This deck is my first foray into the shiny repackaged The Circle Undone Investigator Expansion, and it is working unexpectedly well in The Scarlet Keys Standard run I'm testing it now despite simple cards it uses!

A physical attacker Diana that can flex to get clues without charge limits with Sixth Sense (4) later, once she had gathered enough . Until then she plays like a Guardian (play weapon + Beat Cop, etc.) but with all sorts of cancels for high durability. All the cancels with balanced 7/7 made her much less prone to random accidents than some actual Guardian.

All Event cards except Emergency Cache can cancel or ignore something, and add to your tally in some way, so this should be easy to understand for beginners too.

Main weapon is Enchanted Blade ••• and Knife, not only thematic bonus with the artwork, but both grants crucial +2 for her 3 . (So she is not in dire need to find Beat Cop.) Both can run out of 2 damage hits, so I have one more Machete in the deck just in case. (It also makes a cool deck name!)

Vicious Blow + double-charged Enchanted Blade (3) is also a satisfying Diana combo dealing 4 damages at 8 using just a single expansion. Only Jim and Lola's deckbuilding could do the same.

► About "2 Packs Deck Guide"
　A series of decks made with the new distribution model in mind, requiring a Revised Core Set box + just 1 more Investigator Expansion box. ∞ character on the deck's name means the additional box it uses is The Circle Undone Investigator Expansion.
　It maximizes the chance of newcomers being able to build and learn to play the game, enjoying the story on Standard difficulty ASAP. They can then get into deck-building later if they wished to do so. See other decks in the "2 Packs Deck Guide" series here.

(View at arkham-starter.com)

"I've had worse…" (2) will get maximum amount of cancels into the deck, so aim for 4 XP minimum in the first scenario.

Since Sixth Sense (4) stays forever once found, I take a gamble of upgrading just one first, so I could get 1x Deny Existence (5) inside 19 XP for mid-campaign use. Event card has more chance of being useful for all copies than Asset, and her Twilight Blade can repeat it.

You can swap the 2x Beat Cop (2) upgrade (total to 4 XP) with the 2nd copy of Sixth Sense (4) (same 4 XP) that is planned for 32 XP point, for better consistency of getting the +2 boost and good symbol effect. But Sixth Sense has timing issue that it needs late-game-Diana with some to get going even with that +2 built-in, and drawing 2 copies of both Lv. 4 version is not useful since it never runs out. Doubling up the Lv. 2 cop earlier is overall better I think, they are more useful for all copies found and useful for any point in the scenario.

80% of Side Deck are upgrades rather than purchase. Maybe you could pretend you have Down the Rabbit Hole from Edge of the Earth expansion? That way you may use the first 4 XP for 2x Enchanted Blade (3) instead, but must take XP penalty to get 2x "I've had worse…" (2). You maybe even able to upgrade 2x Emergency Cache (2) while still under 29 XP limit...

Flashlight / Sixth Sense dynamics

Flashlight is how you can get clues at game's start using her 3 , while Sixth Sense would be bad idea with your 1 . Together with Perception you can beat 3-4 shroud on Standard. You can even use your 3 remaining resources to setup with Enchanted Blade right away on the other hand for a well-rounded start.

Therefore I think it is generally a good idea to throw away Sixth Sense you get while mulligan, no matter how many cancels you got together and you may think you can rack up quick. Diana still require something to happen before she can cancel to get . You may ended up hogging Sixth Sense for longer than you think. (Or being tempted to use Dark Insight for something too trivial just to get some .)

Flashlight is an inverted asset card that would be better at start and lose out to Sixth Sense later when you have . If you ended up getting them later when you are already setup with Sixth Sense and some , the use became just an commit to combine with Perception to get a draw.

How to use agility?

It may looks like there is no support in this deck to utilize her 3 as soon as Unexpected Courage are all removed. But her 3 is actually quite tanky against fail-by damage tests when you are holding "I've had worse…" (2) / Deny Existence on hand.

Try testing it without any commit. If you got lucky and draw 0 token, good! Draw a -1? Take the damage or put it on the cop. More than that? Fast play "I've had worse…" (2) or Deny Existence. This is Lucky!-esque defensive test taking where you can see the result first before you throw a counter card at it, rather than having to decide to cancel right away like Ward of Protection.

If it is fail-by something other than damage and horror, note that Deny Existence still covers discards, lose resources, lose actions. ("I've had worse…" (2) can't cover these.)

But for sure Diana will not be using 3 to Evade or perform scenario location tests. It has to be something about taking punishments that brings it into her specialty.

Setting up

This deck has a lot of combinations to setup in the first turn, some better than others, but I never have less than 5 + 2 damage hit ready to go in all my test run scenarios. Partly this is thanks to the humble Knife with its 1 cost, and "free" Skill cards like Steadfast, Overpower, or Vicious Blow.

First scenario while you are working with base Enchanted Blade, this weapon is very good for 3 as the charged attack grants +2 total. It's like you play 3x Knife upfront, and it is still usable when out of charge!

Emergency Cache can open up Beat Cop + Enchanted Blade / Machete 1st turn setup. This helps dealing with enemy that spawns in the next Mythos Phase when the entire team might not be that ready. Even if you don't get Emergency Cache, you can still play Beat Cop + Knife and you'll have good chance of beating 3 HP enemy.

Steadfast is a Beat Cop-alternative to have high accuracy at game's start (you are healthy enough to get from it at game's start), when you want to use resource for Flashlight and start helping with clues instead. Since you have 3 resource remaining after Flashlight, you can setup Enchanted Blade / Machete / Knife, and investigate once with the Flashlight.

Twilight Blade's Fight rarely will be more accurate than Enchanted Blade + Beat Cop setup you have and it deals only 1 damage. If you have max +5 and Holy Rosary, that'll get you 7 accuracy which can be useful to finish off 1 HP enemies on others accurately without engaging first. (Resists up to -3 token on fighting 4 .)

You'll love Vicious Blow when you get Enchanted Blade (3). You can send 4 HP enemy to nirvana in just one action at massive 8 !

Other tips

• The decision to keep 6 neutral skill cards goes with Diana's ability which grants a draw. If you draw into these skill cards you can test better and continue drawing on success.
• Remember to start the game with Dark Insight, and cancelling the treachery need to put it back into the encounter deck (so it is a postpone), unlike Ward of Protection that you can throw into the encounter discard. In exchange, you can use this one to postpone weakness coming from any player's deck if you are standing at the same location.
• Dodge gets better with more players, since you can plan to cancel attacks on others to farm your .
• When using Ward of Protection try placing horror on Holy Rosary, as you need to be healthy to use Steadfast. Holy Rosary also soaks Terrible Secret.
• When Sixth Sense (4) gets the symbol bonus, use Eldritch Inspiration to add an additional location to investigate, or cancel it to get if additional investigation won't help you. Eldritch Inspiration only have Sixth Sense as its pair, but since Sixth Sense doesn't run out pairing them is not that hard. (And there is only one Eldritch Inspiration, it should not bog down the deck that much.)
• All these cards : Dodge / Deny Existence / "I've had worse…" (2) works with enemy's attack. Diana can get more engage with the enemies than expected while she slowly work on them one by one, and cancel hits to live to the next round for more actions.
• Deny Existence "encounter card" includes effects coming from location, act, and agenda card. Not just what's coming from encounter deck. Read the rule here. Additionally, this 2nd point of Weakness rule says even though something like Amnesia or Terrible Secret are player card while they are in the deck, they magically turned into encounter card when they resolves. So you can even ignore Amnesia's discard, and ignore Terrible Secret's horror. (It says can't cancel, but you can indeed ignore.)

Note on Physical Training

Don't underestimate 1x Physical Training I left in the deck. It is a situational card that allow you to exceed your limit. The boost pair matches very nice with what this Diana wants to do. (Same boost as Steadfast, so you can even add some on top of that.)

Diana is rather front loaded when setting up, then all her Event are 0~1 cost you will have some spare resources later. She is no Jenny Barnes but her can get resources. It also allow turning "I've had worse…" (2) resources into more accuracy boost in the heat of battle that you can't use resources to play assets. So this is a good Talent to have for important fight to end the scenario. (Still not good enough for two copies.)

Can also use + for some critical Sixth Sense, or some high difficulty scenario-ending test. (Test 4 and you want to get to 8 to resist -4?)

• Aim to spend only 1 resource each attack. Therefore you need to think which +1 boost is the best bang for your buck, resulting in much better odds. ("Sweet Spot") Here are some example scenarios where +1 is attractive.
• To ensure only fails your valuable 2-charge 3 damage Enchanted Blade (3) slash. If you spend 2 charges, you have 7 without Beat Cop. Spending 1 resource will let you resist -4 token when vs. 4 .
• The -3 will get more common on the later half of campaign. You need 7 to get sweet spot (+2 advantage on Standard) vs. 4 . Knife throw or regular Enchanted Blade attack plus Beat Cop gets you 6 . So spending 1 resource can reach that 7 .
• Machete on 3 investigator is a weapon that needs Beat Cop AND Physical Training boost each hit, to go toe to toe with 2~3 enemies.
• You'll see most of the time, Beat Cop's +1 is the thing that let you spend only 1 resource to get sweet on Standard.