I know gun fu

Card draw simulator

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becxabillion · 493

What if there was a mystic who never used heads? What if we could build a cultist sniper? What if we could get free card draw and resources for playing already good cards? What if we could run with a totally irrelevant (or sometimes helpful) unique weakness?

I present for you consideration sniper Diana, who does all of the above, plus uses a bunch of cards you've probably never put in a deck (for good reason).

This is a multiplayer enemy management build whose purpose is to laugh in the face of the encounter deck. Starting with shooting stuff:

Diana's three guns all give +2 fists, setting her to reasonable 5 combat. We can boost this further with Grete Wagner to six, which is a pretty good place for a primary fighter to be. We can do better though: Olive McBride (sometimes) and "Eat lead!"(always) can boost our chances significantly higher when it matters. With XP, we can further boost our fighting with Ace of Swords, Grotesque Statue, Counterspell, and Reliable.

We're helped out further in this area by Marksmanship, which in addition to bonus damage lets us shoot enemies that spawn away from us.

I may be losing you at this point as some of these are generally pretty bad, so I feel the need to point out: "Eat lead!", Marksmanship, .45 Automatic, Counterspell, Grotesque Statue, and Olive McBride can all trigger Diana's ability, gaining a free draw, resource, and heads increase.

.35 Winchester is much better with Olive McBride and Grotesque Statue than normal, I swear.

Moving on to cancellation, this is Diana, so we have Deny Existence, Ward of Protection, and dark insight (remember it starts in your hand), which can neuter the encounter deck. We're not desperate for heads buffs like normal Diana either, so there's no pressure to throw them out early on something random.

Diana's signatures are amazing too. Twilight Blade is so good I've run Prepared for the Worst in a deck with no other weapons before and not regretted it. As we do have weapons in this deck Prepared for the Worst is just downright great. You get double use out of all your cancels, marksmanship, and eat lead, which is hard to overstate the usefulness of. Most of the guns are two handed though, so we do have to run bandolier to get twilight blade out with them. Terrible Secret really does very little to us - we don't need heads, so unless we're desperate to keep something for twilight blade or elder sign, discarding cards under Diana only gives us more space to use her ability.

Rounding out the deck is economy Stand Together, Safeguard, and with XP, I've had worse. Defiance is honestly mediocre but is another chance to proc your ability, and is an easy early cut once you have marksmanships as additional cancels. Read the Signs similarly is an early campaign cancel (generally fairly easy to trigger), and good even if it doesn't fit with the rest of the deck (and yes I know it's a heads test). Daring is arguably the stupidest/best inclusion. Give enemies retaliate so that you can definitely ignore it with your last .45 ammo or marksmanship.

12 comments

Oct 14, 2020 LivefromBenefitSt · 1022

This is honestly hilarious. Good work subverting the tropes! I would worry a bit about economy; you have about a third of your deck at 3+ cost , and only the situational Stand Together for economy? Maybe try to get Voice of Ra in there, or I guess you could pair Clean Them Out with Daring. If someone is running Sister Mary, you could steal all their Bless tokens with Rite of Sanctification for good profit (or is that good prophet?). Any key upgrades you are looking for?

Oct 14, 2020 Joej3 · 1

This takes thematic mystic decks and shits all over them. I hate how it triggers the cancelling ability without using anything like ward of protections.

Awesome deck. It just makes my head hurt!

Oct 14, 2020 becxabillion · 493

@LivefromBenefitStEconomy is definitely the area of the deck that causes me most concern. Stand together should be useable very easily with 3 or 4 players. There's also Diana's ability, which should be generating resources most turns. For additional resources I strongly considered emergency cache (and should probably cut hallowed mirror for it). Otherwise I've had worse should be a high priority for XP and is fantastic economy. There's also some scope to swap out expensive assets: grete for beat cop, maybe cutting a gun. I've talked a bit about XP cards in the write-up - I don't have a specific upgrade path planned out for the deck, but there's a lot of room for upgrades beyond what I've already mentioned - Stand Together, Bandolier may be necessary if you want to run Grotesque Statue, and Ward of Protection and Deny Existence are solid upgrades.

Oct 14, 2020 LivefromBenefitSt · 1022

Definitely check out Voice of Ra, since Olive McBride can make it even better, giving you a decent shot at 5 resources.

Oct 16, 2020 Django · 4854

Are you sure about Read the Signs? Outside of TCU it seems hard to trigger dianas ability. Even if you do, it still costs 1 ressource so maybe replace that with Emergency Cache or Voice of Ra?

Oct 19, 2020 slyjeff · 476

I've Had Worse (2) and then all your economy issue should be solved.

Oct 21, 2020 becxabillion · 493

@LivefromBenefitStVoice of Ra isn't a card I've tried out before but I'll definitely give it a try in here. @Django I've played with read the signs through guardians and dreameaters and usually had something worth cancelling with it. Not sure about the earlier campaigns but things triggering of investigation is a fairly common mechanic. That said it's definitely a flex slot in the deck and could absolutely be replaced with more economy. @slyjeff yeah that's definitely an early upgrade, but even with it I still think the economy is a little dicey at times.

Oct 22, 2020 Susumu · 330

I see only one card, which would trigger "Read the Signs" in Guardians: "Sandswept Ruins", and only, if you have 5+ cards in hand. The two Cairo locations (Streets & Museum) I think won't trigger, because they specify, that the effect happens after you investigate, not during?

Oct 28, 2020 brkndevil · 19

Confused, do you still get the Card Draw and the Resource even when you don't bottom a card under her?

Oct 28, 2020 Django · 4854

I think you're asking the wrong question. Putting the card below her is not optional, so you have to if you trigger her ability.

Unless another ability with similar timing replaces putting the card below her...

Oct 28, 2020 Susumu · 330

Of course it is optional! Otherwise you would need to bottom an almost full ".45 Automatic" (2) if fighting a retaliate enemy. Her ability is reaction triggered, not forced. Also, you can only trigger her ability once per phase and only, if there are less than 5 cards already under her.

I would say, her ability can't be split. If you put a card under her, you must take the resource and draw the card. And to get the draw and resource, you need to be able to put a card below her. That's how I play her. However, I'm not absolutely sure, that's the case. There is no "then" in the wording of her ablity, so it might be, tht you actually can split. But you definitely can't trigger even part of it, if you have already 5 cards below her.

Nov 28, 2020 Conalias · 1

Yep reactions are optional, not automatic triggers. I've tried this type of deck, and indeed eco is a problem. I've had worse(2) should be high on the upgrades list + some more eco. Also her 3 fight is a concern for consistency in dealing with enemies even in standard. Need more skills and I've found that a copy of Atrophy was a good addition mid-late scenario + it helps with ammo consumption.