...with Lola Hayes in the role of CASSILDA ... and Whitton Greene in the role of CAMILLA...

This deck aims to do something interesting, consistent, and powerful with Lola Hayes using my limited card pool while sidestepping or alleviating her many weaknesses. It only uses cards from the Revised Core Set, The Dunwich Legacy, The Path to Carcosa, Edge of the Earth, and the Stella Clark and Harvey Walters investigator starter decks.

This deck began from the synergistic interaction between Charon's Obol, a card with more concrete benefits but higher risks for Lola than most investigators, and Whitton Greene. I want to publish this decklist because searching ArkhamDB yields only two decks, which are neither Lola decks nor deck guides, with this combination of cards.

The deck is a ton of fun to play and quickly becomes quite effective (once you've added a single Charisma), and playing it feels like you're experiencing the "payoff" that Lola's wide-open (and in practice a bit headache-inducing) deck building requirements tantalizes you with.

Note: if you're playing in Standalone mode, you can comfortably take In the Thick of It to meet the 29 XP threshold (since this version of the deck is quite resilient).

• Spotlight (Overview)

• Repertoire (Main Strategy)

• Main Cast (Allies)

• Prop Closet (Relics and Tomes)

• Fight Choreography (Enemy Management)

• Role Players (The Rest of the Cards)

• Stage Directions (Advice for Piloting)

• Character Arc (Upgrade Path)

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Why play Lola if not to mix and match powerful cards? This deck runs on synergies and tackles changing scenario circumstances through strong interactions across a set of , , and cards. It aims to quickly establish an array of assets and tricks up your sleeve that turn the action economy of the game in your team's favor:

• A Calling in Favors package helps reliably find Whitton Greene and offers miscellaneous utility and ample soak.

• Whitton Greene's bonuses are always "online" due to Charon's Obol, and she rapidly finds potent tomes and relics for Lola like Schoffner's Catalogue, Eon Chart, and The Red Clock.

• Lola defends herself and her teammates with Luparas and .18 Derringers that form the core of a Sleight of Hand package.

• Scavenging allows for the re-use of Eon Charts, Discs of Itzamna, and other valuable items.

• And above all, the deck gains clues efficiently through stacking to a high stat with Whitton Greene plus a Magnifying Glass or two, strong action economy, and other tools like Art Student.

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One card really brings the deck to life, and in a 40 card deck, it's important (though not truly make-or-break) that you find it:

• Calling in Favors sifts through a third of the deck for its centerpiece card, Whitton Greene. If she doesn't turn up, another useful Ally almost certainly will, offering a free clue, two cards, or a bit of breathing room for whoever's feeling the pressure of the stage.
• These cards, along with a simple costume, also serve the critical function of keeping Lola alive! With a maximum stamina and sanity of 6 apiece, she's dreadfully frail, and as much as Charon's Obol affords Lola (experience to quickly power up, a tally mark towards 7 cards, and a Relic tag), it also means that no scenario past the first can be treated as a rehearsal.
• Charisma is the deck's first card upgrade alongside the Obol, allowing you to cycle through Art Students, Laboratory Assistants, and Medical Students in one slot while Whitton Greene occupies the other.

The magic of Whitton Greene herself is twofold:

• Repeatedly sifting for cards that improve your action, card, and resource economy combats Lola's inconsistency and reliably enables playing powerful cards
• With Charon's Obol being a permanent, she always converts Lola from a 3/3/3/3 investigator (insulated against easy tests but weak against anything difficult) to a much more competent 4/4/3/3.

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Relics and Tomes are a highlight of this deck, and they're key to its consistency and power as you can draw them from the top nine cards so long as is your current role.

• The Red Clock's Forced ability work regardless of Lola's current role, providing a repeating influx of benefits. Relic Hunter allows the clock to tick away in one accessory slot while other accessories are cycled through and Scavenged back.
• Eon Chart converts one action, a card, and two resources into three actions. This card pays back your time spent setting up things up, giving you extra actions now that you're highly capable.
• Disc of Itzamna usually sends an Eon Chart to the discard pile, defeats or softens an enemy up, and frees up the accessory slot once again. It's very nice to not have to worry about anything scrawny distracting you when you draw it from the encounter deck.
• Old Book of Lore (3) quickly pays for itself, helping you or a teammate find an important card and play it without spending an action. Note that Lola can only play neutral or cards in this way, which isn't much of a problem with so many in the deck.
• Schoffner's Catalogue pays for any of the above along with six other Items in the deck and anything a teammate needs help to afford. Personally, I love that Whitton Greene will as delightedly turn up with a mail-order catalogue as she will a rare treasure or tome.

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While this deck is primarily invested in gathering clues, it also provides competence at dealing with enemies (though I'd recommend another investigator at the table being more geared towards doing so).

• Most simply, the .18 Derringer and Lupara are both strong weapons that boost Lola to 5 as she fights. The former weapon guarantees three two-damage hits over time, boosting to 6 after a miss, and the latter offers two three-damage attacks.
• These cards are the primary targets for Sleight of Hand. For best results, Lola should switch roles to at the end of her turn if you plan to employ Sleight of Hand with a .18 Derringer (or the Old Book of Lore) in the upcoming turn (or even if you want to hedge against the possibility and don't have plans involving, for example, a to role switch). Using this interaction, you can action-lessly unload into one enemy, return your weapon to hand at the end of your turn, and repeat that or play the weapon play normally later.
• Sleight of Hand also has value with Schoffner's Catalogue as Fast Emergency Cache for items (or beyond if you're fine discarding the Catalogue), Eon Chart as a one resource, one card move/evade/investigate, Old Book of Lore as for one use of that card's Secrets ability, and very occasionally with Leather Coat and Disc of Itzamna if you know you're going to take 2 damage or have an enemy spawn on you and need to save on actions and/or resources.
• Disc of Itzamna (dealing two damage), The Red Clock (flexible benefits), and the icons of Unexpected Courage and Improvisation also help Lola handle enemies, alongside a base 3/3 well equipped to handle easy tests.

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The last few cards in the deck are all quite helpful in more straightforward ways:

• Magnifying Glass further boosts to 5 or even 6 for you to very easily gather clues. Upgrading one copy of magnifying glass and playing them alongside Eon Chart can make 6 more comfortable.
• Join the Caravan lets you Fast teleport to any revealed location for around two resources (one with the card Medical Student, three if you by chance have no assets). Charon's Obol always accounts for and is a difficult box not to check. You can also stick with Elusive if you prefer disengaging to traveling further and being able to move to a location with enemies.
• Scavenging complements the 15 items in this deck well. Most excitingly, you can recur Eon Charts and Discs of Itzamna, but you can also get even more uses out of weapons, coats, books, and even magnifying glasses you have to discard to overwrite. Scavenging's is the only or ability outside of (Whitton Greene/Disc of Itzamna, Eon Chart), and it requires you to be intentional in using it by switching roles to . Professor William Webb is a recommended luxury upgrade to stop having to worry about that, as he is a card.
• Neutral skill cards are great for Lola as she can commit them regardless of her current role. The encounter deck will throw tests at you for Guts to help out with, and Perception lets you break through high shroud or be proactive if you haven't found a Whitton Greene or Magnifying Glass yet. Unexpected Courage's two icons are great for an investigator able to make use of all four of her stats in a pinch.
• And of course, Improvisation is an excellent signature card, and Lola gets two of it. It solves early resource costs turns in need of a "quick change" while drawing a card, as well as blasting open difficult tests with its icons.

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The primary source of difficulty in piloting this deck comes from Lola's role restrictions, which limit her ability to rely on and abilities and to play cards from different classes back-to-back. You can switch roles as a once per round, and with the Taboo List, more than once at the cost of s.

• When you aren't playing and cards, I recommend keeping Lola's role as almost always, which enable Whitton Greene and Disc of Itzamna's abilities.
• Switching roles to allows for the use of Scavenging (see the earlier comment about upgrading into Professor William Webb to be able to keep a role while you recur items).
• Switching roles to at the end of your turn allows you to employ Sleight of Hand with .18 Derringer or Old Book of Lore in the upcoming turn without spending any extra actions to make it work.
• Eon Chart works in both and , but not in , though you can change roles to during, say, an investigation it lets you make.
• Choices are harder if you have a Disc of Itzamna out and would be in a bad spot if an enemy were to show up, but you want to switch roles for another reason.

Much of the decision-making in this deck comes down to personal preference and scenario context and can adapt to your personal style of play and intuition.

• When are you going to uncork Join the Caravan once you've drawn it?
• Which little ally should you play from your hand to expect the best results? What can you set up with Calling in Favors?
• When do you reset The Red Clock? When do you expect to want a given effect from it?

Thankfully defanged by the Taboo List, Crisis of Identity is a very manageable signature weakness:

• If your role is as most often will be the case, you should generally have a few eligible cards in hand, at least one of which you can afford to discard, especially as you can recur items. Losing a Sleight of Hand (having intended to set it up with a role switch to ) or Scavenging (having just brought an item back in ) is also usually fine.

And lastly, this is a Charon's Obol deck, so it's highly important to use your survivability tools and adapt how you play to the knowledge that you can't just take a trauma and bounce back from an unlucky performance.

Note: I've mostly tested this deck in a few campaigns of The Path to Carcosa, so there might be other major considerations specific to different campaigns.

Link to the 0 XP deck

The "Core Upgrade Path" below is in my opinion the best route towards setting up the core of what you're looking to do with this deck, and the "Further Upgrades" can be taken in a flexible order based on teammates' strengths and weaknesses. "Luxury Upgrades" represent added ways to make the deck even smoother and more powerful, and their order isn't quite as flexible as, for example, Deduction works more easily with Professor William Webb than with Scavenging.

For the final scenario of your campaign, supplementing whatever of Deduction and Ace in the Hole you can afford with appealing 1 XP cards like Burn After Reading, Flare, or another copy of Join the Caravan can be quite effective.

If you're playing Standalone mode, you can comfortably take In the Thick of It for 32 XP (since this version of the deck is quite resilient), or you can forego Charon's Obol and swap out Join the Caravan for something like Elusive or Scout Ahead.

(View at arkham-starter.com)

Link to the full XP deck

As my card pool grows, I may revisit this deck list, but for now I'd love to see what spins people might enjoy putting to put on it! Cards like Pendant of the Queen, Death • XIII, and The Skeleton Key already draw my eye.

Thank you to Valentin1331 for creating the template I used to make this guide, linked here!