Read the exact card wording in the card database. For current legality, use Riot's Vendetta rules and ban notes.
Read The Showdown Before You Enter It
Diana - Scorn of the Moon is a Mind/Chaos tempo legend. Mind supplies selection and efficient units; Chaos supplies bounce, movement, and effects that alter combat after units are committed. Her legend can add Energy that is usable only during showdowns, and adding that resource cannot be reacted to.
Visible runes therefore do not tell you the full combat budget. Before attacking, test your line against one extra Energy and one cheap spell. If that turns a winning fight into a lost battlefield, either force Diana to spend the resource elsewhere or choose a line that survives the swing.
The goal is not to answer every early unit. It is to stop one efficient exchange from becoming both a point and a better hand for the Diana player.
Four Cards That Change Your Decisions
- Diana - Scorn of the Moon adds showdown-only Energy. Count it before committing, not after combat begins.
- Diana - Lunari can pay to Predict when a showdown begins where she is. Pressure another battlefield or make that fight awkward so the selection is not free.
- Moonfall pulls an enemy unit into a battlefield where Diana has units, then gives enemy units there -2 Might for the turn. Keep your best defender out of the obvious pull line and avoid stacking your entire defense in one place.
- Diana - No Longer Human has Ambush and gains +2 Might for each spell played that turn. If Diana passes with units on a battlefield, open resources, and a sculpted hand, plan for a defender to appear during the fight.
These are kit cards, not a promise about exact counts in a current list. Identify which effects the board and open resources represent, then play around the ones that would actually change the score.
Play The Matchup In Four Stages
Opening: Make Diana Spend First
Put a relevant unit onto a battlefield in the first two turns. An empty board lets Diana develop, select cards, and choose the first important showdown. Early presence makes her use interaction to protect a position rather than convert an existing lead.
Do not overcommit. One credible contest plus a second threat is more useful than a single crowded lane that loses to movement or Might reduction.
First Scoring Turn: Protect The Result, Not Every Unit
Look for the battlefield where Diana has three things at once: a unit, a spell payoff, and enough resources to change combat. That is where your flexible answer belongs. Spending it on the first legal target may leave nothing for the turn that awards a point.
If Moonfall would pull away your only meaningful defender, change the positioning before Diana can make that play profitable. If an Ambush unit would ruin a lone attack, bring support or pressure a different lane.
Midgame: Force A Choice Between Lanes
Diana is strongest when every important exchange happens where her setup already sits. Open a second battlefield and make her decide whether to protect the selection engine or the scoring turn. Movement is less punishing when either destination still leaves you contesting something useful.
Keep presenting board pressure after the first exchange. A purely defensive posture gives Diana time to rebuild a hand and prepare another spell turn.
Late Game: Track The Second Wave
Answering the first push does not end the matchup. Diana can reload through selection, movement, and Ambush. Preserve one threat or answer for the following turn so the first successful defense does not hand her an uncontested finish.
Mulligan For A Functional First Fight
Keep hands that do at least two of the following:
- Play an early battlefield unit.
- Hold a cheap answer for the first pressure unit.
- Threaten a second lane by the first scoring exchange.
- Recover after one bounce, movement effect, or lost showdown.
- Punish a spell-heavy turn after Diana commits resources.
Ship hands made entirely of expensive power and one reactive spell. The best hand is not necessarily the fastest; it is the one that can contest now without becoming empty after one tempo loss.
Adjust Your Role, Not The Core Plan
Aggro and pressure: make Diana use spells defensively. Spread enough pressure that one movement effect cannot solve the whole board.
Midrange: ask the first question, keep interaction for the scoring turn, and turn the corner after Diana spends resources. Endless one-for-one trades favor her selection.
Control: play early speed bumps instead of waiting for a perfect reset. The matchup begins before your expensive answers come online.
Combo and engine: develop one piece of battlefield presence while assembling. A setup turn is useful only if Diana is not scoring freely during it.
The Losses To Eliminate
- Keeping a strong but slow hand with no early battlefield play.
- Spending interaction on an annoying unit that was not creating a point.
- Treating visible runes as Diana's full showdown budget.
- Building one lane that a single movement effect can dismantle.
- Using every answer on the first wave and leaving the next battlefield free.
- Sideboarding so many late-game cards that the opening contest disappears.
A useful practice drill is to play only the first four turns, pause before each showdown, and name the Moonfall, Ambush, and extra-Energy line that would punish your current position. Build both lists in the deck builder, compare public shells in Riftbound decks, and use Riftbound Counters to add the next matchup to the same gauntlet.