Rita Young in the Path to Carcosa - thematic

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Rita Young - Ornate Bow - Hard Mode - thematic 0 0 0 1.0

The Lynx · 972

Rita's deck throughout Carcosa lacked consistency even though it worked really well because the core of the deck was very strong. The starting point is still good for her but she was trying to do too many things at one time. She also reached the desperate skills sanity level which saw a big change in her deck.

At that point after each scenario she added A Test of Will and/or Stroke of Luck and then exiled them if possible allowing her to add Reckless Assault, Desperate Search or Say Your Prayers for free. This allowed her to be great at anything but led to a mess of cards that weren't useful when she needed them. Definitely something to work on next time.

I tried to keep the deck thematic for her but there wasn't as much to work with although I have a few ideas for next time. The deck is made up of 1 core - Dunwich - Carcosa and the main box expansions for Circle Undone and Forgotten Age with 3 of those mythos packs.

The core of the deck worked really, really well. Once she had upgraded to Ornate Bow she was ready for just about anything and chipped in a suprising number of clues.

Peter Sylvestre - Perfect card for Rita taking all the horror and almost making evade skill tests auto success.

Ornate Bow - She was fighting at an 8+ for 3 Damage each time and almost never missed.

Rita Young - doing a point of damage on evade tests was awesome and handled oddly numbered health amounts very well.

Belly of the Beast was perfect for her and she could get a clue at any time. Lucky! helped her pass auto pass 2 shroud investigations and every once in awhile she got lucky and pulled a 0 or +1.

Early on Baseball Bat and Fire Axe were quite effective for her but adding the Ornate Bow was a game changer for her.

Yaotl with Charisma was also very effective for her but I would probably leave it out next time. It doesn't really fit thematically and would lead to a bit of a resource crunch at the start of the game.

Track Shoes were a bit of a disappointment. She never use their ability since killing things was relatively easy. The +1 agility was nice but her agility was already so high that it was just a bonus. This is thematically a perfect card but wasn't worth the cost.

Dark Horse didn't work as well with this deck since there were 4 high cost assets that she wanted to play plus Dark Horse. If you took out Yaotl and the Track Shoes then it would have worked really well. #Lucky - "Look what I found!" - Belly of the Beast complicate things a little since they require a resource or two to play and these cards were great to grab a few clues to speed up the advancement.

Smoking Pipe was never needed with Peter Sylvestre and Yaotl in play. She could drop Yaotl and add in Cherished Keepsake if she was concerned about her sanity level and not getting Peter Sylvestre

I would probably replace Dark Horse - Smoking Pipe - Overpower - Rabbit's Foot with Waylay - Cheap Shot - Cherished Keepsake. After that upgrade to the Ornate Bow - Peter Slyvestre after the first two scenarios. And skip the Yaotl/Charisma upgrade. Just focus on the core of the deck which is to evade, fire the Ornate Bow and chip in some cheap clues.

7 comments

Nov 17, 2019 Lethal_Laitue · 338

Thanks for your deck and your insighful comments.

I'm thinking about having a Dark Horse Rita deck with more skill cards to lower costs. What do you think about having a Grisly Totem in your deck?

About your expenses problems what do you think of a Sleight of Hand / Old Hunting Rifle or Sleight of Hand / Ornate Bow combo instead?

Nov 21, 2019 The Lynx · 972

The expenses problem isn't so much a problem as finding the right balance. She had 4 or 5 cards (and duplicates) that cost 3+ resources. This created an early game crunch. Removing Yaotl (and Dark Horse) from the equation even though he worked really well should improve the pace of spending them. Rita became dominant once Peter and the Bow were in play. Almost untouchable due to the 6+ evasion and 8+ combat.

I am not a big fan of Dark Horse with Rita because she has many situational events that cost 1-2 resources that intentionally keeping her poor wouldn't synergize with. She actually ends up picking up quite a few clues with Lucky! Live and Learn and Look What I Found since they allow her to investigate when the odds aren't in her favor and pull a favorable token and then investigate again and use Lucky! and Look What I Found. Belly of the Beast was also amazing for clues.

Grisly Totem seems okay but this should be an event heavy deck since Rita doesn't really need skill card help to evade or fight once she has the bow in play. All it would do is boost her evade and combat close to 10 and it is quite expensive to play.

One card that I am considering though is Backpack. She goes into unstoppable mode once the Ornate Bow is in play and this allows her to find it. It might slow her down (Backpack cost 2R) from playing it but at least she found the card.

Nov 21, 2019 Lethal_Laitue · 338

Grisly Totem seems okay but this should be an event heavy deck since Rita doesn't really need skill card help to evade or fight once she has the bow in play. All it would do is boost her evade and combat close to 10 and it is quite expensive to play.

I agree.

But it depends on the difficulty. Hard/Expert mode sometimes need a 8-10+. Skill cards could be efficient then. What level do you play? What about her will tests? It's seems you can't really rely only on a 3 stat. You count on Sylvester's mind?

She goes into unstoppable mode once the Ornate Bow is in play and this allows her to find it.

Ornate Bow has still a hudge downsize. It has only 1 ammo. How did you manage it?

Nov 22, 2019 The Lynx · 972

But even on Hard/Expert mode she can get to a 7 for evasion with Track Shoes and Peter Sylvestre and a 9 for combat with the Ornate Bow. And I still have some skill cards (and extra items) in the deck but don't think there is much need to go beyond 7 + a skill card or 9+ a skill card even on Hard mode. IMO this setup is great for Hard/Expert since you are at such high static numbers for a majority of the skill tests. You only rely on a 3 stat in Willpower.

I used Guts and #Peter's nearly infinite horror soak for the willpower encounter tests. The Teddy Bear would also be there for a horror soak.

Ornate Bow's downside is contained by Rita's near auto evasion especially since she can jump to another location if needed. She could in theory kill one enemy with the bow, evade a second and evade a third one before jumping to another location. Auto Fail of course becomes an issue but being engaged with 3 enemies at once is somewhat rare luckily.

Nov 22, 2019 Lethal_Laitue · 338

Thanks you for sharing.

Dec 05, 2019 The Lynx · 972

I have updated this deck with a new one - arkhamdb.com

I did end up using Grisly Totem for the first 3-4 scenarios but it didn't really enter play much. I was hoping that it would boost Baseball Bat enough to survive until she upgraded to Ornate Bow. But there just weren't enough skill cards in the deck to really take advantage of it.

I did add Grisly Totem to an Ornate Bow with Dr. Elli Horowitz themed Ursula Downs deck and put in a lot of skill cards since her boosted (Ornate Bow and were still only going to be in the 6 range. Both Grisly Totem and the deck overall have been working very well so far.

Dec 05, 2019 Lethal_Laitue · 338

Thank you for your last comment. We are using a Rita Young deck in our 4 players TCU campaign. I will publish the deck. Along with our disucssion we decided not to take the Grisly Totem since the deck has only 6 skill cards. I'll see how it performs.