Parallel Lola Hayes Survivor-Seeker Dark Horse Flex (0xp)

Welcome to a very strange build for a very strange character! Lola is infamous for her... quirky deckbuilding and gameplay. As one of the only Neutral investigators, Lola can cosplay any role at any time, but generally not very well. And Parallel Lola is even more out there, being forced to fit all five classes into an even larger deck! So, how do you make this actress shine?

(Standard disclaimer: I'm playing this build in a two-player game with the other player also building flex, so that's going to influence a lot of my decisions; it can probably work solo, but a lot of the tools, like Microscope, don't really shine without friends. This is my initial version before playing the deck, so I'm sure I'll go back and update it post-mortem once I see how well the sketchy tech picks work out.)

Before we get into the build, we should spotlight the three key cards that the entire deck hinges around: Dark Horse, Forced Learning, and of course Lola Hayes herself.

• Lola Hayes: You're forced to take 6 cards from each class, but you can only get two classes above level 1 (up to level 4). You also have a 40 card deck, plus 7 signatures/weaknesses (or 5 if you're using her base cards, but I prefer the alternates because I hate dealing with Crisis of Identity). Importantly for parallel Lola, you can't switch your role mid-turn, BUT you can activate items outside your role, which gives you FAR more flexibility in a turn once you've set up. Finally, your stats are all-across-the-board mediocre, but none of them are actually good.
• Dark Horse: This is a natural direction to take Lola. You're already incentivized to use all of her stats (if you just wanted to focus on one, you should be playing an investigator with 5 in that stat), so this helps propel them all to a useable value. On the other hand, this strongly informs the rest of the deck choices, pushing you toward the Survivor package (with tools like Fire Axeand Mariner's Compass) and toward cheap cards that don't need any real economy.
• Forced Learning: This pulls the whole package together. You've already got a 47 card deck, you might as well push it to 62 and give yourself better filtering to actually find your good pieces. (That's only a ~30% increase in cards, instead of the ~50% increase Forced Learning usually imposes.) In addition, the discarding gives you an incredible opportunity to lean into the Survivor package even more, with discard-synergy cards (and Short Supply to tie it all together). It also gives a unique opportunity to pick up a LOT of niche, specialized cards, as you can usually just toss them for better cards when you draw them.

As for the specific card choices themselves, I think it's best to take it one class at a time:

ROGUE

Rogue's major synergies are oversucceeding, evasion/abusing high , and big economy. Your stats are trash, your is no better than your other stats, and you're playing Dark Horse. So, how do we use Rogue? (Remember, we're forced to take 6 cards from each.)

Simple, we use it for economy. Dark Horse wants to strictly control its money, but you still need cash to play cards. Rogue lets you keep a handle on that cash, taking it when you need it and leaving it behind when you don't.

• Lone Wolf is a great source of econ on a lower-player game (maybe worse if you play her in 3 or 4 player, but in my 2-player flex I expect to be on the other side of the board from my partner frequently), and importantly, it's both a) an optional trigger and b) at the start of your turn (so it doesn't mess up the Mythos phase for you).
• Embezzled Treasure is a bit of a weird pick, but it's a good way to spend (save) resources at Fast speed (for instance, if you were hoping to play a card this turn and suddenly got faced with an important test), and it gives you (or your partner!!) a nice boost next scenario.
• Finally, Kicking the Hornet's Nest leans into a trend you'll see across the build: fighting enemies while picking up testless clues. It gives a cheap, testless clue, a bit of resources in a pinch, and an enemy to charge your Microscope.
• Other valid considerations include Investments for a burst of cash when you need it or "I'm outta here!" for a very situational, very useful card. I think the former is too slow (and can leave you with TOO many resources if you're not careful), and the latter is totally valid but too situational IMO.

MYSTIC

Mystic is a bit simpler. A lot of their cards are pretty much right out, as they're based on ways to leverage your to cover for worse stats, which... doesn't apply to you. However, there are a couple of standouts that are easily worth playing.

• Read the Signs: Your is bad and your is equally bad, but combine them together and you have a pretty good stat! (Doubly so if you have Dark Horse up.) Good action economy.
• Spectral Razor: See above.
• Offering Bowl: This one's more of a weird one. It's a cheap way to drip-feed fast-speed resources when you need it, which is valuable in a build like this. But importantly, it also deals a total of three damage to you (if used fully), which is exactly enough to kill your producer (while only taking 1 horror, if you time it right!).
• Other considerations: Drawn to the Flame and Delve Too Deep are great options, but I'm not feeling that risky right now.

GUARDIAN

Guardian is also pretty simple. There's a few good tools/weapons you could use (I had Machete in place of the shovel up until the last second), but I think the Survivor options fit just a little bit better, so instead I focused the Guardian role on ensuring you get a few good hits in. Unlike most of the other roles, there's a very clear time to switch to this one, and it's when you plan to kill something hard.

• Daring: Your biggest problem when monster fighting is your subpar stats. This makes up for that, while replacing itself. It's particularly good on a second Fire Axe swing, after you've spent your resources to make the first one hit.
• Vicious Blow: You don't deal a ton of damage with your weapons, so every bit helps.
• Evidence!: Instead of helping you kill a monster, this lets you get more testless clues... but it still fits with the role, as you're only playing this in monster-killing mode. The unfortunate part is that you need a resource to play it (but you have a few tricks to get around that).
• Other considerations: As mentioned above, Machete is an incredible weapon on its own; I only tossed it because only 4 (or 5) to-hit just didn't feel like quite enough, even with an extra damage, and Gravedigger's Shovel can be tossed for a cheap clue once you get your axes. I also really wanted to play "Let me handle this!", since ALL your stats are pretty solid, but you need to sit there in Guardian mode and hope an opportunity arises in order to play it, which is too clunky. Finally, I played around with Tinker for hand space but deemed it eventually unnecessary.

SEEKER

Finally, the first of our focused roles. There's still not a TON of seeker cards, but they provide some extremely valuable tools, mostly as clue generation.

• Microscope: This is the big one. You're a flex build, but you accomplish that mostly through testless clues and killing monsters, with the greater focus being on the fighting. This brings that all together: fight enough monsters, then find a room with a bunch of clues and spend your turn just eating them all at once. (It also helps that high-clue rooms tend to be low-shroud.) It also upgrades really well, which is half the reason we're boosting Seeker at all.
• Art Student: 2 resources, take a clue, get two soak (bonus points for 2 Sanity soak, which is her bigger weakness with Samuel Blake as a signature).
• Working a Hunch, Deduction: Cheap, quick clues. Simple as.
• Other considerations: Laboratory Assistant is some decent card draw. I originally used it to stuff in two more allies just to make sure you always have a card to quickly replace Samuel Blake, but I think 4 allies (and an Offering Bowl) should be enough. An early build also had Crack the Case as burst resources to play cards, but everything's cheap enough now that I don't think you need it.

SURVIVOR

Ultimately, this deck is focused around Dark Horse and discard synergy, turning Lola into a glorified Survivor. This is where the bulk of the cards come from, so I won't be going into as much detail on each.

• Dark Horse: The focus of the build. My only regret is that you still can't take the permanent version, but so be it.
• Fire Axe, Mariner's Compass: Dark Horse synergy pieces. Fire Axe is very good. Mariner's Compass is much more situational, but can serve as a backup Microscope.
• Gravedigger's Shovel: Bridges the gap between fighting and clue gathering, while you wait to draw a better card to fit.
• Madame Labranche, Same Old Thing: Economy in a Dark Horse World. The Madame is very good: this deck wants to be at 0 a lot and at 1 or 2 occasionally (often midway through the turn). Same Old Thing is a lot more... experimental, but it helps you play your events without disrupting your horsing around. (In particular, I believe you don't get a window between actions like 'defeating an enemy' and 'trying to play Evidence!' to gain a fast-speed resource with Labranche or the bowl, so you need Same Old Thing to make those work smoothly with Dark Horse.)
• Jumpsuit, Scrounge for Supplies, Resourceful: Discard synergy. Great with Short Supply or simply recurring useful cards.
• Fortuitous Discovery, Improvised Weapon, Winging It: Get better in the discard. Send them to Short Supply, or just discard them with Forced Learning.
• Cherished Keepsake: There are shockingly few accessories that are useful for this deck. This one's cheap and helps soak some of the horror that Samuel Blake leans you into.
• Lucky!: A staple, especially with the amount of sketchy tests you're likely to do. The hard part is consistently being in Survivor and holding a resource when you need this (esp. since you don't get a window to use Madame Labranche or Offering Bowl), but a) Same Old Thing can help, b) it's a great tool before you draw your evil and intimidating horse, and c) if you spend your last resource on it then the horse re-activates for the test. (It also upgrades to free later.)
• Other considerations: Honestly, too many to count. Some of my latest cuts were A Glimmer of Hope (too clunky, can only be committed on Survivor turns) and "Look what I found!" (again, Survivor turns only, and it costs 2 resources).

NEUTRAL

You thought we were done, didn't you? Well... we almost are. As it turns out, when you have access to all the classes, neutral cards are WAY less appealing. This deck should probably run a few more just for cross-role consistency, but the level 0 options just aren't great (I'm still aiming for a Timeworn Brand by the end, though).

• Emergency Cache: Our only non-signature neutral card. You're trying to run extremely low to the ground, but sometimes, you just need a surge of cash. You can always toss it to Forced Learning if you don't.
• Samuel Blake: We've talked about him a few times already, but he isn't TOO bad. In hand, he forces you to freeze your role, which isn't great but you're asset-focused enough that you can usually get by in a pinch. On the board, he costs 3 (more expensive than the majority of your deck, unfortunately) and pings you for a horror each turn. But, we run enough allies to replace him pretty quickly, or we can just ping him with the Offering Bowl three times if you're careful. (Once on the turn he's played, once on the next turn, and once after upkeep but before your turn, should kill him with only one horror taken.)
  • One very important thing to note, with both him and your random basic weakness: If you draw him with Forced Learning, you MUST draw him and discard the other card, as you cannot discard weaknesses (if you draw both at once, you still just draw both, lucky you).
• Leading Lady: Five very similar signature cards, all of which let you play an off-role card. These mostly just glue the deck together, letting you play more flexibly in a pinch. Keep in mind that you can't use them to play cards like Lucky!, because you need a fast-speed window to play the Leading Lady in the first place.
• Other considerations: Mostly just Unexpected Courage (and similar neutral skill cards), for when you need them. I ended up cutting them because I'm happy using my Leading Ladies as ~more or less the equivalent, and I have five of them already. I also like Flashlight but I just couldn't make the hand space work; you're perhaps a little light on hand items for a 55-card deck, but you also have crazy draw (2 per turn if you're focusing on a single card) and Short Supply plus recursion, so you should be fine.