Lola Hayes the Miracle Worker

This deck has been significantly altered based on copious playtesting. Please see the new and improved version here: Lola Hayes Performs a Miracle

Deckbuilding Guidelines

I've been trying to answer the questions: "Why would I play Lola Hayes? What can she do that no other investigator can do better?" This deck is my attempt at answering that question.

I play exclusively 2-player on Hard Difficulty, so this deck is designed with those in mind. It does not include any cards from Forgotten Age or Circle Undone as I do not own those expansions.

So, why play Lola?

The Dunwich cycle of investigators also being able to include cards from any class immediately limits what Lola can do better than anyone else:

• Rex Murphy will always be better at gathering clues.
• Zoey Samaras will always be better at dealing with enemies.
• Jenny Barnes and "Ashcan" Pete have equally well-rounded stats and great abilities on top of it.

One thing that Lola Hayes can do better than any other investigator; however, is close out scenarios with the most powerful Will to Survive combo available to anyone.

The last Act of many scenarios gives you a really challenging enemy or tells you to grab a large amount of clues from a high-shroud location. While many investigators can do one or the other quite well, Lola is unique in her ability to rise to the occasion and do both without any risk of failure.*

(*) Given she has the right set of cards in hand.

The Will to Survive Combo

To make the most of Will to Survive, we need two things:

1. Extra actions to take as many tests at possible:
   • Leo De Luca for another action
   • Ace in the Hole for 3 more actions
   • Quick Thinking (×2) and Double or Nothing for 1-4 more actions
2. Enough base and to pass all those tests:
   • Dark Horse for +1 to both. Our 4 should be enough for almost every location in the game.
   • Baseball Bat puts us at 6 and should be enough to beat up any enemy (there is no chance of it breaking since we don't pull tokens with Will to Survive)

It is very realistic to take a 6-8 action turn where you automatically succeed at tests. If you can draw the 3-4 cards you need for the combo, you will absolutely crush the last act of most scenarios.

• If you choose to use Will to Survive early, you can always get it back with one of your two Resourceful.

Naturally, we will need to wait to use Will to Survive both until we get the experience necessary to buy it and drawing the various cards that make it work. This deck is designed to get up and running extremely quickly and be reasonably effective at finding clues/fighting until then.

Mulligan

In your starting hand you are looking for Dark Horse, a weapon, and one of your allies. Don't worry about any parts of your combo yet; focus on being useful while you wait for it.

Gameplay

You should now have at least a solid 4 , 4 , and are potentially taking 4 actions a turn with Leo De Luca. Go out and do what needs to be done.

If there isn't anything extremely helpful for you to do, spend any spare actions you have drawing.

Dealing with Monsters

• Fire Axe is a great weapon to combine with Dark Horse but only gives the bonus once.
• Baseball Bat's +2 is fantastic. If it breaks and we don't have an alternative in hand, we can get it back with Resourceful.
• Overpower boosts our skill and lets us draw for our combo.

Finding Clues

• Alyssa Graham and Dark Horse boost our to 5.
• Flashlight makes 2-shroud locations nearly guaranteed successes. This enables us to use our Quick Thinking + Double or Nothing combo if we haven't purchased or drawn Will to Survive yet.
• Drawn to the Flame is incredible for high shroud locations. Our well-rounded stats and Ward of Protection make us well-equipped to deal with whatever we draw.
• Perception boosts our skill and lets us draw for our combo.

Switching Roles

After you put up Dark Horse and a weapon, you should only switch to if you need to fight. Play Cherished Keepsake / Leather Coat afterwards, but make sure to switch out of so that Crisis of Identity doesn't ruin your day.

You will typically stay as a for two reasons:

1. Alyssa Graham can be used to spy on your deck and avoid Crisis of Identity by moving it down or switching roles.
2. You will be ready to use Ward of Protection in the Mythos Phase.

Playing the Finale

Once you are ready to take your Will to Survive turn, you have two options:

1. Play Emergency Cache and end your turn as a (use Alyssa Graham if you are worried about Crisis of Identity).
2. Have Improvisation in your hand.

One more resource in the Upkeep Phase and you are ready to play Will to Survive (or Improvisation it out), take a test with Resourceful if you want it back in your hand, then switch to and use any amount of Quick Thinking + Double or Nothing + Ace in the Hole to take an incredible turn.

Upgrade Path

The core things we need are:

1. Will to Survive (x2) is the first priority
2. Adaptable is going to come in useful
   • Replace Opportunist immediately with Cherished Keepsake
3. Charisma to have Leo De Luca and Alyssa Graham out at the same time.
4. Ace in the Hole to really power up Will to Survive
   • Replaces one copy of Double or Nothing

Then, since we spend most of our time as a anyways, we can think about really going crazy:

1. Blood Pact works really well with Dark Horse.
   • Consider using Adaptable to swap in Moonlight Ritual (replace Delve Too Deep) to use it and Alyssa Graham more freely.
2. Upgraded Shrivelling (x2) gives the same bonus as Baseball Bat but doesn't take up our hand slots (and we won't have to switch roles to fight anymore).
   • Adaptable to replace Cherished Keepsake with Holy Rosary.
   • Adaptable to replace Overpower with Guts.

Luxury Purchases:

1. Emergency Cache for drawing our combo pieces.
2. Ward of Protection in multiplayer.
3. Leo De Luca discount.

Alternative Cards to Consider

Machete is great, but not clearly superior to Fire Axe or Baseball Bat

• Pros -- more consistent boost than Fire Axe // one-handed // safer to end turn as than if we draw Crisis of Identity
• Cons -- more expensive // smaller boost than Baseball Bat // we can't play or commit our many other cards without switching roles

Magnifying Glass is also very tempting

• Pros -- static boost that won't run out with all our extra Leo De Luca and Quick Thinking actions // cheaper than Flashlight
• Cons -- doesn't set the shroud to 0 like Flashlight does for an alternative way of guaranteeing the Quick Thinking + Double or Nothing combo // we need to switch our role to to play it, AND switch it back to play or commit any of our other non-neutral cards.

There are several cards I would recommend swapping in and out with Adaptable if you are replaying scenarios where you know they will be useful:

• Newspaper in scenarios where you constantly use up clues
• Quantum Flux if you need to worry about emptying your deck
• Fine Clothes if there is a lot of Parley