Lola Hayes - Disposable Friends

I think Lola is the hardest character to build because she doesn't have any built in suggestion in how to play her. Her ability and unique card don't suggest anything. However her weakness does give a suggestion of how to play. Anything you play should be disposable. This requires you to improvise, grabbing a prop when it is needed and throwing it away when it isn't.

Lola is the star of the show. Everyone else is an extra and everything else is a prop.

That means a lot of the old standbys are out of the question. Peter Sylvestre, Leo De Luca, Beat Cop, are all too expensive to lose to Crisis of Identity and/or are hard to utilize due to Lola's limitation.

Dark Horse is a commonly used option but you are just making Lola good at everything instead of mediocre at everything, that doesn't sound like a star to me. In addition, I would like to be in the Survivor role for a large portion of the game (especially at higher experience)

Since you can't depend on your assets, you need to focus on big splashy events. Events that are the equivalent to multiple actions. Lola needs to be the star.

How can she be the star?

• Illusions
• Fireworks
• Teleportation
• Escape Artistry
• Faith Healing

By focusing on powerful events that are the equivalent to multiple actions, Lola can shine.

All the hand assets are disposable and will need to be Scavenged once you get more experience. Knife and Flashlight will likely not get upgraded as they can work with any role and their disposable nature works with Lola's improvisational style. .41 Derringer should be upgraded to Lupara when experience allows. Prepared for the Worst means you'll always have a weapon available when you need it.

Rabbit's Foot is cheap so you aren't worried if you lose it and free draw actions are exactly what Lola needs. It could be worth upgrading these so they stick around longer but I think there are higher priority upgrades. Elder Sign Amulet might replace this depending on trauma you take and how much seeker card draw you have in the deck.

The allies are equivalent to seeker actions with a 93% opening hand chance of being available as damage soak after their reaction resolves. Calling in Favors is draw 2 cards or testless clue on demand which seems good.

When the challenge strength is low, you can make checks, when it is not, you can cheat clues with "Look what I found!" and Art Student. Dynamite Blast is guaranteed damage to blow up the baddies. Barricade, Think on Your Feet, Elusive and Survival Instinct all complement Dynamite Blast.

Upgrade path: First 3 VP go to Charon's Obol and Adaptable. A second adaptable as soon as you have an extra VP would not be wasted. You need as much experience as you can get. And you'll be tweaking your deck quite a bit. Using Adaptable to sub in a "I'm outta here!" is probably wise at this point, Charon's Obol is no joke.

The next 4 VP go to Hot Streak. Hot streak works fantastically with Improvisation and allows you to pay for all your fancy events. The deck is on training wheels until this occurs. Now you can probably use Adaptable to sub in a couple of Preposterous Sketches.

Now you have a couple of options for your next upgrade.

• Will to Survive (your solo)
• The Red-Gloved Man (your co-star)
• Lupara (your boom stick)
• Preposterous Sketches (your inspiration)

Will to Survive would be my first upgrade choice. A test free turn allows even your mediocre stats to succeed. This would be a good time to sub in Quick Thinking and extend out the benefit of your big turns. Resourceful would also be another good substitution get your solo again and again.

The fun really begins once your co-star shows up. You can sub in A Chance Encounter and another Calling in Favors along with Resourceful and your co-star can show up 8 times per deck cycle. That's a great mitigation of your mediocre stats.

Once you have those two, you are just looking to increase your damage (Lupara) and card draw (Preposterous Sketches) and maybe some protection with Bulletproof Vest and Elder Sign Amulet.