Can a Single Expansion Fixes Lola? - The Scarlet Keys Ver.

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
Lola Performs in Innsmouth 1 1 0 1.0

5argon · 7921

This might looks like Darrell Simmons and Wendy Adams combined into something worse. But don't you want to experience both at the same time? And also neither can pretend to be police like Lola, as expected from an actress.

  • Play the zero difficulty archetype to circumvent her sub-par stats. She can use difficulty reduction cards across 4 classes!
  • Carcosa came with Lantern and Stealth to reduce difficulty that we can also make use of.
  • TSK is generous in providing awesome +2 Lv. 0 assets Grim Memoir and Disguise, so she can pass some tests in scenario 1 added on top of her 3 stats.
  • Attachment Event cards like Breach the Door, Map the Area, and Makeshift Trap alleviates her role restriction. TSK came with a lot of this.
  • Main role is clue gathering, but can flex to evade and deal occasional automatic damage.

Expansions : The Path to Carcosa, The Scarlet Keys.
I create decks using no more than 3 expansions for newcomers. See more here!

(Carcosa-only Lola was rough, I kind of gave up and move to experimenting with 2 expansions Lola now...)

 Cost  Total
19 XP Deck 0 XP
   Manual Dexterity  →  Gumption 1 XP 1 XP
   Manual Dexterity  →  Gumption 1 XP 2 XP
   Makeshift Trap    ☑ Tripwire 1 XP 3 XP
   Sneak Attack    Sneak Attack •• 2 XP 5 XP
   Sneak Attack    Sneak Attack •• 2 XP 7 XP
   Flashlight    Flashlight ••• 3 XP 10 XP
   Flashlight    Flashlight ••• 3 XP 13 XP
   Lantern  →  Old Keyring ••• 3 XP 16 XP
   Lantern  →  Old Keyring ••• 3 XP 19 XP
 
Extra 19 XP
   Makeshift Trap    ☑☑☑ Net 3 XP 22 XP
   Makeshift Trap    ☑☑ Simple 2 XP 24 XP
   Unexpected Courage  →  Fickle Fortune ••• 3 XP 27 XP

(View at arkham-starter.com)

Past 19 XP are all extras, you can try the 19 XP version in standalone if you are still unsure of running full campaign with Lola.

Stylish Coat might be an option if you don't like Tool Belt. But it only combo with Dario El-Amin, I think Tool Belt has better chance of pairing up with its matches.

In the version that I test this deck it has 1x Embezzled Treasure in hope of putting 10 resources into it after I had to kill powered Dario El-Amin for emergency soaks. It did not happen. It is more than enough to burn resources with very usable Sneak Attack (2) and Breach the Door.

Seeker

Seeker has bonkers Lv. 0 cards and we won't touch these 7 cards at all.

Survivor

  • Exploit Weakness / Shed a Light / Gumption • : These are the obvious zero difficulty suite.
  • Lantern : -1 shroud is a nice number to combine with Gumption or Flashlight (3) so that you can Shed a Light on majority of locations in the game. (3 shroud) It also has test-less damage which Lola loves, and can combine with Sneak Attack (2) to finish an enemy without tests and without zero difficulty tech.
  • Cherished Keepsake : Keep low sanity safe for the Reckless Assault + Breach the Door combo.
  • Makeshift Trap : Lola loves attachment card as she can switch away from the role afterward. -1 difficulty is critical so a single Gumption / Flashlight (3) kills those 3 / enemies with Exploit Weakness.
    • ☑ Tripwire : Let Lola put down the trap ahead of time whenever she happened to pass by role without beginning the countdown yet. Save some headaches later on. If you can dispose the enemy appearing quick enough that there is no enemy at the end of round, you get to enjoy the -1 forever!
    • ☑☑☑ Net : You can put down Map the Area while fighting a surprise enemy without getting AoO, then use the map -1 combined with trap -1 to land some zero diff tech. You can continue investigation a bit with Grim Memoir / Shed a Light zero diff tech before moving away. You can play Disguise in front of enemy and use it right away to long exhaust it. Note that when you move away, you disengage and left the enemy behind since it cannot move together with you!
    • ☑☑ Simple : Saves action and perhaps more flexibility about the need to be in role to lay the trap.
  • Old Keyring ••• : Other than Shed a Light, look to combo with Breach the Door and Map the Area to quickly beat a location. Can keep it in Tool Belt if you happened to be role to play it but not want to spend the keys just yet.
  • Fickle Fortune ••• : A bit of spice for this deck. Since Revelation effect doesn't care about Lola's role, Dilemma is one of easier to play card for her and it make use of her Lv. 3 deckbuilding reach. This either massively heal the team or get you 1 more round for a small cost. Sometimes both options can go wrong, but the benefit is often better. Just make sure to always reserve your health / sanity for the 1/1 direct.

Rogue

  • Disguise : Lola loves everything with +2 on it at Lv.0.
  • Sneak Attack : Usable with Disguise but not Stealth. But in the 1st scenario you still have Manual Dexterity to help out. No test = happy Lola.
  • Sneak Attack •• : Now usable with Stealth, added after phasing out all Manual Dexterity. I'm buying 2x to make this Lola's main offense card, since she has quite a lot of of Evade difficulty reduction helpers that make the test has low risk of only at 0 difficulty. If the follow up card are also test-less like this, it makes Lola much more reliable. Flashlight (3) that follows this upgrade can be combined with Stealth for -4 difficulty. Effectively popping 2 test-less damage to most enemies. The is sometimes useful for Breach the Door if you swap to mid-test, if you don't have the Reckless Assault combo.
  • Stealth : This get you more ways to activate Exploit Weakness, or simply get a zero difficulty Evade and move away (works for non-Hunter otherwise you have to move twice). Combined with Flashlight (3) / Gumption (need swap to ) and you can reach 4 /. This card is weaker than Disguise at first but it gets better at around 13 XP in. I tried 2 copies but it was too much of a specific combo piece. I gave 2 copies to the more flexible Disguise. Leading into Sneak Attack (2) even if you are on your own. (Still the preferred play is the real fighter takes the enemy away and you can still Sneak Attack (2) to support.)
  • Dario El-Amin : This guy soaks balanced 2/2 for less than Leo De Luca so that's good start for Lola's worrisome 6/6. Pump resources for those 2 cost events. Get stat boost for your work. adds to Map the Area and defend treacheries.

Other Cards

  • Flashlight ••• : Valuable asset of zero difficulty suite especially if you are going for both zero shroud and zero combat / agility like this deck. Plus Lola can always rely on it without role restriction. Thank god such a key card is Neutral!

  • Breach the Door : One cool thing in this deck is that when you switch role to you can say you are now acting as a Police... as this is the only reason.

    Somewhat costly to play and risk not getting the reduction, but has potential to reduce more than anything else. Reckless Assault is an obvious key card to let Lola reduce -2 or more on typical locations (3/4 shroud) across all future actions (so very good with Old Keyring (3)), so you save battery on Flashlight (3).

    Lola loves attachment card, as she can switch away from and never come back again after attaching it.

    Only Reckless Assault and Unexpected Courage can help while you are in . Swapping away after the test begin but before pulling token to / role allow committing Exploit Weakness / Sneak Attack (2) for 1 / 2 . (The sequence is [ window]→[commit]→[ window]→[pull token], you can use the first window to swap role before the commit phase.) For that, you have to be in from earlier round.

    Remember that Map the Area fights with location's shroud but Breach the Door always tests with (1) while requiring more boost from you since you don't have high .

  • Reckless Assault : Other than Breach the Door helper, as she has many automatic damages in this deck (Lantern, Sneak Attack (2)), an accurate 1 damage normal punch may be just what she need to continue as a clue finder. Pad your sanity with Dario El-Amin & Cherished Keepsake.

  • Tool Belt : Only has deck space for one copy but it has some fun features.

    • Can hide Magnifying Glass for later use when you want to play with Old Keyring (3) + Flashlight (3) until they runs out. (Usually the glass comes into play first before other pieces come in due to its easy setup.)
    • Since Grim Memoir is one thing that is very good but not a Tool, it free up how you can juggle Tool in the other slot.
    • Can suddenly bring out Magnifying Glass out of Tool Belt to grant the boost while inside a test of Flashlight when hand is too busy to hold the glass.
    • An extremely rare icon she can commit whenever she wants. (Lola has such difficult life, you see.)
  • Unexpected Courage : She has difficulty committing cards in a hurry without role clash so this is a pretty good card to keep. Gumption is not an upgrade to this card for Lola.

4 comments

Jun 11, 2023 Valentin1331 · 56898

Carcosa-only Lola was rough

I feel the mental trauma. Full collection Lola is already a challenge and I tried to make difficulty 0 work on her already but could never really reach a point that felt like « this is worth playing Lola ».

Congrats on your deck and your constant efforts to provide the community with decks!!

Jun 11, 2023 5argon · 7921

@Valentin1331 Thank you! This Lola is currently arriving at the end of The Scarlet Keys Standard and I'll see her conclusion in a few days. I think it is my first Lola deck that team genuinely thank me for contribution due to persistent attachments others can repeatedly share, and many many sneak attacks...

Mar 13, 2024 eapfel · 5

I'm trying to build an effective Lola deck, and your deck has given me lots of ideas. Thanks! One question - You mentioned that Tool Belt is helping save your cards from Crisis of Identity, so I was wondering how you were using that to help? The cards are still in your play area; they just don't take up any slots and have blank text boxes.

Mar 14, 2024 5argon · 7921

@eapfel You are right, whoops. Those attachments are still valid target for crisis. I'll edit the deck comment accordingly. Thanks!