Ghost Runner (Solo Circle Undone)

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Midnight Ghost Runner 0 0 0 1.0
Snake Queen (Forgotten Age winning deck, final list, 32xp) 19 17 5 1.0
Snake Queen (Forgotten Age winning deck, final list, 32xp) 0 0 0 1.0

Ghost Meat · 940

Rita here just successfully wrapped the opening scenarios of The Circle Undone deluxe expansion.

And yes, the deck name is a Netrunner reference (as well as a thematic commentary on the enemy composition of this cycle).

Upon first seeing Rita spoiled I instantly thought she'd be great for The Forgotten Age solo, with her bonkers base evade and half-decent fight and willpower stats. So I made this deck for that, but then opened The Circle Undone on release day and couldn't resist starting it. Turns out she's pretty good at outrunning ghosts too.

Evade You can get her to a base agility of 8 between Trench Coat, Peter Sylvestre, and Track Shoess, which in the last scenario I played, she was at base 7 pretty quickly with Trench Coat and The Big Man on Campus down, which was totally sufficient. I had a Track Shoes in-hand toward the end and didn't really feel the need to play it. Impromptu Barrier is great, especially early before you have a couple evade pieces down. Rita's ID ability is fantastic too, dropping reliable damage or providing free moves, which really helps with her tempo. Don't forget to use it, as I did for three rounds, and then had to backtrack. Unfortunately, Rita can't take Sneak Attack and Backstab like Wendy can, but between Waylay, a backup Fire Axe, and Rita's ability, defeating enemies came relatively easily.

Clues The largest challenge for Rita solo is clue gathering, so quite a few slots are dedicated to that end, and I found it to be a pretty sufficient package. Between Flashlight, "Look what I found!", Winging It, Perception, Resourceful, and Unexpected Courage, you're pretty well-covered, with Lucky! as a great backup card. Between it and Look What I Found, you can engineer some reliable situations where getting two clues is almost guaranteed (Rita got four clues with this combination in the first scenario). Winging It is a nice way to get several consecutive tries at a location's clues as well, especially when paired with skill cards, and playing it from your discard pile is excellent if there are two+ clues at your location (not always the case in solo).

Skills Guts are mainly for the encounter deck, and become more well-supported when level two Pete arrives on the scene. Perceptions, Unexpected Courage, and Resourceful help with Rita's low intelligence, especially in combination with Flashlight and Winging it. Lucky is a great target for Resourceful, so you can keep comboing it with Look What I Found, or anything else you need it for (as it's one of the most universally useful and versatile cards in the game). The basic weakness I got was the new The Tower • XVI tarot weakness, which disallows you from playing skill cards. I got it in my opening hand in the last scenario, so had to take the huge tempo hit of paying 4 to play it on my first turn, as I know how crucial skill cards are to Rita's success here.

Experience After getting 4xp on the first scenario, both copies of Pete Sylvestre were upgraded, for the extra willpower and sanity, which really helped against the encounter deck, and her low starting sanity of 5. Peter helps her get to 10 health 8 sanity for three resources, which is pretty great value, especially with his self-healing sanity ability. Ornate Bow is the next key upgrade, which gives her additional viable damage output. A Test of Will is always nice to have around, and slotting one of the new Fortune or Fate could be good too in a pinch. Ace in the Hole pairs really well with Ornate Bow if you need a large damage output turn.

Thanks for reading, and Always Be Running (except for when "I'm done runnin'!").

18 comments

Feb 03, 2019 The_Wall · 275

I'm pretty shocked that the first 3 XP wasn't automatically spent on Ornate Bow. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Did you think about further supplementing your clue gathering with Gravedigger's Shovel? I personally find it a must in the 2 survivors, especially solo for those times when you face a 5 shroud location.

Feb 03, 2019 Ghost Meat · 940

The bow will likely be my next xp spend here, yeah! Wanted to prioritize more sanity and static stat boost first. Fire Axe was totally sufficient in the opening scenarios, as a rarely had to even use it. Thinking forward to big elite enemies down the road though, the bow will be solid. Shovel is a good thought too, though I guess the bow’s double hand slot requirement makes it a bit trickier to use. :)

Feb 04, 2019 cmaka74 · 1

Did you bother with a Tarot card? They intrigue me, but I’m still not convinced they are worth the deck slots.

Feb 04, 2019 Django · 4861

I think the survivor tarot is crap and the neutral one a bad deal. But Rita cannot play any others, so i'd advise against it. Also see my reviews of the tarot cards.

Feb 04, 2019 Ghost Meat · 940

@The_Wall Funny story: I started TFA this weekend, earned 3xp on the first scenario, and spent it on Ornate Bow. Drew it in my opening hand on scenario two, played it down, lost it to Crypt Chill almost immediately, haha.

@cmaka74``@Django No, I don't think the Survivor one is worth it either. The other class-specific ones seem great though.

Feb 05, 2019 Django · 4861

I agree the other Tarots are great. Though the rogue is only useful if you have a use for .

Feb 05, 2019 Ghost Meat · 940

`@Django' Yeah, too bad Rita can't take it. Wendy could though, so that's an idea.

Feb 05, 2019 Difrakt · 1267

What’s the long-game plan for collecting clues? Peter may buffer you against treacheries and Bow may allow you to kill enemies you don’t want to evade but halfway into a campaign when clues start piling up on 4 and 5 shroud locations Survivors don’t really have the tool kit for solving these problems.

Feb 05, 2019 Ghost Meat · 940

@DifraktIt's something of an issue for sure. I have a paragraph on "Clues" in the description, which outlines the game plan for that, but I've definitely come against this as a bit of a problem a couple times in The Forgotten Age so far. The above suggestion of Gravedigger's Shovel seems like a decent solution for those high-shroud locations.

Feb 05, 2019 Django · 4861

Isn't the shovel too slow at 2 actions and no way to recover it? Though i have no idea how many lcues at shroud 4+ to expect in solo, i usually play 2 or 4 charater games.

Feb 05, 2019 Ghost Meat · 940

@DjangoYeah, that's my main reason for not including it originally here too. It's slow and kind of expensive. I've had good success with "Look what I found!" so far for the higher shroud places, and Rise to the Occasion is a card I've thought of as another possible solution here for the issue. Sometimes you just have to ignore such location's clues if you don't have the right cards in hand to deal. If you're playing this deck in a 2-4 player game that includes a Seeker or other decent clue gatherer, you could even dedicate some of the clue slots here to more fight and evade cards like Cheap Shot and Slip Away, both of which I'd like to try in her.

Feb 06, 2019 Django · 4861

Dont forget The Red-Gloved Man, A Chance Encounter an such. Will to Survive can also help if you have boosters like Perception or Plucky. though I doubt you can afford the latter on a regular basis, maybe with Madame Labranche.

Feb 07, 2019 Alziel · 13

This is am excellent deck. Just ran it true solo through Curtain Call and that usually tough scenario was a breeze. The way that Rita could just zip around the theatre leaving enemies dazed and damaged in her wake was amazing. I think she's becoming my favourite investigator. I also replaced Winging It with Eavesdrop in my deck (I'm not a big fan of the former card and the latter card felt like a good fit with Rita's ability - plus it has and icons which will always be a nice option for Rita. Thoroughly excellent.

Feb 07, 2019 Ghost Meat · 940

@Alziel Lovely to hear; thanks for sharing that! I had considered Eavesdrop originally too, but a friend talked me out of it due to there not often being more than one clue per location in solo. I guess you're still testing Rita's low intelligence with it rather than her evade, so that's another drawback, but the extra icons are nice for sure. I'll keep thinking on that! :)

Feb 13, 2019 iscariot · 1

I think survival's tarot card is ok. Not so great like the other, but it can save your butt, like mine in Carnival.

Feb 13, 2019 Django · 4861

I'd rather play Perseverance instead, it's cheaper (XP and ressources) and effectively heals more. It also has 2 symbols to commit, so the 2nd copy is not a dead card. Or Devil's Luck, if you want more soak.

Jun 27, 2021 Hitchslapped · 1

Breaking and Entering might fit well in this deck. Maybe instead of the Impromptu Barrier

Jun 28, 2021 Ghost Meat · 940

@Hitchslapped Absolutely! This list is quite old, right after TCU came out, so some nice, better options for a base Rita deck now. :)