Lola Hayes Starring as Esperanza Gracia (Spanish Tarotist)

The idea behind this deck is quite simple and double: first, to exploit the Taboo version of Lola, which not only makes her playable but also, IMHO, a pretty good investigator, especially due to the flexibility provided by her stat line and, above all, her deckbuilding rules. Second and more important, blind-playing thematically Path to Carcosa with a combat-focused Lola starring as a (quite unhinged) tarot reader (in a two-player campaign with a dedicated cluever). And third, using the Underworld Support, and the other Permanent cards further down the campaign, allows to have a good set of classes for abusing Synergy cards as well as improving the chances to get the Tarot cards early (and also I really like Highlander decks).

Strengths:

1) Flexible Weapons: Lola has 3.5 weapons at her disposal. The .45 Thompson, the Enchanted Blade, and the Ornate Bow have the advantage of being usable almost all the time as they are multiclass, multiclass, and neutral respectively. This is also the perk of the Scroll of Secrets, Blur, and Earthly Serenity (although it would be very rare to become a Survivor). The other half weapon is Delilah O'Rourke, which allows finishing off an enemy with 1-2 remaining health. There are few weapons, but considering it's a short deck with a decent amount of card draw, some should appear sooner rather than later. If not, there are still several events to deal damage (Call for Backup, Gang Up, Dynamite Blast, and Spectral Razor). In fact, if Delilah is not needed, maybe it would be better to add Lola Santiago instead to give it a bit more flexibility regarding clues (and to have the doubLola).

2) Tarot: With Studious, Anna Kaslow, and the ~small deck size, it's likely to start the game with one or even two tarot cards on the table. The is the least useful unless one grabs the bow in the Mulligan (which would be ideal).

3) Synergies: Starting with ̶3̶ 2 coloured permanents and including a good number of blue and purple cards, synergy cards are exploitable from minute 1 of the game.

4) Money: Although it may seem like an expensive deck with many assets, Lola shouldn't have money problems thanks to her 2xImprovisation, Faustian Bargain, Cheat the System, and The Red Clock. In fact, extra money can be invested in Delilah.

5) Tricks up the Sleeve: The Red Clock, Close the Circle and Earthly Serenity for extra actions, extra money and extra health/sanity.

EXP Upgrade

The only obvious flaw (to me) in the 0 EXP deck is the lack of at first, so the priority upgrade may be (EDIT: not Scrapper, maybe Keen Eye?) to compensate for that. After that, it is up to each one if it prioritizes Tarots (including Studious) or Sinergy cards, for example.

EDIT: I had forgotten about The Star • XVII, but if you own Return to the Circle Undone, it is probably way better than Four of Cups and it would make you more resilient than Chuck Norris on steroids, making you forget about any kind of healing or extra soaking forever. (It would give you 2-4 extra sanity+health from your allies, the Bandolier and Something Worth Fighting For)/True Grit). In that case, I would skip Earthly Serenity and may even think about adding In the Thick of It without caring at all for the trauma.

2nd EDIT: Scrapper is not very useful because I made the silly mistake of forgetting one has to be red to use it. The next best thing, as kindly indicated by the comment below (thanks Semiotics!), would probably be Keen Eye, with the caveat of hindering the power of the (many) Synergy cards in the deck. More alternatives are appreciated!

Disclaimer: I own a full collection except for all the Starter Decks, Returns to and the Scarlet Keys investigators.