Forbidden Rita (At the end of TFA)

The purpose of the deck is maximizing what Rita does best, and ignoring what she is weak at doing. It was played in a four player hard blind run of The Forgotten Age, along Ursula Downs, Preston Fairmont and Mark Harrigan. Ursula being a cluever and Mark a killer, Preston and Rita were the flex spots, Preston helping with clues and Rita with enemies. She has five agility, so evading comes easy to her, she is quite durable, so taking hits and letting the others do their job were her tasks. To do that she runs:

Stat Boosters 2x Peter Sylvestre 2x Track Shoes 2x Trench Coat

Having 5 in her main stat makes getting boosts not that important. But Peter is key to survive the horrors the encounter deck throws at you, and boosting agility and willpower makes him just amazing. Other characters use him like a crutch, not getting a direct benefit but improving their defense. We both improve our defense and boost our main stat. So he is an autoinclude. Track shoes is like a signature card for Rita, with some caveats. The exploring mechanic makes its reaction ability not that good, and you usually have nowhere to go with the extra movement but backwards. That is important with drawing thing, a free test is just what you want to make insane profits, but as you will be usually 1 or 2 above the test, sometimes you pass it, and it might happen that you need not passing it. So usually the best path is not making the check. Having double drawing thin makes this easier and more profitable, but it didn't happen to me except at City of Archives. Increasing agility is worth playing the card anyway, but I kind of expected more than a simple boost. Trench Coat is the worst of the boosters, as it doesn't improve agility except when evading, but it comes with some health soak, and thats good as unless you run charisma you won't get any from your allies.

Economy 2x Resourceful 2x Take Heart 2x Drawing Thin

Probably the same economy as any other survivor. Pretty strong economy at no xp cost. Resourceful is easy to trigger while evading, so unless you get autofail you should always trigger it. I haven't any special insight on take heart and drawing thin. They are amazing, but don't try or hope to trigger drawing thin every round, your actions are your most limited resource you have so don't waste them.

Fighting 2x Ornate Bow 2x Oops! 1x "I'm done runnin'!"

Having 2 hands busy with the bow takes away any other weapon we could play. Early in the decks life I had Baseball Batand Gravedigger's Shovel, but they were replaced with more useful cards. Rita also does damage evading, so not drawing the bow and drawing another weapon shouldn't improve her damage output that much, as she only has 3 strength, Fire Axe is maybe the best alternative, moreso with drawing thin, but that didn't exist when I began the campaing. The bow has a serious action efficiency problem, but it's the best answer to Hoods and it can deal with any 3 or 4 health enemy with great accuracy. Oops has a nice combo with live and learn that I never pulled off :), and it makes you more efficient with your actions, saving you from engaging and from a failed shot, even against an autofail is fighting a 3 or lower combat enemy. I'm done running is usually played for icons, but it can do a bit a damage under great need.

AntiFail insurance 2x Live and Learn 2x Lucky! 1x Will to Survive

Actions are at a premium for Rita, as you spend so much of them engaging enemies and reloading the bow, so Rita can't afford to fail. Lucky and Live and Learn makes that way easier. Will to Survive was a late upgrade, it's amazing with Ace in the Hole and nice to recur with Resourceful. It's expensive and we can't play it easily, but guaranteed success has a cost, 4 money and 3xp to be precise.

Other cards 2x Cherished Keepsake 1x Thermos 2x A Test of Will 1x Ace in the Hole 1x Fortune or Fate 1x Manual Dexterity 1x Unexpected Courage

Thermos was added just before the last scenario, as we triggered Yig's greater fury and began last game heavily handicapped, I had 5 physical and 2 mental trauma, and my companions were worse :). Cherished Keepsake wasn't needed that much, but sometimes it's good to have a cheap asset to defend against some treacheries, and sanity can be an issue if you don't get Peter.

I didn't help getting clues at all, the starting deck had Look What I Found and the shovel, but I would usually need lucky to be able to use LwiF in shroud 3 or higher and my team was good enough sweeping shroud 2 or lower. The new shovel would be a good card for this if your team needs more clues, but it's costly in actions, and we are always short of them. I evaded at least one every boss in the campaing, and some of them way more than that. I explored quite a lot, as I could take the hits of the treacherys and we had good luck at Shattered Aeons and could finish the campaing with 38 trauma before the last scenario. Thermo is good! :)

The original deck is here: https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/303626

I spent 3 xp at an interlude and 3 xp to replace Test of Will after using them.

The upgrade priority is:

Bow>Peter>Anything Else>Exile cards

Hope it can help more Rita players :).