Set-and-Forget Lola

Card draw simulator

Odds: 0% – 0% – 0% more
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
None yet

zovc · 130

Lola is my favorite investigator in Arkham, so I always find myself trying to make functional decks for her.

I like the idea behind this one. Studious is extremely powerful in that you also have 7 cards to mulligan, so you can see 14(+, if you hit weaknesses) cards while looking for your initial pieces. Probably from looking at the list, you can envision what setting up looks like for this deck:

Get Leo De Luca, Boxing Gloves, Bandolier, Tooth of Eztli, and Magnifying Glass into play ASAP. After that, you'll abandon those three classes and try to spend the rest of the game taking efficient/reliable actions in Mystic or Survivor. You get their defensive events, and don't have to sweat Crisis of Identity ruining your assets when you try to hold them up.

There is definitely room to tune the deck, but, the idea is pretty clearly outlined. The combination of Resourceful and Sharp Vision or Brute Force, along with True Survivor is probably more powerful than Improvised Weapon and Winging It, but would soak some experience. (Lucky! doesn't seem very critical, so that already frees up some room.)

We're not ever expecting to hit Spirit cards off of Boxing Gloves, because we're not expecting to fight in blue. But if you wanted to flex that way (with Vicious Blow or any of Nathaniel's events), you do have some cards to hit off of its trigger: Ward of Protection, Will to Survive, and Live and Learn. Personally, I don't think it's worth putting your assets at risk when Red and Purple can dish out quite a bit of damage on their own.

You're playing Leo De Luca and Will to Survive, so it's not outrageous to imagine you just use that to basic fight an enemy to death or pick up four clues with one turn. Lola's base stats are high enough that you might even be able to do Evades or Scenario skill tests using Will to Survive without needing any extra support.

11 comments

Jan 09, 2021 joshcurtis · 22

looks fun!

Jan 11, 2021 difra · 1

nice pile! whats shrewd analysis in this for? another day another dollar might be another thing id cut for saving experience but i get that you are trying to abuse the fact she can use every color best permanents

Jan 12, 2021 zovc · 130

@difra - Without Shrewd Analysis, there would only be six Seeker cards in Lola's "deck." Permanent cards are counted towards her deckbuilding restriction. (Assuming I understand correctly, anyways.)

Another Day Another Dollar isn't critical to the deck, but it makes it a lot easier to drop all of your assets in your first two turns before switching away from Guardian/Seeker/Rogue and never going back. It's probably not a priority card for experience, but then again most of the experience upgrades in this deck are luxuries besides Shrewd Analysis really helping you start the game on the right foot. The 3xp Boxing Gloves giving +2 Combat instead of +1 is a pretty big deal, too.

Jan 12, 2021 Drostt · 26

Pls drop 0xp version!

Jan 15, 2021 HanoverFist · 660

Very clever separation of colors! And brilliant use of Shrewd Analysis to nudge down the deckbuilding reqs!

I've been wanting to make a "probably okay" version of Lola for a long time, and this seems like the starting point.

What's your thoughts on Tarots? Can't play them from the opening hand obviously, but I could see +1 Int comparing favorably to Conditional +1 Will/Agi (as you'll never be activating the Tooth's effect).

Jan 16, 2021 Makaramus · 5

@Drosttput... put downgraded versions of cards? :D Its only permenants dont have them and they dont even take deck slot

Jan 19, 2021 HanoverFist · 660

Well in fairness the two Studious's are required to fulfill Lola's "7 cards in 3 colors each" prerequisite.

So at 0XP, assuming everything else is just downgraded, they'd still need to include 2 Seeker cards (or 3 Guardian cards) in the main deck until they could buy both copies of Studious.

Since they're using Seeker for Assets, myself I'd probably start with Dr. Milan, Research Librarian, or Art Student instead of L0 Leo De Luca. (and with Research Librarian, I'd swap out a Magnifying Glass for one Celeano Fragments.)

Jan 19, 2021 zovc · 130

@Drostt - I made this version with a bit more fleshed-out writeup: arkhamdb.com

@HanoverFist - I don't particularly like the tarot cards, but they're probably "good enough." I might be under-valuing them, because lots of people stand by them--in decks that can drop them from the opening hand, to be fair. In my opinion, needing to be in the right class AND spend an action and 3 resources to get a +1 isn't good tempo. And you can only have one, so it's not efficient deckbuilding to add a few. Then again, I think Beat Cop, Dr. Milan, or other allies are good cards so I might just have an irrational bias against the cards. My gut reaction is that they're too clunky for Lola, but I could just be sleeping on them.

Jan 19, 2021 HanoverFist · 660

@zovc Totally fair; Lola's larger deck size doesn't particularly help with Tarots, tho your Studious x2 helps. And if you only pick one suit for them, like Seeker or Guardian, you know to open in that class!

But yes, I only asked since it was an uncontested slot, another source of passive stat-boost like the Gloves or Tooth, and Seeker & Guardian have the best tarots for non-dedicated casters.

Jan 24, 2021 zovc · 130

@HanoverFist I'm under the impression that Lola cannot use the reaction ability of tarot cards to put them into play. The interaction is more clear cut on cards like Stick to the Plan (they don't work for Lola), but in almost every case of rules ambiguity with Lola it seems things don't work out in her favor. Part "The Grim Rule," part the designers wanting to be way too conservative with her.

Jan 26, 2021 HanoverFist · 660

@zovc Good news- I was wondering this myself and looked it up. Lola's choice of role is a forced reaction to drawing her hand, which occurs during set-up. Thus, choice of role occurs during set-up, which occurs before game-start. Thus, Lola chooses her role during set-up, and can free-play Tarot of that role upon game start.

boardgamegeek.com

Wierdly, she can even use Anna Kaslow to put-into-play Tarot that are outside her role, as it's a Neutral ability!

I was a bit surprised by this since, yeah, Lola tends to somehow experience the worst of all worlds (like with SttP as you mention). But yeah, Tarots actually work okay for Lola.