Lola Hayes - Desperate to find a Key

Campaign/Scenario:

• Will be playing two player, Paths to Carcosa with my partner interested in playing a mystic to deal damage (likely Akachi).
• New to Arkham Horror and I only have investigator cards from Revised Core, Dunwich, Paths to Carcosa, Drowned City and Feast of Hemlock Vale (awaiting delivery).
• I haven't tested the build yet so open to suggestions. Willing to proxy permanents since I don't need to mess about to disguise them when we shuffle those into decks.

Deckbuild Aims

• Primary Cluver
• Play Desperate Cards and Key of Ys
• Stat stack
• Fun. In aid of having Fun: Try not to poach good cards from my partner and let my partner deal damage so they can have fun. That's why there aren't two copies of Reckless Assault in this deck.

Initial/Overall Strategy

• Take In the Thick of It for -2 sanity and 3XP. Use In the thick of it to purchase Adaptable (for seventh green) and 2 x Lockpicks.
• 4 Sanity means we can rely on the Encounter Deck to drop our horror down to 3 or lower quickly. However, that's a bit of a crapshoot in terms of how much horror we risk so...
• Enter the Mystic deck. We can use Forbidden Knowledge to add an extra horror, or we can use Scrying to manage the encounter deck or our deck to avoid Crisis of Identity. We also have Clarity of Mind to heal horror. As this is our biggest asset pool we also have Quantum Flux to pick up discards and drop them back into our deck. Also we can use Delve Too Deep to boost our XP and because we'll be using scrying. However, what do we do in the meantime to skill boost?
• Enter our Rogue cards. This has a lot of add X skill to X skills to bump stats for investigation, fight and evade to an easy six. Bum's Rush and Cheap Shot allow us to simultaneously damage and evade. Lockpicks will help us seek. However, we need a third colour set.
• Since I'll be the primary cluver my third is Seeker cards. Deduction for clue gathering, Inquiring Mind for most skill checks and Eureka! and No Stone Unturned for card draw to help us find the cards we need.
• What's my plan for if Encounter Deck has a lot of "take X horror per failure" cards? Use Adaptable to switch in 2 x Gutsfor Delve too Deep or Forbidden Knowledge (particularly prior to upgrades). Also mulligan for either scrying and/or horror soaks to avoid total wipe out in the first round. Cherished Keepsake is in our deck for a cheap soak and later upgrades will help too.

Upgrade Strategy

• 2x Key of Ys. It acts as a horror soak and bumps stats up to 3, providing base Six. Replaces Cherished Keepsake.
• 1 x Higher Education. Since we're the seeker proxy we'll use this to boost for investigate and Will.
• At the point we take Higher Education we would use Adaptable to swap to 2x Eureka for Laboratory Assistant for horror soak and hand expansion so we can consistently rely on higher education.
• 2 x Read the Signs. It replaces Deduction and fits X + X skill strategy so it will be useful when can't drop to 3 sanity.
• 2 x Eidetic Memory. This is to replay Lola's signature or No Stone Unturned.

If I've done my math right this takes us to 23 XP, which should be achievable - assuming 4 per first 7 scenarios + 7 from Delve, we'll have about 32. So here are some additional cards to consider

Additional Upgrades

• 2 x Elder Sign Amulet: horror soak. Replace Inquiring mind or Delve if you're content with the upgrade amounts.
• 1 x Relic Hunter. This is to play Key of Ys and Elder Sign at the same time.
• 2 x Clarity of Mind
• 2 x Scrying
• 1 x Stick to the Plan+ 2 x Sneak Attack (Replacing Delve either as an upgrade or via Adaptable). I'd add Sneak Attack, Emergency Cache and Bum's Rush under Stick to the Plan.
• 2 x Will to Survive (Replacing Delve) OR
• 2 x Good Weather (Replacing Delve) OR
• 1 x Bewitching + 2 x Vamp (Replacing Delve either as an upgrade or via Adaptable), that might be my least favourite as this may be tricky with the trigger. I'd add Vamp, Cheap Shot and Bum's Rush under Bewitching.

Suggestions/Replacements

• Replacement for Bum's Rush might be Vamp, Quick thinking, or Sneak Attack
• Replacement for Delve might be The Great Work that then frees up two slots to go to additional neutrals. Humunculus can be accounted for the in card build since we're already including spells and building for low stats.
• I'm aware Charon's Obol exists, if we're running low horror I don't want to die.
• Darkhorse might work, depending on how your card costs are running.
• I did Consider St. Hubert's Key instead of in In the Thick of It as it had stat boosts. But I didn't love the resource cost and didn't love that I'd have to find it in the deck. I wasn't concerned about the trigger since we want low xp.