Focused cancel & deck

This is a try to maximise on Diana's high, but late, in order to be effective on hard difficulty. Many other excellent guides have already been written for her, with well justified choices. So I rather try here to propose a synthesis, with almost equivalent options within clearly defined categories. This helps to preserve personal tastes while keeping a clearer picture of the deck's orientation.

Of course, please feel free to criticize in the comments to help enhance this guide :)

Modifications

After the very relevant suggestion and reminders made in the comments, I would replace the underwhelming Dodge by Delay the Inevitable, and replace Uncage the Soul by Dark Prophecy

Deck-building logic

One of the strongest qualities of the class, is that they have cards to do anything with . However, and especially at higher difficulties, Diana's unreliable makes using those cards a real challenge.

Thus, many other excellent Diana building guides complement the swingy with oriented cards (Enchanted Blade, Timeworn Brand...). However, in my opinion, a base stat of 3 is not enough to be reliable, on hard difficulty. So, I choose to concentrate on setting up a usable 5 or 6, powering the adequate spells, and achieving that consistently. Both points being equally critical: the spells are useless without , and alone does nothing either.

To enable this, I would recommend no less than 10 « cancel » effects and the Arcane Initiate, which is really crucial to achieve consistency through drawing cards. As a side effect, to make the Arcane initiate efficient, we need 12ish spell cards (1/3 of the cards to statistically hit a spell each turn on the early game).

Also, the more you up the difficulty, the more you need skill cards, and the less you can afford assets. It seems to me that 10ish skills and 10ish assets are a good starting point. Summing this up with the 10+ cancel effects, this leaves us about 4 flex (preferably fast) event cards.

Basic plan

10 Assets

• Holy Rosary (We focus on , and I like permanent stat upgrades ; St. Hubert's Key is obviously also a good option, but for the price ?)
• Arcane Initiate (cornerstone of the deck)
• 6 spells among Shrivelling, Wither, Rite of Seeking, Sixth Sense, Mists of R'lyeh, Clarity of Mind, Azure Flame ; at least in multiplayer configuration, you should devote at least 4 spells on combat or on investigation, depending on the role you want to take. I recommend Wither + Sixth Sense + what you like (i did not test it, but Azure Flame seems a solid choice, especially on hard)

10 Skills

Auto-includes

• Guts
• Fearless
• Inspiring Presence (better than Fearless if the Arcane Initiate is out)

Lesser options (at least 4 cards)

• Unexpected Courage
• Prophesy
• Take the Initiative
• Uncage the Soul (in this deck, this is essentially a bad unexpected courage)
• Daring (untested, so i don’t know how good it is)

10 Cancel effects

Auto-includes

• Deny Existence (spell)
• Ward of Protection (spell)

Lesser options (at least 6 cards, containing at least 2 spells)

• Hypnotic Gaze (spell, gets better if you selected Eldritch Inspiration or Dark Prophecy)
• Delay the Inevitable (gets better if you selected Prepared for the wurst, see comments below)
• Eldritch Inspiration (spell, gets better if you selected Hypnotic Gaze or Storm of Spirits)
• Dark Prophecy (gets better if you selected Wither or Sixth Sense)

Up to 5 filler cards

• Drawn to the Flame
• Scene of the Crime
• Delve Too Deep (the only way to complete the whole upgrade plan, but at what price ?)
• Storm of Spirits (spell, gets better if you selected Eldritch Inspiration)
• Premonition
• Ritual Candles
• Prepared for the Worst (fetching only for the Twilight Blade to replay the cancel cards in mid-game is not excellent, but gets better when those cancel cards are upgraded ones, and also gets better with Delay the Inevitable, see comments below)

Easy mulligan strategy

1. If you don't have Arcane Initiate, mulligan all
2. If you have her but no utility spell, mulligan everything else
3. If you have her and one utility spell, mulligan everything else that is not a cancel effect

Simple upgrade plan

• Arcane Initiate is mandatory first pick in 3 or 4 players games because suffering 1 doom = loosing 3 actions
• Then, upgrade all Recherche Esotérique targets : Ward of Protection,Shrivelling, Wither, Rite of Seeking, Sixth Sense, Mists of R'lyeh, Tempête d'Esprits and Clarity of Mind, as applicable.

Notes

• The deck is in its final form right from level 0 ! You only up the number of +2 spells
• I think that all 5xp upgrades should come at the very end, if ever.
  • Since each 5xp card is no game changer, getting two 2xp cards instead is certainly better for the deck in terms of global power and consistency.
  • Ward of Protection 5 allows to cancel your monsters, which is better with 1-2 investigators, but you can no longer cancel the doom generating encounters for distant teammates, which is clearly a superior threat for 3-4 investigators : this is not a straight upgrade
  • Shrivelling 5 is not safe without enough token management (Defiance, Eldritch Inspiration, Seal of the Elder Sign, Premonition), and/or horror management ("I've had worse…", Fearless, Inspiring Presence)
• On the opposite, advanced Wither (4) and Sixth Sense (4) are nuts. Go for them without waiting for Esoteric Research to pay for it (see comments of this excellent other Diana write-up)

Upgrade possibilities for filler cards and lesser options, if you have too much XP (or really regret an initial choice ?)

• Fearless (heal + skill)
• "I've had worse…" (cancel)
• Defiance (cancel + skill ; note that this still does trigger the effects on Shrivelling, Wither etc.)
• Counterspell (spell + cancel + skill)
• Seal of the Elder Sign (spell + skill ; obviously great, but what single action justifies 5xp ?)
• Four of Cups (this can replace Bougies rituelles if you have it ; I like permanent stat upgrades, but this one is clearly a gamble)
• Police Badge (this should replace Holy Rosary to preserve accessory slots ; if ever you choose it)