Diana Stanley - Contrite Sorceress (Versatile Build)

A bit more than a year ago, I published the Contrite Sorceress. Since then a lot of great Diana decks have come out along with some fantastic cards and quite a few that are simply wonderful in a Diana deck! After some reading (especially Safer Hex), I've explored a few more approaches and a few more cards.

One thing that really caught my eye was Scrounge for Supplies. This card would absolutely be bonkers in a Diana deck. After all with Twilight Blade this means it is possible to play a given cancel up to 4 times. However, to get this card into a Diana deck would require Versatile.

A versatile idea

Versatile is an interesting beast. This permanent (well two of them) would allow 2 copies of Scrounge for Supplies but with a hefty penalty of 4 experience and 10 total cards needing to be added to the deck (Scrounge for Supplies would count as 2 needing an additional 8).

This would make deck consistency very tricky and as Diana absolutely relies on the Twilight Blade to keep the draw and resource engine rolling that would make obtaining the blade even more difficult.

Enter two other cards: Tetsuo Mori and Scroll of Prophecies. Tetsuo Mori is similar to Prepared for the Worst except with a few very important changes. He has utility as a soak, he searches a deck for an item rather than just a weapon, he can soak for other investigators, and lastly any investigator at your location can take advantage of the search. This strikes me as a great card in all ways. Admittedly, Preapred for the Worst is faster and cheaper, but after trying both I greatly prefer Tetsuo Mori because of its versatility.

Diana already has a great draw engine and once Twilight Blade is down that engine can be made even better. To assist with the deck size increase there is also Scroll of Prophecies. This is another very strong card with a draw of 3 and then discard any 1 card from hand. Plus it's 0 level along with Tetsuo Mori. With these in place, it seems like the deck size increase is not so bad.

To round out the increase it seemed prudent to add more cancel ability. Dodge is a great little cancel that I usually cut in favor of Delay the Inevitable. The add in Eldritch Inspiration or maybe Hypnotic Gaze or really any other cancel of choice and while the deck is getting large the purpose of the deck (canceling) is not mitigated as harshly as might be expected.

Take command!

Lastly, there is this gem of a card Word of Command. Personally, I am not a fan of Arcane Initiate. I can't really say why, except that I never seem to have any luck with it. However, Word of Command has been wonderful! Get the spell I need right now! Very nice.

This upgrade requires a total of 8 points. Four of these go to Versatile (2) x2 and 4 go to Word of Command (2) x2

Cards gained from Versatile (2)

• Scroll of Prophecies x2
• Dodge x2
• Eldritch Inspiration x2
• Word of Command (2) x2
• Scrounge for Supplies x2

Other hints and tricks

A few cards I want to mention that I find wonderfully fun with Diana.

Read the Signs. Oh where to begin with this card. Add the will stat to the intellect stat to investigate. Get 2 clues, it can be paid for by Uncage the Soul and occasionally it acts like a sneaky ignore if your location has some text that interacts with investigation (these are here and there not just in The Circle Undone).

Spectral Razor. Similar to Read the Signs, but for fight and can do 3 damage? I'll take 2 please!

First Watch. I take this over Ward of Protection (2). Why? Well Ward (2) is a truly excellent card. However, First Watch I find stronger as I can tune the encounter phase as needed and drop onto Diana anything that really needs to be cancelled.

Daring works with Diana's fight spells, works with basic fight, works with basic evade, works with evade spells, and draws a card regardless of the check outcome. Very nice.

Upgrades

Typically I use Arcane Research and upgrade Shriveling to 3 then 5 as fast as possible. The key as noted in Safer Hex is to get those +2 will spells going. Arcane Research is great for that.

Spirit Athame is my all time favorite upgrade. It hits any spell with a +2 bonus!

Running this versatile build, I'm slow to upgrade Deny Existence and Ward of Protection due to the strength of Scrounge for Supplies, remember it can only get 0 level cards. Of course it can get any 0 level card (note this does not include the Twilight Blade.

Also, I cannot sing enough praise for I've Had Worse (2) in any Diana build. Even blocking only 1 damage or horror is a massive gain!

A few final notes

This has been a really fun deck build for me. It pulls off strange combos: (Uncage the Soul, use blade to play Dodge against an attack of opportunity, play Read The Signs for free, capture 2 clues, capture Read the Signs by ignoring a location's text). Wow it can get crazy.

The main idea with piloting is the mulligan. You want the Twilight Blade! I mulligan hard for it, but I will keep Tetsuo Mori as he is a trade for a 9 card search (remember he can get an item not just a weapon, and not just for you). I also almost always cancel with Dark Insight on the first Mythos phase (thanks Safer Hex!) to get the card draw rolling.

In a mutliplayer group this is a secondary clue gathering and fighter. After some upgrades it can become a primary fighter as well. The Shriveling could be exchanged for Rite of seeking, but I would also change Sixth Sense to Wither and I find Wither to be a bit inferior in what it does as compared to Sixth Sense (shrug, ymmv).

If you give a go, please let me know what you think! Watch those timings and abuse the game systems!

N.B. For some serious mayhem try out Narrow Escape. It's a cancel, gives a +2 to your next action and works wonders with the Twilight Blade!