Teen Witch Rita (Parley Recursion Guide)

For a thematic breakdown of the deck, and a short fiction vignette depicting this character, check out the companion article here: https://strengthinnumbersarkham.wordpress.com/2025/03/07/character-concept-teen-witch-rita/

Astounding Revelation = Doppelgänger

On the Hunt = "Where's the party?"

Intro

Do you love nothing more than puppeteering enemies around the map, forcing them to do the hard work of clearing a scenario for you? Do you see a monster spawn and start rubbing your hands together at all the value you're about to generate? Have you ever felt envious that Mystics get all the cool supernatural decks? Are you a recovering Power Word addict?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, then this Rita may be for you!

Our friendly neighborhood collegiate athlete is also, it turns out, an aspiring amateur witch, with a penchant for glamours, enchantments, and illusions. With the tripartite assistance of Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropo, she can weave a net of magic and misdirection fine enough to capture anyone who wishes her harm, and turn their evil to her benefit!

But how, you ask? Well that's what the next section is for, silly! Let's go there together and find out.

The Deck

There are two aspects to the core of this deck; one that'll be familiar to anybody who has read my last (two? three? wow I like Shrine Tech a lot) several decklists, and one that'll be familiar to anybody who has played Parley Rogue. Where Teen Witch Rita makes these aspects unique is in slamming them together.

So firstly, the parley aspect. Vamp (3) is a crazy powerful card that allows you to neutralize nearby enemies OR turn them into your asset for a round. By taking the evade option first, Rita can turn the event into a 3dmg hit with her ability, or move in one direction while sending the enemy in another. Then she can hit the discover clue option for a remote investigate. Alternatively, if she moves along with the enemy she can then trigger Dirty Fighting to combo with the event's own damage output.

And whichever form (ranged clues, massive damage, rapid movement) she chooses, she can play Snitch in response to any of the tests to scoop up clues from a whole variety of nearby locations.

This would be a fantastic synergy normally, but where it gets really crazy is the addition of the Shrine Tech combo. Shrine of the Moirai is normally a stationary, three-use communal recursion engine that puts in a lot of work but has distinctly limited uses. Enter Survival Technique, which returns it to hand to be replayed, allowing you to recur insanely powerful cards all scenario with no limits except the combined level of 5.

Vamp's 3xp and Snitch's 2xp add up to level 5. Isn't that elegant?

So, we're playing Vamp and Snitch every single turn for 3 clues at range, 2+ damage, and potentially a free move. This is the core of Rita's witchcraft, her glamoured words winding into the ears of cultists and monsters alike and turning them (albeit temporarily) to her side. We pay for the frequent plays with Crafty, which also happens to cover our other main magical trick–the brand-new TDC card Doppelgänger.

Doppelgänger is an INCREDIBLY fun card that lets you leave little waypoints (in the form of illusionary doubles) behind at locations in order to help you either evade them to protect allies and slow down their hunting, or warp yourself to rooms they've just left so you can safely pass through the scenario without them ever knowing you were there. It really amplifies the feeling this deck provides that you're in perfect control of the environment at all times, flickering around turning your enemies against each other and leveraging your wits, charm, and sorcery to leave your foes in a helpless mess.

And, since all our core pieces are Tricks, Bewitching allows us to start every scenario with Vamp, Snitch, and Doppelgänger or Dirty Fighting ready to hand as soon as our first foe spawns.

The rest of the deck is simple enablers (summoning enemies to parley, boosting your defensive stats for Shrine, or combo econ), as well as your weapon of choice. I've tossed Sledgehammer in to save xp and deck space, but Baseball Bat, Chainsaw, Old Hunting Rifle, and even the upgraded hammer are all classic survivor weapons that could absolutely work here. Rita's not picky; magic is her first recourse, but when the chips are down she'll use whatever's to hand in order to stay alive and protect her friends.

Variants

I could talk for HOURS about all the cool things Rita can do, she's easily one of my favorite characters in the game. But I'll make this brief and only toss out a few highlights.

• During the process of making this deck, I had an Order Up deck requested that ALSO used the Shrine Tech combo in Rita. While putting that together, I accidentally discovered some insane Pitchfork tech–you can read more about it at the deck here but basically, using Shrine of the Moirai, Survival Technique, Pitchfork, Dirty Fighting, and "I'll take that!", Rita can make Pitchfork an actionless 4dmg primary weapon that you're constantly flickering in and out of your hand as you evade enemies. So if you want to spec into that for Teen Witch Rita, I imagine it would be just as good (and just as hilarious).

• Gift of Nodens is a fabulous new survivor card for skills-based decks, which when combined with A Glimmer of Hope and Persistence can cycle skills rapidly through your hand, discard, and deck, triggering them a ridiculous number of times. This would be great for Contemplative, the new survivor skill that acts as a Deduction for Parley tests (which also originally inspired this list, I just couldn't include it because it isn't on ArkhamDB yet).

• Most importantly of all, though, my favorite customization aspect for Teen Witch Rita is the ability to select an ultimate spell of your choice for her to cast! Vamp and Doppelgänger are obviously her signatures, but maybe your Witch Rita likes to hex the weather, or specializes in countermagic, or can even wield the power of the Old Ones directly! It's your call–pick your favorite powerful Survivor event to recur in emergencies, reskin it as witchcraft, and Rita is off to the (for once, metaphorical) races.

Conclusion

As I often say after publishing a Rita deck, this is one of the most thematic and fun builds I think I've ever designed. It may be a bit janky and ambitious, but using a four-card combo to build your own Power Word in Survivor/Rogue, with all the extra bells and whistles that Rita's ability and deckbuilding add in for fun, is pretty much the exact kind of awesome experience that keeps me coming back to Arkham day in and day out, and has for five whole years now.

I hope you all enjoyed reading about this deck as much as I enjoyed making it, and that you take our unconventional sorceress out for a spin! Unleash your enchantments upon the forces of evil! Coerce them into telling you their deepest, darkest secrets! Force them to battle each other to the death! Make them do a little jig!

With this deck, enemy cards are your oyster; feel free to crack them open in whatever way pleases you best. That's all for now. Toodles!