe work in a 4p oriented party where you may fill a support role.