Dangerous Diana

Introduction

This is a fighting Diana Stanley build that's being put through a 3 player normal Return to Dunwich with :

• Crazy Min
• Investigating Lola (Some of their decks are probably wrong; I'm basing those lists on what I've seen in the scenarios we've done so far.)

Her primary task is to kill things, and (Dunwich specific) save people from getting insta-gibbed by Beyond the Veil.

Thematically, Diana is a great investigator. I like to think her low willpower is due to being a Cult escapee. She has no confidence or self-esteem, believing the Cult controls everything in her life but, slowly, as she cancels/ignores things she starts to get that back. Until, of course, she remembers her Terrible Secret...

Comments on starting cards

• Weapons: I only play 6 cards that increase damage dealt. I suspect that will be okay for most of Dunwich. But I can also rely on Crazy Min to hit things with a Meat Cleaver when it's really needed.

• Enchanted Blade vs Machete: I think Enchanted Blade is just better when you only have base 3 Fist. I'd much rather have the 3 attacks with +2 Fist than forever attacks with +1 Fist. Excited to see future upgrades of Enchanted Blade, if any come.

• Eldritch Inspiration: It's quite bad with only 4 spells, and I wish it was almost anything else. I literally never cancelled anything with it and it was the first to get cut.

• Deny Existence: Obviously tailor-made for Diana Stanley, but I suspect basically anyone who can will end up playing this card; it's insane. And it's a spell, so it can be found with Arcane Initiate and upgraded with Arcane Research when the upgrade releases!

• No Dark Prophecy / Premonition + Defiance combo: A bit too expensive on card slots. Possibly in a clue oriented Diana.

• No Delve Too Deep: Turns out our Lola needed more cards, so she took these. Kind of a shame, because Diana is a natural for Delves; we often end up where two investigators resign then the last one Delves twice before resigning. With all the cancel effects, Diana would be very good at this.

• No Quantum Flux: Given that it's Dunwich, maybe it should be in the deck. But I don't think there's enough slots to run this and a decent number of cancel/ignore effects.

Playstyle

• Mulligan : Despite the fact that you're not trying to turbo-cancel things, you still need to mulligan for one or two ignore/cancel effects. I keep Deny Existence, Ward of Protection and some kind of weapon.

• Early turns: Cancel moderately annoying Mythos effects (especially if you need to draw into something like a weapon), if you can, and build assets.

• Mid-game: Chase Investigating Lola around trying to keep monsters off her.

• Late game: Be careful with what you cancel; use Twilight Blade to recur those cancels as much as you can. You don't win a prize for ending the game with 6 Head, but you might save an ally some trauma with an opportune cancel!

Upgrade paths

One weakness, of sorts, to Diana is that you need to keep playing cards that cancel things and a lot of them are 0 XP. So it gives a type of deck restriction that not many others have. I worry Diana will have a lower power cap than many other investigators because of this, but her special abilities are very good.

• Shrivelling 3: Do one of these in missions 2 and 3 for 1 XP each, thanks to Arcane Research. You sometimes need the +2 Head since you only start with 1 and might need to start givin' 'em the Shrivs early in the game.

• Uncage the Soul Ever Vigilant : I think this card is amazing at 0 cost and 1 XP. Everyone who can use this, except Lola, should. For that one action and one card, you get either 2,4, or 6 units of value, depending on how many assets you drop with it. And half of those units of value are actions, which are clearly the best units of value! Compare that to Emergency Cache 2, for example. I removed

• Eldritch Inspiration Grotesque Statue: Just get rid of Eldritch Inspiration any way you can... Counterspell is another option, I kind of picked the one that worked with Ever Vigilant instead of working with Arcane Initiate. Also, who doesn't want their investigator to eat an actual statue?

• Ward of Protection 2: Do these for free before going for Shrivelling. Especially good if someone else is thinking about taking the 0XP version.

Haven't thought too much about where to upgrade next, but the options, in no real order, are:

• Counterspell
• Beat Cop
• Fearless
• Arcane Initiate
• Seal of the Elder Sign
• .45 Automatic
• Four of Cups

Things I'll be considering removing are:

• Prepared for the Worst
• Drawn to the Flame
• "Let me handle this!"
• 1 Holy Rosary
• Storm of Spirits

Deducin' Diana

Since our Lola ended up going more clue heavy, I ended up being more punch heavy. Had the roles been swapped, the starting deck I was considering was:

• Mists of R'lyeh / Rite of Seeking instead of the combat spells.
• Enraptured instead of Prepared for the Worst
• Prophesy instead of Steadfast
• Alyssa Graham or Alice Luxley instead of Beat Cop
• St. Hubert's Key instead of Holy Rosary
• Flashlight instead of Enchanted Blade
• Something Worth Fighting For instead of "Let me handle this!"
• Possibly some insane-o skill cards because of Arcane Research + St. Hubert's Key combo.