Lola is a 'sub-optimal' investigator, and you'll probably either love or hate her depending on what you're looking for. She's made for fun and goofy builds, not power combos.

Without playing her, it can be tough to see how limiting her role restriction is. It seems like it would be fun to build a 'rainbow' deck with cards from every color, but in practice, that's a recipe for disaster. Cards that aren't in your current role are almost blanks, since you can't use any , , or triggers, can't play them as events or assets, and can't commit them to skill tests. The more you spread out your colors, the more likely your cards are to be blanks. Your static boost abilities like the one on Magnifying Glass are always active, but you'd be surprised how much of the good stuff requires you to be in a specific role.

You can (usually) only switch roles once per turn, so most turns you're locked in to using only two colors. This is what prevents Lola from pulling off crazy stuff; you can't perform a combo that uses cards of more than 2 colors. For most cases, there's already another investigator who can play the two colors you're comboing, and they have an additional character bonus. Lola's blessing is also her curse: when she can build the deck of any other investigator, she's going to get compared to every other investigator, and I think there will always be someone else who can do the same thing you're doing, but 'better'.

So why do I still love Lola? Because her deckbuilding options give you so much freedom to do stupid stuff that makes you feel clever for trying it. Lola is absolutely not the best investigator for Key of Ys, but only she can play Dr. Elli Horowitz and No Stone Unturned to help you find the Key, Haste and Swift Reflexes for the free actions, and then finish it off with a Will to Survive for 5 token-less tests at 6, in the stat of your choosing!

Is that combo easy to pull off? Not at all. Is it super powerful? No, you spent a bunch of XP, resources, cards, and actions just for 5 autosuccesses. And heck, I didn't even point out how in order to even use it, you MUST start your turn in the role, then switch to , so you can't even do it in back-to-back turns!

But do you feel awesome when it happens? Hastur yeah.

Don't expect anybody to ever add a review here with a "Gamebreaking Combo for Lola!!!", even as more cards get printed, because that's not what she is about. Instead, I'd recommend picking an off-beat concept you really like (Relics! Tokens! The Encounter Deck!), and then using Lola to put all your favorite cards in one deck.

I think that one of the most obvious uses here are not written. Ashcan Pete and Wendy Adams. Both discarding cards to use their abilites and can get them back for free.

I count it for free because for example with Pete+Duke you will be investigating anyway. When you have enough items to rotate. You can play Duke 2 times almost every turn after you have everything in play set up with this combo.

Not much going on this card for review purposes.... Let me get it in then:

Pros:

1) Tempo: you start the game quicker, effectively like an automatic Emergency Cache (no action to get 2 resources), rather than 1 action to get 3. Decks running expensive cards like Leo De Luca can play him straight out of the hand, without losing tempo by getting resources first.

2) Choices choices: It is permanent so doesn't take up a card slot, so you don't have to choose between sacrificing your favourite cards.

3) Investigator/campaign/scenario dependent: It could be an option if you choose to go through The Forgotten Age without getting many rations: you'll be less affected when you start a scenario with fewer resources. Could have a niche role to play in an expensive Lola Hayes deck.

Cons: In the Rogue deck there are generally much better options around, i can't think of many times i'd want to spend 3xp for this card over a Hot Streak or just saving up for Double, Double or The Gold Pocket Watch. Late in the game, most Rogue decks will have ways of getting resources.

One question though, does Preston Fairmont get these extra resources in his resource pool or on Family Inheritance? My take is that they would be in his resource pool.

One part of this card that might not be obvious at first glance is that if your counterattack defeats the enemy, it effectively prevents the enemy attack from resolving, unlike the level 0 Survival Knife. Besides this, the timing change also allows you to counterattack, then respond with other effects like Dodge if your attack does not destroy the enemy. This seems especially tempting with Diana Stanley who likes using cancel effects. With the +2 combat bonus, this card is a definite consideration for many investigators. In comparison, the nerfed Machete costs the same XP, gives only +1 combat bonus, and has the potentially dangerous limitation of doing less damage when you are engaged with more enemies. If all of the attacks hit, survival knife does 5 damage versus 6 for machete. Timeworn Brand is usually superior, but the 5 XP and 5 resource cost are limiting. Importantly, a Survival Knife complements other weapons and other copies of itself by increasing the total damage done in a turn. 2 survival knives can do 7 damage in one turn. Overall, with the good combat bonus, low cost, synergy with itself and other weapons, and lack of drawback, I think this is probably the most broadly useful weapon for guardians at below level 3. I’m excited to use this card, especially with Diana.

Whitton Greene suffers from the same problem as Jake Williams, in that (depending on the scenario) it can be hard to trigger her reaction consistently. And if you want to benefit from her boost, you need to be confident of finding a Tome or Relic on one of those (infrequent) searches, or drawing one by other means.

But! All is not lost! There's one investigator who can put a new location into play whenever he pleases, and who starts the game with a Relic in play: Luke Robinson!

Granted, an -focused Luke deck is probably never going to be as strong as a proper deck (or a -focused Luke deck), but I think this will be a fun pairing nevertheless. :-D