The Anti-Cultist

For the details on how Eldritch Inspiration works, you can read under the review of the card by @The_Wall : arkhamdb.com

Ah. Thanks. Any thoughts on the deck itself?

I've heard many good things about the Ritual Candles, but I haven't tried them myself. Let me know what you think!

I think 2x Delay the Inevitable, 2x Dodge, AND 2x Hypnotic Gaze is excessive!
Dodge and Hypnotic Gaze only triggers off enemy attacks and it may take a while to have a chance to play them.

You probably need 2x Rite of Seeking and 2x Shrivelling and you may want Dark Prophecy as fodder for Diana Stanley's ability.
Currently you have 2x Eldritch Inspiration but very few cards to actually trigger with it.
Personally, I don't think Defiance is worth the effort, especially without Premonition and Dark Prophecy.

You may also want Read the Signs, Spectral Razor, and Storm of Spirits.

I put in the Delay, Dodge, and Hypnotic as fuel for Diana's ability. I didn't know about Dark Prophecy, but I'll be adding that now.

My main reason for not including 2x of Rite of Seeking and Shrivelling was the fact I have no Willpower until mid-to-late game. I didn't want to see them early and have them be useless. What would you suggest as changes?

A good place to start will be with arkhamdb.com by @StartWithTheName
I also have an old deck here - arkhamdb.com though I would probably make a few changes here and there (Enchanted Blade and Flashlight comes to mind)

You're not wrong in that Rite of Seeking and Shrivelling early game will be practically useless.

The cards you should pick is also dependent on the playgroup - is it Solo or Multiplayer? Who are your fellow investigators?

It's Multiplayer and no clue who the others will be.

In that case, you might want to diversify with a little bit of both clue gathering and enemy management.
Mystics are good at doing a bit of everything and Diana Stanley is one of the best investigators in the game (IMHO).

I'm currently in the middle of a Return to the Forgotten Age run with Diana Stanley with this deck, though I'm not ready to publish so I'm not sure if it'd be loaded properly for you.

You can try it if you like - let me know your thoughts if you do!

There are some really good tools for Diana Stanley to use before being ready to use Shrivelling and / or Rite of Seeking. Read the Signs and Spectral Razor are great for early attacks / investigation. When building a Diana, I usually won't run both Rite of Seeking and Shrivelling as, personally, I great prefer Sixth Sense instead of Rite and it works nicely with Ritual Candles.

Given your deck design, I would strongly advise Dark Prophecy as that can nearly guarantee a "face" token for Ritual Candles. Personally, I find Hypnotic Gaze to just be too expensive for what it does. I want to like that card but it just doesn't work. Take a moment and consider Daring it has good icons and always draws a card.

Lastly, take a look at Uncage the Soul over Emergency Cache. It's really comparable to Emergency Cache but also has icons.

@DocLeo, Sixth Sense vs Rite of Seeking is very much up to what you want to do - do you want consistent steady investigation or in bursts? I like both of them but find that in a duo (I played a lot of games with Diana Stanley paired with Sefina Rousseau), Rite of Seeking tends to provide a better bang for your buck. YMMV.

You are right that Sixth Sense works better with Ritual Candles than Rite of Seeking though, something I've never run as I prefer having a Flashlight around in earlier scenarios.

Seconded on Dark Prophecy and Hypnotic Gaze - with the new Hypnotic Gaze (2) from Jacqueline Fine's starter, I tried it again, but found it's still too expensive. Sigh...

@unrembI definitely agree with Sixth Sense and Rite of Seeking. Personally, I have find having both Shrivelling and Rite of Seeking pushes the costs a bit too high for my taste. For me, the Sixth Sense just edges out Rite of Seeking due to having no charges. In a heavy "clue gathering" Diana Stanley I think a good combo would be Rite of Seeking and maybe Wither. I'm not quite sold on Wither, yet though. Similarly, I have no qualm about Flashlight it's a great card because it can drive the shroud down to 0, which is fantastic! In my early decks, I used it along with Alyssa Graham and that was not a bad combo at all! But above it all, I highly recommend Read the Signs as the ability to grab 2 clues (and the occasional cancel) is really nice! Definitely pack 2 Drawn to the Flame for more clue support. Wonderful with Diana's cancel abilities.

So yes, how the role envisioned from the deck will definitely drive spell selection.

Hypnotic Gaze is such a disappointment for me, definitely one I want to like, but it seems to be just too limited and expensive for what it does.