More Like "Katniss Everdeen"

Oh, hello there! This is the first deck I've published, and while it's not an entirely original concept, I've been tweaking this deck for a while until I finally got to play it for the Circle Undone campaign. My partner (using Joe "Shine Bright Likea" Diamond and I have completed the scenarios in the deluxe box so far, and I had one other opportunity to run Rita in a standalone, and I gotta say: this is a very fun deck!

We currently completed The Secret Name, so this will gradually get updated and upgraded as we make our way through The Circle Undone under Standard difficulty. (Thanks to those in the Facebook group for teaching me about the publishing/editing on here! I'm stoked to track my progress/poor decisions!)

Explain Yourself

The moment my partner saw the list of investigators for this cycle, she was immediately drawn to Joe; she had a ton of fun playing as Ursula in TFA, but felt a bit useless when it came to enemies. And having previously played as Zoey and Roland, this felt like a natural fit for her. During the TFA cycle, I was intrigued by the Ornate Bow, and after using the Timeworn Brand in my Leo Anderson deck, plus seeing some of the reviews of the bow, I got inspired. (I'm a janky deckbuilder, so it suits me.)

Because Joe is the obvious cluever, I determined I would make this deck a bit more focused on combat. However, what I was afraid of was those moments when Joe might have to fight some things and I wasn't able to help, or if the sole objective was to accumulate clues, or if no enemies were around, I didn't want to be useless. That should explain some deckbuilding decisions like Winging It and "Look what I found!". I'll get into possible options to swap out later.

What It Do

I'm not used to evading enemies, so this whole concept of Rita and 5 is foreign to me, especially coming from having just played as Leo "Why'd It Have to Be Snakes" Anderson. I prefer to take enemies head-on, as well as pick up a clue or two. Until you can afford to play Robin Hood, the Louisville Slugger is the placeholder for combat, but Rita's 3 works pretty well with it.

Once you get the XP, it's time to grip it and rip it. As you might be aware, your turns when enemies are present tend to be: 1) Evade, 2) Shoot, 3) Knock. The ability to deal four damage (1 for Rita's evade ability + 1 from combat + 2 from the bow) takes out just about every possible enemy encountered.

Just to ensure I achieve the desired result, we have the typical fail safes in Lucky! and Unexpected Courage. And if an enemy is a bit more annoying than usual (spoiler), we've got Waylay to put them to bed. My original build had Live and Learn because that +2 sounded nice, but what I found was that the negative effects were pretty annoying to still have to deal with, on top of retrying the skill test. Plus, more often than not, I managed to achieve success in evasion or combat attempts anyway. So, shrug emoji.

But What Do You Do When There Aren't Any Enemies?

Twiddle your thumbs.

When you're done doing that, you gotta get them clues. Rita's 2 su-ucks. Unless the shroud is 0, I never feel good about investigating, especially these Haunted locations—they are really nerve-wracking in fail-to-win builds (another reason to throw out the Live and Learn). If you've got an enemy around, you're in luck—Belly of the Beast is an obvious include in a Rita deck (thanks, Kevin, for showing me the light!). We've also got the usual Lucky! and "Look what I found!", but there's also a Gravedigger's Shovel when I have the bow in hand and want to scoop an easy clue (plus a nice combat boost while I don't have the bow), and I've controversially added Winging It. Why on earth would I add that when Rita isn't likely to investigate well enough? It's mostly in preparation for the future, which I'll explain momentarily.

Upgrades (Sort of In Order of Priority, Kind of)

Core to What This Deck Aims to Do (See what I did there?)

• Baseball Bat Ornate Bow: What this deck is all about.
• Peter Sylvestre Peter Sylvestre(2): Anything to help with that horror business. Plus, receiving the +1 is tremendous for treacheries.
• Waylay Ace in the Hole: Ace is a bit expensive to upgrade to (thanks, Taboo list. ), but ideally, once you have the ability to play three extra turns, you can take care of whatever enemy is in play by enhancing the evade-shoot-knock tactic. An extra three damage can do a lot, and also Waylay is pretty expensive for a Survivor.
• Lucky! Lucky!(2): Pretty obvious to me—drawing cards is a good thing, especially once you start going the Cornered route.

SPEAKING OF...

Nice-to-haves/Once you upgrade what you need

• Flashlight/Unexpected Courage Cornered: Imagine, if you will, the dream scenario: you are about to investigate a location, so you discard something useless to increase your skill by +2, and spend one resource to play Winging It out of your discard pile to reduce the shroud by -1. Suddenly, Rita might actually be able to snag some clues! Swoon Central! You could even preempt this by discarding a Winging It for a different skill test so that it's in your discard pile! DOUBLE SWOON!
• I might possibly replace Paddington Bear or the Shovels Drawing Thin, for the card draw to supply Cornered. It also seems pretty good to pair with Take Heart, but maybe I'm wrong about that.
• I would REALLY love to include A Test of Will and/or Stroke of Luck—they look brilliant!—but I'm not sure when or where they fit. Maybe a smarter deckbuilder will know where they belong. (Perhaps AToW Guts, since I only have that in there for the encounter deck.)
• Cheap Shot seems fun, too. Not sure what it replaces, though. :(

Why on earth do you not have Trench Coat?!

My reasoning is threefold:

• The trench coat only helps during evasion attempts. So when I'm using the bow, it's meaningless.
• I'm a tremendous wuss, and when I see 5 sanity on an investigator, I panic. Hence my decision to have Teddy Ruxpin > that sweet duster. Because what if I don't see my Peter Sylvestre in time, or I can't afford to play him due to the bow's exorbitant cost?
• I'm getting enough buffs from cards like the star of track and field and Forrest Gump's Shoes, not to mention the +2 that the bow comes with for combat.

So those are my hot takes! I'm genuinely intrigued by what your thoughts are on the deck. I'm by no means an expert deckbuilder, but when my heart gets set on a concept, I want to see it through. And this deck has been surprisingly impressive as a combatant and super fun to play. I hope you enjoy it, too!

UPDATE

After completing The Secret Name, I finally got enough XP to grab Ace in the Hole. In The Wages of Sin, I drew it towards the end of the session, but had my trusty Ornate Bow in hand(s). Lemme just say: that card is CLUTCH! I had two enemies in my threat area, and with a knocked bow, I was able to evade, shoot (killing one enemy), knock, shoot, knock, and shoot (killing the other). If only Ace in the Hole wasn't Exceptional! Perfect 5/7, would Ace again.